Trusting: It took me twenty months, but I finally passed Gamma. I had to focus focus focus on every piece of my body during the mohawks, then a week later all of a sudden I had a 'pop' in my skills and I can churn out mohawks like clockwork. And after a week of fussing w/ inside 3's at the boards, when my coach asked me for one in the middle, my body (not my brain) just cranked it out.

Fearful: When my brain got engaged on inside 3's of course I fell down.

Since inside threes and bunny hops are the only thing keeping me from Delta, my coach has already started me on some Freestyle footwork. The only problem is that at 57 I refuse to learn to jump, so advancing to Freestyle is right out for me. It's really hard (if not impossible) to do Figures at my rink, so I'm trying to figure out where I'll go in skating after Delta.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

Haven't been on here in a while This is for yesterday's skate.

Trusting:
I think I'm getting used to getting up at quarter to six on a Saturday morning. In fact, I prefer it, so I told my coach I'd stick with it, rather than go back to Sunday lunchtimes once the Christmas panto rehersals are over. I must be mad.

Jumps are going well. And spins...dare I say it...I THINK...I may be getting somewhere *stuffs hand in mouth and looks around* who said that!?

Fearful:
Getting there yes; no where near yet though. But it's better than nothing

CONGRATULATIONS!

Well, I can't believe I've beaten Mrs Redboots to this one - but what about DANCE?

BTW, if the bunny hop is the only jump you need for Delta, then I would encourage you to go for it. It's not too hard to practice along the wall, which is how I have my fearful students do it, and once you have some confidence you can do it away from the wall with a spot from your coach until you are on your own. There is a great video of it on Dan Korte's website. If you download it, you can watch in slow motion with Windows Media Player.

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Thanks for the congrats. I love Dance, but I'll never find a partner. I just wish ISI had something like "Footwork Freestyle" where you never leave the ice.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

I believe you can test and compete solo in dance. I put DH on the ice to be my dance partner. We had one disasterous lesson with a dance coach who didn't know how to teach adults. DH fell on a B swing roll in waltz position - (neither of us had ever done swing rolls on ice before) and brought me down with him . Now that we know a few really great dance coaches, DH doesn't have the time.

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Congrats, Agnes!!!!

Whew, I'm finally posting on the same day that I skated!! Thats a record!

Trusting: I FINALLY DID A TRUE CHANGE-FOOT-SPIN! Without falling over, tossing my cookies, or falling out of it AND it had ALL of the required revoultions!!!!

Now I have been asked (commanded, but she asked in a strict way) to add them to my practice sessions.

Fearful: that I hurt her feelings and authority as a coach. Because of the muscular imbalance issues I've had, I've also been asking some of my health professionals (physical and sports therapists) for their opinions/suggestions. I mentioned it to her and she (very calmly) stated that she was trying to take care of my imbalances by strengthening my weaknesses. I know she is I'm just trying to understand (in my own geeky scientific way) the whole neuro-musculo-skeletal mess I'm in now. I didn't want to offend or hurt...I didn't realize until later how it sounded when I mentioned it.....I'll have to talk to her next week....sheesh!

Trusting: Did a great scratch spin! The problems I had on Thursday left and my first spin was great! Then my set up was nit-picked and the crossovers had to be re-done...then I could not spin that great again. Oh well.

We worked on edges and they were ok. I haven't worked on them in a loooong while. Then we did waltz-8's. I had a hard time seeing my starting mark, I guess scratching up the ice is a no-no so she suggested seeing where I "land" myself when I begin. duh! Must have been too early for me! LOL!

Fearful: I need to add another session per week. Skating 2 hours per is just not enough. I'm going to try adding Tuesday but not this week, as my belly dance troupe has final practices before our big dance (it's a halloween/gothic themed hafla or dance "haflaween" and altho my part is very small-i get to hold up a veil while walking in front of the other girls, I'm so looking forward to it); it will be my first performance with the troupe in front of a paying audience.

Trusting: We discussed testing. again. She wants me to work on the moves every session. I need to find out if my rink is going to have a session this year. I do hope so, otherwise i will have to go elsewhere.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

ISI DOES have footwork events, where you are limited to half revolution jumps (but they are not required) and less than 3 revolution spins.

Or how about doing Figures? ISI still strongly encourages figures, not with just the standard figures, but even has an event called "creative figures" at most competitions.. where you come up with your own figure and have to submit a drawing or sketch of what you're going to do before the event so the judges know what your planned tracing should look like when you're done. I've seen flowers, stars and one girl who had passed her 3rd or 4th figure test even did a ship under full sails! It can be as elaborate or simple as you want... but it can be great fun.

My daughter went to the rink by her college to see about teaching LTS - they are ISI. They asked her to teach a dance class. She was shocked to find out the dance class was basically a moves class. That's where they learn their moves. She had girls doing double jumps that didn't know how to do brackets. So if they offer a dance class you might want to check it out.

j

There is nothing wrong with what you did. A coach is not a doctor or medical expert (I know of one coach who is a PT, so she is an exception, but generally coaches don't know much more about that stuff than the rest of us). Of course you should seek out medical opinions and then share them with your coach, to relate your needs and limitations to what you're doing on the ice. She should be open to listening and willing to complement your conditioning needs and off-ice program.

It's possible that she really wasn't offended and just wanted to make you aware of what she's been doing to address your needs. It doesn't sound like she threw a hissy fit, so maybe she wasn't upset by it at all.

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

CONGRATULATIONS!

And yes, solo dance is a perfectly valid discipline, but there are also Skating Moves - Moves in the Field, as they are called in the USA. Maybe some of each? And figures as and when you can do them. I am younger than you, but I jump as little as possible, too!


Only because you posted before I did!

CONGRATULATIONS to you, too!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Last night's synchro session.

Fearful:
-We're going back to 1.5 hrs (we'd upped it to 2 hrs in Sept) because a whole lotta people are broke and can't afford the extra. We'd have some big dropouts if we tried to keep the 2-hr slot, and then of course it would get more pricey for those who stayed. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the basic skills/dance portion of our sessions--dunno if it'll be dropped entirely or just shrunk to a minimum. I'm actually not sure this is a bad thing--2 hrs was a LONG time to be on the ice w/o a break.
-Um, I suck at show stops and I have to do one for our full synchro team. Another item to add to the "to do" list.
-Trying to do a little CCW spinning & jumping every time I'm on the ice, and off ice too, but BOY do I get dizzy fast.

Trusting:
-Hey, we finally have some choreography for our full synchro program. I think we're maybe 20 seconds into it now, and everyone is very excited. Especially since it involves really skating and not just formation.

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps