Needed a new practice thread.

Flip:
Spirals are fairly stable.


Flop:
Jumps are annoyingly clumsy.

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Flip New skates are feeling so much better and more "mine." I still have to take them off after the first 20 minutes, but then I can go the rest of my 90 minute session feeling fairly good. I had a lesson yesterday. We worked on jumping, getting arms under control, setting the ground work for combo jumps. Practicing on my own, I was able to do loop jumps from the 3 turn and some tiny ones from back cross-overs. I even landed a couple flips.

Flop Spins are not cooperating. I spin much faster on these new blades and am traveling a lot. I could get low on the sit spins, but couldn't hold it more than 2 revs. Back spins are still grinding to a halt after 3 revs.

I didn't realize the title would give us "flip flops" lol -- sorry Numbers!

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Flop:

I haven't bothered to get on the ice at all in a week and a half, since the swelling in my ankle is still there and I've been so busy studying for finals every free moment. I'm going to try again on Friday if I'm not too braindead from Thursday's final (if that doesn't work, I'll do Saturday).

Flip:

Overall the ankle pain is mostly gone during normal activity (just some minor soreness/stiffness) and it's not really hindering anything but figure skating because of the boot putting pressure on the swelling. I'm making it through 1.5 hrs of 2 hr roller derby practices and keeping up with all of our endurance workout (speed down a little still but that just means I'm hanging with the middle/slower skaters and not the faster ones).

The good news is that I've been able to start running again without issues and have been doing weight training (free gym at work that I've been hitting up during lunch). I'm easing into training for a marathon or at least a half marathon with the goal of losing 50 pounds along the way (and I've been pretty much living off of egg whites, chicken and veggies for a little over a week now). Right now I'm only doing a series 30 min interval workouts building back up to where I can run for 30 min nonstop at at least a 10min/mile pace, then I'll start a more focused training program. The marathon I want to do is May 15th, but there is also a half marathon the same day if I can't handle the full thing (since that's right after my finals for fall semester are over and I don't want marathon training to hinder performing my best at ANs in April).

I HATE watching videos of my skating, but I FINALLY got around to watching videos from ANs last April. Overall I was actually really pleased with my skating, particularly my interp. That performance was the first time I've been able to watch a video and think "darn I look good!" and not focus on every little thing I didn't like. I think the overall thing that will help my skating and my confidence will be getting back down to the size I was in college (or as close to it as possible).

My final exams are over next week and I don't have school again until mid-January, so that gives me almost an entire month without school where I can skate before/after work and just focus on getting back to 100% on the ice. I figure it's best to not really worry about skating until then and focus on fitness off the ice in my very limited spare time. Once the swelling in my ankle gets better to where my boot doesn't hurt, it won't take me long to get my jumps/spins/programs back in order, especially if I'm getting in shape off the ice.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Flip: One of my students passed her Pre-Juvenile MIF this morning. One judge passed her at the average passing total of 16.2 while the other two judges passed her .2 over at 16.4. She had several moves in which she passed .2 over as well. A great day for the both of us!

Any tips for pre-juv moves? I just started working on them last week. I think my nemesis move for this test will be figuring out the back 3s I have decent forward power pulls, (or so I think, coach hasn't seen them yet). The five step mohawk doesn't seem too daunting.

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~Always Dream!~

Check my progress at www.freewebs.com/sk8tegirl06

knee bend, knee bend, knee bend. That's always crucial in skating, but I think pre-juv is the first moves test where people who are a little more stiff really start to have issues and need to break those habits.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Ain't that the truth! I think I need to work on body awareness in general. If I focus on one thing (ie knee bend), something else (ie the arm positions) go haywire and vice versa.

FLIP I had a lesson today, nice treat for the last day of classes. We went over a couple of the prejuv moves, five step and the dreaded 3s. The five step is actually going really well, though I need to remember where the long axis is in the rink. FI to BO 3 turns actually somewhat happened. I could at least attempt the turn, most of the time I came to a screeching halt but hey after 2 weeks I'm happy.

Then we did a little bit of freestyle...eventually getting to loop, back spin, and camel. OMGoodness I think I actually did a couple of loops with legit landings. This was out in the open too, I have been landing them forever as long as I am near the wall. (a very bad security blanket that I needed to move away from) On the first one, I think I actually scared myself on the landing.

Back spin had some improvement, but again the body awareness thing. My arms just have a mind of their own sometimes.

Camel spin: I finally did one!! I finally did one that went more than half a rotation. Whee! The last one was really good so, Coach convinced me to try camel-sit, so I did my first combo spin today! I then showed her my halfhearted attempt at the camel-catch foot, another little trick I discovered and I actually caught it this time! It doesn't look like too much right now, but whee!!!!

FLOP The 3s are where my body awareness comment comes in. I do the forward turn and then it seems like my arms, legs, and head don't know where to go. I'm sure I'm a rather amusing sight to see right now. FO to BI are nonexistent. The FO turn is fine and then I just like to ride the BI edge right now.

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~Always Dream!~

Check my progress at www.freewebs.com/sk8tegirl06

Flip: not skating related but I'm finished with this semester at school, grades will be posted on Monday.

Flop: show practice tonight....and our music was different! We had it nailed before but tonight it was all messed up! The director had re-cut it because his iPod died and he had no backup so, we got what we got which was also about :30 short.... and so we were way off!

Major scrambling to figure out what to do! One of the girls was grumbling but we got her calmed down. Bottom line: when the music stops-pose!

We will work through it at tomorrow's dress rehearsal.

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

totally flopping: haven't skating much since before Thanksgiving and I'm supposed to compete in a month. I blame the holidays and the kid.

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

I just had two students take--and pass--this test between October and...well, today, so I can kind of relay briefly what the judges wrote on their test papers.

Both my students passed .2 over on the forward and backward power crossover stroking. The judges really seemed to like their even pace, deep lobes, and correct use of the inside edges on the forward extension and backward inside edge before the crossover. Good posture, minimal bouncing of the arms on the end pattern [crossovers], and proper use of the blade on all pushes, which will lead to excellent power and flow, is essential to scoring well on these elements.

In general, the biggest comment I've seen on both is that subcurves on the three-turns is a common error. Watch your placement and be aware of the edges that you are skating upon entering and exiting the turn to ensure that you have a solid, round, even lobe. Wobbles are not a good thing and will be noted by the judges. Also, be sure to place the three-turn in the correct spot; after all, the judges want to basically see three things in regard to these: 1.) that you know what a three-turn is; 2.) that you are able to skate the correct edges in and out of the turn; and 3.) that you know where the change of edge happens during the turn (obviously, that is at the top of the lobe...the cusp of the three-turn). If you can master those three points, you're doing well.

Powerpulls should be even and cover the ice well with strong flow. As RachelSk8er mentioned, deep knee bend is helpful, but don't forget to bend the ankles as well. Watch your posture; do not break at the hips. Avoid too much upper body (arms/shoulders) movement. Disasterous powerpulls often stem from an overrotation of the upper half against the lower body, which causes the skater to twist too much and have difficulty maintaining even inside and outside edge pulls.

Lastly, for the five-step mohawk sequence, try to keep that nice, even cadence mentioned in the rulebook. Remember that each step--five of them--has its own beat (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Know which edges you are on on which step, and make sure that the mohawks (yes, there are essentially two of them per lobe: steps 1 to 2 and steps 3 to 4, which are inside to inside and outside to outside) are neat. Don't get sloppy with technique; bring the free foot into the skating foot's instep. Judges love this! Be careful not to bob or break at the waist upon each step and show off every single extension. You have a total of ten lobes with five extensions per lobe for a chance to demonstrate fifty fabulous extensions, so take advantage of that!

Pre-Juvenile MIF is a fun level. Good luck and enjoy the learning process! Feel free to PM me if you want more advice or whatnot about this level.

I'm hoping for a flip session tonight after finally (more or less) feeling back to normal after the FLOP of the last few weeks in terms of injury:

Four weeks ago in my lesson i caught an edge coming out of a camel spin and fell, but somehow (perhaps the rotation from spinning) flipped around 360 degrees in the air and landed on both knees and one elbow. Right knee seemed to take the most force and was bruised badly on two opposite sides of the knee

Stuggled to walk for a a day or two and then the swelling went down and i was on the mend (but off the ice for well over a week) i slipped on mossy cobble stones round the edge of my house and went flying landing on the edge of a step with the small of my back....OUCH and more pain for a week, after which that old feeling of sciatica down the right side of my back/leg came back but nowhere near as bad as it has been in the past!

So finger toes and eyes crossed that i managed to get through the rest of the day without falling, tripping, slipping etc and actually make it to skate tonight!

Ant

I think your 9 month old having surgery is more than an acceptable excuse.

Did anyone else see that they want to do a test session at Wyandotte? That may be too soon for my junior moves considering the past 2 months, but now I'm motivated to get better and at least try to get the test back in shape....if I get a retry, there is just enough time between that and our next session here. (If I don't take it until Feb and don't pass, I'd have to wait until April right after ANs.)

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

My last practice/lesson was last Sunday (tonight's session is canceled due to the "blizzard" we are currently experiencing ) but I'll report on it anyway!

Flip:

Lutzes!

It took me a little while to get my confidence built up on them but once I did they were HUGE! I'm slowly starting to get my consistency back on them so, hopefully, I'll be fully competition-ready by next season (and my coach and I made the decision to stay in Bronze 1 more year while I continue my recovery from the MG).

Silver/Pre-Juv MIF!

My coach thinks my cross-strokes, power pulls, spirals and CCW 8-step are passing quality. Now just have to put my focus on both sets of 3s and the CW 8-step. At this rate, I should be ready to test by spring!

Flop:

Sit-change sit

I think my muscles forgot how to do the switch to the back sit because I keep falling out of it! Argh! Guess I'm just going to have to keep at it!

Camels

As usual, my nemesis spin. The "sweeping the table" technique I learned as a teenager is KILLING me now and causing my left side to whip around before the rest of my body catches up! When I can control my left side, I can usually get a few revs out but that is sooooooooo inconsistent right now.

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I've got mad salchow disease!

Try really planting your spinning foot down onto the ice, bending your knee deeply, looking up and a little to the left and THEN simultaneously pushing into the entrance edge and sweeping with the left arm. I've had the exact same problem you're having, and taking that extra second to get my body positioned over my left side like that always fixes it!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Flop: had dress rehearsal tonight and a lot of things went wrong:
1. our "too short" music from last night had suddenly reverted back to it's original form, making our "re-do" seem un-done....and once again, we improvised
2. Having a 3 minute piece in between numbers proved to be too short for one of our ladies and she was caught with her pants down-literally! She had to change from her guy costume to our synchro dress (it was under costume) but she was still taking off her boot covers, breeches, etc when the music started.....
3. Were told not even WATER in dressing room. Too bad backstage mom and I will have it out. I always bring water and a snack for plummeting blood sugar. She will have to get over it.
Skating director was having a meltdown-too many kids (about 50), not enough adults to corral them. I think next show he needs to have less LTS kids in the numbers unless there are adults working with them (a lot are dropped of by parents, then picked up later).

Flip: met the new rink manager who made some changes-ice is one of them! He dropped the compressor temp from 60 to 16 degrees! Wow no wonder it was so cold! Also, he sanitized the locker rooms (it hasn't been done in about a year). He has some other things in the works but he wouldn't say what they were. It should be good. I hope he lasts!

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

Oh my goodness I managed to have another one of those dream sessions where (nearly!) everything works!

I'll start with the FLOP: After teh freak fall on a camel spin four weeks agp that resulting in hurt knee i'm scared of doing a camel spin - i don't commit to it so much and am finding that i'm spinning off the sweet spot and too much on my toe pick to ensure i don't fall off the back of the blade like i did when i fell. I guess that will take some time to get back but it will eventually.

FLIP

I managed to get all my three turns backwards and forwards done! The back ones aren't at any great speed, but i actually got the back insides done too! The LBI has been even scarier since the spin fall - epecially getting my weight far back enough to do the turn not force it!

Jumps went extremely well tonight. I'm actually getting lots of speed into and out of my toe-loop now - i've ben trying it by doing cross overs round the middle circle then aiming it towards the middle of the short side, stepping forward doing a couple more pushes and then doing it at some (for me anyway!) speed!

Loop on its own is ok but i can only do it really slowly, as soon as i try to speed it up I two foot it or chicken out, but in combination i can do it no problem so waltz+loop is fine, toe-loop+loop is fine too - better than on it's own.

Finally after a couple of warm up abortive attempts of the flip, i didn't miss a single one!! I had a couple of wonky landings but otherwise it was fine. I did loads of Flip+Toe-loops and then managed loads of Flip+Toe-loop+Loops as well which i was really proud of. Then Coach got that evil glint in her eye and suggested Flip+Loop. Now given that i've only just started "getting" the flip i though it was mean to expect me to land the flip with free leg in front but i said i'd have a go. The first one I tried i couldn't keep the free leg up, the second one i did i landed!!!! It was slow and cautious but i landed it! I then tried about another 5 times but couldn't do it - psychologically landing the flip with the free leg forward is too difficult!

Very happy that i had that session after not setting foot on theice for two weeks!

Ant

Flip: Here is a link to a picture taken backstage while me and my friend Jean were messing around:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...b&id=702251064

I need to work on my flexibility hahaha!

It took me a while to warm up once I got home, it was 22F this morning! I don't think the rink will be much warmer tonight (according to the new manager). I'm bringing my robe!

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

Flip: Camel spin was a little better today. Biggest problem is that I rush the entry and don't get a good edge "hook". I did mange to "hook" one well enough that I actually got some speed on the spin...scared the doo-doo out of myself.

Tried a few camel/sits. Need to work on better hip flexibility, BUT I didn't fall over which is what usually happens when I try this one.

Loop and flip felt nice.

Flop: Lutz is toast again. I was feeling tired this morning and my timing was off, but still. This is getting ridiculous.

Skates need sharpening. It has been six months, BUT three of those were spent off the ice. Maybe that will help the lutz (she says wishfully).

Flipflop: (since I'm not really sure what to do with this one), we are going to work on the Pre-pre moves test next week. I need to build back up to moves slowly and with things I actually have a chance of succeeding on. Being grandfathered to Silver moves just plain did not work for me...after two retrys on the test (a couple of years ago) and a broken wrist, it's time to for the time being and work on the underlying skills. Otherwise I will be stuck beating up on this test forever. I like the skill progression better on the standard track than I do for the adult track and will probably end up testing pre-pre, anyway. If nothing else, the skills should be well within my ability and make the test process a little less stressful.

Flip
My coach said my program run-through this morning was the best she's ever seen me skate with this program. I landed both axels, completed all 3 spins and the spiral sequence and basically skated a clean program except for the lutz-loop-loop (see "Flop").


Flop
Due to interference from another skater (who almost collided with me as I was setting up my lutz combination), I just did a lutz instead of the lutz-loop-loop.
Also, the landing of my first flip was pitched forward a little, which was disappointing because I landed it nicely in yesterday's run-through and I was looking forward to showing my coach how I'd fixed that bad habit on my flip landing.

Overall, this morning was a good confidence boost, though!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Skate@Delaware, that is an awesome picture! I'm really impressed with your flexibility.

Flip Worked on spins in my lesson. Once we corrected my dropping left arm, I was able to get some nice 3-4 rev camels. Worked on camel-sit and camel-backspins. Sit spins are getting lower. Scratch spins are getting more centered again.

Flop Had problems with the loop tonight and flip wasn't cooperating.

Thank you Petlover! I'm trying to catch up to Doubletoe!!!!!

Had our first night of ice show, it went very well except for the rink was freezing (ok enough of the JOKES)-the new manager dropped the compressor down a few degrees and the temperature of the rink went from a balmy 60F to 20F so now the ice is hard and the inside temp is barely warmer than outside!

Flip: Hit the freestyle session before the show so I could get a feel for the ice. Glad I did! Once I skated around a bit I did some jumps, which will take some getting used to on the harder ice but spins, wow! I did manage to hit a few that were more centered than before and two that were right on the money! Did some backspins that went on and on and on! Still having trouble exiting them, as the "lift and kick" method isn't sinking in as of yet...I sort of just stay in one spot.

Flop: it was cold...really, really, really cold! I put toe warmers into my skates (haven't had to do that in years) and spent most of the time in the locker room jumping around! Brrrrrr! Our routine was nice but the kickline was a little crooked and for our pinwheel one of the other ladies forgot where she was supposed to go so that got a bit messed up-she felt bad but no one else noticed and the number looked great anyway.

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

Flip: Good lesson today; we mainly worked on partnering & I made some good fixes there.

Flop: In one section of the pattern, Coach now has me turning my head in the opposite way that he had originally taught me (for expression), and it screws me all up! Silly how such a small thing as looking in the other direction can make such a difference! I'm going to have to go drill that section over & over to get it put back together.

This thread title makes me think of being on a boat!!! I'm on a boat, I've got my flippy flopies....ha ha ha


Overall Meh:

Ankle hurt less, just a dull ache in the skate (and random weird sharp pains on occasion), foot still kept falling asleep so I had to stop/unlace. I can tell strength in my leg is back since I've been pretty active off the ice. I can hold edges (inside and outside) without pain or wobbling, and was doing 3-turns up and down the ice (both forward and backward inside and outside) on the bad ankle fine. Did a few loops and flips. I can now at least do forward scratch spins too (those were still not happening last time I tried skating 2 weeks ago). Can now do the step sequence in my program, at least the old version and not the beefed up version I put in my program for Buckeye. I was actually able to stroke with some power (forward and backward crossovers) at the beginning of the session. Worked on back spins, back sit is actually better than ever. Back camel is a tad wonky since I can't push into it like I want to, but when I hit it I'm actually getting more revs than I used to. Overall my speed is down but then again I'm not being very aggressive just yet.

Hoping to skate tomorrow and if not, then Monday. Goal for next practice is to start being more aggressive, see what patterns of Junior Moves I can do, and work on my other spins.

6 weeks to Wyandotte...

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything