Time for a new thread again. Enough computers. Did you show up at your event, or did you scratch out?

Scratched - skipping the end of season show this year

Shown Up - Since I don't have to work on learning a program, I could learn something new. Coach showed me how to do back inside loops (figures) this morning. I was able to do it, but of course mine were about 2 inches across. Coaches are these big elegant things. Gorgeous to watch her. Sigh.

I sucked up my courage and tried out my more advanced jumps, which I haven't done since October. I actually landed a couple of tiny baby loops and flips, 2-footed a couple of lutzes. Tried out a camel, and it sort of worked - which is about where I was with them before, so that is good.

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It's all about the dress!

Scratched...studying has taken more of my life than I expected....seems I will be lucky to skate once a week at this rate LOL! Testing? not even thinking about it right now (except for school).

Shown up: me working out again, cause i'm getting chubby hahaha!

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

Scratched So tired. Worked on spins in my lesson. Having a hard time getting more than 2 revs on my camel. Also having trouble getting my legs together on the back sit...plus butt in the air. Coach had me try lifting my arms above my head on my scratch spin...scary.

Shown up Backspin is getting stronger. Coach pronounced the sit as getting better (i.e. lower). Flip has a set number of good ones per session. So made the decision to practice until it starts going and then quit. It is an improvement so I am happy. Tried to add a toe loop on the end of the flip and got it second attempt. Also got the ina bauer to straighten out (instead of curving) for about a foot.

Scratched: Yesterday morning was my second time skating since moving here in September, after a looooooong break before that (perhaps skated 10 or 20 times in the last 3 years), and the first day I really tried to start getting things back. It was absolutely awful. I thought seriously about not going back for a while, and just sticking it out with yoga for a while until I regained some core strength and balance at least. I felt seriously bad. Plus, I figured out that nobody goes to the morning freestyle session - I had private ice almost the whole time, then one other skater showed up a few minutes early for the following session. I couldn't even manage to find somebody to give money to until after I was done. I'm really not into skating in an empty rink, or when there's just one other person around.

Shown Up: Well yesterday evening I had a vinyasa yoga class, and I had a surprisingly high amount of energy. I guess because I'd been skating that morning, or maybe because I've started adding more fruits to my diet (still vegan) recently. Or maybe it was because this last weekend, I spent time at home following a kundalini yoga video which left me very sore pretty much everywhere for the next couple days. Anyways the class went surprisingly well, and I was able to do things I did not expect to be able to. So I was more motivated. Today midday I went skating again (only $4 for a 2-hour public session with 5 or so people on the ice!), and pushed myself. Things just all started coming back. I managed to skate with a lot less toepick noise than yesterday, managed to do (perhaps not the best but did anyways) all 8 3-turns, including alternating ones, inside/outside spread eagles (still a bit bent), and somehow pulled a strong energy out of nowhere and was able to move quite quickly. I did not grow tired or out of breath. Jumps are still terrible, but that's not surprising. Spins are still way off, but that's not surprising either. Those are going to take a lot of practice, just like getting better form will. Plus the blades I have now (Paramount) have a different radius, and I think it's significantly different to find the sweet spot for spinning. I did manage to do some backspins, which surprised me. More important than any of the particular things I managed to do though, was the flow of energy I had. I was really motivated and it felt great to be skating again. This same energy is what disappeared before before I quit in the first place, and is pretty much why I did. But it's back, and I'll be going back as often as I can afford to. At $4 a day (plus $1.75 x2 for the bus to/from work for a grand total of $7.50/day), I can probably manage to do this every weekday. Unfortunately, I have a lot of debt to pay off, and cannot justify spending any more than that, which means no coaching for a while, but that's alright. The exciting part is that the energy and enthusiasm is back as much as it was four years ago, and I felt completely capable of relearning things and improving form and ability with practice.

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

All Shined up...
A scheduled meeting and dinner with a job candidate was cancelled, so I went to the rink instead. I did 1-1/2 hours of hard skating in order to lose some more weight. Jumped on the scales just before my shower afterwards...sigh.

I'm concentrating on footwork because I don't jump much anymore. That's OK with me, especially given my advancing years. But...

Scratched...
This session had lots of energy, so I tried to do a couple axels against my better judgment (right brain said YES, left brain lost the argument). The final jump put me on the ice with my toe pick buried into the fabric of my trousers. I was tangled up and could not get back up until I ripped the hole bigger to remove the blade. The ripped trouser hole was in my inner right thigh, but I was spared any injury. There goes another pair of skating trousers.

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Bill Schneider

My 1st thought after reading that was OUCH. Glad you weren't hurt. I have a couple pairs of pants that I ripped doing backspins. I now wear tighter pants.

Coach's DH is back at work so no afternoon lesson. Pretty empty ice - me and one other. Then a young girl with her coach came half way through.

Shown up Started out with Bronze Moves. Haven't worked on them much since passing the test in November. Up through December I would run through the patterns once as a warm-up, but haven't done them in a month. They seemed to flow much better and seemed a lot easier. Flip - had several good ones. Many decent ones. I have to do exercises before I attempt them or it goes poorly. Managed to get the legs together on the back sit. Ran through program without music and it went pretty well. A coach that I hadn't seen in a few months commented that my skating had really improved since she last saw me. That was really nice to hear.

Scratched Fighting for revs on the camel and camel combo spins. If I go for 3 or more revs on the camel, the backspin or sit spun out. Chickening out on the lutz. Did a few exercises, but didn't seem to help very much.

Shown Up: Stayed up late to watch the men's FS final. Yeah Evan!

Scratched: My 6:15 am lesson this morning, coach hasn't been feeling well all week and after she stayed up late she was feeling even crummier. I was already halfway to the rink before I realized I had a voice mail. Darnit - and I had actually contemplated bailing last night for kind of the same reason. I knew I'd be paying dearly for staying up way later than normal last night...and I am.

Shown up: Worked on edges and waltz 8. Those felt pretty good.

Scratched: (and banged up, and bruised) - had a "toe-pick" moment on a spiral and went down HARD on my right knee (which was the "good" knee up until that moment). It hurt almost as bad as the fall I had last summer when I broke my wrist. Had that same "not sure if I'm gonna pass out or puke from the pain" and had to be helped up and off the ice by one of the other coaches. I called it a day at that point, got off the ice and walked it off a bit, and it's better as long as I don't try and go up or down the stairs (that KILLS). Need to ice it and expect that it will probably turn some "interesting" colors in the next day or so.

owie, I had one of those a couple of years back. Took ages to feel better, but no lasting damage {{{tazsk8s}}}

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It's all about the dress!

Ouch! Have you tried putting Arnica on it? DD's ice dance coach suggested it for bruising and it works well. You can get it at health food stores.

Shown Up Apparently, my loop I actually did a couple tiny ones from the proper entry. Let's see if they stay this way for lesson on Tuesday.

In the shadows Back spins...I was actually getting really comfortable spinning on the opposite foot, like 2-4 revolutions versus my usual .5-1.0 But I'm pretty sure on most attempts I was actually flipping to forward inside instead of back outside. Again, we shall see what comes out of this on Tuesday.

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~Always Dream!~

Check my progress at www.freewebs.com/sk8tegirl06

Scratched My spins are usually decent. Not tonight. They don't want to do more than 2 each on the combo. Back sit was super high...coach didn't even think it would count as a sit spin. I did one that was low, but could only hold it for 1 rev. Ran through program with music and the spins were crap. Coach asked what happened to the good spins from Tuesday. Flip jump was hit or miss tonight. Arms were flying up all over on flip and lutz.

Showed up Forward sit is getting better - lower and faster.

Definitely second that suggestion, and also take homoeopathic arnica pills for a day or so; this will help with the healing. Also ibuprofen gel, if you can get it where you live, to help with the inflammation and pain. Don't use topical arnica (cream or tincture) if the skin is broken, though.

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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!

Oh, Taz-OUCH! Get better! Mrs. Redboots, I didn't know there were arnica pills! I'll have to ask next time I go to the nat. food store!

Shown up: yay, went skating today! Club session was crowded (we get 1/month). I managed to get all my stuff worked on...remediation on the 3-turns as I had been zipping through them and not holding them.
Scratch spins-good, hold the entry edge and keep free leg back
Sitspins-getting nice rotation, free leg comes around quicker, now to just...get...lower!!!
Salchows-good, again the 3-turn practice comes in...I was getting really long rides on the 3-turn back edge
Toeloops-did a lot of these, slower, as I've been working on drawing my skating foot past my picking (and picking behind instead of to the side).
Backspin-Everything is good, but still getting stuck on the exit. It will come in time
Loop-added the LFI edge before the RFI3 entry...tried a few slightly faster and they were nice, rolling off toepick and landing on same-no flat feet
Flip-still having a hard time with these, a friend commented to work on rotation and landing and not worrying about height. Ok.
Scratched-Had thought about working on some moves, but with all the girls playing games on the session, that would have been nearly impossible. It's a situation that no one wants to do anything about (big can of worms there).
I'm glad I was able to skate, as school/studying has consumed my life!!!

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

Thanks everyone!

Hmmm, never heard of Arnica. Been taking Aleve every 12 hours and icing it off and on. I'm bruised, but not as badly as I was expecting. Walking on it is fine, and I taught three hours (!) of Basic Skills this morning. Most of that went ok, except for things that required a lot of knee bend like dips, and sitting down/standing up. Stairs aren't particularly fun, either. I get to rest it now, no plans to be on the ice until at least Monday. I usually do the freestyle, and now have a class to teach after that. If it's still bugging me on Monday, I'll skip the freestyle (since it's my landing knee and I can't trust myself to go out there and NOT try to jump) and just teach the class.

Shown up - good lessons and practices. Having a great time watching the Olympics!

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

For Saturday

Scratched Super sore from Friday practice session. Back sit was bleck and could get 1-1.5 revs on the camel. Had several girls magneting me so hardly any room to practice jumps.

Shown up Backspin - the one saving grace. Very nice and tight.

Bleh I was really off today, especally spinning wise. Towards the end of practice, my legs went jello and nothing was cooperating.

Showed:
-I did a catch foot spiral!! I honestly thought I lost all my flexibility, but just as an experiment I tried and actually did it!!
-Single jumps were all good
-Belliman spiral..okay so due to my closed hips bringing it more to the side actually works.
-Off all the spins that I attempted...my BACKSPINS actually behaved very well today!! They were great:-)
-Did quick runthrough of my showcase and played with where to put certain elements.
-Recieved a couple 'your really good' comments from some kids...it's always cute
-LTS and final exhibition practice went pretty well.
-Got TWO hugs from one of my learn to skate kids :-)

Scratched:
-my best friend spin, flying broken leg spin, betrayed me today and disappeared...along with my layback, simple scratch, regular broken leg, and closed hip haircutter. Seriously none of them were working out.
-Axel attempts were pure crap!
-2sal, yes I have the rotation and height, but landing on one foot is just not working out.
-The jello leg feeling was definately not what I intended for...GRRR

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[i]Beauty May Be in the Eye of the Beholder
But passion is in the heart of a skater.[/I]

Shown Up: First attempts at freestyle since crashing on my knee. Still some "interesting" colors, but it's not hurting too much. Surivived spirals, though I am sure they are not as high as they should be right now, I felt like I needed to do them as soon as possible so as to get past the mental block. Edges and waltz 8 felt good.

Spins went well once I remember to - DUHHHH - BEND those knees.

The lutz decided to put in an appearance, and the flip is always my friend.

Scratched: Stupid me, I left my skates in the car all day and they were COLD. My hands were full when I arrived at work, I meant to run out to the car at lunch and grab my bag so the skates would have time to thaw out, and I got so busy with work stuff that I never had the chance. Ugh. My feet were in absolute agony by the end of the hour.

Probably because everything felt a little stiff and sore, had a harder time than usual with front crossovers on the perimeter stroking. Had to really stop and think about BENDING and even then I'm sure I was toepushing more than I would have liked.

Loop wasn't well behaved, my old habit of pre-rotation made a nasty appearance.

No time to try axels. I teach a basic skills class right after the freestyle, and fortunately had my old "teaching" skates which are too broken down to do freestyle in, but are super comfy. So I got off 5 minutes early and switched skates, which I don't normally do but just had to yesterday. It was like going from concrete blocks to bedroom slippers.

Scratched The last 2 practices have been all out crap. My camel spins have gone bye-bye. I'd be okay with it if I wasn't competing on Sunday with 2 camel combos in my program. In the effort to get lower on the back sit, that spin has gone away also. I haven't been able to get through a single program without practically running into some kid not paying attention. Today was the worst. I tried to get through it 3 times. The first run through was 4 kids. Coach says just go around them. Well, I am trying but it just seems to make it worse. My lutz is in a weird place where I can't get a full lutz, but if I try a 1/2 it feels wrong. I feel tired and crabby. I didn't even skate my second session tonight, because I was too frustrated. There was also a tweaky feeling in my knee.

Shown up The bright spot is that my flip though small has been consistent in the program.

Scratched: everything...

I hate axels. I can't seem to do them right...1) I can't get my legs to cross, 2) I skid really bad on my take off, 3) my shoulders are screwed up
My double sal has disappeared.
Double toe seems to have regressed.
Flying camel was crud today....ugh!

It was one of those days and I really wanted to go for a run after I got back (when I skate like crud, I tend to like to do more....call it punishment if you will...) but I live in Central New York and running outside in February is not really an option, and I don't really like the treadmill but will do it if I have to, but our gym gets really busy and I didn't feel like fighting with the crowds of students, so I will get up tomorrow morning and go to the gym as well as do some off ice jumps...

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

I can totally sympathize with this . . . the kids will NOT get out of my way when I am doing my program, even wearing a bright orange vest does not work, it is as if I am INVISIBLE. "Going around them" doesn't always work either, they are usually so erratic that I can't even tell where they are headed next. And although I would be in the right, I can't imagine that just taking one of them out would be very favorably received . . .

This was for my practice and lesson on last Friday (19 Feb) and Sun (21 Feb).

Friday
Shown up

Forward crossrolls on both left and right. They are not too bad to start at, as a warm up. Managed to bend my knees deeper too for much better cross rolls.

5 step mohawk is not too bad either. Seemed to have somehow got the grasp of the steps.

Cross toe (one foot spin): managed to get somewhere in between 12 and 20 revolutions. Tried the scratch spin method, but cannot get past the wide leg position for more than one revolution.

Sit spin: seems to be getting lower, with about 4 revolution min. if I am lucky. Still fell a few times on the ice when trying to get down low.

Loop jump: the preparation for the loop jump is getting better. Coach said that I am getting somewhere with the loop jump, with the exception of that I push on the toe pick.

Scratched up
Learnt the twizzles during lessons, coach said that the edge on one side of my foot is too far down.

Learnt the outside edge double 3s, cannot do them comfortably yet, though can do them holding onth the barrier, so coach had me tried the inside edge double 3s instead. Again, problem with too far down on one side of my feet.

Gave the salchow a toe loop a miss, as ran out of time during practice.

Still sucks in the back spin, as cannot get past the 1 revolution.

Inside edge back pivot: so so, not good and not bad.

Sunday (went skating with my nephew and his fiancee, his younger brother and the younger brother's girlfriend in an evening public session.)

Shown up
Forward crossovers: they are nice and centred.

Backward crossovers: they also behaved themselves that day.

Little man: managed to get down very low, and then did a one foot snowplough stop towards the end.

Cross toe (one foot spin): they are nice and centred. Even managed to get one 35 revolution spin. My nephew's fiancee was amazed at the number of revolutions in my spins, and so kept on videoing my spins. When my nephew showed me the video, there was one of me doing a 27 revolution spin.

Change foot spin: they are nice and centred too, did not seem to have travelled too much, with the exception of the last forward spin.

Corkscrew spin: only attempted 1 time successfully with past 10 revolutions.

Sit spin: well, my nephew's video showed me doing one, with half bent down, on about 5 revolutions. I suppose that that is an improvement.

Waltz jump: seemed to be getting higher.

Half flip: felt comfortable finally with this jump now.

Salchow: felt that the jump was higher.

Scratched up
Toe loop: not sure if turn body enough before doing the jump.

Twizzles: very hard to tell whether I am on the correct edge on one side of my feet.

Inside edge double 3s: also hard to tell whether I am on the correct edge on one of my feet.

Loop jump: seemed to be jumping most of the time with toe pick. Needs to get coach to check on Tue, as I am having an extra lesson with her that day.

Back spin: still sucks, as cannot get past the 1 revolution in the crossing of the foot, after making the wide leg open position.

Sit spin: sat down twice on the ice whilst trying to get down low.

Inside edge backward pivot: seemed to be a broken movement, rather than continous movement (in terms of number of revolutions.)

5 step mohawk: practised on them, though seemed to rush through them.

Out of context

My mom had lunch with my nephew (the one who went skating with me on Sunday night) and his family on Tuesday. That night, my mom told me that my nephew said to her that he and his brother enjoy skating with me, that my muscles are very strong, and probably I should go and try out skiing , though my mom said that she is not so sure about that.

londonicechamp

This is for Sunday (I've beeen studying, barely had time to skate but, eh)
Shown Up: skating was fun, did virtually the whole session (no lesson) with an old acquantance....PAIR SKATING! It was huge fun! I was so tired when I got done, as I'm not used to skating non-stop for 1.5 hours! (he did comment about my yakety-yakking during other times).

Scratched: today-I need to review and get my stuff together so I can skate on friday evening and Sunday afternoon (no snow! no snow! no snow!!!!)

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

Thanks for the validation. Really needed some as Coach had zero sympathy for me. I know almost of all of the parents as my DD skates and am the test chair. Taking out one of those kids would not be good.

At least I can go skate tomorrow on the mid-day mostly empty ice. Just usually 1 or 2 college girls and sometimes another adult.