Bullseye: Ordered a new pair of Phantom K-Pick Blades yesterday, and they'll be shipped to my office where there's always someone to sign for them!

Bull Cookies: Don't know when they'll get there.....

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This space has been put on hiatus for retuning....

Bullseye: Skated my new competitive Pre-Bronze FS program at the holiday show at flo's rink yesterday. Landed all my jumps, and my coach (who also skated in the show) was pleased. I thought it was great, too, considering we only finished putting the program together on Wednesday, and made some minor changes to it on Thursday. It was actually a bare-bones version - we still have to add some footwork and a loop jump, but hey, I made it through w/o stumbling. And flo did an awesome job with her new interpretive program.

Bull Cookies: I was skating to a new version - before I had only practiced with a rough edit. This new version is a little faster and is also 3 seconds longer. I kept thinking I was behind the music, so I sped up and ended up finishing my final spin early. I took a page from a little girl at my rink (who finished a Basic Skills program early at a recent comp and improvised with a spin) and added another 1-foot spin until the music stopped.

More bullseye: I finished my b-school exams, so I can spend the next 6 weeks of my semester break trying to regain skills that fell by the wayside this semester.

bullseye: finally didnt chicken out in synchro! lol

bull cookies: had an awful skate of my solo. i just couldnt feel my feet underneath me.

Bull cookies: test session cancelled due to snowstorm. I see another five weeks of the Tango in my future.

Bullseye: nothing. Test session was turned into a freestyle session, which I couldn't get to b/c of the stupid snow, so I didn't test OR practice today. Grrr.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

Debbie S: Glad you had a good run through of your program yesterday!

Bull Cookies: Had our holiday show today, where I skated my Pre- Bronze program. Missed the loop ( coach just moved it to the beginning of the program), and sal- toe loop combo, as well as my always reliable backscratch spin, and totally rushed the sitspin at the end!

Hopefully, I'll have a Bull's Eye to post later in the week!

Bulleyes:

• Finally started getting the hang of FO3 after a long struggle... YIPPEE!!! (Well, I'll have to show it to my coaches to prove it though...)
• Scratch and sit spin FAST and centered!!!
• Landed loops and flips again today!!!

Bull cookies:

• Camel spins!
• BACKSPIN!!!! (What else???)
• FO3 at beginning of ice session SUCKED big time!!!
• Crossovers still sucks too... especially the backwards ones...

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Are 'Bull Cookies' what I think they are or am I just being gross?

MONDAY MORNING .... very early ......

Lesson went well. I, though, feel like I'm getting worse every time I get on (can that be Bull Pooh?)

Did a bit of stroking and slaloms (power pulls), 3-turns etc

Then went onto BACKSPIN which is actually working, I don't know where it's come from but I DO hope that it stays I'm even able to pull out of it and then back in again (sort of) which is a major step forward.

Sit wasn't as low and backsit still resembled a dog having a pee but it's getting there ..... I guess

Camel was crappy today but even so is an improvement to my previous offerings

Also attempted change sit, change camel, camel-change sit-backspin and back camel .... to think that I used to avoid spinning like the plague ... and also waltz-backspin

Jumps still haven't got the spring, the lift of the lightness but I guess it takes time (and less whaleage) I did everything up to flip and didn't manage to stack it today but there's still a lot to work on.

She's told me that I've got to start 'owning' the ice and stop giving way all the time (it's really weird to be back on patch and not knowing everyone's programmes and habits). I used to do that when I first did patch and I've obviously regressed.

All in all I suppose that I'm not doing too badly but it's frustrating knowing what I used to be able to do as to what I'm doing now .....

Am in to practise Wednesday and Thursday and then off until the New Year

xxxx

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The best whisper is a click

DebbieS: Congrats! You put that program together fast, that's great! I'm much slower at learning new programs.

Bull Cookies Went to my "Sunday" rink yesterday and the zamboni was broken and the ice so horrible they weren't even charging anyone to skate on it. I took one look at it and called my coach, who kindly suggested that we skate at another rink on club ice that evening, which we did. Whew! Can't afford to lose any practice or lesson time right now.

Bullseye Although the ice wasn't great in the evening either, I still had a pretty good practice and lesson. Salchow is getting better and so is the toe loop. I now love doing my waltz jump, and my coach says it is very strong. I also have hope that a good one foot spin is close... Gotta practice, practice. Deadline for the Chelsea Piers competition is January 6, so I have a few more weeks to get things in order.

Big Bullseye I've now lost 36 pounds! Only about 11 more to go!

Happy skating everyone,
Pat

It's a term I got from Col. Sherman T. Potter on M*A*S*H (I adore that show!).


My coach has recently told me I've got to "hold my own", which means essentially the smae thing.

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This space has been put on hiatus for retuning....

Well, I tested (HA!) ISI Freestyle 1 on Saturday morning. It went pretty much as I expected: Pass on pivot, spiral, 2-foot spin, and BI edges (they ripped again, woo-hoo! And I was the first to go and they were remarkable even -- a complete surprise to me!!); no pass on BO edges, waltz jump and 1/2 flip.

I think the BO edge issue is just a practice issue -- I can only skate in the evenings/weekends and public ice on a rink in a mall during Christmas season is... well... REALLY public. The ice is crowded by all of those kids whose parents drop them off while they shop. Not that it's a bad thing, just a crowded thing. As in waaaay too crowded to attempt practicing BO edges.

And the jumps... if I weren't a chicken they'd be fine. My walk-throughs of the jumps are A-OK. My entrances and exits are spot on. But ask me to put air between blade and ice, uh-uh! No way! Not gonna happen!! GRrr! I need to spend an entire session bunny-hopping around and jumping from one foot to another or something.

Any hints on overcoming Adult Air Fear??

quarkiki2, you've named it exactly! I have that same problem on toe loops.

For waltz jumps, to get over the fear, you could try them by the barrier--have your entrance edge foot closest to the wall, skate the outside edge while holding on, then use both hands on the barrier to assist during the jump. Do a few of those to get the feeling, then move away from the wall to do it, to get the feeling of doing it without anything else.

For me, concentrating on the timing helps me know I'm going to do the jump. If I really hold that forward edge (instead of immediately jumping after stepping onto the edge), and concentrate on using my arms, it helps me not freak out about the jump. You could do a BO edge to the count of three, then step to the FO edge and count to three before you jump. (Make sure you are not leaning out of the circle.) Sometimes I do a few in a row (BO-FO, waltz jump, BO-FO, waltz jump, etc.) and they improve as I go along.

You could also ask your instructor to hold your hands as you skate the forward edge (he/she would be facing you, slightly inside the circle, and skating backwards on the circle while you skate forwards on the circle). Then he/she can assist while you jump--you're doing the jump, but holding on to someone else's hands helps get that up and over feeling that can be scary on your own.

Another option would be to try it in the harness, if your coach is trained to do that. It's usually used for higher-level jumps, but I've seen some coaches use it even for the waltz jump if the person just doesn't isn't getting the path of the jump right.

Good luck!

I had this problem too for a long time. My advice is to learn to love your toepicks. One of my friends told me her coach held her hands and had her jump up and down on her toepicks multiple times, and after that, she was fine. For me, it has just been a matter of repetition. And then once I started really jumping my waltz jump (instead of stepping over), and experienced that feeling of hanging onto my toepicks or even landing occasionally on two feet, I saw that I can have a less than perfect landing and still be okay. Mind you, it took a looonnggg time for me to get to that point. But now, I love jumping, at least my waltz jump! But I still do a couple near the wall to warm it up before I try them out in the middle of the ice.

Good luck!
Pat

Bullseye - The show went well and Debbie had a wonderful skate! I had lots of fun - and thanks Debbie - the program felt pretty good. I was a bit concerned, as my right foot was frozen! Now - to get the applications filled out for the competitions!

Obviously a popular topic!

For me it was a big anti-climax. I thought, "What, that's IT?" after spending an hour trying to work up my nerve last week I just thought, what the heck, and jumped. It was the smallest, slowest jump in history, but I couldn't believe I had made such a big deal of it in my head. A very tiny waltz jump is much easier for me than a good two foot turn, hockey stop, or an inside mohawk, much easier.

Hey, if you get one millimetre of air, you're jumping. I jump small, and work on getting the feel and looking smoother each time. Your first waltz jump doesn't need to look like Scott Hamilton's, y'know

Obligatory link to beautiful waltz jump:
http://oasis.dit.upm.es/~jantonio/pe...es/swaltz1.avi

Bullseye
Finally! I've been skating for myself so little, and having so few lessons, that I've gotten more and more discouraged. My FO threes had completely disappeared in a cloud of irrational fear. So, today hubby & I went to a freestyle session just for an hour. I warmed up with stroking & crossovers, and found myself out of breath very quickly, so switched to FO threes. Hubby had suggested a technique that I had tried in the past with limited success, and today I found a way to make it really work for me. He said to pick a spot to do the turn on. Instead of starting and ending on a line, I started at the boards, with the line being the apex of my arc, and therefor the turn spot. It worked so well for me that I tried it with FI threes, but still chickened out on them. I also decided to do three sets of spiral stretches at the boards, spaced throughout the session, and not attempt the spirals otherwise at all. The last set of stretches did not hurt, so I think I am on the right track at last to improving my flexibility. There was a lot of Christmas music for various programs, and one song in particular had a very good beat which got me going on the best F power pulls I've managed yet. B power pulls were also my very best, and except for speed, I think they were actually passing quality. I came out of the session feeling renewed hope and energy. I really needed this!

Bull Cookies
Well, as I said above, I'm still chicken on the FI threes, even though they are quite good with just a feather of a spot.

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Bullseye
rink back to normal after the panto last week. I was in two numbers and it went pretty well I think but it's nice to have our ice back.

Rink was cold but ice freshly cut which is unusual at the time I have my lesson.

Ran through level 1 elements - all fine except that darned toe-loop. Really not sure why I have such trouble with it - Guess it was a bull cookie today.

At the end my coach danced the British Waltz with me. Now I have done this solo (slowly and badly) and I have done this slowly and gently with a partner, which is fun, but my coach is a former Olympic Ice dancer and took it to a whole different league which was really fun - a question of hanging on to very deep edges and being whisked around at very high speed - fantastic. Can't wait to try that again!

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

Bullseye: Got to skate for 5 hours yesterday

Bull Cookies: 3 of those hours were helping on learn to skate sessions, not so good for the back.

I'm having the worst time with doing crossovers, I cannot get the push under and honestly I think I need to go and have liposuction on my thighs and get those skinny stick legs because I can't think of any other way to fit my legs across each other. I don't really have big legs either. The upside of practicing bad crossovers for two hours is that I got a very good workout.

Bullseye:

Spent many hours on Saturday doing "Skate Maintenance". Started with "Breakfast at Klingbeils" at 8am for boot adjustments, taught a few groups at my home rink, then headed West to New Jersey for blade adjustments/sharpening.

Many hours and miles later, my skates are in great shape. My feet don't slip and slide, and I can control my edges once again. Have to practice tomorrow.


Bull Cookies:

I was so wiped out by my busy day that I lazed around on Sunday, watching Skating on TV after church. Also, my blades are so sharp that I couldn't stop quickly. It's okay -- I only wiped out two kids at lessons yesterday.

Been there, done that. It really doesn't have that much to do with your thighs. The critical spot for the under push is your ankle. Try standing at the boards and holding your foot in the right position on the ice, now lift it off the ice just an inch and bend your ankle up (sideways), keeping the blade parallel to the ice by lifting the toe at the same time.

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Bullseye: Nailed a really great camel-sit-change for my coach in my lesson, plus did some pretty good deathdrop-back sit and got some good tips on my layback. Excellent spin lesson, whee!

Bull cookies: Still no axel.

dbny, you sound just like my coach. He picked up the toe of my underfoot (now lift it up) and I promptly fell over. It's all about practice, isn't it!

A long weekend at rinks.

Saturday morning group lesson was fun. Front & back lunges, Ina Bauers, spread eagles, spirals, brackets, and one foot spins. I can't do any of them, but it was fun trying.

Saturday afternoon to a different rink to watch my girlfriend's synchro team compete (against the book), then off to another rink to watch the team skate the Christmas show. Sunday evening to an entirely different rink to video their Christmas show (my girlfriend's the club prez).

Monday skate was a Christmas celebration as it is the last adult session until after the new year begins. I brought two 3 foot long Blimpie sandwiches for the staff and coaches. Other adults brought homemade fudge and nuts. A local newspaper photographer was taking pictures for a future news article on adult skating. We gave candy canes to all of the kids in the learn-to-skate program.

I worked on my spin entrance and FINALLY got some speed into the rotations. So much power that I chickened out after three revs and stuck my toepicks in the ice to stop.

My lunges are actually getting a little better since I've started stretching before practice.

One skater said my lack of leg elevation on spirals could be that my jeans are too tight. I told her that my jeans were looser than my muscles. How did I ever get soooooo out of shape.

All in all, a fun time at the rinks!!!

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

You also need to drop your inside hip in order to get the pushed under leg really far under.

I finally got my bull's eye for the week:
Skated my program on lesson with Coach and nailed my loop and sal- toe combo!Coach says it's a muscle memory issue - at least I have a month to get it taken care of!

You just made my day, thank you! You can practice this at home in front of the mirror. You don't even need to have your skates on. I did that and also watched my shoulders, arms and head, and knee bend in the mirror at home when first learning.

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