Since I believe some of you will be eating turkey later this week!

Terrific: We were back on the ice and it was our lesson day.

Terrible: Just about everything else. Our spin has vanished completely, simply isn't there. When we did exercises, they weren't very good. Even found out we'd been misunderstanding an essential element of our partnering - where I should be standing when in waltz hold!

I was too disheartened to stay on the ice for long after the Husband got off, plus ended up in a long conversation about Child Protection in the coaches' room, so really only skated for about an hour. But I did have my conditioning lesson afterwards - so now I'm really stiff!

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

Terrific
I landed my lutz-loop yesterday. I was asked by my friend's teenage daughter to do it, but I told her that I hadn't done it since my accident and I would need to land my lutz a few times first, however I went to do a lutz and found myself landing lutz-loop. I am now back "elements-wise" to where I was before the fracture and surprised to have got back so quickly. I've only been back on the ice two weeks post-cast though I did skate in my cast three times (no jumps or spins though!).

Turkey
I'm suffering with a stiff neck and shoulders for which I'm receiving physio treatment at great expense. Also with it being so cold outside yesterday, it was cold inside too so I had to work really hard to keep warm!

Nicki

I think I "caught" your stiff neck and shoulders (or you caught mine, since I've had it since last Thursday).....but I don't get to see my chiro until tomorrow!!! OUCH! and my head hurts too.... ok, I'll stop whining.

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

I've had mine since Thursday too, and by the weekend it was agony - the most painful I've ever had! I didn't know where to put myself it was so bad! Funnily enough it came on after a session of physio. I've had another treatment today and my therapist said it was possible to have been caused by the treatment! I'm back tomorrow for another session and just hoping it sorts itself out soon. Hope you feel better soon too!

Nicki

Terrific: I finally started to get the ripping sound on crossrolls and power pulls in all directions -- yay! I didn't think it would ever be possible.

Turkey: It's still a long road ahead to get the power pull pattern all the way down the ice; gotta work on doing those with more speed & aggressiveness according to my coach. Also, I really need to wake up earlier on my lesson days, so that I can get more out of the freestyle session overall. There are always so may things I want to practice, but I can't ever stay after my lesson due to work.

Turkey:

• Primary coach is being a meanie again. The guy was physically blocking me while I was doing 5 step mohawk. He almost TRIPPED me in the process of doing it too. GRRRR!!! When I complained "Are you trying to trip me so I would FALL?" He laughs and says "No, I'm trying to block you!!!" (YEAH!!! Sure!!! )
• Had a one bad run thru on the perimeter back crossovers.
• Kept hearing the word "PUSH" on the power 3's ... and I'm not even an expectant mom!!!

Terrific:

• Had a couple of good runthrus on the perimeter back crossovers and the back crossovers to BO edge.
• He did managed to get a good 1/2 lap on the 5 step though toward the end though.

Overall: Well, we'll see. Sometimes I get it! Other times...

__________________
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!!!

I've been off of the ice for a long time. So just being on the ice again feels great. I need to have my boots fully mounted as I onlly have 4 screws on each boot. And my sharpening needs to be changed from a recreational sharpening to a deeper hollow like when I was last training with my skating club. Inspite of sliipping off my edges, I was able to do decent waltz and toe loop jumps. My toe loops turned themselves because I finally am getting decent RFI3 with good exciting edges which sets me up nicely for my toe loops. I feel spoiled now.

IT's great to be back on the ice. Just wish I could make enough cash to take care of all my bills. I'm still now working. It's weird how I can skate but I can't swing my arms or move my hands very much without having pain like I had to do in my old job. Anyway I won't be going back to my old job. I'm going to either collect unemployment or get unemployment to train me in a different profession. Maybe they can help me finish my CGA. I have half of the credits for the CGA already. I'd really like to either have a desk job in accounting or teach music. Then I'd have a job I would like, have a job that doesn't bother my herniated discs and I'd still have time to train to compete.

Brigitte

__________________
"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

terrific - I'm completely disturbed that my layback spin is now the more reliable of my spins - and usually centred. Disturbing because it used to be one I was really really bad at. Ballet must be paying off.

The little fix I came up with for my flip (start with a slight curve leaning on RFI, instead of a dead straight edge) is continuing to work a charm.

terrible - see waltz jump thread! Egads. Camel and sit spins have vanished completely.

Terrific: Spins came back. Almost makes me want to take a few days off skating and then stay up all night before my next lesson, since that's what I did this time and it resulted in great skating. What is it about insomnia improving my skating ability, I don't know. It was on the hard brittle ice that I usually hate too.

Turkey: Went to an evening cheap skate session with a friend. It was really crowded - the ice wasn't *that* bad but there was no room. Since I was with friends I couldn't really get a terrible lot of practice in, but it was fun and an excuse to get back on the ice before another day passed, which is always good.

__________________
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

Terrific: Hit the ice yesterday for drop-in (and brought hockey-boy so he could work on some drills). After a very short warm-up (interrupted by hockey-boy because he said he was "bored") I worked on some jumps which were fair. The big news is -- my skates from Ebay arrived and fit wonderfully! I saved skating in them until the last 20 minutes of the session because the blades were terribly dull (I was doing the Bambi). They need to be sharpened and moved.....when I'm sure all is right, then I will mark where they line up and swap out blades (although my Comets are 1/4" longer, coach says that's ok; hey, big is big!) cleaned up, waterproofed, etc.

Turkey: Spins still suck! Must be the spasm in my back still throwing me off! And my timing for my routine is rushed.....and I was bailing on my toe-loop although when I ran-through without the music it was ok. I guess I just need to do it 50 million more times....and hockey-boy kept saying "where are all the people?" I did tell him it was a closed session, so I made him to all kinds of evil hockey drills!!! HA! There were only three of us on the ice!!!

PS-my "new" used skates (competitors) have the same Mirage blade that came with my old jacksons....I did notice that the rocker on them was really rocky...much more so than on my comets. I'm going to mess around with them for a bit when they get back from sharpening (and after they are aligned properly-they need to be moved to the inside on both boots). AND, although the boots are the same as my "old" ones, they don't have the stiffness! My competitors are like bricks and I can't seem to break them in! I've done all I can and I don't have a crease at all! They aren't bending at the ankle (even with the flex-notch) When I put these other boots on it was remarkable in the difference!

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

Turkey: My coach spent most of the lesson trying to kill me, I'm quite convinced, and so I told everybody, loudly and long, with him roaring with laughter and going, "Do that again, please". What I was having to do was to do a couple of runs to build up edges and speed, then hold an outside edge and stick my free leg out to the side to deepen the edge and make me lean. At first it was totally counter-productive, as all that happened was that my foot fought being on an edge and kept going on to a flat, so I broke at the hip and looked most odd. In fact, it didn't really do anything other than scare me you-know-what-less during the lesson.....

Terrific: But I did manage to do it a bit afterwards. And after my lesson I managed my level 3 dance moves best I've ever done them. Not in my lesson, of course, that would have been far too much to hope for. But I really was able to give them some welly, and did them really surprisingly fast, for me. Still dead slow, of course, I shouldn't wonder.

No lesson for a fortnight now because of the British. Husband does have half an hour private lesson on Sunday, as he missed last week, and then we plan to begin to choreograph his free programme, which should be fun. I've already started to choreograph the beginning for him.

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

"It's a SPIRAL DAY!!!" my secondary coach says she's gonna work on this morning!!! (I, of course, was prepared for CROSSOVERS!!! )

Terrific:
Good part is that I can get my spiral above my hip.

Turkey:
My hip is not turned out...b/c I don't have no stinkin' turnout!!! (My toes are actually pointing DOWN on the ice when I do spirals, which is NOT a pretty sight! She wants it pointing straight!!! She also thinks that I haven't developed enough leg strength to do those spirals right yet.) Sooo... I had to go up to the wall and she had to adjust me as I'm hanging onto the wall.

The "terrific" part of this turkey is that she didn't have to resort to her adjusting while I'm moving in a spiral position!!! She DID threaten to do that though. I saw her doing it with her previous young'um student... and as I recalled my reaction... "Oh, dear...." (The only thing that saved me is that she can tell I was trying when she threatened it on me... she says "I can see your legs trembling as you tried to adjust your leg position.")

Then I had to work on getting a good Chinese spiral. That in itself was interesting, especially when an 8 year young lady skated by and watched my getting adjusted for the Chinese spiral. I said nonchalantly to the young lady "Oh, don't mind me!!! I'm just getting myself twisted up like a pretzel..." (I must have been reading secondary coach's mind too. She said "You know, I was just about to tell her that too.")

Secondary coach sentenced me to doing 15 spirals on each leg for all practices until I get it right...

__________________
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!!!

When my coach asks me what I want to work on...I just say "Whatever!" because if I set myself up to work on one thing, she usually wants me to do something else!

I think there is another thread on this board for spiral exercises......(hint hint) Doing them off ice is what really helped me get them high and turned out (I haven't got enough turn-out for anything, but anything helps!) Last year I did a million of them (both legs) off-ice (even in my office) and on-ice ....The hardest part for me was straightening the skating leg and pushing it forward YIKES!

Good Luck!!!

Terrific: Last night's run-through of the Figure-8 pattern, after some minor "adjustments" of my posture & arms....the forward crossovers are finally on it with the required number!! Of course, I had to yell at some people to get out of my way (my daughter and her friend were chatting where I wanted to go...and my coach got into the spirit of things by saying in a loud voice "Just skate through them-they'll move!" we are a bad influence on each other!) AND the run-through of my program, after we added more stuff! IT ROCKS!!! She added an attitude spiral (she wasn't sure I could do it-yeah I can now thanks to exercises...) AND I have started springing up on my Salchow! Of course, this happened after lessons but I figured "just to it!" One of the more advanced skaters commented on it and said it looked really good! AND I managed several good & centered scratch spins (with free leg crossed) and great toe-loops last night!!!

Turkey: Backward crossovers in the Figure-8 pattern! I'm still scratchy, altho not as much as before (recommendation: sit down more). Back sort of hunches over....and I need to add a one-leg transition between the circles My waltz jumps were sort of crappy...don't know why.

I felt bad for really showing my age......my coach barely knew who Nadia Comenichi was.....I had to explain.....she said she was more a Mary-Lou Retton-era person.

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

Total Turkey -
Can't seem to execute a waltz jump consistently. Maybe this should be in the "look like an adult" thread. For the past 2 weeks, I just seem to be stuck in take off position or not kicking my free leg through. Muscle memory is just not there. Any one else go through this "phase" of skating life?

Well, I over adjusted my blades and now I'm a mess again in the jump department. But I now can do 10 revs in my forward upright without going into the spiralling edge to catch the spin. I still have to get my skates sharpened and the mounting complete. The only thing about doing the fast 10 revs in my spin is that my head is no longer use to spinning and I really can feel it. I'm spinning at about half as fast as my blur speed I had at the end of May but I really need to get use to that first before going full tilt.

Still can't bend my knees my boots are so stiff.

Any cheats out there to get the boots to break in quicker before I'm broken?

__________________
"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

I used to have a problem with turnout on my left foot, which bugged me a bunch since it was the leg that I could get higher up. To work solely on turning out the toes/foot, I would get into a spiral position using a countertop or desktop at home, rest my entire left foot on the surface so that the toes were pointing straight, and then just 'pulse' my toes up (baby toe is leading) towards the ceiling with the heel still on the surface. It's a little unorthodox, and is probably not very clear, but it helped me get the muscle memory for the turnout. Even now when my coach tells me that my foot position is looking a bit off, I think of just lifting my toes toward the ceiling and I automatically get into the position she was looking for.

Terrific

Thanks to jenlyon60, I found myself a place to practice on Wednesdays and Thursdays. At night it's relatively empty and quiet, so I even could go through my programme end-to-end a few times. And another highlight is that I found out I can still speak some German, after totally abandoning it years ago! (The rink is in Germany, but it's only 30 min drive from my project office in Netherlands).

Turkey

Three last hectic weeks with very little off-ice workout took their toll: by the end of the session I was totally exhausted and out of breath. I need get back to the routine again.

__________________
My other car is a Zamboni

Terrific
Some good scratch spins and a few nice jumps. Getting the hang of my new footwork and choctaws. Change edge spiral goes ok sometimes. FO and FI figure of eigths are getting better. Coach taught me loops (the figure type) and I can do the loop bit on the right forward inside one, just need to get the hang of exiting out of them to complete the circle.

Turkey (gobble, gobble )
Axels a complete no go, my waltz jumps felt far too scary to even attempt one. No improvement on 2sal. BO and BI figure of eights are laughable. The worst thing that happened today though was that I fell on my first few warm up laps off the back of my left blade and the edge of my boot dug into my achilles heel. I skated the whole session even though it hurt but now can hardly walk my achilles is so sore. I've iced it and just hope it will be better in the morning. What a stupid way to injure myself!

I have had a bad back this week too, so sending Antiflam to everyone with stiff/sore backs, shoulders & necks!

Nicki T - congrats on getting your lutz-loop back so quick

Singerskates - you might not be in the right season at the moment, but if I leave my skates in my black car in the sun for the day before I skate they get are really soft. (I don't leave them there for this reason & security)

__________________

Mark Twain

Turkey: Had serious trouble dragging myself out of bed this morning, so didn't skate as long as I should have liked with Husband.

Terrific: However, all the things we did do seemed to work very well. I felt I could stay really upright when we did runs round the circle (I am still having problems going anti-clockwise in reverse kilian hold, but that's all), and our chassés and swing rolls in waltz hold were good. We then started to try to do really controlled outside edges - Field Move type - in kilian hold, and plan to try those in all the holds. We didn't have time to do any work in Foxtrot hold or our spin or lifts, but they can live to fight another day!

Solo, my Dance Moves weren't as good as sometimes, but they were still there. I do have problems still getting on a half-decent back outside edge when solo; far easier with a partner! Did some circle cycle work and realised I still need to focus on turnout when going forwards. And still can't do any sensible backwards exercises. Oh well....

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

I decided to go to coffee club session to skate on Thanksgiving. The turkey part of it was... so did everyone!!! (It ended up being a social skate. Usually not a great thing but... eh, I wasn't feel particularly productive anyway, and I haven't see a good bunch of these coffee club folks in a while, soooo...)

Terrific:

• After some warming up, my power 3's got faster.
• My FI mohawks were there. Well, what I normally have anyway... (but I'll take it. I can work with it.)
• Day after Thanksgiving... I'm gonna be SUCH a lazy bum this morning! (No, I shop online anyway. No sense fighting the crowds anyway...besides, my job is near a shopping mall, so I'll go during lunch to shop if I really need to go shopping.

Turkey:

• I am in serious need of a LOT of warmup time before I can skate moves well. It's not just a matter of warming up the muscles but being able to get used to the feel of the ice and where my weight is on the blade on that particular day.
• Spirals sucks
• Camel sucks (see above bullet on why it sucks...)
• Loops and flips too.

__________________
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!!!

Terrific
I did the best camel spin I've ever done in my life today, in my lesson! It went on and on and on and felt so easy! I was spinning and was so shocked I was shouting "Oh......my.....God!" as I spun around.

I also landed a decent loop-loop and lutz, followed by flip-loop and lutz-loop.


Turkey
I had a second attempt at skating half of my programme but it still feels very shaky. My coach and I agreed we will work on it every lesson from now on to get my confidence back on doing it.

It was an inset day here for some schools, including my kids', so I didn't stay on and skate the session and we decided against running the jumps class as it's impossible doing it when there are heaps of kids on the ice.

Nicki

Terrific: Called out today, felt I should take the day off and skate! They added an early morning skate (9-12) for $7 so hubby and I went! Weren't sure how crowded it would be....it wasn't! Got to run through my program (without music) a few times. Met another woman skater who recently moved to the area interested in lessons....she might stop by tonight and watch our all-adult class (she is a former teenage figure-skater).

Turkey: Because it was soooo cold last night AND there were both compressors running for the ice; ice was super-frozen (can u believe it?) and harder than normal! AND it was very cold inside the rink! The only difference between outside and in was the lack of wind! EVERYONE was remarking on how cold it was! Super-hard ice makes sticking jumps harder and makes spins travel more....but I managed a few decent spins and jumps.

Got home to find a message from skater friend; her skates had separated last week during show rehearsal (sole from boot) making them virtually useless. She has not been able to locate another pair of replacement skates within her budget....another pro-shop had a set in stock they wanted to sell her but they were over $500! OUCH!

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

Your friend should call the boot company (whichever brand they are) and arrange to send them back for free repair. Obviously, she won't have them in time for the show, but she doesn't need to spend her own money to resolve the problem.

Terrific - am taking a break from skating since Monday, until this coming Monday probably, unless I want to haul myself out of bed really early on Sunday morning. But it's nice to have a bit of a break, especially since I'd been working overtime trying to get the Bronze moves passable.

Turkey - no skating for a week.

It's a double-edged sword! (or blade?....)

Debbie,
That had been mentioned, but her skates are almost 2 years old and they are the lower-end (plastic-soled) Riedells. Not really suited for someone doing single jumps but more for a snowplow sam level.... but they had been a gift from her sons (who didn't really know much about buying skates and didn't have much in the way of a Christmas budget).

If they were leather-soled, we would have epoxied and bolted everything together and that would have gotten her through the ice show....the prospect of skating in rentals for the show is not a good one.

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

Debbie,
I've checked Cabin John's schedule and they are supposed to have a freestyle session tomorrow afternoon. Maybe after we watch the Bronze moves tests. we can jump on one of them!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"