FIRST LESSON/PRACTICE THREAD of 2007!!! Go at it!!!

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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!!!

I've been off the ice since the Friday before Christmas and am not planning to skate until this upcoming Friday. Chest cold from hell. Two weeks off and a competition to prepare for!

(((Hannahclear))). What a way to start off the year for you. Hope you are feeling better soon.

Jazzpants! LOVE the thread topic. How did you know this year was all about me? Even though I am not skating today, there will be lots of Champagne Toasts in 2007. You rock!

Champagne Toasts:

(even though it was technically last night0)-- skated a nice, fairly empty session on New Years eve-- I was the only semi-skilled skater on the ice and everyone else was attached to the wall, so it was an hour and a half straight of real practice. And my family really understood and gave me no grief after my explanation as to why it was so important for me to skate New Year's eve and day:

Last year, I could barely walk or dance and my life revolved around physical therapy. Skating was the first thing that let me fly... so it was only fitting that I ring in the new year with a celebration of the one thing that helped keep me going when I was virtually strapped down.

This morning, an EMPTY freestyle... so clean, empty, virgin ice allllllllllll to me I actually had to restrain myself so that I actually worked on all of the things I needed, rather than just go straight to the "Fun stuff".

Waltz jumps are getting nicer every time-- today, I finally got the edges dead on for take-off and landing, and the dreaded toepick scrape is coming in on only about 10% of landings as I learn to bend my knee and keep my weight back.

I managed one lovely spiral throughout the entire session (although I'm still terrified of those things)!

Missed Resolutions:

My right skate keeps coming unlaced! I don't know why just my right skate,, but it's getting on my nerves.

Not bending my knee enough on the waltz jump landing and not landing on the right edge has been taking a toll on the ligaments in the front of my right ankle... I'm always afraid of the twinge and pain becoming something worse!

And spinning! I look like a total dunce now that I have to spin CCW instead of CW... I can't get myself to transfer my weight enough to my left leg to spin properly!

And going back to work, with only 1-2 days of skating a week after being able to skate every day, sometimes 2x a day, is going to be very painful! I need to find a job that pays a lot and has very few hours, in order to feed my skating addiction!

Still, this looks to be a promising skating year!

jazz: Great title for this week!

Hannah: Healthy healing vibes to you!

Sk8pdx: you party animal ...you! giggle

Champagne toasts: returned to the rink yesterday and today after one week away for vacation. Took a while but finally was able to do a few of all that I know to date. It freaks me a bit to find how unsteady I am after only one week off ice but it comes back within 30 minutes or so. Wonder if it is because I have only been skating a year.

This month marks one year of seriously pursuing this hobby! Started in beginning adult LTS last year at this time and now will start in intermediate freestyle this week! One of the skills for this class is the sit spin. Really excited to attempt that. Not sure if I will take the power skating class with the freestyle class. Need to see who is teaching it as it varies and makes a huge difference in what is covered. Hoping it will be a coach that I want.

Missed Resolutions: Talking about a missed resolution...egads I came back from the cruise 9 pounds heavier...that is over a pound a day on a 7 day cruise....oink, oink! (I would at this point go into a description of the goodies I allowed...but that would only reveal my addictions! Noticed that I am just a tad too excited to share! Working out hard and power skating on both sessions has already taken off 2...amazing what happens when you stop eating 10 billion calories a day!

Noticed in today's session that I appear to have strained my calf muscle. (Maybe it sprained from attempting to carry 9 extra pounds!) Went to step class this morning but noticed nothing then. hmmmm. I was unable to successfully land anything without pain so stopped trying and just worked on spins. Still trying to get that pesky back spin. Sometimes I manage to get a few revolutions. My coach keeps saying she needs me to get this! I swear I am trying hard but seems so little progress on it.

Have had thoughts about not doing the competition in April. Still time to decide. Seems like a lot of pressure to me and thinking that I may be pushing it. I think I would like to do a smaller competition first or something. Will discuss this with my coach in lesson.

Tried to do pre bronze MIF pattern but it was during a public session and could not get it going well enough through the crowd..eeek. I have my MIF lesson on Thursday...something tells me that the coach will not be pleased.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Is this your landing foot? Try putting a butcher's knot in your bow (when you cross the laces first, cross again, then do the bow). That should help hold it.
for more on knot tying for shoes....visit:
http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/knots.htm

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

No skating (except Saturday) since before Christmas, except for my backyard rink. After a dump of 18" of new snow yesterday I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning trying to FIND my backyard rink! With the height of the snowbanks around it now, it feels positively subterranean! But I did get it cleared and flooded and spent some time working on @$#%@ 3-turns!

Missed Resolutions: I WANT MY @$#%@# 3-TURNS!!!! I have NEVER worked so hard and long on anything without "getting it"

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Great title, Jazzpants.

I'm still living vicariously through you. Sigh!

I used to work for a company with a big parking lot. Every November, they put up the ropes in the parking lot. Rumor had it that the intention was to prevent bombers from ramming the building. A real fear, given it was an oil company.

In truth, it was to guide the snow plows in clearing out the parking spots! I know the ground's frozen now, but maybe next year you could add a snow fence or something with stanchions so you can find and clear your rink!

Champagne Toasts:
I now have matching cotton laces in both pairs of my skates. Not much of an achievement, but one pair needed to be dyed and the other (100% nylon) was slicing-and-dicing my fingers as I tied them. Whew! Did a bit of a walkabout in the newbies tonight, just to keep working the leather.

Missed Resolutions:
Went to the Museum of Natural History, toting a suitcase full of skates. Wonder why they wouldn't let us check the bag? Hmmm. Unfortunately, Rock Center and Bryant Park were crowded. After looking at the store windows and watching the Saks' snowflake carols, the kids were cold. Too bad - I can't remember ever skating at Central Park.

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LOL! ***HUG***

Actually, my rink is slightly below grade (mistake #1) by 6" to 18". That was done to get level ground and to expose a natural clay base which was supposed to hold water and doesn't (mistake #2). I know where my rink is because of the depression in the snow. The problem, with all the snow and being below grade is that the banks are now higher than my snow blower can throw! If we get much more, I will have to move the snow banks with the blower or the dozer before I can clear the rink again. There will be a redesign for next year!

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

All the same, Dianne - a backyard rink? A private rink, all your own.... I am so green with envy! That could only happen in this country if one paid for the pipes and freezing element, or used artificial ice. Either way, prohibitively expensive.

Hannah, I wish you better.

As for me:

Missed resolutions: Well, the first skate of 2007 could certainly have been better! The rink was freezing, the ice was horrible, and we had a fall! Ah well....

In our practice/warm-up, we worked on 3-turns round each other, which we were having trouble with, and I also wasn't happy with our waltz hold, so we worked on both of these in our lesson. Usual thing of not enough pushing, not enough knee-bend, not enough keeping pelvis forwards. Sigh... Then we did swing rolls in Kilian hold, which he was pleased with ("They aren't perfect, but...."), and in reverse Kilian, which were not so good. Then we finished off walking through the Fiesta, but it felt like Husband slowed down into the Mohawk and I didn't, and that never happens! So we decided (our lesson by then was finished) to work on the change-of-edge, skating in hold, doing LFO, RFO, LFO, RFO-I change, LFO, RFO-I and so on down the rink. Which was fine, until somehow our blades came together (so not the first time this has happened) and we ended up flat on our backs. Luckily no tailbone, but I am beginning to feel it now where I landed! And my wrist was sore for a bit, but that's stopped hurting now and I never did think there was any damage.

Champagne Toasts:

Coach liked our forward swing rolls in Kilian hold. And, incidentally, our swing rolls in waltz hold the second time of asking.
After Husband had gone, I went and sat in the pros' room for a bit and got some waist-whittling exercises from the trainer, which is nice. And then came home and did them!

Just remembered another nice thing that happened - I was talking about knee strength, and showing my coach that I've started starting my warmup with deep kneebend lunges, you know, where you go right down on one knee with your weight fully over the skating knee. So husband promptly starting showing off how good his were - and the coach pointed out every single flaw in his technique, which were legion! Like he didn't even have his weight in the right place... Tee-hee.....

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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!

Yup-- I'll land, feel like something's funny, try to do a back crossover, and then... whomp-- my ankle feels breezy and my skate laces are dragging on the ice behind me!

Thanks for the link-- that's a frightening number of knots!!!! But I'll try the butcher's knot and that website's secure knot and see if they help. I think I might also try a simple knot about halfway up my ankle before continuing all the way up-- I'm terrified now of the skate coming unlaced and my ankle buckling on the landing!

Champagne toasts: I had a lesson yesterday and I "sort of" learned how to do a figures loop. Anything I can do with my edges besides crossovers is a major achievement!

Missed resolutions: I have some kind of bug and get tired really easily. So I only stayed on the ice for my 30 min. lesson and then left. And this is a case where my coach and I were the only ones on the ice! To have to give up that opportunity for private ice was pathetic, but I was afraid I'd pass out.

I always double knot the bow on my skates. Doesn't everyone??

I lace up, tie the bow, then put the loops of the bow over a set of eyelets or 2, pull them tight, then tie another bow (which I double-knot) with the leftover lace.

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

I don't, but employ a different strategy to help prevent loosening. On the top two hooks I loop the laces downward and around back up instead of the normal loop around/pull up motion. This causes the lace to cross over itself at each hook and reduces accidental loosening.

This has worked for me.

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Bill Schneider

Champagne Toasts

True to secondary coach's word, she had me do brackets today... at least FO ones! They were kinda forced and slow but I could sorta do them away from the wall w/o holding onto anything!!! YAY ME!!! (Happy now, Mrs. Redboots??? And no, the BI ones were NOT easy for me! Can't seemed to rock to the back of the blade for dear life...) RFO was better than my LFO ones!

I did some forward stroking about 3-4 laps towards the end of the lesson where I was expected to go as fast as I can but still with strong posture and free leg straight. After the initial "tripping myself" over going forward, it wasn't so bad... that is when I remembered to think "straight legs" and "shoulders down."

Missed Resolutions:
Tried to land a clean loop after the lesson but was too tired after said lesson and felt my legs buckling under me. Opted to end on a good note and hit the showers!!!

I need to take lessons with my NYC coach more often!!! (Apparently icesk8eprincess agrees -- she said the same too!!!)

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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!!!

Champagne Toasts:
Did get to the rink by 9:30 this morning and did skate for an hour. This is positive because I haven't skated for a week, was sick during that time, and got into my old habit of sleeping till noon. Tried three one foot spins and got them all.

Missed Resolutions:
Was supposed to be at rink at 8:30 and skate for two hours. Was so dizzy from spin that I could not do more than one without having to skate around a bit, hence, only tried three. The ice was very soft and slow, which may be why I caught an edge three different times on FO three turns and FI Mohawk.
Got very chicken from the near splats and left earlier than planned.

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Don't feel too bad. And think of it this way -- it might be 12 Noon your time there, but it's 9am PST!!! LOL!!! (That's how I'm excusing myself from sleeping in 'til 10am EST on the days I don't have to get up early for my lessons back when I was in NYC.)

Congrats on the one foot spins!!! YAAAAAAY!!!!

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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!!!

Um, based on the problems I'm having on my flying camel and change foot combo spin, can I just call mine, "Missed REVOLUTIONS"?!

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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

I double knot, too... what's happening is that.. somehow, the laces snake out of the hooks and drag loose behind me. I think what happens is that my bow must loosen after a few jumps and then it's just a matter of just a little bit of motion with my boot to make it unloop... the laces are still tied together, just not attached to the skate anymore.

I think if I can get a more secure knot, there's less chance of this happening. I hope

If I understand correctly, you are saying the knot is still tied, but the laces have gotten unhooked from the hooks. If that's the case, you might not be tying them snugly enough through the foot (so the slack moves up to the ankle area as you keep bending your ankles). Or it could mean that you need to change the type of laces you use. Thinner laces stay hooked better than thicker laces. Also, nylon or cotton-nylon blend laces stay hooked much better than 100% cotton laces. I used to have 100% cotton laces and they would come unhooked after I'd skated for 10-15 minutes, which just scared the heck out of me. I switched to cotton-nylon blend and have never had that problem since.

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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

champagne toasts:
Did a bunch of waltz loops and then my coach helped me with them and they got better (hope you are listening, oh axel you). Did two clean flips today before I did a crappy one. Got 3/4ths around on a lutz.

Missed resolution:
Did a bunch of really bad waltz jumps in front of high level teenagers and felt like an awkward adult skater and figured they were probably rolling their eyes wondering why I take up their freestyle ice (I try to get over this and ignore it, but one kid has been playing chicken with me lately) (I have a complex)

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

Champagne Toasts: Went to the freestyle session today....which was wonderfully empty (maybe 5-6 others). Padded up and hit the ice and it was strange after not really skating in such a while. Went through my warm-up routine then hit my elements. Managed to hit some very nice waltz jumps with a straight leg and some air time (one was 6 feet between takeoff and landing). Worked on the new jumps in my routine and didn't kill myself so that's a plus! Also worked on my routine and did 2 runthroughs with my headphones on...sort of ok. I did end on time so that was good. Once it's smooth (work to do this week) I will work on presentation and the ending, which wasn't finished.

Did some loops....I am so close to landing them on one foot!!!! I know it's just laziness...

Worked on some dance for the exhibition-trying out some new music...might be interesting as it's faster!!! Have to check with my partner.

Missed Resolutions: got very dizzy after doing a spin and had to sit down for a minute on the ice...very strange feeling when everything is whirling around you!!! My spins were crap...can I blame the dizziness or something else? Not sure.

Also took a spill...was doing back swing rolls and leaned to far back...went over backwards hitting my elbow and shoulder. Nothing damaged though. Just one of those weird things!

And, just for fun, tried some toe-loops....at first I had a brain spasm...was 3-turning on the wrong foot....finally got it right and did some that were ok.

Towards the end I was getting tired...glad to be off; my stamina sucks-my legs were shaking when I got off the ice (yes, I did eat lunch had a cheesesteak, soda and chips, diet of champions!!!)

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

Missed Resolutions:
oooo..bbrrrr! It was unusually ccccold in my rink today. During my lesson, I had to get off the ice just to get feeling in my fingertips back again.
3 turns no more to say on that.

Champagne Toasts:
wow. Didn't realize how bad my crossovers really are but for the next 2 weeks I am going through intense lessons and practice on basics and Bronze MIF. Today was dissecting crossovers. It was actually refreshing to return to an elementary mindset and just focus on 1 thing. Bending the knees, free foot placement, holding, rhythm and timing. First we did forward crossovers on a circle, then coach applied it to the fwd power perimeter crossover pattern and it was amazing how everything just fit together.

Surely that's the normal way of looping one's lace around the hook - most people do it over and down, not up, which doesn't give enough support.

Anyway, as for me:

Missed resolutions: "Old and cold" is what one skater commented that we were, and how I agree! The ice was masses better than yesterday, which wouldn't be difficult, but oh, it was cold! I had two layers and warm gloves and still wasn't warm enough - I think on Friday I'll wear a thicker top!

And oh, I am STIFF. Both my hamstrings ache and ache. "Good," said the coach, "shows you've been working!"

Spent most of the lesson working on getting my free leg back - crossovers to landing position, that sort of thing. And on the down-in-one-knee-straight-free-leg exercise (warm-ups), which he reckons is good for me.

Cross-cuts still awful, but gradually improving - the later this test is scheduled, the better!

With Husband, trying to do changes-of-edge hand-in-hand. Not a success. Will have to get the coach to look at them next lesson.

Champagne: Cross-rolls, however, "A whole class better" than the others; he thinks they are well passable now. Which is encouraging.

With Husband, lots of fast work in waltz hold. Some of it even semi-reasonable.... most of it still pretty poo, though.

Ally Pally tonight - I shall have to have a nap, or I'll never be able to stay awake. Assuming, that is, that I can still move by then!

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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!