This for Dance Club last night:

Eating Raspberries: There was a better turnout than usual, largely, I think, because one of our number's father had just died, and people wanted to support him. So it was more fun than usual. We als had a new tape, which has some serious omissions (no Willow waltz or Fiesta Tango, for instance), but that can be dealt with. A professional skater who comes to our club just to have fun danced the 14-step with me; this is quite an honour, as he doesn't come to teach, so won't dance with you unless he thinks you're able. He did point out I was doing a Foxtrot Mohawk instead of a 14-step one, though.... oops - I was so focussing on being properly on an outside edge that I forgot where my free foot should have gone. Mus work on that.

Blowing Raspberries: Had a row with Robert in the Prelim or British Waltz - our coach is perennially telling us to do our 3-turns between our partner's feet, but that's no good when your partner isn't doing the back outside edge he's supposed to be doing, and then blames you for turning the 3-turn in the wrong place! Dammit, I was in the right place, between his feet; it's not my fault if he wasn't!

We had to leave early for a Church Council Meeting. Oh well, next week is another week....

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

So far this week....

Eating raspberries....
My primary coach looked at my Pre Bronze MIF yesterday. Test as far as she is concerned, is borderline, with those Alternating 3's hanging on the fringe!

I'M ALSO THE NEW OWNER OF A 2003 DODGE NEON!!!


Blowing Raspberries:
With a new car come car payments, higher insurance premiums, etc.
With my last car, my parents made the payments and I paid for insurance and maintainance. Now all the expenses are MINE and will most likely cut into my skating budget.

As a result, competitions will be out for me for the time being. I may also have to eliminate my secondary coach, as well as cut down on training time!

Thurs., Nov. 12, 2002 session
Eating Raspberrries: NO pain again today. Yeah!!!!!!!

Got this weird fast short 3 turn toe thingy going into a toe loop in my interpretive. To do it, you start off by doing a RFI3 and then gently tap in and basically keep your free foot behind your right foot and you go from backward to forward like this on your right foot three to four times and than on the last time you reach back as you bend your right knee and then pick in as you come back up and do the toe loop. What do you guys think? Do you think I'll trick the judges and make them shake there heads to say,"Where did that come from?".

Did more waltz jumps in my interpretive and they are get getting stronger, higher and farther.
Getting use to spinning again.
Ran through my interpretive 3 times with music.
Worked on pieces of my interpretive with out music.
Russian stroking is making that nice biting the ice sound beneath my edges. It's also quite fast. Don't dare use it in my programs as I am not ready to do elements going in that fast yet.

Blowing them.
My toe loops are not toe loops yet. I have been either walking them or the are more like waltz toes so far. You watch next week I'll have them back.
Salchow: not taking off of the ice at the right time. Body too slow to take off and also still to weak. Soon.
Spins still suck majorly but improving as time goes by.
One spin though never got going past the three turn. LOL I slipped off of my back edge and fell to the ice. I laughed and then went to drink some water and marched on. LOL
Ever seen that commercial where the old lady falls down pushes a button and says, "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up." Well, I have one for us skaters, "Help, I've lunged and I can't get up." Everytime I got to the section where I'm suppose to do a lung I can get down but I can't get up in time for the next section of music. ROTFLOL Time will fix it.

__________________
"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

Eating Raspberries: We finally got my new Interpretive choreographed - the 2-minute version for this country! I think it is going to work, but there are a couple of places that seriously need work if it's not to look as though I am grinding to a halt or waiting for the music before I do the next thing.

Moreover, just at the end of my lesson we threw aside the Interpretive and I was asked to do the Change-of-Edge move from the Level 2 Dance Moves - and I was told they were much improved, and I was only made to do 1/2 lap of each! Serious progress. Okay, so they weren't perfect - I was just off-balance enough on one of the LFO-I moves to spoil it, and the I-O moves were losing speed all the way through, but even still!

Blowing Raspberries: Nothing much, really. I still infuriate myself by being able to do very little at speed, and have to work all sorts of cheats into my programme so I am not going too fast into, for instance, a twizzle. I do get frustrated at not being able to skate as well as I think I can.....

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

After doing some field moves and some jumps, I got my lesson.
More jumps....

Eating raspberries
Managed the loop and flip, although they felt strange.
Re-arranged my programme to mark the step sequence ( to start at end of ice) and put in 2 mohawks at the end (to reach the other end).

Blowing them..
I had 7 aborted lutzes in my lesson.
I am truly disgusted at myself. I blame it on lack of concentration due to conflict I'm having with small daughter at the moment.

My music is NOT going to be long enough to accommodate the extra steps....I just know it!
We should've tried it with the music.....

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

Well, we're 1/4 the way there to my party (remember the one you guys said you'll throw when I can start doing my 3-turns and mohawks away from the wall?)

I did my right forward inside mohawk away from the boards!!!

And I didn't just do one of them, I did 20 or 30 so! And not really at a snail's pace! Not up to speed, but not at a standstill! I was working on them and all of a sudden it just happened. I turned to the woman next to me and said "I think I just did the mohawk?" I tried again and did it again and by the time my instructor got around to me they were real and on the right edge and not scrapy and everything! Not saying that they are elite quality yet, but they weren't cheated and the edges were clean, yippee!!!!

I was *thisclose* on the other side, too. 3-turns were inches away from right. I looked at my tracings and I'm completing the turn before I put my second foot down, instructor says I just need to trust myself and they'll be fine. I'm practicing tonight, so maybe I'll be spurred on by last night's success and I'll find more courage!

We did crossovers in a figure eight around the hockey circles to warm up and, though I know my forward crossovers still need work, they're so much more powerful than before -- three crossovers and I'm around the circle when it used to take me 8 or 10. Back crossovers are still pretty shaky.

So, all in all, it was an eating raspberries lesson!!

Quark: congrats!
Went to the public session to skate with friends. The double salchows are getting better. For a bit they had become worse, but last night I landed a couple pretty good ones, and in front of witnesses. It was a good group there last night. One of the little ones asked if I was working on my "double" camels (the camel-jump-camels), so I did a couple of those. (also under the public session thread) We also stopped skating a bit to help a bug off the ice. The guard guided it out of danger until it could be picked up and put out of harm's way.

My last double of the night was really high, and splatted. The rink guard skated by, grinned and said "dropped something".

Eating Raspberries

Told my coach today that I was having problems with the program for my test in a week and 1/2. We took the program apart and rearranged some things - I think that this will be much better. I'll see when I skate the whole program tomorrow.

Blowing Raspberries

Dropped my skate and screwed up my brand new sharpening. Can skate on it, but it needs to be corrected.

Seeing as my lutz was so bad yesterday, I booked in for today aswell.
I did get the lutz in today, and it was ok, after aborting the 1st two attempts. WHY do I DO that?

I haven't worked out if the music is long enough since I can't even skate through the 1st part without making errors......such as going off course, being in the wrong place.
I also can't get the steps right.

There's always tomorrow......

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

Eating Raspberries - My salchow is getting much better, I actually have some spring in the jump now. My spirals were really there last night even the left one. I practiced my back crossovers, did alternating cross overs and did another excercise for them.

Blowing Raspberries - Not a good spin night, it seems I really don't spin well unless my coach is around.........very weird since I jump better when she's not around. :-)

__________________
Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter

Rotten berries: My first tries to lunge and skate into a half flip in the middle portion of my program....pbllllllllbbbbbbbbbbbb!!!!! Finally came to the conclusion, that for now, for the December exhibition, we'll put in a "cute" hockey stop after the lunge and then go into the half flip just to slow me down. I don't have speed into three turns with these new skates yet (never had it with the old ones!!!!), but I'll keep practicing and see how it goes.

Juicy berries: Learned a basic progressive today for my program: Push off and extend right leg, return right foot to ice, then bring left foot up into toe point and quickly back down with another right free leg extension, repeat on left side. Its a little shaky, but fun. Also, got just about everything timed out to the music for this program. Now I believe I CAN do this for exhibition in a month. It will probably change and get more in betweens before competition this spring, but what is there now is fine for both competition and exhibition and has all the ISI Freestyle 1 elements in it. I have decent speed, and am fairly comfy with it. Progress!!!!

Oh, and have I mentioned lately that I LOVE my new skates?

Hugs,

Beth

Practiced last night.

Eating berries: There were about 5 adult skaters and 6-7 kids on the session and only 2 of the kids were in rental skates so it was a very pleasant public session -- not too crowded and the kids and adults were all having fun and helping each other out. Worked on all of the skills I've learned to date -- started from pre-Alpha and went straight through the Gamma stuff I'm learning now, plus the alternating 3's and power pulls from camp this summer. Found that I didn't lose my little right inside mohawk -- I was actually afraid that I might. But it was still there, though the exit edge is curving more than it should.

Found that I can do the FO3s if I do them alternating -- mostly because you have to put the second foot down to go on to the next turn. Still having issues when they're isolated. I absolutely complete the turn, then I drop my second foot. Left mohawks soooo close I can taste them.

I forced myself to do five back crossovers in a row on my bad side (CCW). They were scrapy and I sound like I'm tromping through a pile of fallen leaves, but they were five more than I've done in a row before. CW I can stay off of the toepicks but there's very little power and it takes me about 16 of them to get around the hockey circle, LOL!

I dusted off the forward power pulls (I put them on the back burner after camp because I had sooo much else to work on) and they were actually improved. Now instead of an almost straight line, there's a bit of wave (about 5 inches off center) and I can sustain them for about six cycles. Better than before! I have to keep reminding myself that improvement will come in inches, not miles.

I actually helped someone tonight, believe it or not, and on a skill I can't even do yet, LOL! I was talking to another adult skater a few levels above me and she was trying like mad to work on her sit spin. She says her coach wants her to arch her back (it was pretty rounded) and she was having a hard time understanding how to do that. I'm not sure why she asked me, lol, but I showed her how to do a ballet "flat-back" stretch and recommended she not drop her chin and voila! improved sit-spin! Then she tried to teach me a shoot-the-duck until we discovered that my boots were too hard for me to attain the proper position. It's ok, though, that's still 2 levels above me. I was going to ask her how to do a bunny hop, but we both got busy doing other things.

Blowing raspberries: those pesky CCW back crossovers. I will get them! I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...

Hi

Just checking in ...... don't get much chance these days!

Am not skating yet but it's more due to logistics than the wrist (I've already fallen on it twice and bashed it on the steering wheel (long story) another time so I know that it's quite sturdy ). I'm hoping to start again in December (am NOT paying the rink £60 for 2 weeks!) and will have settled down in my NEW JOB (which is one of the reasons I've not gone back yet) by then!

Hope that everyone is well and enjoying skating

Hope to be able to join in with you again VERY soon


L x

__________________

The best whisper is a click

Lynne,
Nice to hear from you, hope all moves along well!

Blowing Raspberries:
ROTFLOL "I've lunged and I can't get up." my coach loved this saying as I told it to her in the change room. But it's true, I can't get up fast enough to get to the next part of my interpretive and it makes me late.

Another thing that drove me nuts was that I was getting my traveling toe assisted 3's but had too much momentum to do my toe loop except for once. Plus, I found out that I was doing too many in a series from my coach before going into the toe loop. LOL

Lastly, today I just couldn't get my body to want to move to the right in my footwork doing a LFI op mo in my 2nd freeskate footwork section. The body just didn't want to turn. But then, I'd go to fix it at the boards, and there it was. Why couldn't I do the footwork in the program? REally drove me nuts.

Eating Raspberries:
Even when I mess up my watlz jump, it's still a decent jump. The only think I didn't like was that I wasn't getting more height and distance yet. I really need that waltz jump to travel more in the air to cover more ice.

Extra: My coach still is not coaching me and letting me find my way back on my own. I guess she must have spoken to my doctor and he probably told her not to push me yet. Oh, well. I'm saving on coaching fees.

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

It was more a trip to the rink than a practise.
The Zamboni had broken down the night before - the ice had not been cleaned, except for the perimeter and one single line down the middle.
The rest of the ice was lethal.

I hardly did anything that resembled skating. It was impossible. Ruts and lumps, ice like a roughened concrete mix gone wrong. Your blades practically cringed going over it. Well, I can't afford new blades, so I stayed off the rubbish, but it was impossible to do much in the way of anything except spins.
One person was charged £5 to skate on this cement-like substance.
I actually thought a refund was in order, but who am I?.......

Anyway, rant over.

Also heard they're going to increase the patch ice session fee by 25%!!
I only can skate for an hour most times, so hardly worth it for me. It's ok if you're using the ice from 7am-1pm though.

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

MIF lesson: fixed LBI3 (for back double 3s); coach said FI/BO brackets are passing level. Clockwise forward power circles scare me.

FS: axel . If the entrance edge is right I can land it just about every time, but if the entrance is wrong I don't even bother jumping. Fixed my flying camel, which had flown off somewhere, worked on getting the jump higher for the flying sit. Tried some double sals, but I can't get the timing right to switch my weight in the air.

It's been awhile since I've posted to one of these:

Eating berries:

Sent in the forms to test Silver MITF on our club's next test session. To the best of my knowledge, nobody in our club has tested these yet, or for that matter any of the Adult moves tests. So I will either be the first in our club to pass them, or the first to flunk them! So it's crunch time and I'm spending most of my practice time on them for now. When I get done with them, one way or the other, I am going to insist on an axel lesson as it has been way too long since the last one.

Taz Jr. is also testing on this session, pre-juv FS and juv MITF. The FS should be a slam-dunk for her, moves could be iffy, but we have seen them being pretty generous with passing tests lately.

Blowing 'em:

Took my skates in to be sharpened at lunchtime, blade wizard says the boots are still in good shape but the blades (Pattern 99's) have just about had it. Only a couple of sharpenings left. No major surprise - when Jr. got her last pair of skates she also got Pattern 99's and I could tell by comparing the size of the dull strip on hers, that mine weren't going to be long for this world. Wicked timing with the holidays coming up.

Eating raspberries:
I did a group jumps class this morning and really enjoyed it. It has taken me 3 years to pluck up the courage to learn jumps but am finding that learning the jumps actually makes me much more confident in other skating (having one or two feet on the ground seems so much safer than no feet!. I did learn the 3 jump years ago but never really progressed beyond stepping it round. Now I am at last getting some real height and kicking that free leg through. I can't do a proper toe-loop or salchow yet but today the group was working on jumps I'd never tried before, doing Loops (well I can get into the take-off position but can't quite work out how to go anywhere with this!!!), Flips ( I think I will really like this jump once I can get a full rather than 1/2 rotation and land on one foot instead of 2) and then toe-loop/toe-loop combos (improving) and a 3jump - half loop - salchow sequence (I did manage to get the rythm of this right at least once - now if I could just leave the ground for more than a microsecond we might be getting somewhere).
Anyway I didn't fall (OK so I wasn't trying hard enough as my coach would say) and I had a lot of fun trying - and it makes a welcome change from ice dance which I am a little bored with at the moment.

also tasty raspberry was my upright spin in my proper lesson - finally did one real fast with good position and minimal travel - yeah!!!

Blowing raspberry - sit spin - where did this go? - can't even get 2 revs on it now.

One more tasty raspberry (with cream) from this week - we had a practice for one of the adult panto numbers - a small group of us are going to be skating to the chain gang music - and we are using real chain and skipping over it and other real cool stuff Great fun!!!!

I can totally relate, Mel, ours was increased to £60 a month (40% increase from £126 per quarter to £177) with absolutely NO increase in facilities! I haven't been affected yet due to broken wrist but that is what is stopping me going back mid-month ..... I STILL have to pay the £60 for just TWO WEEKS!!!!!

If the ice is crappy I TOTALLY agree that people should be refunded .... it's plain dangerous!

L x

__________________

The best whisper is a click

For the second Saturday running I have hauled myself out of bed at 5.30 to go skating! This time, they really did hold the Junior Egg Cup on Club ice, so it was worth it!

Eating Raspberries: Robert and I did some good practising together, and had a bit of a breakthrough - we were working on our waltz hold, and I realised that we were a lot worse when I was going forward than when he was. Of course! Although I'm not much shorter than he is, I'm enough shorter that I have trouble looking over his shoulder to see where I am going and who is about to do a lutz in our line of travel..... So I'm leaning back in order to see where I'm going! Hmmm - not a problem in competition, of course, as we are the only couple on the ice, but how do we solve this in patch ice?

I have finally got my costume finished for the Interpretive, and was able to play my music once this morning to run through the programme! It's still not in muscle memory, and its first outing is 2 weeks tomorrow.... I can see myself coming 4th out of 4, but who cares?

Blowing Raspberries: I am still finding the back edges in the Fiesta Tango rather hard, and today we were going rather faster than I am comfortable doing that Mohawk.... oh dear. I wish I could do the step to forwards tidily, too. We were able to do the Fiesta as someone else played the music - the only one of our dances we did. We have trouble with the Cha-cha, as nobody else is doing it, but the other three dances are often played.

No chance to do the Swing Dance this morning, but we did do the chasses and swing rolls. But the end pattern is still ghastly.... oh dear.

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

Practice Friday night and group lesson Sat. morning:

Eating raspberries:

Back outside mohawks. Fun fun fun! The other girl in my level and I discovered we like the ones transferring onto the right foot better--much more speed off the back edge and confidence. I think I'm turning out to be a clockwise person...

Learned lunges today. That was fun (and I had remembered to wear my boot covers that I bought when beginning Basic 6 expressly to protect my boots during lunges.)

I fooled around with back outside threes today a little and think I have the basic feel of them, though they were sloppy and not really big enough...

Blowing them:
FO and FI three turns. I haven't been practicing these much (and instructor tells me I've learned them a bit wrong).

One-foot CW spins and two-foot CCW spins. Can't get onto the outside edge to keep the turn (and CCW spins are way far up on the toe pick with bent leg). I managed to get a few nice one-foot spins in during practice, where I just kept going around and around, but most of them felt like they were on an inside edge. Argh!

If your spins are going around and around that's good surely - and they should be on an inside edge for a 1 foot spin. You go in on a nice long outside edge but then complete the FO3 turn onto an inside edge and spin. Sounds like you are doing it right to me!!
Unless you are doing backspins of course which you can enter with a FI3 turn and complete the turn to spin on the outside edge - but they are much more difficult.
Is there a reason you are doing 1 foot and 2 foot spins in opposite directions? That's quite unusual isn't it?