Strange coincidence, isn't it

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

That's AMAZINGLY good for being off the ice for so long! Are you kidding me?! Congratulations!

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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 told you so! You'll be a great resource!

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Flavourful: Was feeling a lot better than yesterday but still a bit weak.

Worked on upright spins (yet again) and Waltz jumps (at the boards).

In lesson we did more Waltz jumps, footwork, upright spins, and sit spins.

Actually had one sit spin ALMOST come together.

After lesson I went back to upright spins - actually had a couple come together really well and feel controlled - even coach commented on some “nice spins”

Bland: That's it for this week - not back on the ice until Tuesday.

{Coach was also happy with her sharpening and head coach said she’d like me to do her skates to.}

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

Be careful or soon you'll have the whole rink banging down your door for a good sharpening!

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Bill Schneider

Flavorful: Landed a double sal or 2 today...and a few axels!!! Another coach who I know told me how much my freestyle has improved over the summer!!

Bland: no skating until like Sept. 8... and of course....how could I forget...my dreaded dance test is tomorrow!!! eek...I hpe its the last time I ever have to do the American Waltz!!!

Jenna,
Good luck tomorrow!!

Flavorful:
Did my first off ice lesson with Secondary Coach- I thought I was going to die!!

Bland:
The reason behind the impromptu off ice lesson:
We had such hot, hot HOT weather and high humidity here that the rink was so fogged up that it was difficult to see your hand in front of your face, much less everyone else. We tried everything from getting everyone to stroke so the fog would lift to getting another zam cut, whick lifted the fog for oh, 5 minutes or so.
So we all get back on and it starts to fog up again and then with a passing thunderstorm, the ceiling of the rink began to leak. It was then that Coach called it quits for the day and other coaches cancelled their lessons before her because of the fog.
Out of concern for my own safety, I got off the ice after the second fog set it and asked for a off ice lesson.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Good luck, JennaD!!! Keep us posted on your dance test!!!

Bland:

• More changes to my choreography for my FS program!!! One of the changes is my entrance to my sit spin! AUGH!!! It's NOT gonna be fun!!! (I prefer the windup method of going into a spin, but primary coach wants it changed so that I can step right from landing a jump combo (LBO edge) straight to a (RFO edge) forward sit spin! ) Thank goodness he left the footwork part alone at the end... well, except now I have put in a lunge with free leg curled in at the end of the footwork. He also squeezed in a FO spiral at the beginning of the program! Geez!!!
• Can't land loop or flip still in program.

Flavorful:
I did a final runthru with all the changes... and it looking like at least the flow is working out fine, even though I didn't land the loop or the flip jumps. But I guess the difference now is that I wore the FS session program belt. (I usually don't have to do that for coffee club... but I needed to b/c the last time I ran thru the program I keep getting into people's way when I did the footwork sequence. This time around, I had no one around me and went right thru the middle w/o incident. Primary coach is MUCH happier with the timing of the program elements this time around!!!

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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!!!

If it gets to be too much to handle she can just "accidentally" shave off a toepick

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

It's okay, Jazzy! I had to do the same thing in my program this year but it ended up not being as hard as I thought. The trick is to land the jump combo, then turn your head to look in the direction of the spin (over your right shoulder since you spin CW) and then step down, bend the knee deeply and push around into the spin. You can do it!

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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

(For Thursday)

Bland: Had a moves lesson tonight in which we worked on the "bad side" the whole time. That was interesting! But actually, for my "bad side," it was pretty good, even though it was way slower and less steady than my good side.

Flavorful: Stayed for two sessions, so I didn't get drenched in the two downpours that we had in our area.

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Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org

BAW HAW ha ha! I wouldn't DARE! I have to skate with these people Besides, I am charging 2x the going rate in this area and bill it as "the best care possible for your blades".

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

Flavorful: Another session on the Dutch Waltz and I actually think I have it engraved into my memory. I'm now working on making the steps fit the pattern into the rink, which means basically that I can't PUSH any step other than the swing rolls because, if I PUSH, I go too fast and it distorts the pattern.

Bland: I really dislike dance. It's better than not skating at all, but, please, God, let my tendons heal quickly, so that I can get back to my normal skating.

Flavourful: I think we have finally got a step sequence that works for our free dance (for those of you who saw it at the MC, we have made it harder, rather more side-by-side with crossings, since the other adults at our rink all had crossings in theirs).

Bland: But it needs an awful lot of practice.... oh well, hard work, here we come!

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

Flavorful: Well, my coach had me run through my jumps earlier this week and was very happy-- after ages of drilling with Team Emberchyld for a salchow or a proper toeloop, she gave me the okay sign on the toeloop (whew!), and said "Well, you finally have the salchow. It's a little too spinny, but at least it LOOKS like a salchow"

She also noted an immense improvement in my moves... but then took it back when she realized that I had finally sharpened my skates and that was why I could finally skate properly

Bland: I went skating last night feeling just a bit off (don't know why), and could't keep off of my toepick or heel the entire time, or catching my edges, or overall majorly bad skating. After two BAD falls (and onto my right wrist both times), I called it quits. I was already suspecting some sort of uncoordination when I ran over my own foot with my skate bag...

I woke up this morning with some sort of stomach flu-y thing, so now I know why I was a mess! This is the last time I skate when I feel a bit off.

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When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

Flavorful: I posted earlier this week, but I was so happy with my skating today that I had to post again. Today I landed the best double-lutz I have ever done!!! Finally they are starting to clean up. My "double" axel is coming a long and it's getting better. My first moves and FS test happens on the 25th of Aug. I am so nervous but I'm really excited.

Bland: Sit spins have officially become my nemesis!! I can't seem to do them well. I can do a pancake position because my leg is crossed under me. But as soon as I extend my leg out for a regular sit spin, I fall to the back of my blade or I lean to far forward and my free leg hits the ice. I just don't get it.

BlackManSkating

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Proud to be one of the few black men out on the ice

Goals
Pass my Silver Moves Test
Finish Choreography for Silver Program
Land a Clean Double Toe and Double Lutz
Work on Double Axel and Rockers
Speed up back Camel

Flavourful

- I feel like I am getting back into skating after not being able to go very much over the last few months.

- My double loops have been working fairly well.

- I can now do change foot sit spins most of the time.

Bland

- I still cannot do an axel

- Camel spins still don't want to work for me.

Wow!! I would love to be a fly on the wall when you take your freestyle test and "accidentally" do a double lutz instead of a single! You need to post some videos so we can all oooh and aaahh over your jumps!

That is really perplexing about your sitspin, though. What you're describing sounds a little like what happens to me sometimes on my back sitspin, so I'm wondering if it might help to try getting your free leg extended more on the entrance edge. When you push out onto your entrance edge, bend the skating knee very deeply, keep your lower back really stiff and arched and extend your free leg way back behind you and locked out straight. Let it stay so far behind you that it follows you like a tail and practically crosses behind the skating leg. When you swing it to the front, keep it strong and extended straight so it works like a pendulum. Keep the arc of the swing low, level and smooth. Turn the free foot out when it gets to 2:00 (10:00 if you skate CW), then let it come all the way in to hit the spinning leg without slowing down. I hope it helps somewhat (I know how nerve wracking it can be to have a test coming up when you've got something that isn't working right!).

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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

Flavourful
Since I went back to the drawng board with axels, they have been progressing well. And I think I actually landed one with my new improved take off and rotation position. Yay! Couldn't replicate sadly. Hopefully tomorrow.
Compulsories were a little better and my free dance was pretty good (in that I managed both twizzle sequences without putting my foot down or breaking at the waist)
Off on a skating holiday on Sunday - 2 weeks of skating skating skating Yay!!!!!

Bland
RFO on the foxtrot is killing me. How can such a seemingly easy thing be so hard. Dance!
Change foot sit spins although better still have a bit of a flying free leg issue.
And I was having a clumsy day. Can't tell you how many times I tripped over my own feet.

bland - practiced in a public session so I could bring DD too. She had fun though, so it's worth the knee-high aggravation.

flavorful - My first decent toe loop. I really caught some air for the first time on a single. I could feel the pause at the top of my trajectory before I started to land. Oooooh I love that feeling!

Flavorful:
Met liz_on_ice and her DD today at that public session! Liz also did a beautiful spiral, which she didn't mention.

Last night it dawned on me that my new boots and blades suddenly felt great! I finally once again had confidence when I got on the ice. All my stops were there except for the hockey stop (more later), no more pronation, and very little scraping of the L blade. Got on the ice today still feeling it, and did some great demo FO threes in the lesson I was giving (when they better be great!). I really think these boots have fixed my major problems with LFO edges and LFO threes.

Bland:
That hockey stop . Came in towards the boards to get my water bottle, did a snowplow stop, switched to hockey stop, went back on tails of blades, grabbed boards with left arm and eased myself down, since the fall was inevitable. Now have lovely huge bruise on inside of L elbow. OTOH, worked the hocky stop a bit more, and have it back now! DH had a worse time, having forgotten that he got his blades sharpened at the same time I got my new skates, and had not skated on them since. Poor guy got on the ice and took two splats on his first time around. Got more cautious, but finally caught his blade in a groove in the ice (or so he thought). It was that almost-splat that made him suddenly remember the fresh sharpening. He wasn't hurt, so we both had a good about it all.

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So Blackmanskating...What are you testing? Up to Silver Free ?
You'll do great.

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Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

Bland: I failed my American Waltz for the fourth time ahhhhh!!!! My partner told me that I did a really good job and it was the best American test I had done and my dance coach told me that it was "fair" (which is a huge compliment coming from him...he told me I should have passed)...my freestyle coach (who sees me dance sometimes) was also really suprised that I failed...along with all my friends at the rink!! The worst part is, I have had this judge before and she marked me basically the same way as the last time I have had her, and I have improved SOOOOO much since then

Bland-er: no skating til september

Damn, that sucks!! Been there and still doing that with the Bronze freestyle!
Did your coach talk to this judge as to what they were looking for vs what you were doing? Maybe you need a different judge next time.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

My condolences. My daughter failed her American and her Rocker the other day. The worst part was her coach thought she looked great. She's never failed a dance test - dance is her thing. I had a bad feeling not from watching her dance cuz it looked fine to me ...but just you know, bad feeling. After she did the test dd and her coach are going on and on about how now they are going on to the pre-gold (this would have been the last of her silvers) and blah blah blah and I said "Um not to be a downer but let's get the results first" It was singled panelled and that is the bummer about single panels. She didn't say much and what she did say was, I'm sorry if I sound like a skate parent but even coach agreed, was ridiculis "dance looked unsure" DD always looks sure and confident, her upper body makes dance coaches weep - yes I'm bragging but it's true. Coach is like "I don't even know what to tell you to work on" DD just shrugged - she hadn't been working on them that long - I think she wasn't as down in her knees as she usually is but I also think we tested in an area where everyone does the standard track and dd was the only solo test and you know people, including judges have their biases about that.

All this to say, is you probably were great. I'd try to find a test session where it isn't single paneled so you aren't dependent on the opinion of one judge.

j