nice
there was a guest coach from another rink at our rink today, and he told me i had a, quote, gorgeous double toe.

did some good axels from a fun entrance today--LFO 3, LBI 3, axel (i think caroline zhang does her 2axel from a similar entrance?)

decided to try some double flips today even though i don't really have the toepicks for them. did ok, surprisingly. had the full rotation on one, but was so surprised that i didn't check out lol

naughty
my body feels like its going on strike. i think i have tendonitis in my left foot, and my right leg just hurts really badly. the pain is on the outside of my calf and runs down to the outside of my ankle. i think its the tendon, but i'm not sure.

i dropped my skate on my foot today it really hurt. the toepick nailed me right above the inside of my ankle bone, so its a little bloody, but mostly bruised and puffy

double loops weren't great today. i did land some of them, one of them in a particularly funny way, but they just weren't as consistent as i'd like. two footed too many

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Youtube Videos

OMG-Beer???? that's like our party room where we have our off-ice classes, sticky with spilled sodas and food crumbs all over....YUCK!!!

Coronation Aces have a 7' rocker...I had a Gam G3 (7' rocker) bought at cost so it was very inexpensive but never had time to mount my blade to my boot in time....so I never used it. Everyone else used theirs. If you have Aces, then any of the less expensive blades will work, like the Wilson Majestic (Rainbo sports has it for $141). You can also try to find a 2nd set of Aces on Ebay. Skating on the synthetic will dull your blades-you have to sharpen about every 4-10 hours. BUT-you will notice after a while, your legs getting STRONGER, your jumps get so much higher and general skating is stronger.

How is your ankle today? Any soreness? Are you doing plies? They should help strengthen your ankle.

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

Naughty: Went to a public session here at the University I work at and there were a good number of little kids out on the ice The rink guard put out the cones for myself and another man who was there, but I haven't skated on a such a small area of ice in a long time!

Worked on spins...couldn't center anything to save my life...

Nice: The few jumps I did were good...

Worked on footwork to try to get that down...did better...

Also worked on axels and yet again, so close, yet so far...had more than usual that I didn't pull in on and just gave up...

I also tried some 2salcows, which I haven't done with coach yet, but I was getting bored Again, all the way around, just can't seem to pick up my toe...any suggestions??????

Nice: Went to a skating seminar today (in which my coach was one of the presenters). It was nice - all the skaters (young and old ) were similar skill level - and it was about "dressing up" basic moves for more judge appeal.

I skate my first competition of the season tomorrow. I don't know if it's "naughty" or "nice" - I'll tell you when I get home

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

nice coach worked hard on spin entrance on my lesson wednesday, and today I got good practice on it. I may one day get the hang of it, even the changefoot. One more really good sal in practice today, and a few not so good


naughty - went to public session with elder DD. Forgot her skate bag
rented skates for her which was ok since she's still a beginner, but she had no gloves, and the shop was out of them. We traded off, she skated gloveless the first half, then I gave her mine. Couldn't do it the other way, she gets gloves soaked with snow. I keep 2 pair in her bag so she can change to dry ones.

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It's all about the dress!

Well I did a LOT of walking yesterday so it is sore today (sunday), but it wasn't yesterday. I think walking is worse than jumping for it!.. Heh. I also did some half-loops yesterday, niiiice lift on the takeoffs, better than it was on my loops before I stopped jumping! (probably due to improved edges in the meantime and strength training at the gym).
Yeah I do plies, although relivees do more for my ankle. Less than the crosstrainer though, that thing still beats everything else, including the exercises the physio gave me...

Well 141 dollar isn't really much cheaper than the coronation aces are over here. The thing I'm worried about isn't so much the dullening of the blades as them getting *bent*. As in, *bent*. That's what they said at the figure skating club meeting happened to blades on artificial ice... Is that just a ghost story?



BTW I was at this other skating rink for a gothic-forum-skating-meet and there was this figure skater whom I saw skate at the selections for the nationals and she did something *really* weird right in front of me. It looked like an axel done backwards. It wasn't a loop takeoff, because her free leg was behind her on the take off and it wasn't any of the main jumps, nor was it picked. Also it looked a little like a lutz or flutz takeoff.

Well, I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say that you "can't seem to pick up [your] toe." Are we talking about the landing, the take-off, in air, two-footing, something completely different...?

If you're landing on a flat foot, it's more than likely because you are not landing all the way around and your mind is subconsciously telling your foot to flex. Strange as it sounds, your body and mind know that if you were to land on your toe cleanly, you'd kill yourself. Think of it as a safety measure, you know?

If in fact you are all the way around for the landing, point your toes! That will make them the first thing that (should) hit the ice, so you'll have a clean double sal in no time. Doing some landing exercises on ice will also help (think backspin-hop out; crossing and uncrossing your feet while standing on a pointed toe at the boards, etc.).

Also, committ! Try to land the jump, and don't get scared and break out early. (Easier said than done, right?) Stay in tight, keep the feet crossed, and hit those toes.

If you're having problems with the take-off, make sure that you're taking off forward. Think of it as an axel preceeded by a 3-turn. You can't jump twisted backward, so you should try to think of taking off forward, which will help get you straighter and taller in the air.

For an in air position, you should be as tall, tall, tall as you can be! I always tell me students to try and stretch from their hip bone through their lowest rib, which helps prevent that collapsing problem that can occur upon landing. Taking off forward can also help with this since it won't cause you to drop your right shoulder/side to get around. Of course, feet should be crossed, but don't "pigeon toe" them too much or you'll have a heck of a time getting them uncrossed. Finally, point your toes in the air, which will help make it easier to land clean and will add to that lengthening of your body that you're striving for.

Good luck...double sals can be a real pain!

Sessy, the jump you're is a one-foot axel. According to Wikipedia, "a one-foot Axel is a 1 1/2 rotation jump with a regular Axel take-off that lands on the back inside edge of the takeoff foot -- the left foot, for a counterclockwise jump. This jump is sometimes known (especially in artistic roller skating) as a Colledge, after 1937 World Champion Cecilia Colledge." They look pretty cool when done right!

Isn't a one-foot axel from a forward edge? She did it off a backward edge.

Oops, sorry...read your post wrong.

I believe that this is what you're describing, then? (About 1:00 in.)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jeyK-bFKNHE

If so, that's an inside axel. In that video, she's taking off her RBI edge, which is probably what causes the jump to look like a toe-less lutz, as you mentioned. I think this jump can also be done from a FI edge. I've only ever seen it performed like in the video - from the BI edge...

It's my landings I have never been able to get a one foot landing on either my axel or my 2sal...don't know why, but my toe always comes down to "assist" with the landing....I really think that if I can just land one or two clean, it will be a "light bulb" moment!

Nope, that's a walley. An inside axel is always done from a forwards takeoff.

Yes that does look right, especially the after-rotation on ice she does after it.
Thanks!
I'd seen walleys before but those looked more clumsy so I thought the walley was a clumsy jump, apparently not, this *does* look right.

Haha, you're right. I'm glad we solved that...I give up!

For Sunday at Dunkerque:

Naughty: Husband's free skate, which was appallingly awful! He ended it sat on the ice looking "how did I get here?", which made everybody laugh but did him no favours in the marks. Sigh.... And the only good thing about his programme, the spiral sequence, wasn't even called.

Nice: 2loop2loop's free skate and his free dance with his partner were both utterly awesome!

Our own dances, while scarcely awesome, were pretty darn good for us! We have certainly skated the Willow Waltz a lot worse than we did, although there's still a very great deal of room for improvement, and everybody agreed that they'd never seen us skate a better Fiesta! I just wish it had been 2 patterns, not 3, as the 3rd pattern went off a bit, but the first two patterns were great. We finished 3rd overall (out of 4), which was most gratifying.

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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!