Have a great time at Skate San Francisco! I'll be there cheering (and announcing). Jazzpants, I expect to see you really shine -- remember this is for fun -- no matter how rough it's been practicing these programs. After all you did a great job last year and think of how far you've come since then!

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Clean ice and sharp blades to you all, and may you come off the ice knowing you've just skated as well as you are able, and that it was the best-ever runthrough!

Have fun!

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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!

Oh, dear... this is gonna be a struggle... The technical program is a HUGE mess right now. That said, there will be a lutz attempt this year. Whether or not I land them is another question. Not even gonna think about placements right now. I just want a SANE program at this point...

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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!!!

Good luck to all, especially for my DD's coach whom we rarely get to see compete!

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Supporting my daughter's dream

Remember, everybody, life is too short, so JUST HAVE FUN!! Looking forward to everyone's reports!

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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've had not one but TWO disasterous skate today!!! If there is one day where I'm tempted to throw my skates in the TRASH -- it's definitely TODAY!!!

Okay, so the only redeeming thing out of my technical program is that I FINALY managed to land a (f)lutz cleanly in my program. Other than that, I just could get ANYTHING right. Couldn't do crossovers! Couldn't land my loop or my flip... couldn't even end on time to my music. (Okay, so it's still at the 1:40 mark. Primary coach says we're gonna extend it to 1:50 to give me more time to do my spins.)

As for my artistic... well I came dead LAST!!! BUT I did fix one of the problems I've had with my artistic from the last time I skated (more ice coverage.) I still didn't fix the MAIN problem I've had with this program with the crossovers going into the spiral though. I don't get it!!! I just went thru lessons where I had pretty good crossovers. I don't get why I'm not getting it in my program.

My choreographer is gonna spend a couple of weeks away from my choreography to work on my edges and see what's going on. Should be interesting. I told him that right now I'm far from working on my Silver Moves right now. I may continue with him just so I can concentrate on the choreography and ALSO on Silver Moves in the future. (Those who know who he is knows that he also very good with teaching moves in the field.)

To all you guys...thank you for all your support!!! I needed it! And Thin-Ice... it was VERY NICE to see your smiley face again especially at the end after my technical skate. (She threw me a thumbs up!!!) And I love how you announced my name when it was time for me to come out!!! That was PRICELESS!!!

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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!!!

One of the best things about being an announcer at Jazzpants' rink is the announcer and music people sit on the side opposite the judges.. so we get to see all the grimaces and rolled eyes after the end of the skate. We get to see how the skaters REALLY feel about how they just skated.

Now, to correct a couple of things... Jazzpants.. your technical program is HARD. The footwork and the ice coverage demanded are a big deal. Cut yourself some slack... it's not like this is your second year with this program. How many times have you actually competed with this program. Right... and remember, you didn't give up on anything.. you went for it all.. and you kept going without losing speed when you two-footed the jumps.

No one had a GREAT skate in your group. The skater who took first has only had her program 3 weeks.. and the skater who came in 2nd lost her ice with no other nearby ice for more than a month. (I found out that information when she drove 3 hours to Ice Oasis the week before her test session because her rink had been down and they hoped to have it back up in time for the tests that weekend). It's just too early in the season for anyone to have the "skate of her life" -- unless of course, it's a program you've kept for a second year. Besides, do you really want to put out your peak performance in November???

There were many adult skaters -- and in fact, nearly everyone was trying out new programs. No one looked ready to test or compete at AN at this particular competition.... so JP -- RELAX!!!!! You were fine!!! and you have left yourself room to improve.. which is good, it keeps the coaches from demanding a big step up immediately!

By the way, I gave small rounds of applause or "thumbs up" to all my adult skating friends and you were the ONLY one who caught it.. so bonus points for that.

Oh, and I'm thrilled you noticed how I announced your name. It was fun seeing who paid attention when I would change the tempo or volume for emphasis. I don't blame the others for not noticing.. your rink's sound system felt a little "muddy" yesterday during the announcements. But at least the speakers and CD player work.. which can't be said for some other places we've competed from time to time.

Bravo - getting out there is half the job! I had someone ask me to "skate my program" to music the other day. (It's something I've been playing with for a long time, just fooling around.) It's hard and it's tiring and worse, it's unnerving to have people watch as I stumble through and blow almost every element! lol

Kudos for doing it anyway!

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*Hugs* I do so sympathise - been there and done that, read the book and have a whole wardrobe of T-shirts!

Thin-ice says it didn't look nearly as bad as it felt, so be comforted. There will be other competitions, and you will skate better at them.

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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!

Yes! QUITE fun I'm sure from your perspective... I'm sure you knew I wasn't happy with it after you gave me the thumbs up...

The program path is generally the same. It's everything ELSE that's changed though (the footwork, the jump order, adding in the lutz, moving the back spin from near the end after the footwork to the beginning of the program (which I REALLY, REALLY HATED since the beginning is one of the things I liked about that program!!!)

Okay, it might as well be called a brand new program!!! It was totally overhaul from what you saw at Lake Placid!!!

Yes, I know about the situation with the other two skaters. Believe me! This isn't about them. When I was going into that event... the last thing I was thinking about were my competitors. The crossovers and the in betweens were my biggest worries this year and it was mainly b/c of that I wasn't happy with my performance this time around. I wasn't expecting a "peak performance" but I was having MAJOR problems with my back crossovers. Those were okay in isolation. I don't get it!!! (I ended up achieving the "okay what the hell?" goal of landing the lutz, but only b/c dcden rooted me on to get it on Facebook. So dcden, that lutz was for 'ya!!! )

Well, I DID have the advantage of knowing that you were announcing for my technical before I stepped on the ice. And yeah, the speakers were VERY MUDDY!!! Our warm up group were all going liked "What was that? Can we come out now? Can we?" at the beginning of the event. It was so mumbled!!! (Think Charlie Brown and the grown up voice... "Wah-wa-wa-WAH WAAAAH!!!"

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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!!!

Happily, I know you love skating and your beautiful purple skates too much to ever do that! Seems like it was a learning experience for you, so congratulations on landing your lutz and on covering the ice! Two important accomplishments

Yeah, I remember how good they were in NY last month when you were doing BXO's by themselves. I think it really hits on the central difficulty of figure skating - there is so much to remember that you have to get a large amount of it on autopilot. Those BXO's just aren't on auto yet.

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