Congratulations JennaD!! Feel better soon

Broken In

Passed several more Skate UK things - almost done with level 8 and 9 now. Had my lesson changed to the morning session, and then the morning session times had changes, so everyone left half an hour early, leaving me with almost empty ice.

Due to quiet ice, got to work on my back crossovers and back edges, (with a few falls throw in LOL) without crashing into anyone too severely


Broken Down

Not much!! Coach filmed my B.Crossovers, and showed me where I wasn't crossing over far enough - and they didn't look nearly as good as they felt. But we got them corrected, so all in all, today's session was pretty damn good.

Broken in: Back on the ice after ten days off due to illness! I am almost sure we're on the verge of a breakthrough in our dancing - maybe not necessarily faster, but certainly smoother, better edges, better lean and better partnering. Which will lead to increased speed, of course.

Broken down: But oh dear, it was difficult. Coming back after illness is very different to coming back after holiday - I was very shaky at first, and spent a long time just skating round focussing on technique.

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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!

Broken In:
Any pre test jitters I've started to get are getting nixed when I skate!
Looks as though all I will need to do is not get frazzled this past week and all will be fine.

Broken Down:
To add to my own pre test drama, we had no working music system again at club ice today. It gets better.... upon submitting our test session schedule to the skating director, the test chair gets a e-mail that the "automated Zamboni system only allows us to zam the ice on the half hour" Huh??
Anyone hear of this?

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Broken Down:
-Still can't really find that "good" axel that I had over the summer!
-Had to rework my program, AGAIN, because it was about 20 seconds too long.
-Was really struggling with my layback and flying camel this week! Is it a full moon or something???

Broken In:
-At least I still have the "bad" axel! And, my coach really helped me straighten it out, AGAIN, by reminding me that my arms go "under the ladies"
-I can actually get through my program this early in the season! Normally it takes me weeks to work up to it, but I must be getting in better shape!
-My combo spin is getting much better! My sit spin might be bordering on awesome!
-Stretching daily has really improved my spirals! Now for that Bielman...

A little of each:
-Stormy might be leaving me for Adult GOLD! Go Stormy!

Broken In:

Did my program twice tonight, and each time was pretty good. I am liking the changes coach made with the footwork sequence...I don't get "stuck" on it like I did, so I can show off my spiral. Some of the skaters today comments that I have an awesome spiral and that it's probably the best in the club

I did some better lutzes today, which was awesome. Nice and big with some flow out of them! Wow!

Good spins today too

Moves in the Field were pretty awesome today. Made some corrections from my lesson on Friday. They are feeling really good...I kinda wish I could test before February

Broken Down:

Still not landing my axel, but then again I haven't really been focusing on them too intensely...my focus is on my program and testing pre-juv.

Broken In Well I actually was able to skate tonight, remembered my skates and everything.

I showed the group coach my dance stroke excercize and she liked it so much she had the whole class do it.

Broken Down - She had to tell me to keep my shoulders back because I was leaning forward.

We worked on mohawks and she had me hold a back inside edge. I did that fine, could hold it forever. When I do the mohawk, I'm so rotated I'm going around in circles. Once though, I did lean to the outside and got some control but was unable to replicate that.

Then on the waltz 8s. Oh yea. I remember those. I passed pre-pre nearly ten years ago. Probably couldn't pass them today. Surprisingly I was able to hold the 3 turn exit...my problem is that I rush the rotating on the held back outside edge.

Broken in After class it was time to practice our adult holiday number "It's the most fattening time of the year" It's really a cute number if I do say so myself. When we practiced on Friday I feared I took too long to do my jump combo - waltz, side toe hop, half flip that they were all done by the time I got the nerve to do it. But tonight I was right on time.

j

Broken In:
-Saw the orthopedist last week, who told me everything is going as it should. And now I'm officially allowed to skate (heehee), but should put off jumping until after the first of the year.
-Note that he said nothing about spinning So, this weekend I did a few forward scratch spins (good with 2 out of 3 perfectly centered), sit spins and back spins (more about both of those in the Broken Down section!).
-All 3-turns were good.
-Both inside and outside mohawks were much better.
-Forward and backward cross strokes were good, though not back to where they were.
-Dances were good without the music, which probably means my counting was off.
-Spirals are decent (I think), but I'm hesitant on the left foot spiral.
-I fell and didn't break/sprain/tear/twist anything!! I had a click of death on backward crossovers, and fell like I do 95% of the time - on my rear with my feet in the air Now I feel much better about falling.

Broken Down:
-Need to work on the sizing of my Canasta pattern - it was all over the place.
-Power pulls have no power.
-Back spins were bleh. I could squeak out 3 revs about half the time. The others got less than that, or I fell out of it completely because I got on too much of an inside edge going into the spin or because I overdid the outside edge at the beginning of the spin.
-My sit spins are sad. They don't sit now. They squat. I only did two, and couldn't get much ankle bend at all. Plus, trying to get the ankle bend hurt a little. On the good side, they were fast! Didn't attempt any backsits.

Broken in:
First blast on the skates since having my ankle hardware removed about 5 weeks ago. Didn't feel bad (hooray for Bunga pads) . . .

Broken down:
but my ankle definitely feels weak. I've been too distracted lately and have fallen off the wagon with fitness and PT exercises, so time to get back into the swing of things there and build up the ankle muscles again. . .

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps