Oh, I'm so glad! Welcome back!

Sunny: We had an extra lesson this morning for a last run-through of our free dance before we test it. Actually, we did a couple of pretty good run-throughs, I felt - the music had slowed down, it felt as though we had hours of time to do everything, my 3-turns were good...... coach still thinks we'll fail. I don't - when you see what does pass Level 1.... well, it depends on the judge, but even dance judges are out to pass you if they can!

In my private lesson I did a run-through of my Interp - coach likes it as it is, but wants me to change the placement of some elements. Suits me.... also told me how to make the first twizzle work properly, which transforms it. But there are still 5 unchoreographed seconds.... I do something different every time!

Stormy: Am going to have to get a 2-minute version up and running before we go away; I was thinking of leaving it and doing it as an "interpretive" rather than "artistic" at Bracknell, but it's 1'30" plus or minus 5 seconds there, and my programme is 1'37" long. Plus I'll need a 2-minute version for a couple of other competitions I want it for...

Back chassés are hopeless still! But my changes-of-edge rocked!!!! I do like my new blades now.

Tonight we are going out dancing again at Tashakat's old rink. We are not going to do the class, though, as we don't want to be tired tomorrow. However, the test won't be until late in the session - 10.00 probably, or a little later - so we needn't rush!

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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!

This week is short only 3 days to practice but, I really need the rest.

Stormy: That double toe, fully rotated w/out footcross very perplexing. Continue working on the Jr. moves, the left choctaws are still not solid from inside to outside edges I have to step on a flat first especially on the first left of each set. Having trouble w/ the end pattern on the foxtrot, quick enough and tight enough.

Sunny: the double sow has become much easier landing about 2 out of 3 and apparently are very large in height an distance. The double loop apparently has found its pivot I'm off about 1/4 of a revolution and I am learning to do it faster w/ similar results. Had help on the European timing and made my dance coach very happy, the 3's and timing are good apparently the extension still needs work but I don't need a count of 9 any more. Yeah.

Overall, a good short week. My figures for mountain cup are ghastly.
I hope no one laughs.

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

Stormy: Rob Dean - sorry to hear about Benfield, come join us at Ice Club of Baltimore. We're very adult friendly.

Sunny: Skated in my new skates last night at the public session, just trying to get some time in them. I could do all spins but a back sit and I didn't even try the flying spins. I did up to a flip - didn't attempt a lutz yet, hopefully tonight. Counters and brackets are ok.

Partly cloudy - I have the camp this weekend in PA, should be interesting in the new skates.

Mrs. Redboots - sounds like your blades are settling in! Go for it!

Nobody will laugh - I can assure you, the judges will have seen worse..... including people sitting down on the ice in the middle of their figure, which I don't think was part of the plan. Anyway, I admire you for trying - I keep saying I'm going to, and I can do FI and FO 8s that resemble sort of bulgy ovals rather than circles - but I still can't get all the way round a serpentine without putting a foot down..... so I haven't ever entered! Lots of the UK crowd play with figures now, and say they're going to enter, but only one of us ever does!

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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!

Sunny: Skated today for the first time in a while. It was so nice. There were only a few other people on the ice and I was able to put in a CD that I've been wanting to skate to for a while. It was amazing - once I put that in suddenly I was deeper in the knees, not so scratchy on my toepicks, everything was just better. I didn't even care what anyone thought and just kind of played around with the music and had fun. So nice.

Stormy: Tried and tried to do an Ina Bauer or a Spread Eagle, but I'm afraid I'll never do one. My hips are very closed. I danced for years, but, apparently, my turn out was more from the knees than from the hips.

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"We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art." Henry James

Sunny: My "dreaded 8's" in CCW direction were better today.

Stormy: Tango. Now that it looks like I'm going to re-test it on the 15th (11 days from today), what had been a much improved dance went to hades in a handbasket today.

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Congrats! I saw your other post, and commiserate with you on how hard it is to come back after a serious injury.

Stormy:
Everything hurts worse today than yesterday! Got my blades sharpened yesterday, and felt like a fish out of water on the ice today, which was especially bad during the hour that I had to teach the tots. I was really exhausted today too, so I didn't stay too long after my lesson.

Sunny:
The sharp blades issue had begun to fade a bit by the end of my lesson. We spent the entire lesson on the show moves that I have most trouble with. Did I mention that I will have to line up next to my coach in this show? Who wants to be compared with their coach, for heaven's sakes . Anyway, it turned out that she hadn't seen my fall at all and so didn't understand why I was so leery of those little dance steps. She actually got me doing a somewhat modified (for my lack of turnout) version of them. The thing that worked for me was when she described it as limping! We covered a few other things in the show, and ended by revising my entry moves very significantly. She is pals with the choreographer, so I think it will be OK. Best of all, I told her how I had been feeling about her comments re my being in the show or not, and of course, she was extremely supportive. It was all my own stuff, that she had unwittingly been feeding. Once again, my coach has proven to be a wonderful motivator and morale booster

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Sunny: Had a nice comfy somewhat emptier session to skate on. I did power 3's slower and did this neat little foot trick that my primary coach suggested yesterday. Definitely helped in making sure I get my foot in the right place.

Stormy: Should have checked my VM... secondary coach couldn't make it to the rink. Had an emergency errand to do. So no lesson.

Also, later on the day, I got hit with a case of either stomach flu or food poisoning. (I suspect it's the latter...) Mr. Jazzpants is also home with the same, but mine isn't as severe as his. (He's still sick. W/o giving out too much graphic details, I'm feeling MUCH better now, thankfully...)

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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!!!

Sounds like it, since you're now feeling better - horrid thing to happen! Hope you are both recovered.

Sunny: We passed our Free Dance! Only just, but a pass is a pass.... The judge said we were fine for level 1, but we needed to increase our speed across the ice, increase the complexity of the dance, and stop looking so tentative if we wanted to take it up any higher. We knew that.... mind you, we'd spent all winter dumbing the thing down.... but then, it wasn't our choice to test it on 10-day-old blades, either (we didn't know, when we got the blades, that we would be testing today!).

Anyway, that's over with!

Stormy: I tripped in the middle of the step sequence! I have never tripped in that dance before! But I was able to rescue it, and we carried on as though nothing had happened. The judge told us we had too many stops - I suppose he thought that trip was a stop, as we only have one in that version of the dance! Ah well....

Oh, I totall forgot - social dancing last night. First sustained dancing I've done with the new blades (feet hurt too much last week!) and it went really well. More speed across the ice than before & better edges.... did bottle out of one 3-turn in the Prelim Waltz, but only one. Only worrying thing was that I kept skidding on the inside edges on the Golden Skaters' Waltz - this may be Husband, not me, as I didn't skid on the identical steps in the Rhythm Blues, which I danced with another partner. Hmmmm.....

Right, test over, now to focus on competition! I did stay on the ice for a bit after the tests were over (they finished very early - it's lucky we got there an hour earlier than the earliest we thought we could possibly need to be, as we were on within 20 minutes), but didn't do much other than one run-through of my Interp.

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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!

Congratulations Annabel. Onwards and upwards.

Sunny After a fairly rough couple of weeks since nationals, the pair elements are clicking back in, including the split twist. One of my coaches gave me a new training suggestion yesterday: do a sitspin and change feet as many times as possible. So I did one with FIVE changes of foot and only stopped then because I was dizzy!

Stormy Still no consistency on the flying camel. I'll do one good one then four or five bad ones. And still two-footing 90+% of my axels. Oh well, sooner or later I'll get it back for good.

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Where are those knives when I need them?
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I need a detachable left foot!

Sunny : No lesson this week, but not a bad end to the season. Since starting in February with private lessons once a week, I have:

• Backward and forward crossovers

  Basic stroking

  FO/FI/BO/BI edges, which are getting close to 'testing' (not that I plan to).

  A good T-stop.

  A lot more speed and flow.

  A hoppy little retarded waltz jump, but one I can do out of backward crossovers.

Not a bad start. My coach thinks I'll have all my singles (excl. axel) by the end of the year. I think he's a bit optimistic, but we'll see.

Stormy
The rink closes for the summer and today was the last day. Off to the gym for me for the summer; no more skating till September

Congratulations to you both!

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Sunny: Much better than last week (couldn't get much worse......). I'm skating my dance pretty consistently now & he's having me work on the little extras, more extension, longer holds, point toes, smile, etc. I still have a month before testing, so I'm feeling not too bad about it over all.

Started working w/ choreographer on my new program, which is a relief because the competition is starting to loom on the horizon! So hopefully we'll finish it in another few sessions & I can seriously get to work practicing it.

Stormy: I get SO out of breath working on my dance. I don't recall having this issue w/ other dances to this extreme degree, so I don't know if it's just this dance, which I totally struggle with much more than others, or if I'm just so badly out of shape, again, possible, or if it's something like a touch of cold weather asthma. My coach scoffs at this last suggestion, saying my lungs just aren't trained enough for multiple patterns so I don't get enough air. It's like, I'm breathing really hard but no air is getting through. He looks at me with deadly serious eyes & face and says, "In Russia, nobody has asthma."

What a nice way to end the season! My rink has closed for the summer also--we start working out on Sunday. Our gym class instructor is also a skating coach with a B.S. in Phys Ed so I'm sure we will get a good workout, geared to improving our skating come September. She likes to do 'plyometrics' which is what I need because my jumps barely get off the ground!

Keep us posted on your progress! Make sure to vary your workouts.

Terry

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

ANNABEL YOU PASSED, WITH NEW BOOTS AN ALL......WELL DONE

CONGRATULATIONS

Sunny:

CONGRATULATIONS, ANNABEL & ROBERT!!! YAAAAAY!!!



Stormy:
Not skating for the next couple of days...or much of anything for that matter... Yeap! There's something going around and I don't want my coworkers getting it. I was barely able to take in food w/o throwing up yesterday. So I'm staying home today and working from my computer at home.

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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!!!

Well done Annabel!!!

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http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

CONGRATULATIONS!! And remember, they never ask "How much did you pass your test by?" they just want to know "What level are you tested through?"... and you should feel especially proud because I recall you said your coach said you would not pass.. and you said you would!! Hurray, the skater knows more than the coach (for once!).

Mrs. Redboots - Congrats!!!!!

sunny:Had my first dance lesson! it went great
stormy:didnt have any luck with my axels

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Skating is suppose to be fun , no PRESSURE at all

~*Courage*~*Confidence*~*Consistance*~

Congratulations, Annabel and Robert! That's a wonderful accomplishment!

Sunny:
Had a good team practice today. We did off-ice dancing (butt shaking, really) after the on-ice run through. I'm still clumsy, but at least I know what I'm doing.

Shaky:
My feet hurt! I made the mistake of wearing dress shoes at work, then I drove to the rink late (car trouble), and had no time to stretch my arches and legs. I had arch cramps within minutes of getting on the ice. Had to adjust the skates twice. I'm going to lower the foam on the insoles - they're pressing on my instep too hard.

Still hate those ditzy dance steps. I'm resigned to toe taps.

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Thanks, all! I must admit I wouldn't have chosen to test in 10-day-old blades (the boots are fine now, although I haven't done up the top hooks yet - was going to, but decided to wait until after the test; might try this afternoon, if I skate) that I'm still rocky on! Nor would I have chosen to get there at 8.30, not expecting to test until about 10.00 at the earliest, only to find that all was done and dusted by 9.00! Ah well..... we passed.

The big snag is that the judge said, quite rightly, that we needed more technical content in it. We do have a little more technical content in the longer version (and I'm hoping we'll get at least one lift in it, although they aren't compulsory for adults, but the others have them so we'd better!), but not a great deal, and what is worrying me is how do we put in more technical stuff that we can actually do while at the same time increasing our speed???? Hmmmm.....

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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!

Congratulations, Annabel! A Pass is a Pass - take 'em any way you can get 'em. That's the way I feel about my Silver Figure Test - if I'd been a judge, I wouldn't have passed me but the real judges were either less critical or very kind or both and gave me the passing mark - barely.

As for last night's skating:

Mostly Sunny: I did the Interp program straight through, with costume and props and it worked! Several people who hadn't seen it before told me they liked it, my coach kept calling me and my costume "cute" (which is a description I haven't heard in several decades). So I guess I'm set for the club show on Saturday.

Partly Sunny: the free skate program - the first half is pretty good but then I fall behind the music and can't catch up and everything ends up in strange places and looking rushed. I did land the salchow-loop in the right place and on time but the rest is pretty slap-dash.

Stormy: figures. Why - oh - why did I think I could learn loops from scratch in six months? We've gone back to doing them on two feet just so I can get the feel of the lean over the outside edge. And the change threes have gone south or north or somewhere far away.

The only positive side of figures is that the hockey shop guy found a pair of brand new figure blades somewhere and they are the same make and size as the ones I have which date back to the early '80s and are worn down past the tempered steel part now. I'm hesitant to change blades this close to Mountain Cup but I think those blades will be calling my name when I get back.

Congratulations Mrs. Redboots!!!!

and also congratulations to crayonskater for a hoppy waltz jump. You've got something to look forward to for next year!


Sunny Went to rink for usual skating lesson. Diva kid skater #1 was there with skatingmomfromhell. OK, stay out of their way. Then Diva skater #2 shows up with three coaches and proceeds to take over rink, tape player and all available oxygen. Diva skater #2 is a really good skater and deserves diva space. Although that left me relegated to the end of the rink, it was just great great fun to see skatingmomfromhell try to outglare three coaches who totally outclassed her. Electric atmosphere !

Stormy
I have blade problems. My skates are off to the skate guy, hopefully I won't need to buy new blades. I had a bad sharpening a while back, and although it got corrected, my coach thinks I've got different rocker points on each skate. That could explain a lot of things if it's true. I'm skateless until they're back from out of town.