Techskater had a great observation. I think another thing that is making your camel spin so difficult to get into is that you are setting it up with long, straight edge that takes you across the ice rather than setting up with a very round edge that takes you into a concentric circle for your spin entrance edge. You might even ask your coach if you can try it from a forward inside 3-turn setup so you do a half circle with your fwd inside 3 turn, then complete the other half of the circle with the spin entrance edge.
On the transition from the setup edge to the spin entrance edge, I also find that it helps to step down with the spinning foot and plant it firmly in the ice, then push onto it, rather than stepping and pushing off all in one motion. It helps give you deeper knee bend and a deeper, rounder entrance edge.

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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

Sharp: Dress Rehersal Night! I landed my axel in my solo and during the group program the first time around. I also skated both clean and ended on time while hitting the cues.

Dull: My coach told me to send in my test registration form today... after dress rehersal at 8:00... and it needs to be there by tomorrow... Let's see how that one works out.

Sharp: My back power-pulls might be near passing. And that's as good as it gets.

Dull: I need to work hard to compensate!

Sharp: There is an additional two hours of ice on Saturday! However, that is a show night.

Dress rehersal down, three shows to go.

Hey Jazz,

It's funny, but I have the opposite problem with camels. I don't have any problem getting the leg into a good position for the spin, but I have a helluva time just keeping it parallel on spirals. My theory is long legs create more torque which takes exponentially more strength to keep up. At least that what I try to convince myself

OT: Who was taping you in these videos? One of these days I'd like to get someone to tape me.

Best of luck to you - do let us know how it all goes.

That does seem excessive to me - my coach charges the equivalent of $10 to mount blades.

Seems to me that Bronze/pre-Bronze skaters either have trouble with the sitspin or with the camel spin! Husband can't do a sit to save his life, but his camel is (occasionally) respectable, especially if he remembers Rob Lichtefeld's mantra of "Left arm in front; bend the ankle!" This has improved it no end!

However, you should see his flip - it's so obvious from his body language that he isn't going to land it, and he lets his legs fly apart so he lands on 2 feet with his legs wide apart. At least he now knows he's doing it....

Neither of us skated well at dance club last night, and then this morning I felt very slow and stately. Did a relatively good runthrough of our free dance, though.

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

I haven't posted in a long time...
This might be a little cumulative!

Sharp:
-Getting 1 and 1/4 rotations on double toe, and 1 and 1/2 on salchow. It may not seem like much, but it's a start!
-Starting to get the hang of some new spins, like changing to a forward spin from a back spin, doing a back sit after the flying camel, and both front and back pancakes.
-My camel has returned from roaming the desert! She came back right after sectionals!
-I don't know if I already wrote this- but I came in 2nd at Sectionals! More importantly, I kept it together after a TOUGH warm up, landed one of my axels, and skated much more strongly than I did a year ago!

Dull:
-I'm getting very annoyed with my rink! I don't want to go into a tirade, but they have been changing the schedule at whim, and it's very annoying to drive 30-40 minutes to get there and find out that they've decided there's no ice. WOuld it kill them to put up an accurate sign? How about any sign?
-Had some minor surgery on my back that kept me off the ice for a week, and I won't be able to do laybacks/ bendy stuff for a while.
-Also had to cut back on skating time and lessons for financial reasons. You don't realize how quickly you can get out of shape!

Dull, very dull indeed: Our practice yesterday for our adult quartet number for the club show. . . tonight is the dress rehearsal and shows are tomorrow and Sunday. Very, very rough looking number indeed. We can only hope that (1) a miracle occurs and/or (2) the audience will forgive us because we're old foagies (and maybe I'll bamboozle them with the splits at the end).

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

LilJen, the splits DOES bamboozle them. I swear by them.

In fact, I don't think our synchro coach is ever going to let me NOT end a program in the splits...

Sharp - Spins were dead-on today for some reason. Camels, camel-sit, sit, sit-chg-sit, broken-leg sit, and backspin - all fine. Amazing I was still asleep.

Meh - Jumps were okay, still breaking at the waist, but there were a few flips that felt familiar with the proper in-air position. A breakthrough should be coming in about 10 pounds, I think.

Dull - My blades, which need sharpening.
Tried a Canasta Tango dance but it was not pretty or on pattern. lol
(I really am clueless about looking at printed patterns and translating them to ice. I'm fine with sewing patterns and fabric, though. Maybe I should bring a tape measure and some pins onto the ice...

Like BUTTAH: Patch Boots/Blades
Input from other skaters/coaches is that $75 to mount the blades is expensive and that price should include PERFECT mounting and waterproofing, as well as any and all adjustments that need to be made. I like that way of thinking.

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Dull:

Back to basics in spin entries!!! We're now trying the Lussi spin entry method to see if there's a difference in my spins! Seems to be better at it though...

Sharp:

I did my Y-Spiral for secondary coach, who suggested that I try it going backwards. Well, it wasn't as comfortable b/c I keep going on the front of the blade, but it's nice to know that I CAN do a Y-Spiral on ice now!!! (Alright! It's more like a martini glass spiral but...)

Did a few shoot the ducks/teapots and managed to stay about a good 2-3 seconds on the blade before I have to get myself up again (or fall on my butt...)

Dull:
B/c of said "shoot the ducks," I am now SOOOOOOO BUSTED on the sit spins! Before, secondary coach figures that I wasn't getting down low enough b/c I was not that flexible. Ummm... I guess I proved her wrong on that by doing the shoot the ducks!!! (QUACK!!!!)

Anyway, she now expects me to start working on getting down LOWER on those sit spins 'til I'm at my shoot the duck level!! I'm sure primary coach would appreciate that too, as would my NYC coach!!!

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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!!!

Sharp
This week I skated my program three times and managed to skate two of the three run-throughs clean (and just missed one element in the other one). That's a 67% clean program rate for the week, a good start toward my new resolution to maintain an 80% clean skate rate. I've also landed both axels in my program in the last 7 run-throughs so I can confidently say I've got that sucker back now!

Dull
My jump landings have been a little scrapey and sloppy, even on easier jumps. I need to focus on pressing the heel down, bending my landing knee and really gliding out on those landings. . .
And speaking of jumps, I had to give up my weekly 40-minute jump lesson this morning because a TV production took over the rink for filming (Hint: Look for a figure skating segment on next week's Dancing With Stars).

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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

Doubletoe, how do you influence that percentage, by not putting in things you can't do yet, or by practicing them more?

Sharp: My Flying camel is coming along great. Beat my own record and got 5 revs this week. I can even do a back scratch on the way out of the spin. Pretty cool. Finally did a semi-decent camel-sit-back sit-back scratch combination. Double toe is making some good progress. My coach says that I'm finally allowing the outside edge to come through so I won't get downgraded.


Dull: I cannot land a double salchow!!! My God, I truly hate this jump. I'm either too forward on the landing or too far back. Either way. . . . same result. . .SPLATT!!! And now I'm really underrotating my double loop. My coach says that this is all a part of obtaining consistent jumps. It feels like I get one jump only to lose another. It sounds like I'm whining . Shucks maybe I am. But I feel better now about it now.



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

Wow. Did he/she at least let you recover sufficiently from childbirth before asking you to do the splits??

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

Eh, we let her rest up a little bit

(If you suprise quarkiki and push her over she can probably land in the splits she's so flexible.)

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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 SHOW DAY!

Sharp: I skated fairly well tonight. Well, minus the big bobble on my spiral, two foot-ed axel and loop-loop in the group program, and wonky backspin. I had tons of fun though, and that's what counts. Landing a clean axel in my solo didn't hurt either.

Dull: There was a judge out on the warm-up ice before the show and appeatantly she and another judge watched the show tonight! The judge on the saw my powerpulls and said that they were okay for the first few pulls before kind of dying out. Me not really trying and being totally sick didn't help much either. But at least now I know that my powerpulls aren't totally dead - only half dead. And hopefully, will score no more than a -.1 on the test...

A little of each, but mostly, it's a mental thing. I'm more focused now, and I've established a higher standard for myself, so that it's no longer a big deal to skate a clean program; it's more of an issue if I *don't*. I'm beginning to see how powerful that shift in mindset can be.

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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

Sharp !!!
I had a good spinning day for a change, these are few and far between for me. Got my forward camel working, though not the back one yet. And even got upright backspins working. This was because I was trying a position variation with left arm in a pose in front, and left leg bent up, with the foot behind my right knee. For some reason that gets me on the right part of the blade for a change. Overall my spins were all pretty good for once.

Dull
My legs were a little tired from lots of jumping Wednesday night, and I seem to have picked up a cold thanks to a Flu vaccination on Thursday ( they always give us that before a long weekend in case we do have ill-effects so we won't miss any work time. Too bad about out private lives )
So jumps weren't that good today. All were working, just not as good as I'd like them to be.

Medium sharp
Was trying to work out how best to achieve a change from LFO spiral into RBO spiral, and said to another skater that ideally a COE spiral would actually work best in my program. And I did one! Couldn't do it again so well, but will keep working on it now I know I can do it.

Tomorrow is another day, and like Forrest Gump said; "you never know what you're gonna get".

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

[SHARP!!!!!]

I PASSED!!!!!!!

I passed both my Intermediate Moves and my pre-Juv freestyle!!

For my moves I got 2 passes and one retry, so an overall pass. I need to work on my posture, because apparently I was breaking at the waist for my power circles...but, over all things went very well, and I am super excited...

Freestyle was also good....my bad history with my lutz jump didn't catch up with me, which is a good thing...spins decided to be crappy today, which earned a "work on spins" comment from the judges, which is hard because usually my spins are strong...

I still need to read the papers, but for now, it's time to catch up on Grey's and sleep...and then dinner with a friend...and then tomorrow it's back to the rink to start working hard core on my axel...I'll have a bit of a break (until Friday) until we start working on Novice Moves!! It's so weird to think about that!!!!

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

WOW, HOW FANTASTIC!!!!

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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

Congratulations Kim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mine is for Friday - I posted but hit preview instead of submit, oops.

Sharp: I kept doing everything wrong on Friday, lol...it was one of those days, but at least I was in a good mood about it. My loops were pretty good. I'm glad these are consistent again - I'm always better at edge jumps (gives hope for axel??)

Dull: hoo boy - camel spin - same issues I always have - couple of revs and then off the toe pick (eek). Sit spin was junky, I kept falling over. We worked on flips during my lesson - or rather, fixing every bit of that jump and the entry to the point where I'm correcting my three turn going in. This is good and actually probably belongs under sharp. It's under dull because I didn't do a flip.

Maybe sharp, maybe dull: I want to test silver moves at the next test session in July. The things that will give me a lot of trouble are the power pulls and the RBI three turn. That one turn is my nemesis. My LBI one is good, but I'm not sure I can get the RBI one in time (I've only been trying to fix that for, oh, 10 years. But I rarely practice it)

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

Congrats on the moves and free Kim! That must have been very exciting!!!

Congratulations!!!

Just got back from day 1 of my first competition. I got first against the book for my freestyle (ISI FS3). I was so nervous before hand i'm suprised they didn't have to push me out onto the ice. But I think my program mostly went okay. I did the change foot spin, my jumps were as they always are (little and barely recognizable), my spiral got compliments, I looked down the whole time, but felt like I had good shoulder and arm carriage.

I got 2nd of 4th in my stroking event. The girl who placed 1st is in my group class and is really good if she remembers her arms. Her mom thanked me for reminding her about arms ahead of time (remember how 'group instructor' made us put beanie babies on our arms? Pretend he's chasing you yelling at you) but I don't think that's what got me. We did a long event (the ref restarted the music to go longer) and by the end of the 3 minutes or so I was tired. Stamina is probably my biggest mark. (And toe point and extension probably started to run out because of stamina).

Quarkiki competed too, she did a great job. I'm so happy she decided to do this with me. Everyone convince her to end her interpretative tomorrow in splits- knock the judges socks off (and beat me for sure!). We are calling it our "arm off" since neither of us really has any elements

As nervous as I was, and as much as I wanted to run away and never skate again for 3 minutes before my freeskate, I had a lot of fun.

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

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All right, all right, all right... I'll do the splits.

Jessi had a great skate and her salchow was easily recognizable as a jump. :p

She's flattering me a little as, though I did meet my goal of not skating like Frankenstein, I did bungle my one-fot spin badly enough that it wasn't ever on one foot and, therefore, I had to repeat it after my last required element. It wasn't much better, but I thing I managed two revolutions on one foot...

I couldn't stick around to find out the results as I was paying a sitter to watch the kiddos, so I have no idea how it came out.

This was, I believe, my very first time on the ice all alone. I've never even been out on practice ice alone for more than two or three minutes and I've never done a solo exhibition, so my goal was to just do it, regardless of result. My footwork was a little muddy and I ended up making up the last half of my program to get the unplanned spin in, but the judge I ran into after the event told me I was very graceful.

Considering that I had no expectations, I really enjoyed myself.