Yay, Quark! Good luck to both of you tomorrow!

Sharp:
I was goofing around with one of my DD's and wonder of wonders, my toe loop and salchow were decent! The salchow actually felt controlled and I got into the right in-air position quickly. I must have cheated somehow...

Dull:
It's very difficult to do backspins, flips or loops when your skate is loose enough to pull off without unlacing... 'nuff said.

Promising:
Taught my first private lesson today and the skater did better spirals and lunges (according to the mom) than she's done in the last six weeks of groups. Her inside 3-turns were sloppy though.

Odd happening - one of my Basic 1 students, who has struggled for weeks in groups, came on the ice today and stated that, as of today, she "can skate."

My co-instructor and I were very impressed by the seriousness of this statement, but moreso by the fact that THE GIRL COULD SUDDENLY SKATE - she marched, she glided, she wiggled and did some decent swizzles! Yay for mind over matter! (Sweetest kid and we both love having her in the class.)

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Well if you do the splits, theres no way I can win the arm off. My shoulder carriage just doesn't beat that! I can't wait, interp is going to be so much fun- I'm so glad you're doing it with me!

I'm not flattering you at all. You looked great and sparkly out there.

And you got third- I accepted the medal on your behalf and will award it to you tomorrow. (I can even make you stand up on the podium like they made me get up there when I skated against the book)

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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)

That means that right now, Skittl has a gold, a silver, and a bronze medal in her hot little hands.
TAKE A PICTURE, WOMAN! And yes, do the podium thing. I love it when people use it between award ceremonies - it freaks out all the helicopter parents who are afraid their darlings are going to miss their photo opp, lol.

(I'm so bad.)

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Congratulations!!!

And congrats to Skittl and Quarkiki!

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

CONGRATULATIONS!

And BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Skittl & Quark too!

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Congratulations! That's fantastic!

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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)

Congratulations to Kim, Skittl and Quark!

Dull: We had been warned that they would not be able to make the ice before patch this morning, and it was pretty awful. No further lessons this week as coaches going to Disneyland. One of our fellow-skaters didn't turn up as her grandmother died this morning.

Sharp: So Husband does the best run-through of his programme he's ever done, filling the music and landing all his jumps! And we learnt that he has a new great-niece, born last night!

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

Congrats to all of you

Dull:
I'm still really rusty after my two weeks off...but things were coming back.

Sliding:
I had the funniest fall! I was doing a spiral, trying to get my body lower - but then I just sort of fell forward - not my usual crash, just crumpled to me knees - and then landed in a puddle lol. But then, because the ice was wet, i kept spinning on the spot on my knees, round and round and round until I flung my arm out and crashed into the boards. It didn't actually hurt that much, just bruised my knees, but I think people thought I hit my head on the boards because they kept asking me if I was alright. Once they'd grasped that I was okay, they all found it hilarious

Dull:
Then I fell on a salchow and stabbed my blade into the back of my leg - all this in the first ten minutes of the session! That one wasn't so funny though. and I hurt my hands because I'd had to take my soaking wet gloves off.

Sharp:
I'm getting my confidence back, and my elements are looking fit for testing in the summer . 3-jumps (must stop calling them waltz-jumps) were better, once we fixed the entry...

Dull:
I was really beating myself up over everything today. Everyone seemed so much better than me, and I was upsetting myself over things I can normally shake off.

Sharp:
But coach gave me a pep talk...pointed out that the girls that are working on the things I'm doing aren't anywhere near testing and that there were only a few at a higher lever than me. I'm not convinced - but it made me feel better

Congratulations!!! What a huge accomplishment!
Would you be willing to share some of the comments the judges had? I'm planning on taking the Int MIF at the end of June, and any advice would be helpful!

Here are the comments from my MIF test. I know that I do bend at the waist a bit, especially when I am nervous. The "loss of power" on the outside back double 3's is because I don't take a crossover between those and while, not an excuse, the ice was a lot softer than the ice I normally skate on, so I needed to push harder. I was also pretty nervous and shaky out there, so the test was not a complete representation of how I normally skate. A couple of other coaches watched my test and said that I looked good out there...which feels good I had also posted the comments from my February 1st test that I got a retry on, so feel free to look at those as well...

Judge 1:
Forward Power Circles: 3.2: Good form, flow, carriage
Back Power Circles: 3.2: Okay
Back Power 3's: 3.2: CCW: Lift feet, CW: keep feet together
Back Double 3's: 3.2: BO: Less power, BI: More equal, keep free foot lower
Brackets: 3.2
Slide Chasse: 3.2: Okay
TOTAL: 19.2

Judge 2:
Forward Power Circles: 3.3: CCW: Good acceleration, CW: okay
Back Power Circles: 3.3: okay
Back Power 3's: 3.1: CCW: Loss of power
Back Double 3's: 3.2: Good flow
Brackets: 3.1: Poor control to back Brackets
Slide Chasse: 3.2
TOTAL: 19.2

Judge 3:
Forward Power Circles: 3.1: Much bending at the waist, very poor posture. Power okay.
Back Power Circles: 3.1: as above, Power okay
Back Power 3's: 3.1: Power fair, posture again a problem and control on pattern not good.
Back Double 3's: 3.2: Edge quality and extension - adequate
Brackets: 3.2: Edge quality okay, wide step down
Slide Chasse: 3.2: Edge quality okay, extension fair, but wide stepping.
TOTAL: 18.9

*work on posture. There should be no bending at the waist. Your power is good but posture and control need work!*

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I need to send scan and send one of my freestyle sheets to my mom because one of the judges wrote their comments on the "technical merit" section in SHORTHAND! I just hope it's the same shorthand my mom knows....

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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

Thanks everyone

I am still super excited to have finally passed those two tests...I am off to the rink shortly and I will finally get to work mainly on my axels and my spins

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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

Congratulations Kim, Skittle and Quarkiki


Sharp: New Boots and Blades finally came in. I got SP teri Super Teri in ridiculously narrow and Pattern 99 Blades. Forward spins felt much better as do turns, and basic stroking. I got so much lift on my jumps that I scared myself but I love that feel of flying in the air.

Dull: My backspin is a thing of the past. If anyone knows where it is, can you please FedEx it back.
Dance coach and I decided I am not ready to test next month.

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Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

Sharp:
Did not have any work today, so DH and I went to the rink where I have my lessons instead of the one where I work. This was the first time I've been able to practice since being sick the week before last. The public session was amazingly empty, so I was able to practice patterns fairly well. Prelim power threes still happening. Five step mohawk felt smoother than last time, and I remembered the placement of the steps in regard to the axis, and that helped (duh!). I still have BO threes! I'm doing BI threes at the wall, and will ask coach to spot me on them next lesson. Managed one fast one foot spin from T push.

Dull:
It took me most of an hour to get to the point where I could do more than one spin at a time without getting dizzy. My dull blades are great for the BO threes, but lousy for pushing - hence very slow today. Still not completely checking the FO threes on the line . Realized that although I was feeling very comfy on the ice, I was suddenly very tired and a little light headed/dizzy after an hour and a quarter. Had the good sense to get off before getting hurt, but was disappointed that I couldn't continue to work.

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Sharp: All of these extra public sessions at the mall rink are starting to pay off. Feeling more "over my hips" on both sides and getting better flow in all steps. Also starting to feel more comfortable with all of the turns in the dances and putting them together to do the patterns - this is a big accomplishment for me, as over the last few years I have been losing more and more skills. I finally feel like I am getting some of them back plus just skating better than ever - in the "basics" category, which feels great.a

Had lessons two weeks in a row with my dance coach. He definitely noticed the difference in my skating - especially last week - he thought I was a lot more relaxed and that I was skating better, bigger and he was having an easier time skating with me, which is good. This week I was a little more tense, but we tried the STarlight a couple of times to the music -- it is REALLY fast - the side pattern flows pretty nicely, but the Europoean-Waltz style drop-3s into a LFO-RBO mohawk is really kind of scarey!!

We tried a Killian today - I got a correction on this dance from my primary coach last week that made the lightbulb go on in my head ("Aha") - and I wanted to try it with my dance coach and it worked - at least when we were going slow - bringing it to a faster speed made me more nervous and I didn't like the choctaw. The best part is that several people came up to me at the session and said that they thought my Killian looked good and that the partnership was working. Yea for that!!

Dull: Not many people at the dance session today. Hoping it's not a trend - probably because it was a beautiful spring day and people are out doing stuff and not thinking about ice-skating. I hope that is it. I think the kids that we usually have at our sessions might have been at a competition and of course the adults are still wiped out from AN.

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Well, all in all it was a great weekend. I accomplished my goals of skating a solo and (mostly) not looking like Frankenstein. I did watch the video and I actually skate pretty much how I think I skate -- sloooooow and pretty tentatively. Which is fine, it pretty much solidifies my thought that I skate better in a group. I was clean for both synchro programs at the competition, yay! Our compulsory to Thriller actually got a perfect score, so that was cool. We did skate it pretty well, which, in itself is always a victory.

My favorite event was Interpretive. We skated to "Anything for You" by Gloria Estefan. I was the only one who had ever heard the song -- I sang along, in fact, and joked with the judges about doing a lip synch instead. I skated pretty well -- I did a slow pattern of the cha-cha (including the step behind), a couple of spirals, a 1/2 toe, ballet jump and a couple of strange 1/2 loops that looked more like chene turns since I did them consecutively with a step between. I emoted and emoted and ended right on the beat in the splits, though I rolled out onto my belly and hit another pose.

Alas, I was still defeated by the juggernaut that is Jessi... Who had actual spins and real jumps.

I did cringe watching my tape. I think the worst part of it is that, after 8 years I'm still pretty boring to watch. I really need to step out of my comfort zone if I'm ever going to look like I know what I'm doing. And I'm fat and that has been weighing on me pretty heavily lately (pun intended). This fat girl has a sense of humor, LOL!

Anyway, here's the link to the video if you're inclined to watch...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpDf23eR-Yg

How did you upload it to youtube? I need a tutorial- The way it's recorded on the DVD I can't figure out how to get it onto my computer. After watching mine I thought I did a good job, but I was struck by how awful my crossovers are in my spin wind up, and how my back chasses to get going for my spiral don't look like anything.

I can't watch yours at work, but can you hear me argueing with the ice monitor about not getting in line yet? On my tape you can hear a mom telling a little girl "If this mall has a slurpee I promise you, you can have it IF YOU SMILE" LOL, bribery at its finest.

Interpretive was my favorite event too. And I further proved to my synchro team just how young I am- since everyone knew and loved that song, and I was only 4 when they remember it being popular.

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Anyhow this is straight out of my journal- my competition report for Sunday:
Dull:
Compulsory program. The compulsory elements were salchow, change foot spin, toe loop. It did NOT go well. My jumps were alright (they are never really good), but the change foot spin was not. I wasn't spinning very well in warm up, but I was doing the spin. Well, in the compulsory program I did an okay forward spin, then about half of a backspin, bobbled a bit, set my foot down, completed a revolution on 2 feet, then went back into my forward spin. It was horrible. Burton told me it was the worst one he's seen me do since I figured out how to do them (I imagine my very first attempts were actually worse). The only small concession is it did get called as a change foot spin, rather than a missed element. I did enough of it that it was just a really bad one. I got 2nd place, since I was competing against another girl. I probably would have gotten lower against the book. The small victory- as I came off the ice "Coach Jenny" from Capital Ice Academy in Des Moines told me "You have beautiful extension in your landing position." Well I'm doing something right I guess.

Latin Program: It actually wasn't THAT bad, but it wasn't good. I didn't lean in enough on our traveling circle at the beginning (which wasn't traveling at all...) and got flipped around momentarily to be moving forward, I got back to backward quicker than I normally do in practice though. Then in our breakout traveling circles from the S pinwheel we broke out funky, and had to dodge the other circle. I thought we were clear and went to pump and Jen and I had our blades collide. It was a LOUD click and a huge jolt. quarkiki said she hung onto me because she thought I'd stay up, but I ended up falling and breaking our circle. It was a pretty good fall though, and I managed to kind of slide in a trajectory so that even though my circle kept moving I was mostly able to get back up in the right place (plus they didn't move too much). We got back together for the next pass through though, so it wasn't a horrible fall. Then at the end, this wasn't so much MY mistake, as the team apparently just got lost in our last pass through- I don't pass and am on the end of the line, so I didn't really know it was happening. We still got a first place though, the books at this competition were easy to beat.


Sharp:
Thriller: Program went fantastic. I judged the event immediately afterwards and the judges told me that they really liked that program- it was a real fun synchro program and it looked great. Then they made snide comments about how I managed to stay on my feet. I actually really love the Thriller program, but I think most of the team doesn't like it so much. They are crazy. The circle footwork went pretty well too. For some reason with the smaller group we do the tap toe hops much better than the large group. I did however go the entire season without hitting a back lunge Apparently we not only beat the book here, we also got a perfect score. Mostly it was just a lot of fun. DH and two of his friends came and watched the program- and they brought signs. A "D" and a "fence" (like a cutout fence) like you'd bring to football games, because they are big dorks, and a Go Jessi sign, so that I couldn't claim to not know them. I just really appreciated the support, and at least a few of the synchro girls thought it was funny.

Interpretive: When I said I wanted to do this on skatingforums, someone told me it was a horrible event. Essentially they said they just got nervous and only did crossovers and maybe a spin. I have horrible nerves, so I laughed it off and said- but that was my plan! We went to the locker room and the monitor played us a super fast "are you kidding me" music. It turns out she played the wrong one!!! The actual music we were skating to was a Gloria Estafan song that I now can't remember the name of. (quarkiki was appalled I didn't know it. But I was only 4 when she remembers it from! I missed some of the 80s). Anyhow it was slow and the perfect song for emoting on ice. The warm up went well, I did my back 3 turns, I warmed up all my jumps just in case I found myself in the entrance to one of them while I was skating (I can never tell what I'm about to do! I had no plan). I did my spins, though the lean over one wasn't going too well. Made a promise to myself that I WAS NOT to attempt a camel or a backspin, which are the things I practice the most now. Warmed up my forward 3- outside 3-forward 3 extension thingy I've been wanting to do. Then went back to being sequestered while the first person skated. Then I was pulled out, gave quarkiki a big high 5 as she took the ice, and faced away while I listened to the music one last time. (I wish I could have seen her skate. I want to know what an inside slide chasse is, and she said she pulled off a jump!) Then it was my turn to take the ice. This was, without a doubt my FAVORITE event of the entire competition. I wish I had asked someone to tape me, because I have no recollection of what exactly I did. Lots of arms, that's for sure. I did a forward spiral to a backward spiral and DH told me they were both pretty high. I did a waltz jump toe tap, but then forgot to do the 2nd waltz jump. DH told me he could tell I was jumping. I did a good scratch spin (DH's comment when I asked if it was fast was diplomatic and nice: It was faster than I expected you to be able to spin.) I did a forward 3-backward 3 to an extension but didn't have the power to get the third one on there. I threw in a salchow when I realized I had only jumped once. I did another spin, but didn't center and traveled a ton- this was the one where I kept my leg out and tried to lean to the side. I only "learned" to do that Tuesday. Towards the very end, I kind of ran out of ideas, did a two foot spin and the music just ended (the song was repetitive and the cut odd, it was hard to tell when it stopped) and I managed to hit a pose maybe 1 or 2 counts late, so not too bad. But mostly I felt great, and DH said he didn't notice the 'deer in the headlights' moment I felt like I had towards the end when I ran out of things to do. It was an awesome awesome event. (And I placed first.) I'm so glad I did this- I wasn't nervous for it like my freeskate- and it actually turned out really well. It's my new favorite event. (Though the fast music might not have turned out quite so well- when we heard it I said "I can do it, but I'm gonna kill Burton." Thankfully it was for the high freestyle group, not the low one.)


So I came home from the competition with all kinds of hardware: 4 first place medals and 2 second place medals.

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

Thank you for the video! You aren't as boring as you think. You're quite graceful and have good flow. I do agree that you need to ramp it up, though.
The number one thing that I think says "Skater", is good crossovers. They are also a great calorie burner. Just work them to death every time you skate, increasing the speed and the flow. Do you know the excercise for FXO's where you slide the crossing foot across instead of picking it up? That one will smooth them out for you if you do it enough. BTW, don't fret the extra pounds - I'm only 5'3", and weighed almost 200 lbs when I started skating. I'm down to 135 now. It took me a year of skating before I started to lose weight. It'll be harder for you with little kids at home, but use your skating to motivate you - don't waste all that work by eating too much or the wrong stuff.

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Quarkiki2, I just watched your video and left you a message. BTW, you do not look fat at all. In fact, you should probably be careful about calling yourself fat because there are a lot of skaters who are *much* heavier than you and you wouldn't want them to think, "If Quarkiki2 is fat, then what does that make ME?!" Anyway, congratulations on your first program!!

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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

Quarkiki, I am going to take the ice ALONE (shudder) for my first time too on Sunday in our spring show . . . yay for you! My goal, also, is to get through it and NOT look like Frankenstein . . . I know EXACTLY what you mean! Thanks SOOOO much for putting up your youtube video . . . and you need to help Jessi put hers up too, cause I want to see the juggernaut that is Jessi, LOL!

Congratulations again to both of you and giving me a little more inspiration as I head towards *my* first solo performance this weekend . . .gulp!

Okay- I figured it out. Here's the program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N510cq8V94o

For some reason the quality is not good. It looks fine on my computer in the file, but horrible on youtube. But you get the idea.

And no juggernaut in this event- just mediocre. I have no idea how I actually looked in interpretive (the event quarkiki and I skated in together) but I felt pretty darn good. The freeskate was good for me- but much more difficult than interp.

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

I just had a chill go down my spine...lol The dress is beautiful, but the open back - brrrr!

Great program and your jumps were good! Thanks for sharing the video.

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Thanks for posting the video, Jessi!! Awesome back spiral, I see why it's your favorite move!! Very nice program!! (I just got in from my lesson(s) . . . . my hardest part of my program is, ironically, not any of the moves, but figuring out the transitions between them!!).

We skate in a mall- so its usually only cold in the very dead of winter. I kept my jacket on for the warm up and then was just fine. Not too cold at all.

My jumps? Did we watch the same video? (But thanks!)

Yeah- transitions are definetly the hardest part to figure out. Can't wait to see the video you post after you have your program all figured out And back spirals have always been my favorite because you can't fall and break a rib nearly as easily. Stupid forward spirals.

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

Oh my, what a weekend it was, such that here I am finally posting.

Club show this weekend. Looooong dress rehearsal on Friday night; took at least half an hour to get the finale sorted out, and as one of the "old geezers" in a quartet number (adult skaters! yay!) I had a 2-second step out at the beginning of the finale (each of us did). Yeah, dopey show stuff and goofy "boop boop bee doo" poses but fun anyway. I am still quite sore!! We skated a synchro number (adult team of 16, ranging in age from 16 to 80!!)and then the quartet.

First show: One skater's computer was an hour off so he didn't make it onto the ice in time for the synchro number. Amazingly, the program went pretty well. Quartet went fine considering how awful our practices had been. I stumbled around a bit on the transitional ditty prior to the next number. . . oops.
Second show: I must have been really tired because I stumbled twice. First was in the kickline, and I was at the far end (furthest from the audience) so it wasn't too awfully noticeable (I think). Second one I was coming around with a pinwheel (is that what it's called? everyone in one line, rotating around with half facing one way and half facing the other) and damn, I came close to falling. Managed to save it and smiled guiltily. Coach said, "Nice solo there."
Sunday's synchro program went great. I was really nervous for the quartet since dh and dd were in the audience to see our dopey disco number. I could see dh's giant camera lens aimed right at me at one point so he got thrown a kiss (choreographed into the number, fortunately or unfortunately; I just threw it more in his direction than usual).

Glad, so very glad, that all performances of the quartet went off okay. Our synchronization wasn't great, but considering it was three women ages 39, 42, and 49 and a man age 75, I think we did great. And I think we all had fun. Not sure when I will next agree to end a program in the splits, though--wet rear not so fun. . .

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

Haven't posted in a while, as I have been busy working out a blade placement issue. Haven't been able to spin, and moves have been mostly cr*p. Turns out that I asked the skate shop to move the blade in a bit, and they moved it out instead. I am back to where I started now, and still thinking maybe it should be moved in a bit. Arrrgh.

But anyway, not being able to spin has forced me to practise my jumps, which has been a really good thing. They are much improved. I am starting to land a very tiny loop - which is making me sooo happy. I never could get that jump as a child. I just didn't get the biomechanics of it at all (of course I never knew that word either). I finally understand how to generate power from that position, although I still find it to be awkward. But I'm doing an actual jump - tiny but not landed on two feet! Yeah!!