Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, only insert "kneecap" for "hip bone." It stinks to re-injure the same spot but I think it's good to try a skill again as soon as you can after a fall, so you don't psych yourself out.

My cross-rolls need help; can you explain about the invisible stick?

You need to get your wife on the ice!

I think you may be talking about power pulls, AKA edge pulls. They are usually harder F than B, so I'm impressed.

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toe scrapes: i can't control the spread eagles, they seem to keep going until they feel like stopping. and i lost the timing on the waltz jump, so i'm jumping at weird times. i also have a mental block with the toe push that you do before the 3 turn for a flip jump. it's not even a hard skill, it just seems unnatural when everyone is telling you not to toe push, and then all of a sudden, you have to toe push.

edge noises: my half flip once i get over the toe push part is actually pretty nice. so if i just 3 turn and jump, no problem. it also felt good to skate today, but i went easy on the spins (didn't want to risk anything so soon after a stomach virus)

Edge Noises: First *real* private lesson!! I also had my FS class today. Waltz jumps felt really good. Ohh, I remember the days I used to *hate* this jump. I got some *good* axel attempts! Sit spins were pretty good. I'm told I hold the position for a good length of time, though it doesn't really feel like it My back spin is still there. With my new private coach we went over all my jumps through flip and they were all good!

Tow Scrapes: Camels....ok, coach said I got a few good ones, but I still fall out and lose them way too often. Scratch spins....I'm not sure if they were good or bad. OKay, I guess. Some centered ones, some not so much... Some falls on axels. They're scary...

Toe scrapes: crowded rink. Fell out of spin attempts a couple times, but landed on my bum so it didn't really hurt.

Edge noises: worked on 1-foot spins. I can sometimes do two revolutions CCW, but usually only one. I can do only one CW, and it isn't as tight (though it feels the same, the tracing is certainly different). Here's a drawing to show my current progress!

Edge Noises: My stamina! I so don't believe it - all of a sudden I'm doing 4 or more patterns of dances without losing it or begging to be allowed to stop. Okay, so with losing weight - but I thought I'd ruined my wind with all those years of smoking - and it's so very sudden. I thought it was beginning to happen on Thursday, but that might have just been in comparison with a friend who had been off the ice for a couple of months and was therefore unfit... but today, wow! Lap after lap of edges, with very little in the way of a stop, and pattern after pattern of dances!

So, not being one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, to our practice & lesson. Our progressive runs in waltz hold are fine when I go backwards, but we won't talk about what happens when I'm going forwards. Not fun! Our free dance is coming-along-nicely-now, I expect we'll get our test papers in a couple of weeks. I hope so, or we'll have to start bringing it back up to competition standard! Worked on the Swing Dance, too, which is Much Improved! Now if only Husband could get into the right place I could even do that Mohawk properly.....

Toe Scrapes: There's one bit in our free dance that still needs work, where we swirl round to lose speed. Luckily, it's him-not-me, even the coach says that! And my Mohawk in the Swing Dance still doesn't work well at speed, although Husband said I would have bottled it at that speed last year, which is probably true.

I wanted to try a move where I go through his legs, but neither he nor the coach would let me. I don't *think* I'd head-butt him in the Niagaras, but they seemed to think I would. Oh well.....

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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!

Of course!
You see this invisible stick I have, (no pun intended) you can have one too. They are free! It's all to do with imagination.

I'm finding it hard to explain, but I'll get there. Let's see. You hold your invisible stick with two hands, at either end of the stick, so your arms are a fair distance apart. in a \....../ shape. (I've used full stops to keep the distance right.) Look at the "arms" and imagine that they are holding a stick. That's how you should hold your stick.

You must never move the stick, or move your arms. Move your hips only. If you concerntrate on keeping the stick in place, it'll help to improve the appearance of cross rolls also.

Go and grab you're very own invisible stick TODAY! Available in all shops. Prices may vary.

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http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

Edge noises: I learned the pattern for the Willow Waltz. I realize that I had been following a junior skater around for weeks trying to pick it up, and she was doing it wrong! It has a lobe of progressives and one of chassee. This girl was doing chasses all the time. What a relief to get it taught to me properly and to find out that the 3 turn is one that I like and that I can do. I'm not discussing the mohawk. It happens, that's sufficient for now.

Toe scrapes:
Back progressives. I see my future and my future involves endless circles of back progressives again and again and again. Oh I can do them, and that would be okay if I was just skating around on a dance session, but not with coach fussy, they have to be perfectly pushfully progressive.

Excuse me, but I've seen what you call "your stick" and I must tell you that it's not a stick at all, it's my table The table is belly button height, and keep palms flat on it. I know my table is really there, because whenever I tell my groups to "show me your tables", they all do!

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Edge noises: I did some of the best waltz jumps I've ever done. I was at the end of my group lesson and had been working on spins . I gave up and went to waltz. They were high, covered the ice, and landed soft. Now if I could just do them for my coach, in a competition......Also did a nice toe loop--I wasn't really thinking about it too hard before I tried it.

Toe scrapes: Spins. I despair of ever spinning. My free leg gets stuck about 3/4 of the way around, then I drop my right side.

Okay, Melzorina and dbny, I'm off to the Sticks and Tables Emporium!

Thanks for the explanation!

Nasty weather, so I was about 15 minutes late for my private lesson on Saturday. But the weather made my coach 14 minutes late, so it was fine. We did a ten minute lesson and promised the other 20 next Saturday.

Worked on forward inside and outside 3-turns and I'm now doing the complete turn, then putting my foot down. Argh! If I wasn't such a chicken... She says my turn is lovely and that I need to ignore my brain because I'm not going to fall because I'm in a great position over my skate, with a correctly bent knee.

Also worked on forward swing rolls. They must have been A-OK because I only did about 3 lobes per side before we switched to forward cross-rolls. I need to keep my skating knee bent through the cross and put my free foot down close to the skating foot, then these will be OK too.

Not bad for ten minutes!

Also had a power skating class with a sub today. Worked on plain stroking, then forward crossovers. CCW are getting so much better that I can't believe it's me on the ice! There's a young woman who has joined the class that used to be competitive as a child and, though she's out of practice, her stoking is quite lovely. And on my good side, I was nearly keeping pace with her (well, maybe not nearly, but I wasn't completely in the dust). I'm getting a much better second push with on this side. CW... well, they are probably where my CCW were three months ago. Which is still far better than they were. I stuggle tremendously with not turning out my left foot as it crosses and, though my first push is nice and smooth, the second one reeks.

I did discover, though, that I can hold the outside edge after a good push for almost an entire hockey circle on both feet and the inside edge for nearly as long on the right foot and for a circle and three-quarters on the left -- YAY ME!!! That's such an improvement that I can't even believe it!

Did consecutive edges FO and FI. Need to work more on knee bend, but I have good rhythm. Sub was nice enough to let this pregnant skater pratice everything forward as I'm goosey about going backwards too fast right now.

Power pulls -- well, I have only started working on these, but I did get down the length of the rink on each foot with only about 3 pushes from my free foot. No power yet, but better balance for sure and I think I'm getting the rhythm of the knee action, even if it isn't strong or deep enough yet.

I still need to work very hard on keeping my shoulders inside the circle, but I am doing better than I was and can recognize now when they scoot out of the circle.

I've decided to drop to alternate status on the Synchro team -- I'll fill in during practices when they need a body for spacing, but I'm not planning to compete in March or April. I think I'll be too pregnant by then, and it will be very obvious to observers. I can just see everyone worrying the entire program about me falling instead of watching the team, LOL!! If I can squeeze into the costume, I may take the warm-up lap like real alternates do, we'll see!

Skated for just a bit at club to get home before the heavy snow. We didn't have the usual numbers of people or pros for group lessons (I coordinate them), so instead of two sessions of 3-4 classes, I cobined them into one long session with 4 groups. It was lots of fun, and gave the skaters a chance to be with a different pro and with different skaters. I went with the advace kids, and we spent the entire time on spiral variations - fun!

Toe - I shoveled the walk, and the wind has blow it all back. I should go visit my car and unearth it!

But it's neither - it's a mirror attached to your front, and you mustn't break the mirror!
You and me both! The worst is the push while you're on the inside edge, my coach really wants me to *push*, and I find that particular push - I've heard it called a "Schaffer push" - very hard. And I have to do it for back cross-rolls, too. Husband and I have been doing back progressive runs in waltz hold round the circle, which is fine as long as I'm going backwards, but not so good the other way.....

One pooh-trap-for-heffalumps you mightn't have found out about the Willow yet is that the first step isn't the back progressive - that's the last step. The first step is the LBO/RBI chasse/LBO - in practice, most people do the run to start the dance, but you need to be aware as it affects the timing of the start, and the ending of the dance - you must do the run before you can stop!

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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!

Toe Scrapes: GAWD!!! I gotta stop coming in those crowded public sessions and make myself get up early for FS from now on, but I'm too lazy for mornings and besides that I get stir crazy being arond the home in the afternoons...and then I would want to go skating to relive the boredom, since I have AOSS...

cshobe is not the only person with a nasty fall on the hip... I had one this Sat. afternoon trying to dodge a BUNCH of kids (one girl in particular) in a public session. Although she was very apologetic for me (and felt bad enough not to yell at her), I still have a nasty bruise on the hip and it hurts like hell!!!

Edge noise: Not much to tell... those pesky public session kids didn't help me in doing anything productive...

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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!!!

Edge Noises Made it to rink #1 today only to find out that it was closed due to the snow, but that led me to drive over to rink #2 which was open and almost empty! Called my coach back and he came over there and we had a good lesson. I skated for about 30 minutes before he got there with just me and 2 international dance teams on the ice, which was freshly and beautifully cut! Had a great time, and then when my coach showed up we ran both programs and worked on lots of the little things... if only I could remember to do everything when I'm actually doing the programs! It was wonderful being on such an empty session. Usually I don't skate on dance sessions, but since it was so empty it was fine. There was only one time that one of the teams and I were on a collision course, and we all stopped, so whew! Another time my coach was trying to keep himself between me and one of the teams, but it was bothering me because I couldn't see them at all! Had to stop and tell him not to do that, LOL!

Oh, and the only reason I made it to the rink today was because I bought a snow blower the other night and boy, did I need it! It worked great and took almost no time to clear the driveway and sidewalk, with no sore muscles afterwards!

Happy skating everyone,
Pat

What you are doing are called power pulls. It does look like a snake though, I guess.

edge noise: ok my toe loop is very well, the sit spin and sit-back sit are going along ok, I have managed to do all the singe jumps with a loop combination.
And I'm very excited that I'll do my first competition in april.
toe scrapes: Everything is so inconsistent for me, the lutz-loop and flip-loop sometimes seem perfect but others are a complete mess, the camel one day is very well and I can even do camel-sit and the next day I can't do a camel at all, I don't know if this is because I've been skating for only like a year and a half or why , what can you do to get the jumps and spins more consistant??

In the UK they are called "one-footed slaloms", rather boringly. But then, we call a camel spin a "parallel spin" (until your coach wants to write it down and can't remember how to spell "parallel", so he starts calling it a "camel", too!).

My coach calls Russian stroking "Snakies".

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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!

...it is a stick, because your table is missing a leg.

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http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

Not at all! I'ts just as invisible as your stick

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Well, I've gotten her on the ice...we usually skate as a family each Sunday (or go skiing together). It's a matter of her wanting to go more than once a week. She ends up going to the local health club instead. I won't fault her for that, but I couldn't stand to be going nowhere on an eliptical trainer.

Thanks to you & Fadedstardust for the correct term. Power Pulls it is!

A couple of my skating friends have commented that I do power pulls the hard way (forward). Strange, eh? I think it might be because years ago I used to ski train on one foot. It developed independant leg action, and it too was going forward. So, I think my mind had already accepted it to be easier in that direction!

My stick being your table leg...

I'll take the other three legs off it and hand them out as STICKS the next time I go skating.

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http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

Don't you call the toe loop a cherry flip, as well? I need to move to the UK just so I can start talking about cherry flips all the time. That's the cutest term in skating EVER.

Except that your are holding your stick where the closer edge of my table is, and parallel to the ice, as is my tabletop. Are we being silly enough?

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