In honor of the Olympics and the spirit that hopefully reaches everyone.

Olympic spirit - had a great pairs practice - almost finished with the progam.
Olympic ghost - sick in bed. At least there's lots to watch on tv.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Olympic spirit: my sit spin is much better, it's fast and fairly low (I meant to videotape to be sure) and I know the free leg is in the right place now. I found out I can do a sit spin/back spin combination, yay!

Olympic ghost: but I was trying to so a sit spin/back sit spin combination, haha. Oh well.

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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)

Olympic Spirit- I'm finally able to say that I've landed my axel! I did three yesterday that I know for sure were clean!

Olympic Ghost- I fell really hard on my hip doing axels and I couldn't get out of bed this morning because it hurt so bad.

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Okay, I know that this is supposed to be for practices and lesson starting TOMORROW, but watching the Opening Ceremonies gave me more hope to push myself thru in skating even though I'm going thru my unemployment again.

Olympic Spirit:
I managed to get a couple of good lutzes today, despite the fact that it's crowded at the rink!!! I also managed to get more decent camels... and when I am concentrating, I am starting to get some of the secondary coach's spin exercises.

My camels are better too. I remembered to imagine slapping someone across the face today!!! (No, NOT my primary coach this time... )

Olympic Ghost:
Of course, kinda hard to concentrate on that when you have kids and clueless beginning young adults zipping around the middle of the rink. Especially the clueless young adults. They have this attitude like they could go and skate right thru as they please. Should have sic the ice monitor on them right then and there!!!

Real Olympic Spirit:
Two words: Dara Torres!!! She's born the same year as me... and yet, well, you've seen her swim last night. She makes the young'ums look PATHETIC!!! And look at how RIPPED she is!!! Of course, she makes me look like a "couch potato" and really should be working out... and a lot of you guys know how fit I am!!! (And alright, I don't want arms that big either!!! Just VERY toned and strong!!! )

Anyone think that a lot of her strength training also applies to figure skating? Or is it just me...

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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!!!

Olympic Spirit- So much! Landed three huge clean double sals which I was thrilled about. Did a clean program, and I managed to get much better pacing through the program. It didn't feel rushed at all. And a coach who's known me for a long time from another rink said how much I'd improved lately all around. It was so nice to hear. And another coach at our rink (he went to the Olympics in '80), said my double sals were really good. I'm so happy about my day.

Olympic Ghost- Luckily, nothing!

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

Olympic Spirit: I landed my 2sal and axel seq. again this morning.

Olympic Ghost: I fumbled both of them in my program and missed three elements (those jumps and my camel-sit-sit). GRRR! I have not yet done this program clean EVER. And its getting down to cruch time. I need to have this program and test done with by the end of summer. It's getting so frustrating!!!

Olympic Spirit
- I had a Dara Torres moment on Saturday when I discovered I was more flexible than my 19 year old niece who's a black belt in kung fu! (If only I had two personal stretchers on my training team like Dara does, LOL!)
- I actually got up at 5am and skated this morning (I never skate on Monday mornings). I even did a decent program run-through, completing all 3 spins and landing both axels. I was surprised that I didn't run out of steam at the end even though it was my first early morning of the week.

Olympic Ghost
- My change edge spiral was fine in practice but I couldn't hold on after the change of edge when I did it in my program. Arrghh! I wish I could figure out why this happens.

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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

Olympic Spirit:
Skated two hours today instead of the usual one. I'm skating at the alternate rink tomorrow and have a lesson with Secondary Coach, so I was able to use my contracted hour for tomorrow today.
Back to forward scratch spin combo is getting close to nailed. Sitspin was nice and low.


Olympic Ghost:
For all the work I did on spins this summer, my jumps have paid for it dearly.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Olympic Spirit:

• Did a good lutz right in front of primary coach... and he COMMENTED ON IT TOO!!! YESSSSS!!!!
• Did a bunch of good flips, loops and loop-loops at beginning of session.
• Sit spin for the most part was okay except....
• I can still do a back power 3's entry to a loop. Now to get more speed into it and come out of the back power 3's and STILL have flow coming out of it.

Olympic Ghost:

• I lost my edge on the spin entry on the VERY first one of the night and promptly bashed my knee!!!! After the initial flush of pain (about a couple of minutes), I went right out there and did a bunch more...
• I guess my camels were a ghost... they're GONE again!!! No amount of slapping someone would work. (And trust me, today I was thinking of someone that definitely deserved the slap too!!! )
• My forward crossovers going the CW direction sucks compared to the CCW ones. It's just choppy all around. GRRRRR!!!

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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!!!

Olympic Spirit: Skated today.

Olympic Ghost: Did not skate 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!

Ghost: Skating is only the ghost of a memory for me right now. My surgery went well and now my right foot is encased in a lovely purple cast. Vicodin is my very good friend.

Spirit: I am ensconced in my recliner watching all the Olympic coverage I can find and cheering all the athletes.

Not really feeling the Olympic Spirit this time around

Had a lesson today and I had a breakthrough on crossovers...She was trying to get me to stretch out my arms - the old hug the circle and I just could not stretch my arms as much as she wanted ...then she told me to TWIST my waist. Wallah --- beautiful smooth crossovers on EDGES...no clunky beginner crossovers. I was ready for something with a quick fix like that because I'm struggling with the outside edge mohawks in the 8 step....struggling to bend my knees and not break at the waist and use one foot transistions on swing rolls.

Another good thing is that my progressives are really improving. Just need to ....bend my fricking knees more.

j

Olympic Ghost: Phew, I was awful tonight! I haven't skated in the evening in a looong time, I wonder if it was related. Everything was just...awkward. Almost everything. I marveled at my wall flip (you know - the one you can do a foot from the wall...not touching the wall whatsoever...and then can't repeat elsewhere). Seriously considering hypnotism for the flip, if I could find a hypnotist here that understood skating. This is bizarre.

Olympic Spirit: One good sit spin (bunch o'bad ones)...I do love my new rocker, bracket and choctaw, so I just kept doing those over and over, ha. Tried to put them all together and added a toe loop on to them, that wasn't too shabby.

ISk8NYC, I'm glad you didn't get on the ice with me tonight after all! I wouldn't have wanted you to see those sit spin attempts!!!!

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

Olympic Spirit:
Secondary Coach had me do a PPC for my freeskating program. He then took the WBP for Bronze freeskate and saw a jump sequence we could do for my first competition next month at Bronze and saw that I needed a change of position no change of foot spin, so he came up with that too. Boy am I getting a crash course in IJS!

Olympic Ghost:
Coach then had me do a jump I had not done in years- a ballet jump.
Funny thing is I forgot how to do it.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Olympic Spirit
-Jumps were very on today. Landed all of them first time, including 2sal2loop.
-There is this one ice dancer at my rink who is very...finicky. Well, he was giving me compliment after compliment today. When I did my back Chinese spiral he went "You're too flexible!" When I tried triple sal he said, "Now, when I see elite skaters doing their triples, THAT'S what it looks like." He also said I should teach a spiral variations class.
-Moves and edgework were good today. I like to warm up with the senior double 3 double rocker pattern. Usually I run out of steam after two or so sets of turns, but I made it all the way across the rink on the right side with the inside 3s and outside rockers.
-My power pulls were better than ever today. The had very good rip with nice, deep edges.

Olympic ghost
-Took a nasty fall today. It was stupid, I was just doing a mohwak to set for a double sal and stepped on my heel. It knocked the wind out of me.
-Still reaching for the ice more than I'd like. I'm getting better about it, but it really bothers me.

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Youtube Videos

Olympic Spirit: I GOT MY LOOP JUMP!!!! I've been working on the loop for a month now, and finally got it. Could I repeat it? No. but I still landed my loop.

Also managed some decent spirals and am starting to fix my one foot spin. Hooray!

Olympic Ghost: Two kids ran into me during my class knocking me on my butt. I was going backwards at a nice speed and they pretty much took my legs out from underneath me. OUCH! I think I slightly bruised my tailbone, but can't be sure. Hurts to sit down, but pain is going away. I cried out of shock and disbelief and I was scared to death I had hurt the kids somehow. They were completely fine.

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My Blog - FINALLY updated!
Living out my childhood dream

Spirit: Finally got my toe loop back (it was on vacation). My loops seem to be getting better. My scratch spin has been fairly consistent.

Ghost: I did a full out body slam on a spin!!! I never EVER fall on spins. Just as I cranked it up my blade dug a hole in the ice and got stuck. My lower body stayed stuck in place while my upper body went flying around. The result was a full length body slam My axel mojo has gone (again).

Olympic Spirit
Had a ridiculously good practice today. I think I may have finally fixed my camel spin! Coach instructed me to keep my left arm back and against my side as I step into the spin. Lo and behold, three sickeningly perfect camels! And this after not skating for almost two weeks. Coach even said that the camel-layback I did was the best one she's ever seen me do! (admittedly, the bar wasn't set high...) Axels and axel-loops were solid, flying camels pretty good, whee! Just the confidence boost I needed.

Olympic Ghost
I skated for just an hour, so I didn't get a chance to practice moves at all. I only did two mediocre patterns of the Tango. That dance is going to give me fits.

Neither!

Seven weeks of back edges (with the odd other thing thrown in so I don't loose what's left of my mind!). I guess it's like those athletes in China - years and years of training for a few minutes in the spotlight. I'll never make the Olympic (unless they have a Geriatric Olympics!) but I understand the drudgery!

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Gold medal (sort of): Passed my PB MITF and FS yesterday!! Had to reskate one portion of the evil 3-turn pattern, as I stumbled quite badly, but the reskate was fine. Lots of helpful comments from the judge, who was very nice.

Ghost: Now I HAVE to get my 1-footed spin to 6 revs for ISI 2--eek!! I've laminated my PB Peanut Gallery Card, because I'll probably be here for a while. . . Plus, the joy of passing was marred by some family difficulties

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

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Passing tests is always huge. I'm sorry to hear about your family difficulties taking away some of the joy of your big accomplishment. Good luck to you and yours.

Congratulations!!!!

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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! Good job!

j

Olympic Spirit I can spin again! And I centered 4 or 5 really well. I mean, these blades are incredible- at least 3 people asked me what I had done to get so fast. NOTHING. I haven't been working on them since I switched blades, it was just this weekend I was finally able to get on the sweet spot and man do they just fly. I know the blades don't do the work for you, so I had it in me, but man the other blades didn't let me do it. WOW. (My coach saw my first spin and said "See, told you you'd love the new blades.) I'm finally spinning like I always imagined I would be able to when I started skating. Just in a scratch spin, but now I'm ready to reclaim all my other spins.

Olympic Ghost Had centering issues. The ones I didn't center traveled far enough that I needed to send postcards back to my friends and family. EEK! Quarkiki had a good laugh at me for that, I don't think she saw any of the centered ones!


I really skated very hard last night. I taught for an hour, had a 30 minute group lesson and a 30 minute practice. It's not a lot, but it's hard on my knees. They are hurting today. I ran my moves test during my practice and it went okay. None of the huge mistakes I made saturday- all the three turns got done and the mohawk spacing was good. I didn't do the crossover to BO extension very well because I was dodging public skaters and it's just impossible to watch on that one. It's not a difficult move for me, but I worry that I'm going to screw it up for lack of practice. I pretty much only run it during my lessons.

Did a bunch of waltz 3s and mohawks in the circle and I'm getting more comfortable with both on my bad side, and the mohawks are getting quieter and smoother- no more jump and scratch!

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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)

Well, I'm delighted to hear all went well, hope you make a quick recovery and get back on the ice very soon.

Congratulations to both of you!

As for us:

Spirit: Got a great deal of practice accomplished today, plus 2 lessons.

Ghost: Coach1 has decided my step-to-forward problems are caused by rushing into my 3-turn. Which may well be, but sometimes they're caused by being pulled right around....

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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!