Triumphant March:
Secondary coach had me do moves on the LONG AXIS TODAY!!!
And they are getting better!

Funeral Dirge:
Freakin left power threes have no power and the kids had limited places to spin because we still have bumps!!

__________________
Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Funeral Dirge:

I hope my coach at Chelsea Piers will have mercy on me when I have my lesson with him soon... cuz my extension on the first step of the 5 step mohawks is still non-existent, according to my secondary coach. Well, I take that back... mainly on the RFI mohawks. The LFI mohawks aren't as bad. All the other steps are getting there now, including that dreaded 5th step that the critique judge had commented on. But I need good extensions on the RFI mohawks too, especially on the very FIRST step! (And I *know* he and I HAVE worked on that last Christmas... DOH!!! )

Triumphant March:

The rest of the extensions on the 5 step mohawks are looking great!!! And other than that little "Oops" mentioned above, I really am looking forward to working with my Chelsea Coach coach again!

__________________
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!!!

Funeral Dirge: I have been going absolutely NUTS with no skating since May 27!!!!!!!!

Triumphant March: Yesterday I couldn't take it anymore - I have 1 hour ice time next week and 2 the week after - I rented the whole damned rink!!! I might even invite a few of my friends.

(If there is no opportunity, MAKE ONE!)

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

Triumphant March: Had a great time at the skating seminar on Sunday (except for the sore feet from so much skating, including about 5 run throughs of Bronze Moves!). Nice program, LoopLoop! (Though I don't envy you on that footwork sequence!) And good to see you again, Skate@Delaware!

Funeral Dirge: camel spin is on again - off again.

__________________
Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org

A group of us adult skaters here used to do that--all got together & pitched in for ice time. We'd buy late night ice to save money, on a Friday or Saturday night....midnight skating is lots of fun! There aren't many of us left anymore still skating, but that was a great time....

Isn't the 5th step just a slide chasse, though (sorry, my computer is fighting me on accents, which it does sometimes)? If what we were shown at the Mountain Cup camp is the same as what you are working on, that is the easiest step of the whole thing! I find....

Dirge: Couldn't even get out of bed yesterday, never mind skate - something (possibly the fall) knocked me flat on my back. Sigh. A bit better today, but I don't think I'll be going to dance club. Just hope I can skate in the morning.

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

Yes the 5th step of the 5-step mohawk sequence is the slide chasse onto the FI edge.

The 4th step is the one I usually see with the most problems.... If that 4th step (the "BO-FO mohawk" or step-forwards) is clearly a flat on almost every repeat of the pattern, I will generally mark that MIF (the 5-step mohawk sequence) below passing average.

Doesn't mean the skater fails the whole test, just that that particular exercise was executed below passing expectations. Especially because by Pre-Juv (or Adult Bronze) the skater has had to do that step-forward/mohawk in other exercises (e.g. the Waltz 8).

I realize that Adults who tested pre-bronze MIF before the realignment of moves won't necessarily have been exposed (training-wise) to the Waltz 8 MIF, but the BO-FO mohawk/step-forward is a fairly common step... in other parts of skating, generally used as the prep steps for a Waltz jump, for example.

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

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

And you know, I never had problems doing that step when it involved a waltz jump or a salchow, but in practicing MIF, it was hit or miss for a long time. Same thing with back crossovers - I could do them (relatively) powerfully and with minimal scratching when I was setting up for jumps and such, but on the MIF patterns, it was a mess. I always wondered why I could do things in the context of FS practice but when the same things were called MIF, it all went south!

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

I think it's part of the sport!

I have the same issues with different things (intro-3's for dance being a prime example). Out of context (like doing a rolling start w/o music) they work great. Throw in "standing with the coach and having the actual dance music start" and my brain freezes and forgets how to do the turns.

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

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

March: I finally saw the light on my running three's clockwise on novice moves. My right shoulder had always felt stiff and coach helped me to figure out I had to let it go to rotate into the next step. FINALLY, IT MAKES SENSE! Coach said it looks completely different. It has the right rhythm now.

Dirge: Only three weeks before my first triathlon and I haven't really practiced the swim part yet. It's only a half mile.

I'm doing the swim leg of a team triathlon in early July......and haven't trained yet either! We can drown together.....

Yes, it's a slide chasse! It's easier to do, but not that easy to master. (Well, I shouldn't say "dreaded"...I dread the 1st step more than anything else. The judge didn't like it though, which is why it became the dreaded move.) To get the extension needed for that last step, you need to go from bending forward on the 4th step to sitting back to the 5th step ("sliding" as you shifted your body transition.) and extending far. (Sorry, hard to explain, easier to demonstrate...) Obviously, sitting back is quite scary and you really need that free foot extended out to balance sitting back. But what ultimately fixed the 5th step problem for me was fixing the 4th step. My feet from the 3rd to the 4th were not closed together and I end up "hopping" to the 4th step. With that fixed, the 5th step was fixed along for the ride!!!

__________________
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!!!

It was good to see Mika, Debbie S, and Skate@Delaware at the seminar on Sunday! And Mika, thanks for the compliment on my program. The footwork is the hardest part! I'm hoping that the judges agree that "panic" is a valid facial expression for that section of the program.

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

triumphant march;
think I worked out why my Loop wasn't working. I simply wasn't bending down in the knee before take-off and so I was rising as I was turning on the RBO edge and therefore slipping off that edge. And the reason I wasn't bending is the fact of my boots still being new and stiff so it's harder to bend.

Was able to do alternate waltz 3's and alternate 3 jumps and even managed to do my alternate (i.e both ways) salchows and toe-loops today so things are improving slowly.

Dirge:

Still haven't been able to run through my programme and the competition is now just over two weeks away - 5 lessons left.

Also I now have blisters on the sides of my legs where the top of the boots have rubbed - owwwwieee!

I can't recall if all of your music "allows" for it, but just planting a smile on your face will cover a multitude of sins! (take it from me...it's something I learned to do for the shows). If your music is more somber, try a different expression (like a sad smile) and just keep it, and not let it go, that way you don't get the "panicked look". What I did see of your routine looked very nice!

Good Luck with it!!!!

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

LOL, Loops, about the "panic" expression on footwork! Tonight, I worked on my program with the coach who did the choreography and was taken to task for looking down during the footwork sequence. Comment of the evening: "The ice is not going to open up and swallow you whole if you don't look at it!"

Hey Jazzpants, if you read this, please clean out your inbox!

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

No, I'm not reading this... I'm replying to it!!!

It's clear now, BTW. PM away here! But don't expect a reply 'til 'oh probably Saturday night since I will be in transit all of Friday and Saturday I will be skating and having some good healthy food with dbny, ISk8NYC and whoever else plans to join us at Staten Island...

__________________
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!!!

Of course, much easier for us dancers as we're well used to it! It's really hard to do without sticking your bum in the air! But for me the worst step in the move is the LBI edge on the RFI/LBI Mohawk, which I can't do properly!

Friday's practice (mostly neutral!): We've lost our Dutch Waltz! Of course, as a result of the fall on Tuesday.

At least I'm back on the ice today, although it still hurts to sit on the loo, and also to walk up and down stairs. Skating hurt at first, too, but then I got used to it.

So we ran through our Dutch Waltz several times, and it improved, but it is so not what it was at the Mountain Cup. Plus Husband has forgotten all Xavier's corrections.... sigh...

The Fiesta Tango, however, was the best we'd ever done it. Well, one of the best. Except that Husband forgot all the corrections we'd been given on Tuesday, but luckily realised he had, so we did it again and it was okay. I don't think we're getting the edges we got with Xavier, though, all the same.

Free dance okay, except, guess what, yet again..... Husband forgot the corrections! Plus he forgot we'd changed the choreography at the end. But apart from those little things.....

Had a bit of a play with the thing for the Roland Hailston, but it's difficult to choreograph with the music cutting out on and off (as we were playing it through both earphones, and I had loaded the mono version I'd made; must change that) and Husband saying "But what are you doing now?" when I don't even know myself. I had a walk through it after he'd gone and I think I know roughly what is when, so we will walk through it at home, if we remember.

Then he went, and I ran through my artistic with no problems (don't expect any - it's competition-ready, just needs keeping up to the mark), and my dance moves. Which annoyed me because they were so-o-o-o-o-o-o-o much better than they were in my lesson; why can't I do them like that in front of the coach?

Then worked on stroking a bit and spins a bit and the inter-Bronze changes-of-edge a bit.

Several of us have birthdays this week, and someone had brought in a cake today; I arranged with the other two (married couple) who both have birthdays this week that they would bring in their cake next Friday, and if I bring one in at all (I might!), it'll be on Tuesday. And so it goes.....

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

Wait, are you going to be in Staten Island some time this weekend? Where are you guys going to be? Maybe I'll drive up!

__________________
August 22, back on the ice!

Since Jazzpants has announced her arrival this weekend in the great borough of Staten Island, I'll extend an open invitation to any SkatingForums members who want to join us for a "meetup." (I'm blowing my cover here! LOL)

We're skating at the Staten Island Skating Pavilion Ice rink on Saturday from 1-3pm, then we're going for a quick bite to eat at the Better Gourmet Cafe on Victory Blvd. Both places are pretty easy to get to from the West Shore Expressway (Route 440).

Anyone needs more info, give me a PM since Jazz is in transit.

__________________

March: Got my still-swollen left foot into the boot without major pain and actually managed to do salchows and toe loops and upright spins without pain. The jumps weren't high because of a fear of pain upon the the landing, but I did them.

Dirge: Foot is still swollen which, two weeks after the injury, is Not a Good Thing. If it's still swollen on Monday, I'm calling my doctor. Maybe it really is more than just a sprain....

But I'm down to skating only four hours a week for the summer anyway, since ice time outside of working hours is tough to find without a lot of driving. So maybe my body will have a chance to heal itself. And it's not as if I don't have tons of other stuff to do.

I also promised Fearless Leader (travelling coach) that I would do the ankle-strengthening exercizes he claims Yagudin does (although not the 3000 reps!) every day in hopes of preventin a repeat of the spraining. Actually, all I have to do is avoid all stairs for the rest of my life and I'll be fine...

Too bad my friends don't still live in Staten Island - I could invite myself for the weekend - lol! Have a great time, guys! Hopefully, Jazzpants and I (and other SkatingForums members that I haven't already met) will be able to meet up at AN next year!

Back to working on my backspin......

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

Triumphant - I think my knees have recovered from all the dancing at MC and I'm looking forward to hearing the stories from Germany. Still no skating - probably back to it this weekend.

Mika:
Have a great day tomorrow!!!!!!

__________________
Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Just realized if I'm to skate on Sunday I'd better swap my blades before then....i've been sooo busy I almost forgot!

And I can't remember if they have been sharpened or not, although I think they were just out of the box, so that's something else to take care of (I might stick with the 7/16" roh).

At least I know were my pads are!

And, I had a humorous thought, when my husband goes for his boot fitting, I might have my feet measured to see if my boots are ACTUALLY the right size for me (wouldn't that be funny if they are STILL the WRONG size after all these tries?)

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

March:
I just got the fabric samples for my new dress in the mail and they couldn't be more perfect! I designed this dress myself because I couldn't find anything ready-made that fit my music, then I commissioned a skating dress maker to make it for me, and she picked the perfect materials. It's going to cost me an arm and a leg, but that will just make me work harder on my program to make it worth the money. . . right? :p
This morning I did my first program run-through with all of the new "interpretive" movements and connecting moves. I temporarily blanked out in one or two spots, but other than that, it wasn't too bad.

Dirge:
Haven't been practicing my spins or jumps for WEEKS because I have been too caught up in trying to nail down this choreography! As a result, my camel spin is crappy and I missed the axel takeoff in my program this morning. I haven't even tried a double sal in almost a month, and I'll need it for my competition next month. . .