Labor:
Everything on the ice was. I just felt off today and unmotivated.
Loop is trying to extend the summer vacation.... even my toe loop was off

Leisure:
Moves were the best part for me today. It did help to share the ice with a Novice dance team that while they are from here, actually train at IceWorks in PA.

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

Labor

I know where you're coming from, Terri C.
Sadly, everything was a labor this evening.

No progress so far with programme music.

The ice was really bad tonight (as mintypoppet will testify)

Skated for about 45 mins on the tea-time patch. I got new boots on Saturday and I'm trying to break them in.

What can I say..OOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
My feet were absolutely killing me.
I've been given these orthopedic footbeds to put in my skates/shoes. The left skating boot is fine, but think I'm gonna have to admit defeat with the right one and leave the footbed out.

I'm feeling fed-up at the mo. The cost of the boots has left me skint for the rest of the month, the right foot is still not better so no jumps still. Everybody at the rink seems to be making good progress but me...I WILL hang in there, I'm determined to keep at it, but I have days (like today) where I just feel like quitting....

Sorry people, hopefully will be a bit more positive tomorrow - get the self-pity out of the way tonight lol!

S xxx

__________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

Labor:

• Most of my flips and loops are two footed.
• The ice... the YB rink is getting ready for ice maintanance and they're doing just dry cuts, so ice is dry crap this afternoon! (Should be okay next week when ice maintanance is done and they start building back up the ice. Hopefully there will be NO DITCH when I come back on the ice next Monday!

Leisure:

• Had some really close loop and flip landings where I land on the correct foot and stayed landed for a millisecond... Seems to help when I keep my landing foot across until I have just landing and then come out.
• I guess I'll know whether my newly sharpened blade is doing well once I'm actually on nice SMOOTH ice instead of SLUSH!!! But it's nice to finally get my blade sharpened (after how many MONTHS!?!?!) *sigh*

__________________
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!!!

Sonic: Sorry about the boots. Sounds very frustrating. I wish you speedy break in time and a wonderful and successful next session!

Labor: Arrived at the rink today to discover that everyone and their uncle decided today was the day to skate! OMG it was soooo busy. Discovered only 2 people on freestyle ice but arrived too late to sign up and it was the last session of that. Why did I not think to ask if they might offer freestyle ice on a holiday?

Had my skates sharpened today and that also makes me feel shaky with trying anything too ambitious. There was no room to be ambitious anyway!

Leisure: The holiday weekend afforded me wonderful opportunity to skate everyday. My one footed spin as really come along. I owe the progress to this board and the tips given on the threads. I discovered just how far up on the blade the "sweet spot" is and it made a world of difference in revolutions. I had consistently 6-8 on a one footed...even out of a cross over! Can't wait to show my coach this progress as she has been gone for a competition. Right shoulder is behaving and staying put! Hope it stays!

New semester of skate school starts for me on Wednesday. Taking 3 classes. Realized the only other thing I count down days to start is a vacation. Validates reasons I am willing to put so much effort and money into this. We will see how my feelings may change when during this semester we are doing a Christmas show. Last year an adult who took LTS with the kiddies (like my classes will be this time..reached top of adult offerings) performed in the show. Their song was Grandma got run over by a reindeer. Guess who was Grandma...she said her role was to skate out there and get run over! I am worried....lol. Surely they can be more creative ...right? (gulp). giggle.

Well, that's the life of a "show skater!" And as an adult sometimes you get fit into the roles as needed. This past spring, I played the lovely Miss Gulch (Wizard of Oz)...bike and all. Not a glam role or anything but it was as fun as I made it....I was also a poppy that made Dorothy fall asleep...hmmm one evil role after another. Should I worry about being typecast? Maybe I should stop yelling at my kids in front of the director or I'll never be a snowflake in Nutcracker!!!!

Good luck getting a good role!!!

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

Labour: (<---Canadian spelling ) Tonight was the start of Fall Skating School - new rink but back with my winter coach. After two and a half hard busy weeks off the ice (MAJOR construction!) I wasn’t sure what would still be there and what would be gone! The session started out less than encouraging. All the forward basics were still there but it took most of the first hour to get the backward edges and stroking to come together.

Leisure: Everything DID come together in the second hour and my coach had me do a little of everything up to Three Turns but I was feeling a bit rusty and pooped by then so she introduced me to the back Mohawk instead. Ok, this is one turn that is going to come easy for me At the end, my feet were killing me and my muscles were sore (especially the muscles for backward!) but it was a productive start.

Best of all, I am back on the ice and this is the beginning of the long haul through to next spring and hopefully my first competition and a major one at that!

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

Skate@Delware: my new best friend aspires to be a snowflake! giggle. Very cool that you have had the opportunity to reframe evil roles to be fun! Will try to adopt your attitude!

Rusty: Welcome back to the ice. I bet this week will go better now that you had that session. Hmmm sounds like I need to adopt some of your style as well. I am worried about being run over and you are setting your eye on the prize of a major competition! I wish you much luck with that wonderful goal. (I am hoping for a little local competition where I might not stand out as much as an anxiety ridden competitor!..giggle).

Labour (British spelling, as well as Canadian - and, I think, Australian.....): I don't think the Husband really wanted to skate this morning! Difficult to remember we have one of the most important competitions of the year coming up all too soon.

Our coach decided to change the step sequence of our free dance. So whatever happened to "simple steps, done well", I'd like to know.... I think we can do it, but Husband was getting very confused - so was I, for that matter, but not to the point of "Oh, am I stepping to forwards there, not doing a 3-turn?" Sometimes, when he is confused, he thinks a 3-turn is 360 degrees, not 180! I said he could do a back 3-turn there if he wanted to.....

Leisure: Our coach was delighted to learn that we'd actually won the Dutch Waltz, and made us show him our new start (he flatly forbade us to do the one we'd done at the Mountain Cup, which he said he hadn't seen before and didn't like), and then to do a pattern of it, after which he said he supposed he saw why we'd done well, which is great praise from him!

After Husband left, I did a couple of run-throughs of my dance moves, which were okay, but only okay. Better than they were, I think; we will see what tomorrow's lesson brings forth.

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

Oh yea, congratulations Boots! Well done, both of you!

Thanks Dallas! I am, by nature, someone who never feels "good enough" and thinks "Just one more (whatever) and I'll be ready." So I set my sights high right from the start and only have ONE goal to achieve. After that, everything else will be easier! (Now isn't that strange psychology! LOL!)

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

This is actually frommy Saturday lesson, but work was crazy yesterday, so I haven't had a chance to post.

Labor: The choctaw into my almost-a-scratch scratch spin. I have to stop thinking so hard about it and just put my stinkin' foot down!!! Back cross rolls. These are fine with a partner or in a line, but sucky by myself. I don't like BO edges and stepping from one to another is awful. Grr! Tensing up so much on my toe loop that I'm actually causeing myself to NOT jump. Same with salchow. Walkthroughs are perfect, but when I intend to jump I tense my shoulders and freeze every time. Blech!!!

Leisure: Started choreographing my program. I've settled on Billy Joel's Vienna for the music and have the first fifteen seconds choreographed. I'm doing this myself, which makes my coach laugh because she sort of assumed I would, even though I asked her to help me -- there's too much dancer in me, I guess, and I love choreographing dance. She figures that I'll do just as well as she will with the choreography, but said she'd watch and help out if I get stuck or miss a skill. Of course my darn choreograher put in moves that I don't do particularly well yet... thanks! I start with a right swing roll with a change of edge, RFI to LBO choctaw, LBO three, RFI three, two back crossovers into my almost-a-scratch spin. I can do the swing roll and change of edge well, the rest, not so much. But my intention for a program was to force myself to do these skills up to speed and in time with music (since my internal metronome won't let me skate off the beat), so I think that's an OK start.

Also leisure: I have a 1-revolution jump! For some reason, I have a consistent half loop. I also have a half flip and half lutz, but no waltz jump, toe loop or salchow. Coach laughed at me again for this -- who on earth gets the half loop as a first jump?? Got foot crossed for one scratch spin, too.

Decided that I'm doing well enough with the footwork in Synchro that I didn't need to show it during the lesson. This is the first season that I'm completely confident that I can do everything in the program without drilling the footwork beyond running through it a couple of times when I practice alone. Yay!!

Labor: RINK IS FINALLY OPEN!!! THE ICE IS HARDER THAN DIAMONDS!!!!! Sorry for shouting but I was excited to skate at my home rink (finally) and of course you forget that they turn the compressors on all the way for the first week or so. Which makes doing anything exceedingly difficult! Talk about having a time finding your ice legs!!!! Took about an hour before I felt somewhat confident...and then I only tried waltz jumps. They were crappy. I didn't worry about it too much tho. Couldn't do mohawks. They just didn't happen at all.

Leisure: Worked on the little things: partnering with hubby and helping him with his basic stroking, spinning, and swing rolls. He is having a hard time with the "bend your knees" and "don't look down" concept. He did manage some 2-rev spins. I managed some decent spins, thanks to the hard ice. There were only about 10 people on the ice; a mix of kids (homeschooled), hockey, freestyle skaters working on "stuff" and our ice dancers....it was fun!

quarkiki2: I can do the 1/2 loop but cannot for the life of me land a plain vanilla loop!!!! I have a mental block for some reason. Hang in there, you will get it!!!

Diane: I started skating in shows so I would get used to skating in front of people when I finally started competing...it has helped. But it will get easier the more comps you do.

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

Labour (Brit spelling )
Feet are sore. Felt very down when I stepped onto the ice for the tea-time session. Skated for one hour, then hung around for the evening session for the dance interval.
What can I say...my Dutch Waltz was okay, but everything else total and utter rubbish. I am so embarassed, I don't know whether I can bring myself to skate on the one next week, let alone join the ice dance club...

Leisure
Managed a few jumps - didn't dare attempt flip, but almost managed a few loops.
My spins are returning again, after the disasterous attempts yesterday! Managed a few decent spins, and a few half decent CENTRED sit spins.

Well, I'm a crap dancer, a weak jumper....but if they bring in a 'spinning only' discipline into figure skating I'd be okay!

S xxx

__________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

It's said that trying to think of happy things when you're sad is difficult, and vice-versa. And I'm tired and grumpy, so here's the...
Labour:

Nerve pain still happening, and getting progressively worse. My podiatrist won't touch it again until my new boots break in properly, but it's making it painful and frustrating to skate, and there's no obvious solution in sight. RFO edges aggravate it, and L swing rolls feel as though the leg's about to explode. Rather annoying.

Sonic and I are sulking through new-boot-pain and unknown-foot-injury-pain together.

Leisure:
Did the Dutch Waltz in hold, and still remembered the steps. It's the only dance that seems to be completely ingrained in my brain at the moment.

Someone asked me how to do a teapot, so that must have made an impression - hardly the most elegant move though.

Going on holiday tomorrow, so I'll be off the ice for a week. I'm not sure that walking or sightseeing constitute rest, but I guess it'll use a different set of muscles. I'll be climbing the walls by the time I get back though.

__________________
"Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases:
(1) It's completely impossible.
(2) It's possible, but it's not worth doing.
(3) I said it was a good idea all along."
- Arthur C Clarke

Labour: Today's skate was awful. Coach changed our step sequence yesterday - for the most part, only the hold. But can the Husband remember the steps now that the hold has changed? You guess! I kept telling him that it was exactly the same steps, but somehow 3-turn, back outside swing roll is beyond the bounds of possibility for him to remember.... sheesh....

Then my private lesson was pretty pants, too. Cross-rolls reasonably okay, but in the cross-cuts, and back skating generally, he seems to want me to do several totally incompatible things at once - how do I bend my knees and raise my hip at the same time? I think we got thoroughly fed up with each other by the end of the lesson.

Leisure: Coach did say my back crossovers had improved......that's something, I suppose.

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

Labor:Getting back into the Swing Dance and Fiesta Tango. If I could possibly "roll" any more edges, I could probably roll a cigarette with my blades! We spent a great deal of my precious 45-minute lesson for the month on swingrolls and chasse's. It was good work, but definitely falls into the "Labor" category. Though the light, however dimly, did come on after several passes. Now for that mohawk which begins the Fiesta end pattern. Perhaps a couple months of work on leaving the shoulders in place, moving only the hips. The rest of the Fiesta is ok though. The Swing is getting better. We have no test session in October, so coach says she I'll have to test these in November then. Then there was the brief "labor" on power pulls. Yep, definitely a weak side here. And the "good side" is not that good!

Leisure:A couple of elements my coach is trying to get me to learn. A backward hydroblade and (gasp!) a Charlotte. Neither of which I can do yet. She literally pushed me down to the ice while also holding me (she gets a Gold medal for how she can do these things.....) in a back hydroblade. What a strange, but fun, feeling. Next was the Charlotte, done crosswise on a hockey line for now. Yikes! I will not be attempting this by myself any time soon. As slow as we were going, with her hanging on to me, looking ( or trying to look ) at your knee while going backward and seeing the ice going by....I don't know.....it was only leisure because I knew I probably wouldn't fall!!! LOL!

Leisure: Started out normal with some waltz-loops, loop-loops, and flips were good. I was happy that today was a jump day. Cause last Wednesday I landed my axel for the first time out of the harness!!!!!! I was so excited, that I fell pretty bad on it Friday, LOL and got a small injury. But I was back today and guess what? Axels from standstill were pretty much consistent!!!!!!!!!! I was soooooo excited. I'm so happy to get this. I've been working on it for about 2 months and I really want to put it in my comp. program if possible.

Labor: Started getting REALLY tired after about 15 minutes after doing axels so I started falling more, hitting my knee to the ice, saving my body with my elbow, which hurt really bad after 2 times of doing it, LOL. Plus my stomach hurt, didn't have time to eat before skating.

Overall I'm just excited about my axel!!! YAY!!

CONGRATULATIONS!! I will never forget the first time I landed an axel. I still remember the actual date it happened. It is a big deal, and it is the bridge to double jumps.

In the weeks following my first axel landing, I remember I went through a phase where I had bad falls and bruised myself up a lot, so be careful. If I knew then what I know now, I would have paid a lot more attention to my body position on my takeoff edge and just *not* take off if it didn't feel 100% right. That's what I do now, and I never have bad falls on the axel anymore. Here's a good checklist before you leave the ice:
- Lead with your chest, which is lined up over your takeoff knee
- Takeoff knee is lined up over your takeoff foot toes.
- Shoulders back a little, especially your landing side shoulder.
- Free leg bent and hanging in sort of a neutral position under your hip, not extended way behind you like a landing edge.
Those are the main things. And if you can do a controlled waltz-loop, you are probably in the right position on takeoff and will probably be fine on the axel.

Everyone was laboring away at my rink.. school is back in session and the rink across town is closed so the freestyle was crowded.
Moves were simply not going to happen, so Coach and I went the freestyle route.
Spins were good, except she still wants the sit lower and I forgot how to do the backsit. Then again, the backsit is still rather new to me.
Jumps were okay, Coach picked at the salchow, telling me to stretch the three turn longer.
Loop is slowly starting to come back- just need to keep working on it.
As the session thinned out, I worked on moves.

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

Labor:

• No lesson this week... I'm at my alternate weekend rink today b/c my home rink is under ice maintainance and probably is being painted and the pipes are being fixed as we speak.
• My loop and flip... maybe I should wait 'til after my ice maintainance is done and I get a lesson again.
• Backspin... eh okay... not great....

Leisure:

• Had PRIVATE ICE for a good 10 minutes and the rest of the hour was maybe up to about 5 people on ice... Nice!!!
• The newly sharpen blades are working out well... I am able to hold off taking off just a tad longer on the loop, so it's not too bad (and this is on very smooth ice.)

__________________
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 better be ready when I'm there next week!

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Yeah, no kiddin'!!! I REALLY miss my lessons already!!!

The website says that it should be opened by Saturday for normal business... and I know in the past that it has NEVER been late on length of time for ice maintanance. And if anything, I know the rink manager well enough to know she won't let it be late!

You should have ice by the time you come into town! (PM me and let me know which FS sessions you're planning on going to...)

__________________
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!!!

Labor: Spins...generally sucked. The ice is soooo hard that you just can't get an edge on it. Although I did manage a few but nothing to get excited about. Tried some waltz jumps, which were scary on the landing because I felt as though my blades were skidding out from beneath me...I'm going to attribute this to poor posture (instead of the ice) as I felt that my shoulders were not back enough. Salchows...toe-tapping again....I will get them back. Backspins were "interestingly not happening" although I squeaked out a one-rev. My first lesson on Sunday will be a major review!!!

Leisure: Just to have home ice again is nice! It was good to see everyone and catch up. The talk of the rink seems to be hubby's new boots (jackson pro-flex hinged boots) and everyone was expecting to see him in them. Not yet...hopefully we will get the call soon that our boots are in!

I'm tired!!! I've skated 5 hours in two days time.

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

Labor: Attended my first session of the bridge program tonight. 12 people enrolled ....I am the oldest at 44...the next oldest...my fear realized...turned 11 today. giggle. Interesting that we had 5 instructors for this class! Then I learned that part of this program is off ice. Following each 40 minute session we are to report to the BALLET room for 30 minutes of BALLET! I know this is supposed to be a good thing as I am not graceful and this might help but I think I deserved some psych me up for it time! I never imagined that I would take ballet...but ballet with kids...OMG!

Leisure: As shocking as all this was.... I loved every minute! giggle. Should be an interesting semester....2 more classes later this week. Learned my stroking instructor will be a guy who I have always wanted to have as an instructor and my freestyle class is being taught by my private coach.

The humbling process has begun!

Uh, we have a ballet room?? Learn something new everyday!
You looked fine out there! Caught a peak on our way out - I give you lots of credit to have the guts to do it (havent braved the beautiful plastic booties yet myself...........) and you have some great coaches out there - use them!!

SpaMama

Way to go Dallas!!!

At the local club I joined last winter (to get more ice time than my "adult group" in the city) I think the oldest coach was maybe 30 - I was 56 THAT felt strange! And being out-skated by 7 year olds, well, that's humbling. One of the almost-teens asked me how old I was and then remarked, in astonishment, "You're OLDER than my Father!" Thanks kid! - LOL!!!

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