OK, here's your chance to pass along the good karma/instructions.... What BI-3 instructions did you hear that helped? (I'm always searching for the key phrase my brain will accept that will lead me to consistent BI3s!) I've been working on these for a while.. and sometimes they are there, and sometimes they disappear. And I just know one of these days my brain will actually tune into AND retain the words/tone of voice/image/feeling that makes these consistent again. (I did pass the US Pre-Juve MITF test.. that these are on.. so at one point I had them... I just seem to have misplaced them for uh, well, uhm... a WHILE. )

ooooh, now there's a thought....you're evil lol!

Only problem is, by the time I get back on the ice when this darn foot's fixed you two will be doing axels off both feet, never mind waltz jumps (whinge, whinge...

Never mind, I use the time off the ice to think to come up with something evil to get my own back...

S xx

Duds: Husband is better, but wouldn't skate this morning. I still don't know whether we are going to Alexandra Palace this evening, which is seriously annoying for several reasons:

1. I didn't know whether to leave the rink straight after my lesson or to stay on and work for another half-hour.
2. I don't know whether to let the Daughter know whether or not to expect us to call in briefly.
3. I don't know whether to have supper ready for 18:30, or not until our more usual 20:00.

Sigh!

Meanwhile, he now has a big bruise on his back - not as impressive as some I've seen recently, but it's a very definite bruise. He came home last night and said it felt much, much better, but still swallowed ibuprofen and anointed himself with it, too. He can breathe deeply, but coughing hurts (well, it would, wouldn't it).

So I went to the rink by myself, and skated alone, except for my lesson.

Fireworks: Mostly concentrated on backwards skating, dance moves and plain vanilla back edges. Coach1 was fairly encouraging, pointing out that the moves have only fallen apart because we are taking them up a level to the point where they should be testable. And at the end of the lesson I was managing my back edges much better than yesterday, or even earlier today! So I finished by showing-off the Russian stroking I'd finished with yesterday, and Coach1 said he'd never seen me do that better!

So it looks as though the way forward will be to practice stroking backwards in hold with the Husband just the way we have worked on our forwards stroking. Hmmm..... won't be easy!

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

Vanilla back edges? I wish I knew what all these names meant. Thanks to you Annabel I now know what Russian Stroking is, its that thing that I can only do on my right foot, glad you can do it though.
David Seaman does it perfectly, I guess I had better take up football!!

I mean as in "plain vanilla" - no chasses, no swing rolls, no cross-rolls, no nothing, just plain back outside edges!

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

Oh, that makes sense, funny you should mention that, now I have a hankering for an ice cream the fridge is beckoning, thanks.

Fireworks:

The new boots got stretched (were a little pinchy). For the first half hour or so of skating today, I thought, naah, that wasn't enough, I gotta try something else, my feet hurt and are falling asleep. . . then all of a sudden, after I'd been working for a while, I noticed my feet didn't hurt any more!!! Sooooo nice to have pain-free feet, and the pressure on my ankles that was bugging me last week wasn't there at all either!

Duds:

I wish I was nearer to the rink. I'd be there all the time. I'm 37 and am so very impatient to improve but I can't spend all my waking hours commuting back & forth (there's that pesky thing called a "life" that I must take care of!). . . guess I *still* need to learn some patience! Seriously bad case of Adult Onset Skating Syndrome here. . .

I know exactly what you mean! Suddenly, the overskating blahs I had back in April have disappeared and I suddenly WANT to skate again! AND (miracle of miracles) the long drive up north doesn't seem that bad......

still wouldn't mind winning the lotto, tho'!!!

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

FIREWORKS! FINALLY back on the ice! First day of "Summer Skating School", met my new summer coach (who's young enough to be my daughter!), and to find out what has evaporated since Spring School ended in May. To my amazement, not a whole lot was gone - pretty much where I left off. By the end of the sesson, even my backward skating was starting to come back (I was just beginning to flirt with backward edges in May). Forward one-foot glides were better than May (thanks to spending June one-footed on a Bosu )

I wasn't expecting to have a "full time coach" but since I was her only student today I was under constant supervision That's certainly going to pick up the pace of my learning!

DUDS This week and next the sessions are only 45 minutes (3 times a week). (They go to 2 hours after that.)

I am SOOOOOO pleased to find out a month's layoff didn't give my minuscule skills a chance to totally evaporate!

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

Fireworks: The ice was decent today!! They got a new blade for the zam and it really made a difference!! And here I thought this was going to be a permanent fixture at the rink.

Duds: BI 3s, which I got back yesterday, weren't as good. Looks like I need a little lesson!!

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

Sorry, can't help you there! My pics were taken on my analog camera, and I'm only a few pics into the roll. (My husband's digital camera has an intolerable wait between being able to take pictures, so I didn't bring it with me. I discovered this frustrating feature when I was trying to take pictures of the team event at last year's Halloween Classic! I missed all the good action shots.)

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

Duds:

5 step mohawks: Going weird on me!!! I'm having trouble again on the RFI mohawks again and secondary coach is trying to fix it. Don't know what happened though... it was fine Monday night. It's not that I can't do them... but just that I have to "wide step" on that first step to do them.

Power 3's: Good news and bad news. Good news... my LFO3 side is getting strong. Bad news... it's now making my RFO3 look REALLY bad!!! (It's now a bit slower than the LFO3 and I have to go fix the RFO3's so I would accelerate throughout the move. (Yup! I'm going for kiddie standard here!)

Fireworks:
Eh... that was last night!!! Am going to skip the gym and go to bed early tonight to catch up on some much needed sleep!!! Night, night!!!

__________________
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!!!

DUD; well yesterday everything was a dud. I went in just to have a practice and for some reason just couldnt skate. Could not do a Flip or even a loop to save my life. Everything just felt wrong. I could barely even manage a 3 jump - scary!
,
Fireworks: I've changed my programme round completely and coach doesnt' mind - well if he does he is doing a good job of hiding it. I know I could have persevered and got more speed and flow into the original choreography eventually but I felt that moving things about just would make me feel more comfortable with the programme. So I've swapped the flip and toeloop over so now I can do the toeloop earlier with speed and do the Flip from a drag which will slow me down anyway and coach gave me some good tips for checking and focusing after the drag. I've moved up the sitspin so instead of following my iffy flip it comes near the start of the programme which has meant sacrificing some nice steppy things that go lovely with the music but slowed things down a lot and now the elements are more balanced. I feel happier with it this way so hopefully will start being able to perform it better.

Loop and flip came back no problem today and I even did one flip I felt quite proud of! Sit spin needs a lot more work though - can't seem to find the right spot on these blades though the upright spin is fine. Must try and find more than 3 hours a week to skate.

Also just heard we are finally getting the new male dance coach - I may want to take up dance again!!!!!!

I was exactly the same yesterday. Everything felt awful. I guess it's down to not skating since Tuesday last week apart from the competition. I always feel a bit flat after competing so this probably didn't help. Oh well, doing some axel work at long last tomorrow. I need a new challenge!

Woohoo! At long last! Now all we need is one more free skating coach and our rink should be sorted. Can't see it happening though.

Nicki

__________________
www.myspace.com/insatiableskater

I heard that last week, but I'm not sure if it was as confirmed news, or just a rumour. I'm so pleased for you all!

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

Fireworks:
Had a wonderful time skating (and eating) in Delaware! It was nice to meet Flo, Mikawendy and Skate@Delaware, all of whom are great skaters in their own right. (I already knew DBNY and Sk8pics were great from our last meeting with Jazzpants.)

Duds:
After we move, I'm going to force some skating time into my schedule. I spend time on the ice, but it's all teaching time. Isn't helping my now-weak self to skate well and I've lost so much strength and control, it's sad. (Always fun, but still very sad.)

I drove from NY to Delaware and back, then got in the car for an 11-hour one-way trip to Virginia. Arrived home (after a 10-hour return tip) at 4am on the 5th. Haven't unpacked, much less unloaded, my camera yet, but I'll post the pictures tonight or tomorrow. Sorry for the delay!

__________________

Dud: Woke up yesterday w/ a terribly stiff neck, painful to move in any direction! Aagh, competition is Friday & new choreography given to me on Monday, & haven't practiced it yet! Stayed off the ice & did very careful stretching. Chiropractor was all booked up & couldn't get me in until this afternoon.

Fireworks: Went out & bought 2 new pillows yesterday, thinking that was likely the culprit. Tried one out last night--'memory foam', just a little half-bolster sort of thing. Amazingly I slept very well on it & the neck felt much better this morning. So went in to teach & then try to skate. Not bad--a little tentative & off balance, but I think I'll go ahead w/ the competition, just for the experience.

Dud again: Twizzles were definintely off today, balance really off center. And I'm really wishing I'd chosen slower music for my tango, I see the other girls working on theirs doing all kinds of neat footwork, which I don't have because I'm just barreling down the ice trying to keep up w/ the tempo! Too late to change it now though..... *sigh*

Someone just needs to sort for Batikat's coach's daughter to come back.

Fireworks:

• Survived Bronze Moves lesson.
• (Even more importantly...) survived Primary coach!!!!
• Second run thrus were better.
• Lesson learned: REST UP before a lesson!!! I'll have to adjust my bedtime or something...
• Watched primary coach's new program for Gay Games! (Yes, he is back competing again! I think he's doing both a FS event and a Pairs event...)

Duds:

• Still could be better. It's not a bad runthru but primary coach is still not totally happy with the Bronze Moves on the first run thrus.
• 5 step mohawks still need more work... First half of the pattern was really good on the timing. Second half... not so good... (I think my energy level is going about there.
• Lower back is bothering me on the left side after the lesson. Oh, dear...

__________________
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!!!

Fireworks:
Had an hour freestyle lesson, and got to work on everything except moves. I think my salchow is finally getting better, and my waltz jumps werent to bad either. My toe loops were kind of sloppy though. My loops were good today, but my flips wouldnt work. I did one nice camel spin, but my camel sit wouldnt work!! (I did several nice ones yesterday, but of course not in front of my coach! ) My sit spins were really good, even other coaches noticed!!

Dance went fairly well, although my swing rolls are out of control again. Im finally learning the dutch waltz!!

Duds:

Fell backwards on a loop and almost hit my head (scary!), also managed to fall enough to feel all sore now...

~kitty

Start a new program next week!!

Any tips on flips?

FIREWORKS!!

Wheee...I bought a 4GB iPod Nano with a belt clippy thing, and I must say that it is the best thing for skating ever. Skated all session without getting bored at all, skated well to loads of music, and didn't even use 1/10th of the battery.

Footwork seems to be coming out of nowhere, but I can't complain about that at all.

More variety of motivating music means more good skating!

__________________
Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Ok not posted on this before so here goes....

Fireworks
Did the Paso Doble again in my lesson. I like learning new, really hard dances way beyond my level - I can't do them but its fun. Its a treat at the mo - a break from competition stuff. And its good practice for me to skate with my teacher as I am useless at skating with a person.

But we did also work on the ending of my free dance. Now that the competition is over we can redo it. I did loops (the twirly things on the ice (in the new level 10 field moves) not the jump). Need to practise them though.

I've had a new found enthusiasm for field moves of late. Since passing my inter bronze field moves (a test I thought was light years away from me because of the back outside 3s) I find field moves fun to practise. I want to start trying the bronze moves before they change the systems over. Lots of double 3s though. yikes

Started to redo my free programme too. Going for style over difficulty since I was the only one who tried a double in my free skating comp. We'll see. Not sure I have any style........

Duds
Axels. As always. Will I ever get it back to how it was? 6mths ago I was practically there - I landed a few good ones and now just worse worse worse.

Very nearly kicked my dance teacher over on the paso doble. Never good.

And I suffered my usual coordination stupidity. I always get myself in a tangle getting new steps in my head. I got it eventually. Was a case of me lifting my left leg when I was supposed to be lifting my right one!

Fireworks:
Went skating today (on public session-we pulled into the parking lot to see a bus unload kids from a summer camp but it wasn't all that bad). Just glad to go skating again!
Didn't really "work" on things but ran through stuff, ok, yes I did "work" on my salchow which has gotten sloppy. I'm trying to keep my free leg straighter. And I did some really nice spirals.

Duds:
Worked on spins, but they weren't too great, as I've been having a 3-day migraine so my balance was "iffy." Did manage about 3 centered. Then I thought I'd work on some loops......I can do 1/2 loops, but now I'm spoiled for regular loops... can't keep that free leg FREE and UP!!!! DARN!!! Actually today's efforts were much better than any previous efforts so I will keep trying. I actually had one try where it was only a toe-tap!

Close.....so very close! Now if only I can get that darn sitspin!!!! I'd like to surprise my coach in September with these 2 things!!!

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

Fireworks:
Have some new freestyle elements sneaking in practice today!!
Getting better at the outside three to center figure.

Duds:
Too many beginners on lessons, so it deterred me from working whole patterns of Bronze moves. Also while trying to get a good edge on the RFO for the power threes, I have a tendency to rock onto the toepick. I'll be back to having lessons next week, so I'll have coaches look at it and see.

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

Oh if only. Don't think it will happen for a good few years yet as she said she needs several more years before she can get a proper residency permit or whatever that will allow her to work as a self-employed coach. It's such a waste