(mopy post alert)

So, due to time contraints and more so complete lack of money, I've only been skating three times per week, one of those at a public (well, two at a public but the other one is midday and not crowded).

The sunday public session is packed with kids, lots of hockey kids, lots of figure skaters in the middle...I find myself tensing up constantly to avoid jumping into a kid who wanders into the middle or another figure skater.

I think I'm getting muscle memory of this tension that is staying with me into my lessons and other practice!

I am supposed to do my first competition ever on Nov. 11 in ISI FS4 and I have not once made it through my program doing even 1/2 the jumps -- My flip isn't there more than it is (I land maybe 1 every six attempts).

SO. TOTALLY. DISCOURAGED.

I don't know if it's lack of enough practice, tension from skating publics, bitterness over not having enough $$ for skating when my skating friends can afford to go 5 xs per week, or what it is...ugh

Plus, I've never done a competition before so I'm all freaked out now at the FS4 level, which is nuts.

Sometimes I truly wonder why I'm doing this!

(edited because I said "monday" instead of "money" in the first sentence!)

I'm the only adult at my rink that competes so I'm crazy also!!!! Sometimes I wonder why......

It's frustrating to skate on public sessions sometimes, I usually don't have a problem, the ones I pick are usually empty (key word: usually!) but there are times!!!!

At the very least, break your routine down into the smaller chunks and work on that, otherwise you will become VERY discouraged!

I have my first USFSA comp on Nov 4/5....I'm not sure if I'm ready although I'm told my routine is "nice"

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

Good idea to break a program into chunks to practice it. If you do that, try using different "chunks"--that is, don't always stop practicing a chunk at the same spot, so that you'll remember what comes next. I find that if I always stop at the same point, especially after a hard jump or other element, I'm a bit befuddled when I'm doing the full program and trying to remember what comes next.

I swapped out some elements in my program recently, and this proved to be a problem for a while, because one of the newly inserted elements puts me in a similar position to a later spot in my program--so sometimes I've accidentally skipped ahead to that later spot!

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Haven't competed and may never do so--but I definitely sympathize. I simply DO NOT go to the Friday night & Sunday afternoon sessions, unless I"m taking dd (5 yr old), when I know I won't get any practicing in. I find those crowded sessions hazardous in the extreme--mostly caused by the testosterone-overloaded preteen hockey boys zipping around uncontrollably. Plus I mostly work on moves, which require a lot of space. Not quite sure what I'll do next summer for practices when dd is off from school/daycare (that's when I usually practice these days).

As it turns out I was just PMSing, lol

(should I change the thread to "Skating While PMSing: Hazardous to you and everyone around you?")

Eh, back to the drawing board tomorrow

Or, in my case, the new show, "Tourrette's on Ice"

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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

I should just be glad my club hasn't started the "cuss jar" thing...I'd be really broke by now....can I say it's tourrettes????? or PMS?????

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

Hahaha, I'll bring in the bucket

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Tim David's Website

Please don't call it Tourette's.
I have a sweet boy I teach who has Tourette's. The meds this kid has to take to control his tics...but, he doesn't curse.

You can say it's an "out of mind" experience or you were "channelling" How ard Stern.

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PMS on Ice!!! LOL!!! Lucky for me, my primary coach's "PMS"-ing can outdo my PMS'ing ANYTIME, ANY DAY!!!

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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!!!

OK. Sorry about that.

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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

I was born on public session, I have managed to get around and get things done no matter how crowded it gets. (Even at Rockefeller Center public sessions) I used to get all mad, not anymore

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Tim David's Website

Actually, I find public sessions less annoying than a bad freestyle session because at least on public sessions you KNOW this is a session for "the public" and you KNOW they have no idea what you're doing or how to get out of your way. It makes it easier for me to be patient. On a bad freestyle session, everyone is trying to skate their patterns, their programs, and not looking out for you, even though they know better! Arrgh.

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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

Here's something really funny...said on club ice on Sunday:

Dancers: We are doing the American Waltz so we will be on our pattern

Me: ok (totally clueless what "the pattern" is...as they skate away)

Dancers: (after I was "in their way" several times) We were in our pattern, do you know what that was?

Me: not really, but I'm guessing now it's not like the Dutch Waltz, right???

Dancers: R-i-g-h-t....

Me:

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

It's funny you should say that, but sometimes I find the same thing. Haven't really experienced any bad patches as such, but skated on one on Saturday - and spent half my time avoiding the elite skaters practising doubles and the other half avoiding dancers! This is not the fault of anyone at the rink and no-one was 'hogging' the ice, just the way it was.

For some reason I feel most comfortable practising free skating on (quiet-ish) public sessions and dance on quiet patches.

S xxx

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

Skate@Delaware: Don't feel bad about getting in the way of the dancers. I still have trouble trying to dodge ice dancers on their patterns too... And given that I'm not an ice dancer, ummmm... the only pattern I know is probably the Dutch Waltz...

(Going to take my makeup lesson at an empty (hopefully) public session today...)

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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!!!

Well, my usual 6:30am FS during the week is just fine, but the Sunday mid-day freestyles at my weekend rink are just crazy right now. It's the only rink with a Sunday freestyle at a reasonable time of day, so it is packed to capacity, and it's almost all ultra-competitive kids getting ready for Nationals and Junior Nationals. Major tunnel vision, every one of them!
Yesterday I was sort of between elements and skating right next to the boards in a CCW direction in order to stay out of everyone's way. A girl comes skating right along the boards in the opposite direction, and starts to move to the outside to avoid me. Since she was moving to the outside, I stayed right where I was, but then--while looking right at me--she moved back to the inside so that she collided with me! I actually had to grab her shoulders as she ran into me! She just looked completely dazed. Then I saw her go up to another young teenage skater and reinact the encounter, clearly making fun of the stupid adult skater who didn't know where she was going.

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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

well I haven't seen anyone mention this - I think that public skatemare sessions are hazardous to the Quality of your skating. The ice is bad, you must look over the wrong shoulder, hook your jump exits, not dare extend the free leg, shorten your spin entrance and lets not forget having to bail out of a full speed scratch spin because some 4 year old is googoo eyes and drawn to you like a magnet. My slouched shoulder get slouchier and coach notices. Tough being an adult skater - only 1 rink around here and no club or PM freestyles.
Lyle

I'm with Tim David on this. I like public session skating, and I skate on freestyle so rarely...

I can't really give it my 100% all, but I can't do that on freestyle either - to go completely all out and lose restraint, I need to be both warmed up and on private ice (a treat that's so very rare, but I can find it sometimes towards midnight).

However whether there's 5 other people on a freestyle or 50 others in a public session, I can still give it my slightly safer 90%. I actually find that there are less surprises on public sessions as long as you keep your eyes open. For the most part, it's very predictable as everyone's moving in the same direction and gaps will form naturally - you just have to take advantage of them when they appear. Sure, a little kid might decide to cut out in a completely unexpected direction oblivious to what's going on around him, but they don't move that fast. The teen rental hockey skate idiots that move faster don't have much control to change their course, and their wildly flailing bodies make them pretty visible as well so they're pretty predictable too (and would you really care if you plowed one of them over? ). The two or three other decent skaters on public ice tend to be well aware of where you are, and it's easy to be well aware of where they are. I've only encountered one ever on a public session that had that that more freestylish attitude of "I'm doing my thing and you just better move". Too bad for her that got old and I stopped caring and figured out it's all a bluff anyways.

It's not the people in the way who bother me, it's the times when there are groups that will start clapping and cheering and/or following me around trying to get me to show them stuff or have little races/competitions. Fortunately that doesn't happen too often, and even that is better than the more rare times that there will be the a following me around group yelling lots of derogatory remarks because they think there is something wrong with a male wearing figure skates. I'd LIKE for those guys to get in my way...

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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

Rock on Dude! I tell the Hockey rats that if they were really tough they'd stopping hiding behind all that gear, take off their helmets and pads and thick gloves and go out man on man without their team and go at it 1 on 1.
Lyle

Eh, I wish I had your gumption, I just pretend to ignore them and hopefully remembered my ipod so I can tune them out. The sorts I'm thinking of don't come to the rink very often (probably because they end up getting kicked out), but they are pretty hard to contend with. I'm not a confrontational person. But I can still THINK confrontational thoughts.

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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

Yeah I usually can, the public wasn't so much the problem on Sunday, haha!

I do sort of find myself looking out for imaginary children on freestyles though and that's messing me up

Casey, offer to race them! Even though they have faster blades (flatter radius), we figure skaters tend to have much better stroking technique and can almost always beat them in a race!

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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

Yeah, Casey! Race the guys! This is probably a great time to show them how fast you go around the laps!!!

I've beaten a couple of little hockey guys though. Them going forwards and me going backwards. (Everyone know that's the figure skating cheat!!! You skate faster backwards than forwards.) But it still earned from those Gretsky-wannabes!!! Worst part is that I really wasn't trying to race them. I was trying to get around them when I was doing moves and had to go around the ends of the rink past them so I can continue my moves pattern. HONEST!!!

Actually thinking about it... I got a better idea... bring your hottie ice dance coach and ice dance with her in front of the guys!!! Make them jealous that you got a hot gal on your arm. I mean... think about it! Which would you hetero guys like to hold on skates, a hockey stick or a pretty lady???

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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!!!

Oh, I almost always go fast. But those guys are just MEAN and can't skate anyways. I think they're just jealous and it's the only way they know to express it. At least hockey guys who know how to skate are nicer.

I do that with the ones I don't hate...whenever one goes racing around the rink I do too. Always have to pass them on the outside too just to rub it in. I don't really think I go faster backwards though...personally.

That's the problem - hockey guys would rather hold the stick! They're the macho sorts so skating with a girl would never be something they'd wanna be caught doing (I don't mind though, more for me! ).

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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