Congrats to Mr. Redboots!

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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

Thanks. And I could use a personal denim shopper - I seem to have "muffin tops" in all my jeans, sigh...

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

Wet and windy:

Still flu-ish but went to a doctor today and she said my body is winning the fight with the flu. Funny, I sure don't feel like my body is winning the fight right then.

Clear Blue Skies:

Well, the best way to describe it is when DH called me up to ask how I am... but he didn't ask me how I am... he ask this question: "Did you go to your lesson?" When I said "Yes!" he said, "Good! You're definitely feeling better! "

Yes, I felt well enough to go to my lesson, though when I got there to stroke around a bit (not pushing hard), I was really starting to feel REALLY warm again (and it's a relatively brisk day here today.) I told primary coach to ease off on me. At first he didn't believe me... until I went into one of my coughing fits!!!

And we were working on playing around with footwork today!!! And he was trying very hard for me to be more nit-picky! Then he worked me on part of the 8 step mohawks. (My FO mohawks SUCKS...was doing a choctaw rather than a FO mohawk!!! ... but he wasn't working on that today.) The feel he wants coming out of me is a "marching feeling" today. I think I finally got it towards the end and then he goes into his hissy fits and says "Did you DIE!!! Did you hit your head???" I said "No, but I sure got a headache around NOW!!!"

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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!!!

LOL! You can sometimes get around those by getting jeans with the right proportioning (smaller hips, bigger waist) and the right rise (length from crotch to waist a little higher or a little lower), but on my "bloated" days, I still find that a babydoll top works magic (it's flared at the bottom so it doesn't show the muffin top!)

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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

Clear Blue Skies:
Part of me feels ready for this test tomorrow and have the feeling that I will pass!

Wet and Windy:
The other half of me is still not sure about passing.

Is this normal?

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Go get 'em Terri! We have faith in you!!!!

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

Absolutely normal! Between now and tomorrow, just visualize yourself skating through every potential bobble and holding on (with nerves of steel and deeply bent knees!), to complete each edge with total control. . . one at a time, all the way to the end of the test. And if you make a mistake, don't let it mean anything, just tell yourself, "It's okay, there won't be any more mistakes, and I can pick up this one on the re-skate."
May the Skating Gods be with you and keep your edges true.

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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

Perfectly normal!!!

When I was testing Bronze Moves on my third try, I was wondering whether or not I was going to pass too, mainly b/c I was hearing also that some people didn't think I would pass it this third time either. When I was starting to feel like I wasn't skating my best after the second move, I said "OOOOOH NO!!! I am NOT going to retry this test again!!! I am going to PASS IT!!! I'm going to prove those naysayers wrong!!! " And with all that anger in me, I push for the rest of the test and did well.

Like my siggie says, it's YOUR time to SHINE, girlfriend!!! So go out there and show'em all that 'ya got!!!

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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!!!

Terri: Fingers, eyes and toes are crossed for your success tomorrow! Though I have never tested, I can only imagine your feeling range is likely normal. Sleep well tonight and let only the confident part of you show up at the rink! We will be thinking about you!

Clear Blue skies: I had two rotations on a back spin today several times! free foot is not were it is supposed to be but more like just hanging out off the ice.... but this is exciting! I had no ability to even get a 1/2 rotation for over a month now! Sometimes I would start and immediately holt.... caught up on my inside edge. I showed my coach...she was less than excited about this accomplishment but I am thrilled! giggle.

Wet and Windy: Had bridge class last night. It was final rehearsal for the Christmas recital thingy. The skate director stood on the ice right were I had to do my toe loop out of a lunge and I was unable to get it in every run through. I went an hour before class and practiced and had no problem. The spin was not great from me at the end either! I get so anxious because I am required to come out of the spin and stretch into an ending position FACING the audience. I am not that great that I can't always predict when to come out to make sure I am ending facing the right way! lol. The anxiety seems to interfere with the spin which is the easy part!

The Skate director gave us a big lecture (wasting precious practice time) about how she wanted us to skate well as it was to attract new folks to the bridge program. She said we should be embarrassed! (keep in mind that I am the only adult...we are talking kids from ages 7-11). I held my tongue well but it was not easy as my thoughts raced to how unorganized this whole class was! It was just so offensive when we were really trying hard! I have to just keep remembering ...it is what it is!

Friday night will be the final rehearsal of my freestyle classes program for the same event. At least that one will only be performed once. Truthfully, it is in much worst shape than the bridge class one!

Had my MIF lesson today. My coach showed up late as usual despite my telling her I could not stay late due to my step class. I am really getting tired of this! I did not have the energy to ask her if she had cut my music or even tried to do anything with my program. I will leave that for my surprise in my freestyle lesson tomorrow! UGH!

Egads, I have got the skating blues! lol....I think I am done venting now though!

More Clear Blue skies: I have brownies in the oven just about done! They are there to self medicate my current mood state!

Dallas, You are a woman after my own heart. I can sense the cyber aroma of chocolate decadance whisping through the air...

WTG on the 2 rotation backspin!!! You have increased your revolutions by 150 % You totally deserve brownies!!!

Terri C. Keep reading your thread just for you! You will pass this time. If I were there, we'd indulge over cheeseburgers at the little pub we went to after the meet up back in September. (was it Kelly's? the name of the place escapes me... )

Wet and Windy:
Already starting to get a little jittery about our holiday show tomorrow. At practice today I couldn't manage even a decent Salchow. I have lost my attitude spin and cannot find where I put it at all. (does someone have one I could borrow just for tomorrow?)

Clear Blue Skies:
....ummmmm. I'm really trying to think and end on a positive note here...maybe I will just go with the brownies-out-of-the-oven-thing with DallasSkater...

Better doublecheck this... some local competitions do, some don't. We'd hate to have you miss out on an event you really want to do, because of a minor technicality.

Wet and Windy: The high school hockey group on the ice before us last night destroyed the ice and the new kid left in charge of the rink didn't take enough time to properly resurface so the ice SUCKED. I don't think he scraped it at all, just raced around dumping water down. So there were ruts over an inch deep everywhere and what wasn't gouged had ripples and bumps from the slush that hadn't been scraped off. I gave up doing figures because I couldn't hold onto a plain edge through all the bumps and holes; it was pointless to even try turns on ice that bad. Several of us vowed to speak to the rink manager ASAP about getting New Kid some Zamboni training or replacing him with one of the guys who knows how to make decent ice after hockey.

Spinning was also nearly impossible as there wasn't a square foot of level ice in the spin circle. The ice dancers were having fits because they kept getting stuck in ruts on the outside lobes.

Also my club has instituted a new ice policy where you get to use as much of the club ice offered (7 hours) weekly for one set monthly fee (basically the price of buying three sessions individually) so the sessions are getting more crowded. Which is good for the club but the regulars like me have gotten spoiled and now we have to adjust to more people and new patterns that we aren't familiar with. That plus the bad ice made finding jumping space a challenge, especially for me, since I jump CW.

Clear Sunny: In spite of the ice, I managed a few good spins (I was terrified of travelling out of my tiny spot!) and even had one semi-successful camel-back-sit combination spin. Coach was pleased.

And we went back to working flips and lutzes, after a long hiatus to allow my sprained ankle to heal. (At least that's the official excuse - mostly I just avoid lutzes like the plague because I hate - hate - hate them!) The flip is back to normal - rotated but two-footed. The lutz never leaves the ground. And we added a tricky little glide pose to the end of my change spiral, which had a couple of the kids giggling madly at he vast difference between coach's elegant demonstration and my klutzy attempts to copy her.

Clear blue skies:
Landed some flips last night. Finally got the loop to work after struggling with it for some reason. The sessions were relatively peaceful - I was expecting insanity since there is a test session tomorrow, but things were very calm. I was able to run through the moves, including the 8-step. In my lesson, I learned a correct waltz-half loop-sal sequence (I had learned, or at least had been doing, it incorrectly before) for Bronze CM at NYI. We also worked on back power 3's - good thing that we did that now, I had been trying to do them based on what I'd seen the kids practice, and it turns out I was developing a bad habit on them.

My coach was impressed with how the forward cross rolls and 3-turns were coming along. The back cross rolls needed some work, but we spent some time on those I think I'm getting the idea of how the pushes are supposed to work. My coach told me (I didn't ask) that she thinks I'll be ready to test Silver MIF sometime in the spring. (I assume she means really late spring, like June 20 - lol)


Wet and Windy:
What has happened to my loop and salchow? It took almost an entire session to get them back to normal. Power pulls still lack...um...power. BI 3's are still inconsistent. FO mohawk is still flat at high speeds. And I need more power in my transitions from the forward to back turns, b/c I run out of steam about halfway through the second half of the back turn lobes. Also, the lines and red dots on the ice are becoming very hard to see - they didn't repaint the ice when they replaced it in August, and now you can barely see any marks, so it's hard to tell where exactly the axis is.

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

Clear blue skies:

Finally got to the rink after almost 2 weeks off. Beautifully cut ice on the early morning session, and only about 1/2 dozen people. I'm spoiled. Didn't feel too bad after so long away.

Oh, and got to do several run-throughs of Dutch waltz and a couple of Canasta Tangos (haven't yet memorized the second so had the cheat sheet in hand).

Wet and windy:

3-turns are getting away from me. Don't know what the heck I'm doing wrong. Must conquer this, as they're, uh, rather important and come up ALL THE TIME!! Time to get back on a regular practice & lesson schedule.

My pattern on the Dutch Waltz doesn't much resemble the paper! I lose all kinds of steam on the first 2 swing rolls, then the end pattern is huge and I end up with zero space by the time I'm finished & ready to repeat the pattern. Guess it's time for some actual lessons on this!

Halloween Classic is the only USFSA that I do (as of right now) although I do have my eye on Skate Wilmington, so I will double-check, thanks for bringing that to my attention (I have forgotten that for every competition there is a different set of rules!)

Dallas: I love your type of self-medication! WTG on your backspin! I think you've been outspinning me lately! I've only been able to scrape the ice and just barely...spinning hasn't been my thing lately.

Sk8pdx: It was Kelly's....I sure wish we had one around here! Good food! Great Company!!!

TerriC: Kick Some ICE!!!!!!!

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

Be sure to push strong on the last stroke of the progressive before you swingroll, and when you push for each swing roll also. Make sure you really get down in the knee when you push off and push off the whole side of your blade...it helps!

I'm working through this with hubby...his lobes on the swing rolls are f-l-a-t!!! So when we are in Killian and doing the dutch waltz and hit the swing rolls, we are fighting each other because he tends to go straight and my lobes are deeper (although still not deep enough according to our coach!)...

Good Luck!

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

If you want to skate Pre-Bronze, you do not need to have passed any USFSA tests. You'd be "skating up", which is allowed at any comp except AN. I may do Skate Wilmington in July (can't think that far ahead - lol) - hopefully, there will be some other Bronze ladies that will sign up this year - for the past few years, there haven't been any.

One note: it is possible to disqualify yourself from competing at a particular USFSA level if you've passed beyond a certain level in ISI. Check the rulebook to see the highest ISI test you can pass and still be Pre-Bronze before you take any more tests.

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

That is something that I have to consider...either ISI or USFSA...and testing conversions. I think Don Korte's site has a chart. My coach is pushing for me to pass up to ISI Freestyle 4 but I don't know if that's possible by spring...I can barely do a back 3...maybe ISI Freestyle 3 and I think that's still under USFSA pre-bronze (or maybe equivalent). I will check it out.

There is another comp at The Pond in Newark at the end of February that I'd like to do. Haven't heard any more about it, though.

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

These are the crossover ISI:USFSA levels from the Gay Games website.
(Their competitions are based on the ISI test structure.)

ISI FREESTYLE LEVEL USFS FREESTYLE LEVEL
Freestyle 3 Adult Bronze or Pre-Prelim
Freestyle 4 Adult Silver or Preliminary
Freestyle 5 Adult Gold or Juvenile
Freestyle 6 Intermediate
Freestyle 7 Novice
Freestyle 8 Junior
Freestyle 9 Senior

ISI DANCE LEVEL USFS DANCE LEVEL
Dance 3 Preliminary
Dance 4 Pre-Bronze
Dance 5 Bronze
Dance 6 Pre-Silver
Dance 7 Silver
Dance 8 Pre-Gold
Dance 9 Gold

I had to laugh after looking this up on their website.
They have a competition called the "Fabulous Cup." I love it - they're so outrageous!

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For Bronze FS:

A competitor in the adult bronze free skate event must have passed the adult bronze free skate test and no higher than the adult bronze free skate test, the standard preliminary free skate test, the ISI freestyle 4 or prior to Oct.- 1, 1977, the 2nd figure test. No axel and no double jumps permitted.

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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, I just looked this up in the rulebook (killing time while waiting for Terri C to come on ) and it says that competitors in Pre-Bronze may not have passed higher than ISI FS 3. In Bronze, you may not pass higher than ISI FS 4.

So if you've passed ISI 3, you can compete in Pre-Bronze, or any higher level, although to compete in Bronze, you need to pass at least Pre-Bronze FS (although there are some comps that occasionally make exceptions and allow you to skate Bronze as a No-Test if there is no Pre-Bronze offered).

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

... with BAITED BREATH!!!

__________________
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!!!

Thanks, guys! We will pay close attention to this...maybe there is a reason why I have such trouble with those stupid patterns....

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

Clear Blue Skies: The ice at my main rink, which is usually crappy has been FABULOUS this week and I feel like I know how to skate again! Apparently because some of us had been crabbing about it and starting to skate at the other rinks in the area, my coach said something to the management to the extent of: "It's too cold, the ice is crap and it's too dark and so you are going to lose your adult skaters to the other rinks!"

Wow, I guess they heard her this time -- it was warmer, the ice was beautiful glass (great patch [ figure] ice!!) and the manager actually turned the lights on (all the lights, not just the bare minimum that you need to see) during the session!! Here's hoping they keep it up...

Working on Bronze Moves with a vengence -- perimeter Power STroking getting stronger and stronger -- learning to really lean and present myself on those edges. Alternating BO edges improving -- more power, etc.

Wet and Windy: Oh, that dratted Power 3 step-forward on the right side. I am ending up doing it really slowly like a figure and then I can step forward. Any speed and I am scared. I really have to get over this. Also stepping forward on the right side of the 5-step. My coach figures I'll get this one, but the other one she said, I would really have to work on to get it right. I don't want to disappoint her by putting out a crappy test and so I think I will have to just work this one until it happens every time. Maybe I will drug the judges so they don't notice how slowly I am moving...

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

CBS: started shaping up Bronze moves ladder. Coach had me worked on conforming to the patterns. I figured 4 out of 5 patterns in Bronze moves are using 5-lobe pattern. Overall moves run-through fine.(at this point, we are not talking about primary focus or secondary focus yet)

WW: my dreaded F power-3...I had hard time to hold the push to FO3 from BXOR. Some residue habit from PBM F3 pattern, I think. Will need more hard work on holding the FO push to the top of the lobe.