I can't believe I'm starting this thread this week! Just a quick note for now:

Floating--
Congrats to Debbie S who passed her Pre-Bronze MIF and FS in the same day!!!

Wow! Congrats Debbie - great job!

Congrats to Debbie S!

On another passing tests note, I got another pity pass from ISI Freestyle 1. All ok, but no waltz jump yet, grr!

Flopping: waltz jump I think I'm going to leave it for a while while I start private lessons and see if I can un-learn whatever mental block I'm having witht this jump. Skating director would like to see me in Freestyle 2 this fall, but I want to get down all of the stuff I've neglected while practicing the darn waltz-non-jump.

Floating: Two foot spin. Popped off several good ones, then the one that counted for my test was about the best one I've ever done! The tracing was a perfect circle about four inches across. 7 revolutions,too! I was quite pleased with that!! Plus, my instructor and the skating director gave me a 10 out of 10 on my spiral, too. I've finally been comfortable leaning at the waist and actually saw my reflection on one today and could see my entire boot over my head, so my on-ice extension is improving. Still mothing like the 160 degree split I get off ice, but it was maybe 110 or so.

I have my first private lesson tomorrow night and I'm excited!

Congratulations Debbie S and Quarkiki (by the way, I call it a "waltz step", at least, I call it a "3-step", but same difference.....).....

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

I skated this morning. Probably my only skate of the week.

Floating:

Once I got into the ice, felt very good! Stroking felt nice, turns, etc. Waltz jump, toe loop and salchow still there. Spins better than last time. LFO spiral was fine.

I practiced doing FI3s on the little semi-circle at the end of the ice - the aim was to hold the FI edge longer before turning (I have no problem with the edge or anything, but tend to turn quite quickly). After a few goes, was much improved, on both sides.

Also ran through the novice foxtrot again, and did it no trouble with the correct pattern! (My old rink was slightly smaller, so the pattern was slightly different, so I've got to get used to the new one.)

Flopping:

Couldn't seem to do a spiral on my right foot. I couldn't really last time either (as in I don't even get to the position). Maybe it's just one of those things, and they'll come back (hopefully!).

My left heel started to hurt a bit on waltz jump landings. Hmm.

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"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

Thanks. everyone! And congrats to quarkiki2. Wow, 7 revs on a 2-foot spin - I only did about 4 last night (well, 1 judge wrote 4 and another wrote 5 - my coach thinks it was 4 1/2).

Testing was quite an experience. I was much more nervous than for competition, or any school exams or oral presentations or job interviews. There's something about being alone on the ice with no sound and 3 judges staring down everything you do. I really thought I had failed MIF. You know it's bad when you come off the ice and your coach tells you that it was a great effort. My coach was unsure, but I was sure I had blown it when I made too many scraping sounds on the 3 turns, stepped on a flat once, and started the next FO turn before I reached the axis, twice. I also don't think the turn itself was always at the top of the lobe.

When the judges didn't ask for a reskate of the alt 3s, I thought I had definitely failed. As mikawendy can tell you, I sat in the lobby with my coach trying not to cry over it when someone came out and handed her my test papers and she informed me that I had passed (actually, one of the judges did fail me, but fortunately, the other 2 were feeling kind - one actually wrote that the FI alt 3s were "a good move"). I'm just mad at myself for not skating like I had in practice. I did 3 FS sessions yesterday morning/early afternoon, and my test performance was nothing like what I'd done hours earlier.

Anyway, I had about 5 minutes to dry my eyes and run over to the other rink to practice my FS elements before my warm-up. And even on my normally reliable FS elements, I still couldn't do what I did in practice. I did a 5 rev scratch spin in practice and then 10 minutes later, did 3 revs on the test, the passing minimum. I guess I have to work on nerves in testing situations. Oh well, I got through it in good shape. And all 3 judges passed me in FS. The judge who failed me in MIF commented on my FS form that I had "a lovely position" in my spiral.

Since I have no plans to go to ANs next year b/c of b-school and other considerations, I plan on waiting 3 or 4 months before starting Bronze moves and focus for the time being entirely on my freestyle. If I do compete Bronze at Wilmington, I'll definitely need to add more to my program than I have now.

Anyway, off to study for my HR final exam tomorrow. And then my summer officially begins! Yay!

Floating
Had to have my lesson today as there are tests taking place on my usual patch on Wednesday.

Had a great skate. Skated my programme through twice and both times pretty much perfectly with all my jumps and spins working. My coach even commented on my nice arm movements! So I am finally feeling a little more comfortable with my programme now which is a good thing since we have a club competition next week.

Flopping
My coach told me she's going away next week. That's great and I'm really pleased for her but it means I won't get my lesson next Wednesday morning and with the competition that evening I could do with one. Still I'm a big girl now and I know what has to be done!!!!

Nicki

Floppy: End of the Blues (the last couple steps). Still not getting in the right place to do the RFI into the LFO3 correctly. Coach had me work on doing a proper cross-behind and push (VERY hard for me...the push).

I think part of the problem is that I'm not getting enough kneebend, plus I'm not getting around enough (which is coming from not getting enough power on the back cross-stroke)

Floating: The choctaw is getting better. And we did almost 2 patterns to music today.

Flopping:
I test this week. Having a test day means that the rink is crowded crowded crowded and I had a lousy practice, the ice felt funny, my ankle hurt, my knee hurt, my hair was wrong, I was too hot, too cold, moan, groan, kvetch, boo hoo hoo. Nerves, that's all. Hopefully test day will be better.

Floating:
er, the weather's nice and I can wear shorts to the rink?

Floating: Was able to skate today, if only for 3/4 hour (didn't want to do any more than that, first day back). Did a fantastic lap of back outside edges, and said to my coach "Why wasn't that in my lesson, when you could have seen them!" He laughed, and said, "You'll have to do that again tomorrow!" Ran through my programme several times.

Flopping: Forgot my breakfast! And forgot to eat a banana before I left, so had to scrounge a biscuit (cookie) off of my coach before I went on the ice. Luckily he had Boasters, my favourite kind, so that was all right. And better than my husband, who forgot his trousers and had to quickly buy a new pair on his way to work!

Decided in the middle of the night that one section of my Interpretive could be a lot faster and flowier if I pushed into it more. Yes, it could - but somehow that just ain't happening.... oh dear.... fear factor again.

Oh, and who pinched my 3-jump, can I have it back please?

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

Floating:
Not much. Nothing really showed any significant improvement, and I have decided to take the F power pulls back to two feet to get a better feel for the back of the blade. OTOH, I watched a kid with audible rip on his F power pulls doing them in his lesson holding a stick to correct his arms. I, at least, have the required posture and form. Also, after watching power pulls on the Dubova video, I have stopped using my arms on the B ones and though I am not getting as much power, I am getting that beautiful, effortless floating look. I've also been modeling my FO threes on the Dubova video, and it seems to be helping. I'm imagining doing them in dance with a partner. I've started doing spiral stretches again, now that my hip pain has calmed down.

The ice itself was the best ever because the rink bought a new Zamboni!

Flopping:
But, it was a zoo. There are two shows coming up and all the skaters are there working on their programs. I was in two very near misses, and didn't get to practice patterns very much at all.

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Floating: I nailed another back scratch spin!!! And it's FAST too!!! And the best part... right smack in front of the primary coach after he dared me to do it again after he did one in front of someone else. YEEEESSSSS!!!!

NOW... if I could only come out of the spin gracefully!!!

Flopping: I should complain too much about the LFO3's especially since I did managed to get them back! But they still SUCK!!! (No power!!! No forward power 3's.)

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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!!!

Floating:
I passed my preliminary dances this week. Yipee ! I need to keep that floating feeling going all summer.

Flopping:
The ice is out as of today. No skating until September

For Tuesday:

Floating: I think I made a breakthrough on that dang scratch spin....I'll have to see if I can replicate it tomorrow for my coach. I've been unable to do much beyond the initial 3T into the spin, and had been just focusing on keeping my left arm up and moving my right leg around. I think I've been straightening my skating leg too soon. Yesterday, I managed to keep it bent through the 3T and while I was bringing my free leg around. I think this is what my coach was trying to get me to do. Guess I'll find out tomorrow,

Flopping: Jumps were kind of hit and miss. It probably doesn't help that I usually practice them on Tuesdays in the endzone to try to avoid all those young,fast girls.

I had my first private lesson yesterday, yay!

I told my coach that I was serious about really working the skills I "have" and getting them better, so we spent about 15 minutes on forward inside mohawks. I was cheating them slightly (natural turnout makes that sooo easy) and not getting my feet close enough together to get that sense of replacing one with the other. And not bending my knees enough.

Then we worked on the "step behind" behind from our synchro footwork. It is still very scary to me to actually step behing my skating foot going backwards. Again the issue is me not getting my feet close enough together and not bending my knees enough.

Finally, we looked at stroking and forward crossovers. She actually said my rhythm for my forward stroking is good, but to keep working on more knee bend. My crosssovers also need more knee bend and I've got to get my feet closer together. The good news is that I do not have a toe push and generally stay off my toepicks, so, though I'm not a strong skater, at least I'm not a loud one, LOL!

My goal for the week is to keep my knees bent and get my feet closer together in, well, everything requiring close feet!

Hmph, don't know what happened there, but my reply suddenly disappeared!

Plinko, congratulations - those dances are easy enough to do badly, but very hard to do well.

Floating: Did some good work this morning and most things went well. Worked (at my request) on inside chassés, to see whether they "floated" or not. They did, sort-of. Back inside edges best I've ever done them. Back outside edges fast and flowy, or else edgy - I can't seem to get both! The crossovers-into-edges went sort-of well; back insides better than back outsides, and on at least one of the forward ones (which I didn't have to do in my lesson) I lost control of my shoulder and spiralled in.

Ran through my programme 3 times, the first of which was the best.

The ice was empty, so my coach's wife, who teaches my husband, decided to have a skate, for the first time for nearly 2 years. She was rusty, but could do most of her double jumps. Her young pupil thoroughly enjoyed a few minutes' role reversal - and the coach complained that "She was most nasty!" To which the pupil - and I, and my coach - all said she was only following her (the coach's) good example!

Floppy: My waltz 3s left a lot to be desired - still no real push into the 3-turn. And I am so-o-o frustrated with the backwards section of my programme - I barely seem to push at all, just step up and down on the ice, barely moving! At least, that's what it feels like. My coach says not to worry too much about pushing (I'm terrified that if I push too hard I'll bottle the 3-jump or the spin), but to focus on bending my knees. We shall see.....

Poor coach's wife fell off her double lutz and got a nasty ice-burn, as she was wearing just a strappy top.

Forgot my coffee (that's the third thing!), so had to buy some from the shop by the station. It was good, though.

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

FLOATING

Signed up for adult group lessons today! I'll have to leave work an hour earlier because they didn't bother to tell me that the times have been brought forward until AFTER I'd paid etc Start at the beginning of June

FLOPPING

Why do they employ such dingbats at ice rinks?

I'd duely filled in the form which included my skating experience. I then asked about private lessons/patches ..... to be told, as though I was a 6 year old, "you have to pass your Learn to Skate (or whatever they're called now) tests dear before you can go onto patch" ...... Duh! Did you READ my application form? You know, the one that you've just gone through and transferred onto the computer?

Hope that isn't the sign of things to come .........

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The best whisper is a click

This is for my lessons on Wednesday Saturday--haven't had time to post since then!

Floating
Had my first harness lesson Saturday! Worked on the loop. Good news--I did a few in which I completed the rotation. Bad news (file under "flopping")--they were in totally bad form, with arms and legs flailing everwhere.

Had a breakthrough with the backspin on Wednesday. Both directions were working nicely, with a number of revolutions, though not with great speed. (But then when I went to show my coach at the end of the session, they went kaput!!)

Funny
Got a funny looking bruise/hickey on my left arm, probably from the harness--a very small spot shaped like a giraffe with a very thin neck! (I was so engrossed in the test session that Debbie S and others from our club attended on Sunday that I forgot to show it to everyone and it's faded by now!)

Flopping
Though I improved my loop, I still have the main problem of not using my skating leg/knee to PUSH during the jump, so the jump lacks height and doesn't let me finish my rotation. Argh!

Floating: AXELS!!!!!!!!

I tried my first bunch ever tonight (we had been working on prep for them once a week for a couple of weeks) And LANDED them. Ok, it was on 2 feet but I fully rotated them. My coach was jumping up and down saying "there there" I was like" huh?" and she said "thats it, rotated and landed on 2 feet" I was shocked since I really tought I had maybe done an over roated waltz jump. It was a lot easier than I thought though getting it on one foot will be the challenge.

Coach left me strict instructions to only do 5 or 6 a session. She is worried if I keep trying them I'll get too tired and everything I'm supposed to remember I'll forget nad teach myself bad habits. Can't wait to show my other coach on Friday

She said next week's lessons will have double salchow preps and maybe an attempt.

Flopping: Darn camel spins!!! I can do 1 or 2 really nice ones and then can't do anymore.

But honestly, I don't care that they are bad at the moment. Just too excited about my axels

Floating - Had a great skate last night. Once a week I skate with on a private all adult session. It's really great as the majority are relatively high level and are working on doubles - so we help each other out quite a bit. Last night was a good double night. I'm also working on cammel-jump-cammel. The first couple were great then....

FLOATING - almost literally!

Well I had my second lesson of the week today. The Tuesday one was on rapidly melting ice - a great incentive not to fall over! It's been very hot here of late so turning the rink into a paddling pool was actually quite a good idea!!!! Luckily the one bit of my OD where there is a drag (lunge) was still relatively firm. It went OK but there are still bits I'm not sure of and it all could be vastly improved. We have a competition next week so we'll see how it gets on there. Though I may not be able to make the competition as my son has a French exchange student staying who will need to be picked up just when I will be needing to get changed to go on the ice.

Todays lesson was OK - the ice is firming up but a bit thin, (compressor problems- which meant my daughters test session was cancelled yesterday). Worked on my free programme. The sit spin had mostly vanished and the one I did scrape through my coach commented I looked like a hunchback - not good huh!

Was persuaded to stay on for lunchtime patch by one of the teenagers (who should of course have been studying for her exams). She lured me back on with the promise of help with my loop jump. Her ideas were good but I still can't do it! However my other jumps seemed to be working well so it was a good session really. Plus she had brought in the new 'Keane' CD - one of my favourites so it was great to be able to skate to that.

Flopping: well the old sit spin of course - and the loop!
Falling on the loop jump while trying one of my young friends ideas - going into it from a mohawk ! It hurts!!!!!

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

Floating:
Bronze MIF are getting better!! I'm hoping to test them this summer!!!

Flopping:
The ice at the regulation rink in my area this morning was AWFUL!! These are the same idiots that won't let you jump on a public session, as they want you to pay the over inflated price of $13-14 a hour for freestyle. If that's the ice that's on the freestyle I'm glad I'm not skating those sessions anymore!

Floating and flopping mixed bag (you decide):

Well, I just found out that my coach has decided not to coach anymore and now I'm in the market for a new coach. Found this out from the head coach yesterday. So now I have to think about who I'd like to have coach me. I'm kind of leaning to having the head coach who is a guy. At least he'll be able to get me into the harness for my jumps and maybe that dreaded backspin. I think once I get the backspin fixed that it will automatically get 6 revs like for forward scratch (corkscrew). That is I could keep on going for more revs but I generally feel like getting out of it at that point. My sitspin now has 6 revs now that I have my freeleg in the proper position. And get this, there was this girl who has a leg problem and is not allowed to jump working on camel spins and I helped her to get hers to two revs and then fixed her sitspin and then got her to do a camel/sit combo yesterday. Then I tried the camel spin myself and actually got to hold on to the camel spin for one rev. I can't use it yet in my program because the spin is too slow and my program is too short. I was surprised that I wasn't scared to attempt it. This teaching thing really is helping my own skating.

I changed my program around again yesterday adding in a FRO to FRI change edge spiral after where my salchow was but now is a toe loop jump. And I've taken out the waltz/toe combo jump and replaced it with a salchow/toe loop combo. My split jump is trying to split on me but I'm not letting it. And I have to get back into making the half flip on the end of the split sequence back into a flip for this weekend. My loop jump is still two footed. This is what you get for not having a coach to help you fix things that you can't see because you're busy doing them.

Anyway, the head coach wants me to skate this summer so that I will stay competitive. Yeah, well, I don't have any competitions in the fall. I figure going once a week to the rink on ticket ice or a simular thing would be enough to keep my skating skills up until the fall. I really need to save some cash. Canadian Nationals are not cheap and I'm still paying for the first one.

Brigitte

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

I'm up for helping with loops or sitspins on lunchtime patches after I get back from holiday if you like!

Eleanor, by any chance???

Nicki