Base Run: Double toe is starting to make more sense now. I'm really feeling the skating foot pull through on the outside edge as I take-off, and I'm getting up and over my right side to rotate. I used to get less than an inch of distance, but now I'm getting about two blade lengths. For me, that's about 20inches - or 20x longer than where I started!

Out: Beilmann position seems to be out of the question. I started working on it after Nationals, but decided that constant back and shoulder pain and steady ibuprofen intake probably aren't good for me. I am still working on a catch foot layback though. That seems slightly more likely to work out. Progress is slow though. I've managed to catch the foot a few times, but I get dizzy, fall over after a max of 2 revs, and then feel nauseous and have a headache for the next five minutes. Coach says this will get better, so I trudge onward...

Single: Spent the whole session doing everything backwards, glides, edges, turns to backwards, turns out of backwards, turns from backwards to backwards, and I ever had some itty-bitty backward change-of-edges going. All showing steady improvement

In lesson coach was trying to figure out something to do without distracting me too much from backwards practice so we talked about the edges for a Waltz jump again but I just wasn’t getting the exit edge. I asked what is the first toe jump we’ll do and she showed me the sequence for a toe loop...

Two-Bagger: ... which I DID (sans the airborne part) That’s going to be FUN! I look forward to playing with that.

She asked about spins - my CW spins weren’t working to good so I got some pointers.

Stolen Base: Then I did a CCW two-foot spin she commented that it looked strong. Hum, I wonder if I am still an “ambidextrous skater”? (I was fairly ambidextrous 37 years ago - LOL! )

Yer OUT! After 1:30 I was POOPED and called it a night.

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

Base run:
I think I landed 2 double toe loops. Although one was more questionable in terms of underrotation than the other. I actually felt the height for the second, which made me feel happy lol.

Landed 5 double salchows early in the session and was pleased that I could happily work on double toes

Out:
Coach (is leaving in june anyways) is having trouble find time slot for me meaning I have to get another coach now ... decisions decisions decisions.

__________________
~
Tidesong

ROFL!

As for me:

Six! We had a free dance lesson this morning with coach2 (our lessons are all over the place just now), which was fairly successful. Still no ending choreographed, although we think we know more-or-less what we're doing. But the dance is a lot better than last year's version.

Out: But why am I now terrified of the lift???? And Husband hates the bunny-hop we've put in.

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

Out

I got all dressed to skate in the wee hours of this morning. We had a thunderstorm, power was out, dressed by flashlight and candlelight.

Went out the door. Duh. Garage door opener did not work. There's not even a handle on the door to open it by hand!

Oh well, got undressed, went back to bed.

j

Oh my goodness, I had a senior blond moment with "backskin" instead of "backspin"!!!!!!!

Base: Back left outside 3 turn is now successful with good rideout 3 out 4 times this morning!!!! 1 foot spins are also fractionally improving.

Out: Started learning back inside 3 turns - Oy Vay!!! If I could just keep on my edge and not up on my toepick, I might have a chance!

Base Run Wonderful lesson- started with jumps in the harness, and that translated into some really excellent waltz jumps out of the harness. Also got some work on my half flip and salchow, and worked (jokingly at first, but it went better than expected) on turning my half flip into a split jump.

Also got some great tips on my backspin, and was able to do quite a few (crappy) revolutions. Generally I'm so suprised I do it- that I then end up messing up.

Also fell trying shoot the ducks about 500 times, but hey, I can finally do a dip far enough down that I can even attempt it! before I was so far off the ice it would have been like a real fall, rather than just a sit the butt down- teaching snowplow sam has improved at least one skill for me! I can dip.

Program isn't great, but isn't embarrassing either. Show is Saturday, and I have another lesson tonight.

out Well the 3-turn side toe hop sequence is out of the program (show is Saturday)... I am just going too fast to get into it. So I switched my lunge-spiral into a spiral-lunge, so the lunge slows me down a bit, and do 3 turn half flip, 3 turn toe loop- toe loop instead. My toe loops are so small, they are essentially footwork.

__________________
-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Woo hoo!

__________________
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Totally off-topic, but since I'm not skating too much at the moment:

It's a GIRL!!!

All is well with the ultrasound, her new due date is September 7, 2007.

I guess Milo was right after all!

Quote:

Originally Posted by quarkiki2 I guess Milo was right after all!

HOORAY! Of course Milo knew - my oldest DD predicted my twins before ANYONE even mentioned the possibility. The ultrasound confirmed DD's assertion. BTW, we went out for dinner earlier this week to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary and the waiter's name was Milo! (And he was a REALLY good waiter, so we overtipped.)

Base:
Good sit spins and waltz jumps. Ran out of time to practice any other freestyle stuff.

Run:
Managed to (badly) get through the Power 3's on the lengthwise axis. Somehow, that's less intimidating than the hockey line axes. Man, that crossover/hold/step for the RFO 3's is scary!

Did a few twizzles - my free foot's too high.
Coach gave me some things to practice.

Out:
I really have terrible footwork and edges. This morning, my very sweet and talented coach said to "remember where you came from!" (Meaning, I was much worse when we started a few months ago! LOL)

Crossover circles (fwd and bkwd) were really bad. I'm convinced that I'm going to slam into the wall on the back crossovers. Next time I have open ice, I'm going to try and use the center ice lengthwise for those, so there IS no wall in the way.

Just for fun.

__________________

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

__________________
-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Congratulations, quark!!!!

Now WHY am I NOT surprised that you posted that, given the theme for this week???

Base run:
Worked on forward stroking. Secondary coach worked on posture today and even though I'm not faster, I at least am not hunching forward.

Strike out:
SPIRALS!!! Man! This one is a mess!!! It got better at the end but not much better. I really have to push that chest forward like I was a pigeon... and keep my shoulders pushed down... knees locked (both of them.) It got bad enough that secondary coach had to pull out...the EVIL Champions cord that you strap to your hands on one end and skates on the other!!!! ("NOOOOO!!! NOT THE CORDS!?!?!")

And even after that, there wasn't that much progress b/c of the height of the free leg and the only thing I managed to sorta get is keeping my shoulders down and chest out. I was left with the comments "Tell your trainer that he needs to work you on this too!!!" ("Too late, I already told him last week to start working on this!" I told her. )

Funny insult of the day: When I finally got the posture that secondary coach wanted, her way of telling me that I've did good with keeping the posture was "WOW!!! I've never knew that you actually have a NECK there!!!"

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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!!!

Congrats Quark!!!

Base run:
Had a clean run through of my test program today, sans the end and towards the end of this post I will explain why.

Struck out the favorite team side:
As I was going into the rink today, one of the kids warned me "Miss Terri, you do not want to go and skate, the roof collapsed and I got some on my arm."
I went in to investigate and yes, part of our rink that we use for freestyle did lose part of the roof. Some of the fiberglass got on my two coaches and another skater. My coaches went to get checked out, and all they have for symptoms were itching. Obviously, they cancelled lessons for the remainder of the afternoon, (mine was one) even if freestyle was moved to the other surface.....

Now we pay all this freakin money to skate freestyle and never mind that the rinks are not maintained to prevent this thing from happening, but couldn't they take a few minutes to resurface the rink we were moved to??

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

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!



Feel better soon, doubletoe!!!

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

@doubletoe: oh no... rest well! Anyways its after nationals so you can relax without worrying too much no?
Saw your post in the other thread about the prerotated double toe loops. You have no idea how much I fear those... will you have videos from nationals? I personally think my toe loops at my nationals (at least the ones done in combination) were prerotated but I didnt get any downgrades... so I don't know if I'm just being too severe or if the judges were being lenient (but they did downgrade some very obvious toe axels...)
is this prerotated?
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/8076/toeloop1tz7.jpg
sigh

@quarkiki2 : Congrats!!

__________________
~
Tidesong

Base Hit: (This may even be a double!) Lesson with primary coach went really well. Did one run-through of my Interp. program and waited for her comments. All she said was "Do it like that everytime. Let's move on to spins."

Spins were ok (didn't try any camels). Moved on to jumps. Everything went well -- except the lutz.. but at least my head didn't freak out about the jump the way it has the past couple of months. And I did land two reasonable ones.. with one other attempt 2-footed (but fully-rotated and took off from a clean edge!).

Then it was on to Moves. I figured this is where the lesson goes downhill. I ran the entire test... and she said "You need to hold your position a little longer before turning the BO3s. Are you planning to test this soon?" I kind of wait for her to tell me she thinks I'm ready, before setting a date.. and we decided before summer is over I WILL take this test. Uh-oh, now the nerves set it. Afterwards one of the Novice ladies said "you had more power than I've seen you skate with". That may have been a homerun, since she's usually so focused on her lesson she hardly notices anyone else (and I mean that in a good way... she never gets in anyone's way, but she isn't paying attention to what anyone else is actually doing, just where they are).

Strike Out: Uhm, wondering if I can duplicate how well everything went today any other time in the next year!

All in all a great skate-day.

Went to the doctor today with that anckle.

He says I should keep stretching it a lot, smear it with some heating gelly or something (got the receipy in my bag) and keep it moving, but not jumping, and it should be okay.
My achillis tendon is apparently irritated or something.

Quarkiki2

Congratulations! Wishing you and your new daughter to be the best!

__________________
Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

out I had a make up lesson yesterday on Freestyle ice. I'm still not quite ready for Freestyle sessions yet. I just get way to scared by all the kids doing doubles, and there really isn't anyone who is around my level on the ice (even though, I'm really past public session ice). I didn't have a good practice- just did some warm up laps, 2 of every jump, and then got off the ice until my lesson.

base run But the lesson went okay. It's not as scary on the ice with a coach running interference for you I ran through my program once, and replacing the 3-turn side toe hop combination with 3-turn half flip, 3-turn toe loop, toe loop is MUCH better. (AKA I can do it)

I am also proud to announce that I think my waltz jump now qualifies as an actual jump, and I can do it from speed! It's my only jump that has any height or "float" to it.

I did some "good" toe loops, salchows, half flips, and half lutzes. I'm definetly jumping, and landing them well, but they don't get very high and have very little hang time. I also did some good work on my loop, which my coach says is recognizable- but I still think if I asked another skater to identify the jump they wouldn't be able to. But still, at least its going somewhere.

Lots of work on the backspin. I'm doing much better, but am ending it by stepping down on my right foot, rather than kicking out my right leg. Both are better options then falling though

So I'm sticking with public sessions a bit longer- which is a shame, because while freestyle was crazy and intimidating, there are only about 15 kids on the ice (it's amazing how they take up more ice than the 50-100 on public!)

__________________
-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Out!: After skating Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon, the old legs were a bit stiff this morning - those backward skating muscles were protesting so much exercise! LOL!

Base Hit: Moving back to a morning session on Thursdays is GREAT! Only 3 other skaters on the ice this morning and no little kiddies trying to commit hara kira under the big woman

Focused mainly on backwards again in practice, yet AGAIN. LOTS more backwards! The objective is to have my backward edges as good as my forward edges one day soon and it's like learning to skate all over again, only this time putting my best side forward

Pop-Up In lesson today coach reviewed back edges and then we worked some on my not-so-great 3-Turns and played with spins some more. I like my coach, really! She has a good eye and immediately picks up on what I am doing wrong. (That IS good, isn't it???) Now all I have to do is FIX it! LOL!

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

Base:
One of my students invented a new spin entry. She does a LFO spiral and somehow manages to hook a forward spin! I tried it and I really like it - practiced it a few times myself.

Started working on an opposite (CW) back spin. I think it will help me skate better, including demonstrating for my CW students.

Just found out that the pro practices are at the same time (different rink) from my very nice and unwatched freestyle practice session. So, my freestyle card will last a bit longer than I expected. Think I'll go early to the pro practice and see if there's dead ice beforehand for a skate.

Run:
I've discovered that I can do salchows without thinking. I was demonstrating and talking at the same time (anyone have some gum?) and I walked through a *real* waltz-salchow combination without cheating or faking it at all!
(Isn't that a runner's trick? If you can't talk, you're running too hard/fast?)

Spirals were really good, considering I didn't stretch at all. Fwd threes on both feet were excellent and (r) double back threes were floating nicely!

Out:
I really don't like skating early in the morning. Forgot to stretch after skating, so I'm sure I'll pay for this tomorrow.
I know lots of people do it, but I'm exhausted after being on the ice at 6:30am and it's still morning.

__________________

base This morning I took my Passport (skate UK) Bronze Dance, and passed. Then, unscheduled I took bronze Free and passed that too!

out My half decent spin vanished before the test???? dissapointing but I passed anyway.

__________________
Level one Field Moves......PASSED 05.06.08
Level one Free dance.....PASSED 02.10.08

GOALS FOR 2009

• Level One Compulsary dances.......PASSED 19.02.09
• Level One Elements.....................PASSED 10.07.09
• Level Two Free dance.................PASSED 19.02.09
• Level One Free...........................
• Level Two compulsory dances.......

Loving it, Loving it, Loving it!!!!!

Quarkiki CONGRATULATIONS!!

Base: Salchow was working well, waltz jump tape toe waltz jump was high and light.

Out: That darn 1 foot spin! I feel like I'm right on the edge of getting a good one but it's not happening. Coach will have her work cut out for her tomorrow morning, I am determined to have a fabulous 1 foot spin.

Quarkiki2
Congrats!!!!!!!

Base Run: skated my third session in my new boots. I think I've tried just about everything except for doubles in them. It's taking a little time getting use to the lower cut back and elastic cuff, but I really do like them. I can actually point my toe, and my heel stays in place.

Out: The one problem I'm having is that the area where the leather ends and the elastic begins is rubbing against the back of my tendon.
I'm hoping to find something that works or try to shave it down. I have a show this weekend with new program.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Thanks! My thoughts exactly; I'm glad the Skating Gods were kind enough to keep me from getting sick until after Nationals! The videos of the competitions are supposed to be posted on www.IceNetwork.com at some point, but I'm not sure when they'll be up.
It looks like you are just turning 90 degrees on takeoff (not 180), which is normal and fine. Which country do you skate in, by the way?

__________________
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics