Not once the zamboni has had its wicked way with the ice. Your beautiful tracing will be gone!

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So do I, but I can't guarantee to be able to do it! One side is pretty consistent now.

I hate practising in an empty rink, as you can't have a breather and watch what else is going on. A lesson in an empty rink is fantastic, though!

Read this aloud to Husband, who roared (so did I). Hope you didn't hurt yourself on your fall. At least you didn't have a Husband to carefully sweep your feet out from underneath you during the change-of-edge, which mine has been known to do on occasion! But I do so agree about that "scraping, lunging, toe-picking thing", it is exactly that! On Wednesday night I was bending my knees so hard I was practically sitting on the ice, and we still separated and I lunged and wide-stepped..... Gack.

Then you are a better dancer than I am, as my pattern is still far too small, especially when danced solo. Even with both of us, at the moment, although I'm getting more confidence.

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

I agree about not having a breather. When the coach is fit and not breathing hard and I'm red faced and huffing, I really want him to go off and do a lesson with someone else and come back, but oh no, we're going around again. At least no one was around to see me be turned into flubbering jelly. The empty rink was such a treat, I've never had that before.

Mmmmmm, I have that wide stepping thing too. I wide stepped too much on the back chasees that I wide stepped on coach's foot, and then sort of caught him in a tender spot. I'm surprised I've still got a coach sometimes.

I just had my first group lesson today, and it was awesome. So much fun. We did half an hour off ice, and an hour on the ice. I didn't realize that we would have been doing so much jumping off the ice, i felt my entire breakfast start coming up. lesson learned.

On the ice, i guess is the flowy/blowy part. so here goes.

Flowy: i kinda did power pulls. But i can do them starting with the slalom, and only if i get a lot of speed, which is hard to do on a small piece of ice. I also did my first ever back 3 turn in the CCW direction. i am rather proud of myself. And my spinning today was wild (in a good way). Soon as i remembered to keep my elbows up, there was no stopping me. I don't know how fast it looked like i was going, but i could not see anything around me, and once it felt like i was going really fast, i unfortunatly freaked out and stopped myself. I also managed a semi decent waltz jump, not as good as those people who took teh class before, which is most of the class, but it was a distinct jump off the air.

Blowy: THe only problem with my waltz is when i start going faster, my right leg seems to get stuck and refuse to come foward. I'm not scared of falling, it just gets stuck. I cannot for the life of me do backward 3's in the CW direction. I can't seem to twist my body enough to get around. When the instructor demonstrated, it looked so pretty and graceful. When i tried it, i couldn't do it. I could sorta do it on 2 feet. ANd the double 3's, forget it. I could do the foward part, but i lose too much momentum to get the back 3 in. Oh well, it's only the first day.

My legs are killing me though. i don't know how i managed to walk from the train station to my house. I thought my legs were going to fall off. I've also come to the conclusion that i need a bigger bag.

Flowy--
Landed the flip today--not fully rotated, but I landed it on one foot. Today was the first time I'd really tried it! I've been working on exercises at the boards, but today I tried it from a mohawk and was able to get it nearly fully rotated!

I'm also having success with waltz-loop-loop, although the second loop was wussy.

Congratulations on getting the flip, mikawendy

First lesson of the new year today! Let's see:

Flowy: Started off with a *centered* scratch spin! I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked at the tracing, I was like, "is that mine?!" Then worked on sit spins and got a good 5-6 revs! My coach was pleased with it. We've figured out that not bringing my right arm around together with my leg is probably why I still have centering problems. So now, at least I know what exatly I have to fix. Also, I got a few good camel attempts. Maybe 2-3 revs, that's good for me!

Loop, waltz/loop, and flip were happy, so we moved on to lutz. They're not so bad, I did a couple decent ones. I just need to remember to not get carried away with the outside edge and switch my arms low so that my shoulders stay square.

Blowy: Back spins were iffy. What else is new? Also we worked on split jumps and they're just hard! My coach lifted me up as I jumped so that I went really high, but on my own...uhhh not exactly a split.

Yep, I'm OK now!

Blowy: Today was a "forget about those silly toepicks, they don't matter" day. I tripped on them and fell about 5 times for no apparent reason, had two especially bad falls that ended up with me limping painfully out of the rink and taking a 5-10 minute break to recover. For the first time ever I leaned too far into a progressive run and did not manage to recover as per usual, of course when I was going quite fast, so I ended up falling and skidding half the distance across the rink, with people dodging me the whole way. My clockwise skills I'd practiced up seemed to have vanished since last week. I still can't do a shoot-the-duck while skating on my right foot.

Flowy: I can shoot-the-duck while skating on my left foot better than ever (even backwards), and felt generally competent on the ice when I wasn't falling, though it was a far cry from by best times out. I did some double 3-turns, they weren't my best, but I did manage to get at least a double in both directions on both feet, and pulled off a couple with 4-5 3-turns in a row, which I was happy about, even if it didn't look the prettiest. I tried doing a 2 foot spin in the clockwise direction instead of CCW, and the first couple tries went surprisingly well. It was downhill from there though...

Back again tonight.

cshobe, I bet you aren't turning your feet out enough as you push - this is what normally causes one to catch one's toe-rakes. Don't forget you absolutely mustn't use them to push with - it's the side of your blade. Toe-pushing is a serious fault.....

However.... not being on an edge is worse, and that's what was happening in my Willow Waltz today. Not that our coach addressed that: "I've never seen you two do a Willow," he said, so we had to demonstrate it. Which made him laugh.... don't blame him, really.

How come our coach can remember the steps of the free dance when we can't? But we sorted it out in the end - it has to be cut down to 1 minute for test, and also dumbed down so we are doing beautiful edges. My back chasses weren't always beautiful, alas, but they are gradually improving.

We didn't do either the Swing Dance or the Fiesta in our lesson ("Oh help!" said the coach when we told him what dances we were working on, which I do think was rude of him as we're getting better!), but did both in practice. End pattern of the Fiesta is dire... at least mine is; Husband's is okay. Swing Dance is coming along nicely - first year we've worked on it that I've really felt we've improved. Actually, our Fiesta is a lot better than it was last time we needed it for competition - it's much faster!

In such private practice as I did, my LFO swing rolls are improving, but they are not as good as my RFO ones.

And talk about mind over matter - I set myself to do a length of back cross-rolls, but found, half-way down, that I was doing cross-cuts instead. Whereupon I promptly stopped being able to do them, and ground to the usual halt.... and I still can't do a decent spin from a BI edge - it travels. From a BO edge it's unreliable, but if it does happen, it's okay!

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

Flowy: I had such a fantabulous lesson yesterday! My group lesson was a bit crap, because we had to do salchows without really practicing jumps, after being off the ice for 2 weeks, but whatever. My private lesson however was really good. I was doing the foxtrot and the dutch waltz in killian hold, which was funny. My friend came skating with me, and she had to watch my lesson, and I cringed and begged not to have to do it in front of her, but, alas, I had to. She was very impressed though. So that's okay. I also did it to music!

I've booked a private lesson for half an hour next week, so more dancing.

Blowy: I couldn't remember all the steps to the dutch waltz after a certain point. I really need to remember them!!! Does anybody know them?

Oh, I've also got a new notebook! I've been writing down what i've been doing and what needs improving.

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Flowy: Back on the ice again with new purple boots. Right achilles heel is holding up fine so far. No major pain beyond a slight soreness, which disappeared a few minutes later after taking off the boots. Blade alignment is slightly off, but not so bad that I couldn't do anything at all. Phil from Harlicks is pretty good on guessing my blade alignment based on my boot alone. Most of the blade technicians haven't quite got it right before for me. And my custom Harlicks fit like a dream too!!! It feels right.

In any case, it's so good to be back on the ice again! And I look forward to breaking in my new boots!!!

Blowy: The public session MOB!!! I need to stop being so lazy and start getting up for those FS sessions on Sat., if I ever want a semi-sane ice session. Then again, since I'm unemployed now, so I can go to those empty public sessions on the weekdays too!

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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!!!

Flowy: The best medicine for an axel gone AWOL is, apparently, taking two weeks off skating and only jumping off-ice.

Blowy: I did something funny to my right hip skating...noticed a dull ache while doing a backspin towards the end of practice, and then it's just been hurting since (did not do any jumps after it started hurting). Have no idea what I did to it, or how I may have injured it. Here's to hoping that it will go away after a nice bath and a good night's sleep...

Flowy and Showy is the same as Saturday!!! Thank goodness I'm just concentrating on breaking in the boots. No jumps, though I admit to breaking the rules on wimpy spins. Deep knee bends are my coaches' biggest complaint about me, so, in theory, I haven't broken the "deep knee bend" rule...

__________________
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!!!

Blowy, blowy blowy. I've been waiting 3 months for new custom skates (SP TERI) to come in. I think our dealer forgot to place the order after measuring me but who will ever know. He keeps saying they should come in any day now. My skates are mushy and I'm grouchy.

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~AF

I don't know what I was doing, I'd just be skating along like normal and catch the toepick, which is unusual. I think what happened is that I skated for a while with too loose of skates, then tightened them and couldn't bend my knees quite as much...hard to say.

Today was better, though nothing special. No falls except out of a backwards shoot-the-duck (I've never stood up out of one, though I can forward), and after becoming really dizzy spinning myself around real fast using one foot as the pivot an the other to orbit it. My knee still hurts from one of the falls yesterday, especially if I put pressure on the inside of it (like dragging it in a T-stop or trying to squat while skating forwards), but it's tolerable.

On the flowy side I got more used to being dizzy by spinning around one foot using the other to orbit around and accelerate...I got some really fast speed out of this, and I'd lift up the orbiting foot as often as I dared, I think I managed to pull off a revolution or two on one foot. I tried to find the right spot on the blade in the middle, and it was good fun and practice, though I'd get terribly dizzy as I was rotating 20-30 times each go, and fell when I stopped a couple times from the dizziness. After about 15 minutes of it though, I started feeling rather queasy and decided I'd had quite enough of that. It was nearly the end of the public session anyways, so I called it a day.

Melzorina, Tashakat and another skater from this forum have a UK skaters Yahoo group. There's very little traffic on it, but some very useful files, including basic dance patterns. I've just checked, and it does have the Dutch Waltz on it.

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

Flowy: Skated at club,and worked on the program, also stayed to teach group lessons.

Blowy: Ran out of paint for the costume,

back to Flowy: picked some up and painted the skirt/dress. Fingers are still blue!

You really do need those lessons. You should take a few private lessons, as a good coach will be able to tell you what's going wrong that's causing you to catch your toe picks.

T-stops are not done with dragging. The free foot is brought in to the heel of the skating foot at a right angle, and pressure is applied to the OUTSIDE edge. No dragging involved. Another reason to have some private lessons.

A coach can show you the best way to learn spins, which is not the way you have been approaching them.

You sound to me like you have a good deal of natural ability, and would really learn very quickly with proper instruction, whereas now you are beating yourself up going at things the wrong way.

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Flowy: Did first two spead eagles EVER after more years of trying than I care to admit!

Blowy: Have no witnesses to said spread eagles. Also, fell on another attempt and have a nasty bruise on the palm of my hand to prove it.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

I'm a member of that! (eclipse_blackpool, I posted a message about your photos a while back!) I'll go and have a look now.

{EDIT}
I've just had a look, and it's wonderful! I'm going to print out a copy and walk it through untill i'm blue in the face, and then take it to the rink with me on saturday. I WILL REMEMBER THIS DANCE IF IT KILLS ME!

{ANOTHER EDIT}
Does anyone know where I can get the music for the dutch waltz, and what it's called? All I remember is saying it was a bit crap...I swear I have a memory like swiss cheese.

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It was just a lousy day. Too many days without skating...I got lazy.

Eh, no...the free foot is brought in to the heel at a right angle yes, and your skating leg may well be on the outside edge, but the edge that scrapes the ice and causes you to slow (this is what I call dragging), is the inside edge of the free leg. I think we just had some terminology miscommunication...

Sure, and I understand that. More than anything I was just trying to get used to the dizziness and toying around. I wasn't trying to do a serious spin.

Thanks for the compliment . I'm in public lessons now, and have already stated that I'm going to get a coach soon. However they are quite expensive and I need to stabilize my employment situation first, at this point. Even so, I plan to start doing "trial" lessons with several of the coaches starting this or next week - I'm going to talk to each one a bit, and try a half-hour lesson to see how it goes. After I try a few I'll make a decision as to which one to go with...

I was thinking about it more this morning, and I think that my difficulties at work are probably what affected my skating so much on Saturday...I just really couldn't focus at all. Ahh, bring on the new job. Maybe I can learn to drive the zamboni.

Nope, it IS the *outside* edge that you drag to stop. You need to open up your hip and bend your knees so that your back foot is on the outside edge.

To quote from my book:

"The T Stop: This starts with the skater standing on one foot and gliding in a straight line. The skating leg should be bent and the position of the free leg should be as for correct forward skating, in other words extended behind and turned out at 90 degrees. The blade of the free foot is placed on the ice directly behind the skating foot. The inside edge must touch the ice and then you must keep your body weight over the skating foot until you feel the free foot touching the ice. At this point you slowly transfer your weight onto the free foot. As you do this the inside edge will drag across the ice, creating friction and bringing you to a standstill. During the stop the skating knee will rise slowly until the stop is completed. At the completion of the stop the feet will be together in a T position giving the stop its name"

And this is how I am doing it...

I see...but still I think that is wrong. I distinctly remember being taught about the outside edge. Plus, if you think about it, how are you going to apply pressure to the inside edge and almost balance on that foot? When you do a proper T stop, you can almost rise off your skating leg and go into a 1 foot stop. For that you need your weight to be exactly over your back foot, on the outside edge. If you use your inside edge, about all you can do is drag it behind you.

The edge has to oppose the motion, not go with it.

Nope! I thought that too! But it's definitely the outside edge. In addition to opening those hips, you better make sure you BEND those skating legs. It's more like a "lean back and push" on the outside edge. It's quite scary, but I could do it... And yes, ask your group coaches to show you the right way.

We're both in the same boat (well sorta, you STILL have a job for now...) People have told me that skating helps me to get over the pain... My thing is "not with the initial shock." I think once the initial shock wears off that's when skating is the best stress reliever.

__________________
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!!!