Winter Storms: for some reason, our ice has become progressively harder....maybe there is a hockey tournament coming up, or the rink manager just wants it harder so they have less maintenance to do during public sessions. Makes it interesting!

Tonight was dance...and my mind is once again blank for all except the dutch waltz. Oh well. That and even the dutch waltz is nowhere near "test quality" according to dance coach. Whatever.

Summer Breezes: Skates are sharp, once again!!! Hubby dropped in on dance class again, which was nice because it was dutch waltz night! It's the only dance we pretty much know. Also, the dance coach agreed to pick him up for a few private sessions to help him with his issues. We have an exhibition we'd like to skate in January, and he'd like to do the dutch waltz. We have music and costumes, so we just need the dance!

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

Summer Breezes: Don't I wish it was summer - lol! Let's see....my cross strokes are improving - I'm glad we worked on them in lesson last week. I went to off-ice conditioning class tonight, where we mostly did Pilates, and a bunch of jumping, and I survived - lol. The kids in the class are either working on or landing axels, so the instructor has us practice them on the floor - I of course have nothing that even resembles an axel, on or off the ice, but she said that my attempts didn't look too bad.

I had 1 sit spin where I really felt that I got low, so low that it was a bit of a struggle to get up - lol. I also did some nice forward scratch spins (hopefully no stumbles at NYI) and was able to do backspins with a correct exit. I really want to get at least 5 revs on it consistently before signing up for Bronze CM at NYI.


Winter Storms: If I can do a sorta axel off-ice, you'd think I could land my loop, or flip, or waltz-half loop-sal - grrr. Messed up both loops and the flip in the program run-through I did, plus my footwork was slow. Sit-change sit has been gone since HC. The odd thing is that I am now able to do a back sit from a pivot - I wonder if maybe practicing the back sit by itself has messed up my timing when doing it from a forward sit?

My back 3-s are giving me problems again - I think I'm back to having alignment difficulties. The fact that both sessions were filled to capacity definitely didn't help moves practice.


Winter Nor'easter (that's a storm that comes up the U.S. east coast and blankets everyone with a foot or more of snow): On the way home from the rink tonight, I checked my cell phone voice mail and had a message from Sk8pics that she is in the hospital and not to panic ( ). She developed some clots last Thursday (a common side effect of being inactive for long periods) and has been there since Thurs night, but she could go home tomorrow, or if not, then Wednesday. She suggested I call her tomorrow instead of tonight, and she asked me to let everyone on the forum know why she hasn't been here in a few days, and that she hopes to be back online soon. She also mentioned that she hoped Terri C did a good job on her Bronze Moves test, so when I speak to her tomorrow, I'll be sure to let her know the good news!

Send good thoughts and healing vibes for a speedy recovery, everyone!

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

Please will you also give her my love, and tell her I'm thinking of her. She's a great competitor, and I long to see her back in the European competitions.

You should have seen Husband's so-called sit-spin this morning - his bum was higher than his head! Must remind him of the calf-to-thigh thing....

As for me, although we skated well and I was pleased, I am also fed-up as the coach says I'll never be good enough to pass Level 4 compulsories (Fiesta and Swing Dance). Sigh. I am not totally sure I agree with him - I've seen dances passed that are as good (or as bad!) as anything I can do. I do agree we aren't quite ready, certainly with the Fiesta, but to say I'll never be good enough..... hmph.

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

I'm hoping your coach is trying to use reverse psychology on you.. or to make you so upset with him you'll take an "I'll show him" attitude and then go out and prove him wrong. If it's something other than that... I'm not sure I would be able to keep taking from a coach who told me that kind of thing! I always think it's my coach's job to help me achieve whatever I think I can.. and let me decide after I've fallen 50,000 times that may I don't want that jump/spin/move as much as I don't want to hurt.

Months after I stopped taking from my first coach (she had to retire after having back surgery), she told me I would NEVER have a lutz. At first I wanted to burst into tears, then I became angry... and I never forgot the smug look on her face.. which made me glad we had to have a parting of the ways.

Now, I don't have a consistent lutz.. but I have landed several in competition... and I thank my INCREDIBLY SUPPORTIVE current coach for getting me to that point. Although about six months after I started landing the lutz, she did confess she didn't think I would get it ever.. but she wanted me to come to that realization on my own. She was really thrilled when I did land it.

If my coach told me I'd never get any further than XX, I'd probably move on to another coach.....unless I agreed with him. I do believe that hard work & determination can get you a long ways in this sport. There are days when I get discouraged & it's very important to me that my coach believes in me & believes I can accomplish my goals.

You work really hard, and that is all any coach can hope for in a student.

For me:
Summer: I skated really strongly yesterday. Coach gave me a new, semi-scary exercise last week which I don't enjoy, but I realized yesterday that working on that one has made another scary exercise much easier! They are related & the new one has taught me where my weight should be which has made the other one much better. Yay!

Winter: Knees are still not bending nearly enough to get the edges I need for my dance. I'm now spending LOTS of every practice running through parts of the pattern & doing very repetitive exercises to get the edges deeper.

Winter Storms: LITERALLY!!! Which is probably why secondary coach was not at the rink at the time that I called. Given that I am her LAST lesson for the day and her long commute coming to my home rink, I think it's safe to say that she's not gonna show up. Even sadder is that this is would have been my last lesson for the year and I have her Christmas present! I am going to NYC as of NEXT Tuesday and won't be there for about 10-11 days.

Summer Breeze: I can go back to bed!!!

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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!!!

Update on Sk8pics: I talked to her a few minutes ago and she was in the process of being discharged from the hospital , so she couldn't talk for long. I'm going to give her a call later. She did, however, want to know one thing before hanging up - if Terri passed her test. I told her the good news, and she was very happy.

Thanks for the good thoughts - I'll be sure to share everyone's well wishes with her later.

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

I should like to move on, but Husband still wants to stay with him, and more importantly with Coach2, who is his free skating coach. And given rink politics, there aren't really any other coaches I can move on to and have that happen. Sigh..... so I'm a bit stuck right now.

Trouble is, reverse psychology doesn't always work for me - I've been known to give up when told "Oh, you won't get that...." rather than say, as they usually intend, "F*** you, just you wait and see....".

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

"What? You think I'll NEVER pass my Level 4 compulsories? Oh, come on now, you may not be the best dance coach in the world, but you're not THAT bad!" (Hee hee)

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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

Good!!! I was concerned (not worried, but concerned) when you wrote that she was in the hospital!!! Glad to see that it wasn't serious and she's being discharged.

To add to my entry: Secondary coach wrecked her back!

Summer Breeze: I was worried that she was gonna show up only to find that I didn't show up for the lesson... and SHE was worried that I was gonna go trotting thru the Winter Storm and the nasty morning commute to get to her lesson only to find that she's not there. LOL!!!

Annabel: He's trying the reverse psychology thing... it's the oldest trick in the book... and since you said that you're not sure that you agree with him, I think it's working!

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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!!!

Glad to hear that Pat is coming home and soooo flattered that she wanted to know about me!
Got to the rink, thinking that I was skating to use up my punchcard (they expire 30 days after purchase). Looked at it, then realized that I have time on the card to use for tomorrow and Monday when I do have lessons (my card expires on Monday). So decided to come home and rest.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Summer Breezes: had a lesson today, first one since mid-August (I'm not counting one trial lesson I had in between then and now). LOVED IT, every second of it. Still had a bunch of fears after my head-banging accident, so the coach knew that I just want to get the confidence back, thus worked my tush off on basics, as well as confronting my fears - and I did not refuse to do anything he asked me to and as I kept doing it, my fears were melting away... Couldn't ask for a better skate today.

Winter Storms: NOTHING!!! I don't care if my back cross-strokes still stink, the fact that my fear has dissolved as I kept doing them makes it all a summer breeze to me.

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--renatele

Winter storms:

part of our rink is out of bounds due to the curtain and props etc being up ready for ice panto which starts tomorrow. Rink management decided to start the holiday timetable (which basically seems to mean giving most of our patches over to junior discos) this week which also means my morning lesson gets turned into an ice cut.

Summer breezes: went along anyway a bit earlier than usual for a practice and had the remainder of the ice (about 3/4s and its a full size rink so not too bad) almost to myself - just one other high level and very friendly teenager. Practised my field moves for inter-bronze test and thanks to coach's amazing ability to get me to do the right things, found there might even be hope of testing (and passing) them before the system changes. I'd prefer about another year to perfect it but reckon if I concentrate on them for the next couple of months I can get in as much ice time on them as I would have over a year if I was just doing them for 10 minutes a time as usual.

Coach arrived and had the bright idea that if the ice cut took it's usual 15 mins then we could do a little bit of work in the 'backstage area' and then use the main part of rink for the rest of the half hour. Zamboni guy appeared to agree this was OK but then was in the cafe when ice cut time came. We had 5 mins on main rink and then he brought the Zam on. So I had a very strange lesson 'backstage' in a Zam's width of nice ice (that he'd just travelled over to get to break in curtain) and then the guy did one of the slowest ice cuts ever (not sure if it was deliberate or what) so got only about 3 mins of lesson on the nice ice.

winter storms: the cut ice was fantastic but I couldnt stay any longer

summer breeze: I'm beginning to get the hang of the back 3's - yay!

Summer Breezes: I passed Basic 7 last week (we found out this week) and Basic 8 this week! I can move onto Freestyle 1 now! (But I'm not going to continue group lessons, so level won't matter) I'm so excited I've passed all the basic levels!!!

I also found a way to make my boots not hurt so much- take the nylons off! I skated barefoot today for the second half of the class, and except for some rubbing on the top of my big toe (which I figure I will let blister a few time until I have a good callus) it works great and my feet fit into the boots well. (I forgot my knee-highs this week and wore thin socks instead. 10 minutes into the lesson I not only had pins and needles in my left foot, I could no longer feel my right foot at all. I did my waltz jump for the "test" and skated off the ice as fast as I could to relace. I just took the sock off, relaced, and finished the test no problem).

Winter Storms: Well now I have to go back and redo almost every basic skill and make it "good" rather than "passable"- you know? I also really need to work at doing mohawks and 3-turns at speed. My instructors have determined that the only thing holding me back is fear, because it's not technique. Oh- and I really want a "real" scratch spin.

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

Oh doubletoe, this is BRILLIANT!!!

Annabel, you HAVE to use this line on your coach the next time he says you're not going to pass your L4 compulsories!!!

I didn't go skating yesterday because I was home working on costume stuff....I just have too much stuff to do this time of year.

I'm really stressed, hubby came home from work last night and gave me about 10 candybars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woo-Hoo!!!!!! Can you OD on chocolate????

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

No, you can NOT - I know - I have tried (often)!

Summer Breezes: I skated barefoot again, this time with a generous spray of antibacterial before putting my boots on and had no rash or itch problems. Lawrdy I love the feeling of skating barefoot!

Summer Breezes: Worked first on the backward edges, stroking, and glides that disappeared in November and am VERY pleased they are coming back so strongly - my new coach even commented that they look fine I should be into backward cross-overs before Christmas.

Summer Breezes: In lesson, we worked through the details of about the first 1/3rd of my choreography, figuring out what works, what fits, and what to avoid. It is coming together nicely.

Summer Breezes: Finished the session on back edges and stroking - feeling MUCH more comfortable!

Winter Storms: Not here! Not today!

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

I more or less did..... something very similar, anyway.

He started off by saying that I'd have to go to the gym and do masses more off-ice training, then he started comparing my skating to that of a couple of 13-year-olds who skate.... however, eventually he admitted that (a) my chances of passing Level 3 Moves are about 50% and rising and (b) the judges wouldn't actually look at him in horror if he entered me for Level 4 compulsories. I said that I thought that they'd probably tell me to come back in three months, fair enough, but that I didn't think they'd think he was daft! And I don't actually expect to pass level 3 Moves, but do want to have a go, just in case!

Anyway, we spent most of the rest of the session working on the end pattern of the Fiesta, and he actually helped take it apart and put it back together again, reminding me where my weight needed to be, and where my upper body ought to be, on each edge, which was helpful.

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

winter storms:

Had dance lesson today and got dance coach to look at the level 3 dance moves, (back cross-rolls and back cross strokes) - which I have practised for free skating tests but not for dance ones. She was not impressed as apparently I do them like a free skater (!) with nowhere near enough curve and holding on edges to satisfy dance moves requirements.
Then she had a look at my inter-bronze field moves and decreed I had more chance of passing them, than of getting 'dancified enough' for dance moves tests. That's fine by me if I can do it as it would give me level 4 moves when the system changes.

Summer breeze - she reckoned that the only one that wouldn't pass was the number 4's (back outside 3's and mohawks on a circle) but that I should put my papers in anyway and hope for a late test date. She also cleaned up my inside 3's to crossover's (alternating), by reminding me to get my feet together for the push and also by trying to make the back cross rolls more dancey they are good enough for freeskating test!!

Gave me some more input on the back 3's and I am now fairly confident that on my good foot i.e LBO3 I should be OK but RBO3 still needs a lot of work. However I am happy that I could now put a LBO3 in my programme footwork and be able to do it.

During group lesson (only 2 of us there!) she taught us the Killian - gee that is hard. In the end I did manage a 'survival version' which was in time but the steps were a little wild - my cross behind was more of a wide step back but it was in the right general direction and it was fun to try. Then she tried to get us to do rockers - also not easy!

My husband has been having a hard time focusing during his time on the ice...too many things to work on and he didn't know where to start or what to do. His coach suggested a "routine" or plan. Hubby asked me to work one up for him and this is what I've got (so far):
Off-Ice Warmup: march in place, lunges
On-Ice Warmup: 1 lap each of stroking, deep slaloms, alternating crossovers (done deliberately slow), swing rolls (concentrate on deepening the lobes).
Moves: Edges-FO,FI,BO,BI 2x each done on line-look in glass; crossovers on the circle 2x each direction; Mohawks LO,RO,LC,RC 2x each done on the circle; Chasses front and back done once in each direction; 3-turns LFO, RFO, LFI, RFI 5 each time done on the little blue circle (don't whip arms)
Jumps: waltz and toe-loop do each 5 times concentrating on body alignment, leg placement
Spins: Scratch and 2-foot do each 5 times going slowly making sure shoulders are square and weight is back further and skating leg in scratch is bent

I'm hoping this is enough for him to do during his 2 hours skating time. I've placed it in this order so he can get warmed up enough for his lesson (he has an hour before that time)....and if he has enough time left over he can fill it with extra stuff or run through things again (at his discretion). He tends to spend an hour on one element. I do plan on changing it up every so often to prevent boredom, stagnation, and to add new elements.

Anyone think of anything else, or have any advice?

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

LMAO!!! Yes, THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! That is BRILLIANT!!! Tee hee... (I'll have to use that line the NEXT time my primary coach tells me that I won't get my Silver Moves 'til the next millenium!!! MUHAHAHAHAHA!!! )

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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!!!

Yes!!! It sounds a lot like my dance coach...when I asked her if my Dutch Waltz was good enough to test, she said "No, but it's good enough for an exhibition because people won't know what it's supposed to look like" then she went on to say what test quality was and where mine was lacking...

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

Winter Storms:
Woke up with a knot in my back. The click-of-death back crossover fall this morning didn't help very much.
Scared the Dance coach (who doesn't know me) -- I think he was worried that I had broken a hip!

Why is it I can do the inside spiral pattern for Prel MITF by itself, but not after I've done the outsides?
Arrrgh. Weak, jelly legs - must be a Harry Potter jinx!

Summer Breezes:
Very nice stroking, edges and simple spirals.
Crossovers are actually crossing, when I remember to hold and point.
Otherwise, I tend to do very fast progressives. And here I thought I had NO dance skills! Hahaha!

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Hi Delaware I like your list. I often like doing the 5 step Mo sequence during warmup and maybe add 2 foot stuff like 2 footed spins and pivots - try going both ways! and 2footed back to front front to back all ways and combinations.

Also - one of the pros was practicing for the show working on being extra expressive. Its fun to mimic that up down, twisting etc. Try to mimic other people's programs - just bring them to your level.

Lyle

Winter Storms:

Inside 3s- how the heck are they even possible?!


Summer Breezes:

After struggling massively with a complete mental block when it came to backward crossovers, tonight brought somewhat of a breakthrough. It seems that the brain vs feet debate is silenced when I force myself to concentrate on counting and keeping a rhythm going rather than over-thinking everything.

I actually managed some respectable CCW crossovers which I hope to build on now that I hope I've conquered the majority of the fear.

Clare