Working Hard:
Worked on the Power 3's for Prel MITF. Have to focus on bringing the feet together BEFORE pushing into the back crossover.
Did a few upright and sit spins. Back spin start (arms) hurt, so I only tried two of those. Eh.

Hardly Working:
Since I skated at a birthday party yesterday, I skipped the freestyle session.
Just as well, the shoulder feels really wobbly.
Didn't try any jumps or fancy arm positions on spins.


PS - Anyone heard from Casey recently?

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Working Hard: AN program! Just kicked into working on it w/ real focus last week having finished testing. It's coming along & I'm really enjoying it! The past 2 years I've had programs that were 2:30 & 2:10, so the 1:40 is feeling pretty easy to get through without dying. Am starting to add some arms to it too.

Hardly Working: 2/3 through my straightline footwork, I have a series of turns on one foot (hence no pushes), and the speed gets slower.....and slower....and s-l-o-w-e-r....until finally I'm literally not moving anymore. Not good. Coach says keep working at it, and we'll change it the week before, if need be.

Hardly Working:

My loop and flip decided to go on vacation!!! I got a couple of loops out of it but that's it. Decided the rest of the session not to do any more jumps and risk learning it wrong again.

Actually, NOTHING was working this weekend! Even my good spins were OFF! I don't know what happened. I ended up doing something edgework instead. Of course, it's obviously NOT meditative when you have all these little BRATS (BIG ONES TOO!!! One hockey guy was nice but I guess the rest of the Hockey Dads don't like figure skaters huh?) skating right into you!!!

And would the couple who are KISSING on the ice, PLEASE GO GET A ROOM!?!?!

Working hard:
Well, *I* was working hard... but at the end it was time to call it a day and not push it! (It was time to leave anyway. I skated just a little after an hour anyway so...)

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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!!!

Jazz, maybe you've got a cold coming. That always throws my balance off.

Working Hard:
A judge from my state gave me the advice that I should do what I do best to my fullest, so work the spins and the footwork, so that is what I am doing. I started work on my flying camel and over the course of the lesson it went from hop to flying and position is getting better. Landed axels and my first clean 2 sow on harness with on minimal pain.

Hardly working:
Camera angel from mids made me look soooo thin, I am making a full press to put on 10 lbs over the course of the year. Speed is better but still so slow, arms continue to need work but all things considered, it could have been so much worse.

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

Coskater, I heard you skated great at Mids this weekend!!

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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

Hardly Working: Had 2 hours on the competition venue this morning and was pleased to find the altitude isn't bothering me. Was able to muster good power and speed without puffing myself inside out. Everything seemed to be working well. Might try a program run-through tomorrow, keep Wednesday to stay loose, and then go for broke on Thursday - after all, the one that count is the one the judges see

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

Working Hard:
I got two good one foot spins from FO edge today, and I'm starting to enjoy spinning again! I demo'ed checking the LFO three prior to a Sal for another adult skater, and, of course, they were nicely checked.

Hardly Working:
I need to apply my "rule of 10" to FO and FI threes and the BI Choctaw in the prelim power three pattern. Rule of 10 - do each problem move 10 times every time I skate. I find that after I do one or two FI threes on each foot, I go on to something else. I need to make myself stick with it!

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Working Hard
- Yesterday Daisies gave me a suggestion on the flying camel--changing the setup from back crossovers to a RFI3-turn--and it really made a difference! Now I just need to change the setup for the setup, so that I'm approaching the element forward and CCW instead of backward and CW.
- I nailed the axel from the landing of the loop jump twice yesterday, and both times I employed the same technique so that means it should be repeatable. So now the loop-axel is back in the program. (Fingers crossed!)
- My stamina seems to be just fine these days, which makes it much less arduous to skate my 2:40 program. I did two run-throughs yesterday and didn't feel tired or winded. Hmm. . . Maybe it was just because we actually had a little moisture in the air yesterday? Thank goodness Chicago doesn't have the low humidity we have here in SoCal!

Hardly Working
- So where's the progress I supposedly made on my double salchow on Friday?? Yesterday I was back to my old tricks: landing backwards on the toe, then inexplicably breaking forward and putting both hands on the ice. Sigh.
- Didn't land the loop-axel in either of my program run-throughs yesterday. I had a timing glitch in the first run-through, so I skated the whole program again just to prove I could land the axel. . . and by the time I got to the axel, some girl was right there in my spot, in the middle of a combination spin.
-My back has been stiff and sore for a week. Fortunately, it's down to just my left shoulder blade/traps now, but still. . .
- Backspin out of the camel-sit is still hit and miss, even when I supposedly have it working.

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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

I always liked doing the Flying Camel from an series of three turns. It made it float, somehow, and it was easier to "cross the river."

Working Hard:
My shoulder's better today. I was careful not to use that arm too much, which meant my students only had one-handed spiral support. (Both low-level beginners.)

My 12-year old student did a couple of very nice LFO3's, but her crossovers were bad - she wasn't using her arms!

Hardly Working:
Practiced a bit of the Power Threes, which is tough with only one arm!


DBNY - I saw that little cutie we had in Mommy & Me. She's taking groups on Mondays. Still as sweet - very tall now!
I've been using the "Rule of 10" for tango stops, but I'm still spazzing out on them. Ah well, someday, someday.

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Hardly Working: Had cortisone shot into my hip last Friday to take care of some inflammation/bursal fluid that was making my hip snap and hurt for the past few months. Then, my doc told me to keep away from heavy exercise for over a week. Of course, I just redefined heavy exercise not to include my LTS class

But, then... my balance was soooooo off for no reason that I could understand that I kept going too far back on my blades and during warm up (and goofing-off) before class, I fell over and bruised/pulled something in my bottom enough that it hurt to begin spins, go into back crossovers, and land jumps. But since I'm a crazy adult skater, that didn't stop me from....

Working Hard: Before the disastrous warm-up, my LTS coach had turned to me and said, "I think this is a jumps day!"

When class started, I sucked it up and warned her that I can jump without it hurting, and land without it hurting, but that my butt hurt every time a few seconds later when the jiggle from the landing started!

So, we worked on my toe loop-- week 2 and I look a little bit less like a spastic pigeon. I've learned that I'm only really "jumping" right if I'm flat on my rear staring up at my coach immediately after landing (sooooo have to work on landing)!

Then we worked on toe-tap waltz jumps until my poor out-of-shape body cried uncle.

I'm lucky that I have a coach who has infinite patience, infinite energy, and knows how to make falling flat on my rear in pursuit of a jump fun (all the while coaching the rest of the class through their first backwards crossovers and backwards glides) .

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When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

Thanks, Isk8NYC, you're the second person today to mention doing it from a series of 3-turns, so I'd better try it!

Glad you are babying that shoulder, and hope it's 100% better soon!

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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

Working hard: Last lesson before the competition, so we ran through everything, including Husband's free programme, which Coach1 hadn't seen much as Husband does solo work with Coach2.

Our Canasta, Swing Dance and Fiesta are as good as can be expected - I must remember to keep my weight back as far as possible on the cross-in-front before the step to forwards on the Fiesta, as I'm apt to come up on my toes, thus grinding to a halt, and then have to lurch forwards into the restart! Coach1 isn't very happy with it, but did say, when pressed, that it had improved since October, which was the last time we competed it.

Hardly Working: We had a disastrous run-through of the Willow - we got out of time with the music and with each other, but the second try was better. I'm still not confident enough, though - I struggle a bit, and it shows.

Husband missed the change-foot at the start of his programme, and his flip landing was a bit odd, but he did the best camel we've ever seen him do!

Have gone quite mad and told Barbara that if we don't have any opposition at pre-Bronze in the Mountain Cup, we want to skate Bronze. This means getting my 14-step up and running in six weeks flat.... I just hope someone else enters pre-Bronze dance.

Working very hard indeed and I'm delighted to learn that BlueIIIMoon is coming to stay with a friend of ours just before Oberstdorf, so I'm hoping I'll get to skate with her at our rink!

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

pheonix: i'm used to my 2:30 program, so when I do ISI artistic at 2:00 it feels like a breeze lol!

Hardly Working:
After confronting my nervous issues, coach said the first program run through I did was probably the worst he had ever seen. Funny that I didn't feel it was half bad.

I'm also worried that I can hardly tell the difference (when I'm doing it) between a good step sequence and a bad one. I just totally forget that I have to 1) bend my knees 2) flow in and out of the steps 3) stay on my edges to achieve 2) I put this in that order because its easier for me to think of flow and hence end up on my edges then the other way around.

Working Hard:
So after saying that I had to voice about those nervous issues sometimes, so I was suppose to put it behind me... second time through the program, apparently the first part was better because I remembered now what I had to do for my step sequence.
Then I forgot totally that I had to emote in the soft section.
So that was pointer for the third run through.

I got some beautiful double salchows in... just not in any of my three run throughs...

Hardly Working:
I was so breathless after my run throughs and my heart was beating so crazy it was crazy...

Working Hard:
My efforts to remember knee bend in general and to LIFT MY FEET after each stroke or cross over appears to be slowly but surely slipping into my subconcious because someone remarked that my crossovers looked a little better now.

I would like to thank whichever people that pointed out that the nerves and the feelings caused by nerves are there to stay during competitions (for me thats jelly knees and general stiffening)
And to think for a while I was wondering how to prevent that...

Now I know better. I know those will come, its kinda inevitable, but I CAN do something about it. I get stiff? Fine... I can still bend my knees, I have jelly knees? As long as I align my hips over my knees and my knees over the ball of my foot I'm staying on my feet. I'm going to try and work with that. I have three ice times (aka trial runs) before the real thing.

So well I'm like ok... I went to look up some sports psychology info and am going to try some of them out in a more organized manner.
(sorry for long post!)

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~
Tidesong

Working Hard . . .

I stayed the entire public session last night after taking adult group lesson . . . so tired after it was over but the ice was so empty it seemed a shame to waste it!

Hours and hours of spinning are paying off . . . one foot almost decent when demonstrated for our instructor . . . yay!! Our whole 1/2 hour lesson last night was SPINS . . . one foot from backwards crossovers entry; then worked on backspin; then, (I think for her amusement??!) we worked on sit spins. Yeesh. At one point I realized that everyone else in the rink is watching us . . yikes!!! (of course, it was a very sparsely attended public session, just a few other adults, and 3 other adults in the other group class, but STILL!). But it was kinda cool though, because one of the skaters not in the lesson came up afterwards and was asking all about sit spins . . . I've seen her skate before, and she has a flip!! but has never been taught a sit spin.

While on the public session, one of the skaters from the other group asked me if I could show her how to spin . . . so I showed her how to do a 2 foot spin . . . fun stuff!! (and it's quite to think that *I* am now giving spin advice! whodathunkit??).

Hardly working . . .

My sit spin . . . cause I'm too chicken to bring my leg all the way over and lock it into sit spin position!

my blades. I just don't feel secure on them although they still are producing fingernail shavings so I cornered ds' coach last night for a second opinion - she agreed that they had some edge but if I felt like I was slipping, might as well go ahead and get them sharpened.

and in other news . . .
:::::::sigh::::::::::: I knew it was bound to happen sometime, but 8 y.o. DS has officially left me in the dust . . . we were neck and neck for a while, but now he has a flip, landing loop and lutz on a fairly consistent basis, and a couple of revs on his sit spin. ah, youth . . .

Working hard:

• Starting to get back my loop and flip at the beginning of the session
• Back sit is at least a back squat now. Now to get it lower...

Hardly working:

• Lost loops and flips towards the end of the session again. Oh, dear! I hope I get it back by tomorrow. (I immediately stopped working on those jumps and continued on other things.)
• Sit spin doesn't want to SIT 'til the end of the session.

__________________
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!!!

Working hard:
Loop and flip came back in time for my lesson with secondary coach!!! That was a CLOSE CALL!!! (Secondary coach also assured me that jumps will sometimes go on vacation for a weekend or a day... so don't expect jumps to always be there. You've proven to me that you have those jumps now!!! )

Hardly working:
Still working on the back of the blade. I could get on the correct edge and part of the foot when I'm at the wall, but I can't seem to stay on it when I'm doing it away from the wall. But there is one consolation....

Working hard:
One of our Bronze skaters complemented me on my backspin and says he's never seen me done backspins like THAT. (Too bad for me, even though it looks like a real backspin, I'm really "cheating" on the spin. )

__________________
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!!!

How do you cheat on a backspin??

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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

Well, I tried the flying camel from two consecutive RFI3-turns (RFI3, short LFO edge, RFI3, takeoff edge). Unfortunately, it didn't work as well as the one RFI3. But tomorrow I can get some help on it in my lesson. Maybe it's fixable (FX!) Iskk8NYC, any suggestions?

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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

Just use the left toepick to push into each RFI3, don't use a LFO edge. Then, after you turn the last RFI3 and are on a RBO, it's a quick LFO entry into the jump with an open hip. Make sure you keep your left arm in front as the right leg jumps "over the river" then the arms have to snap into the camel along with the leg. Stay down on the knee for the first rev, but you already knew that.

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Our university bathrooms are the perfect axel and ballet practice places! No really. They're with large open spaces, and have big wall-height mirrors and after 9 in the evening practically deserted till 10.30 in the evening when security locks all doors...

It's funny you should ask that, because it's one of the ironies of the CoP that what is a cheat for a beginner (at the backspin) means extra points for an elite competitor. The cheat is to be spinning on the FI edge instead of the BO edge, which is something almost everyone does when learning the backspin. Of course, when beginners do it, it's because they are not in proper control, whereas an elite skater can switch back and forth with no problem. This is all from someone who can't do any kind of backspin .

Working Hard:
There's a rink that I've avoided because of an unpleasant incident there, but now with my outdoor rink closed, it's that rink or none for any day other than Mon or Fri, so I girded myself and went today. I had a great time! There were two other adults that I know and a coach that I've worked with, so the initial environment was friendly. I applied my "rule of 10", and worked harder today than I have in a long time. The payoff was that I actually started to feel comfortable with Prelim F Power 3's on the right side, and the L side is starting to seem doable. I got one good one foot spin from FO edge, but spins were not really on today. Remembering skiing, I worked on F power pulls and was delighted to hear a rip and keep up the speed. BXO to BO edge pattern seems to be consistent. I played with the 5 step Mohawk, very slowly, but it wasn't so bad. FI threes suffer from fear more than anything else, and today I made real headway against it, managing to do several consecutive ones down the blue line. Finally, I was talking with another adult whom I know, who came in later, about T pushes, and she mentioned figures. I had tried the FO and FI eights years ago, and could not get all the way around. I tried again today, and much to my amazement, had no problem. I also now get just over 3/4 of the way across on one push, as opposed to just over half previously. All that work on T pushes in my lessons has paid off. I even did a BO eight, which wasn't pretty, but was complete.

Hardly Working:
As I already said, spins were just not on today. R hip is hurting from the pressure of power pulls and power threes. Holding the BI edge is what's doing it in BXO's and in power threes. I still can't take anything for it, so I'm just hoping it goes away.

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Doubletoe... what dbny said!!!

Secondary coach is trying to fix it now. Primary coach jokes that I now have a Level 3 spin (before he tries to fix it...) And way back when I was taking lessons with Charlie Tickner, he told me once that he's actually impressed that I can do a backspin on an inside edge (before he tries to fix it of course... )

Maybe they shouldn't fix it. Then I'll have a Level 3 spin!!! LOL!!!

Good that you had a great time at the rink even though you had an unpleasant experience 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!!!

So you're telling me that the fact that the only sit spin I can do is a fi edge backsit is actually good and not bad? Whoa.

Working Hard This morning’s practice started a little slow and quiet but as more and more adults began filtering in from all parts of Canada the energy level became palpable! Most of the adult competitors know each other from previous years and there is a STRONG sense of camaraderie, but the unfamiliar face is certainly not ignored! I had numerous people come up and introduce themselves.

Practice was fine. I could feel the effects of yesterday’s strenuous workout – a reminder to take it easy today and tomorrow – and a few twinges from my right ankle. Ok, if I am going to blow my ankle, we’ll save that for the final seconds of my performance on Thursday!

I ran through my program (in parts) and everything was working well. Given enough adrenalin on Thursday, I just might be able to fill the Olympic size ice! Got a few compliments on my poise – compliments are always nice !

Adult social tonight - hope everyone survives more or less in tact.

One more practice day before (Canadian) Adult Nationals!

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