Isk8NYC-ya do what ya gotta do! Mine are really moved to the inside.

I was going to skate today...but have been battling vertigo for the past 2 days. Did not sleep well last night-every time I rolled over-SPIN CITY!!! And not the kind of spinning I wanted to be doing! I'm hoping to hit the rink on Saturday morning for Club session (yeah since there is no club on Sundays AND it should be a bit warmer by then hehehe).

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

Wide Awake:
Secondary Coach was shocked and surprised over the RBO3 I surprised him with tonight!!! He even added to that and had me try mohawk, RBO3, mohawk RBO3 ..for back power threes!!!

Asleep:

It was too cold and crowded to do much of anything.... I jumped and spun where ever I could.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Thanks for the vote of confidence...



I can spin on both feet! I think that last adjustment made all the difference - held the backspin for about five revs. Plus, I did several waltz jumps (which wasn't smart - loosened the blade a bit) but the landings were totally solid, better than my old blades. Must be the alignment change.

I looked up an old post of Bill's to find out sizes/types and bought all new stainless steel screws as well. One more trial and then off to the sharpener. Hooray for fixed skates.

Hope your vertigo goes away ((((skate@delaware)))) - that's a terrible feeling, esp. since I hate roller-coasters. (Ear infection, maybe?)

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Sorry to hear you won't have a rink this year, but I have to laugh at your comment about the size of your rink. Our rink (only one in our island state) measures 15 x 30 metres, which equals approx 49x98 feet.

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Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

Haven't written one of these in a while

Just gotta say though, the title is incredibly appropriate. I'm currently seeing a sleep therapist trying to work on my chronic fatigue syndrome, so wide awake is really, REALLY a good thing (and something I haven't felt without medication in a long time )

Anyways

Wide awake
-I video taped myself today and my speed/flow IS improving, slowly but surely. I'm looking much more confident going into my jumps (then taking stupid falls that knock said confidence right out of me but that's another problem).
-I got my donut spin! I never, EVER thought I'd be able to do one. Not in a million years, ever. And I'm the first person at my rink to be able to do one
-Death drops are at least looking like I'm ATTEMPTING death drops, which is not something I could say before.
-Spirals are improving too.

I guess, in general, I'm finally starting to feel like all my hard work is paying off.

Asleep at the job
-Double lutzes are totally weird. I don't have a wrong edge take-off, I just don't have an edge take-off period. I literally skid the last part of my take-off. My coach says I'm dropping my head to the left as I reach back to tap, but I don't feel it!
-My air positions are bugging me. I don't wrap, but I don't have a tight air position either. I think that's what's keeping me from getting the last bit of rotation on my double axel.
-Took a few nasty falls today. One was a typical catch my edge/heel on a double loop take-off, another was slamming my hip on a double axel.

But like I said, overall, I'm feeling pretty good right now. My jumps are looking bigger and stronger, and I was pretty impressed with one of the double axel attempts I got on video. It wasn't fully rotated or anything like that, but it looked big, and it looked like I got a nice kick through before pulling in. I think maybe, just maybe, I'm starting to feel more confident in my abilities as a skater.

Here's some clips from today's practice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=849tfCvYQq4

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Youtube Videos

It was the same on Monday! Did everyone take this week off and not send us the memo?

Asleep on the job - Moves class this morning - some sort of 3 turn pattern and I simply could not figure it out to stay on pattern. I think the problem was I'm still doing back turns on two feet - if I knew what foot and edge the turn was I would know what direction. I can't tell you how many times she showed me the pattern and I just didn't get it.

We the slow to fast crossovers to holding the extension and I was so tired after the crossovers I couldn't hold the extension.

Awake, maybe not wide awake, but awake - She showed us how to do what she calls an inside push - like in an inside mohawk so you are actually pushing and getting power rather than simply changing feet. I did catch on to that pretty quick and did a better job on the my right mohawk which is the one I'm most uncomfortable with. I often find that to be the case - I do my "bad" side better because I'm forced to pay more attention to technique.

And I was actually almost on the outside edge when I worked on my outside mohawks in the 8 step.

j

I can't! And if I rebend in time, I get accused of bringing my free leg in too early.....

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

My dance coach gave me a stroking excersize....bend, push & extend, rise and bring you free leg in, rebend, push extend....

Asleep: ME! Did the best I could to avoid answering the alarm clock .... didn't feel like getting out of a nice warm bed at 3:45, so I didn't .... until 4:00 a.m. Didn't feel like going to the rink, but I did. Didn't feel like skating, but I did.

Not Asleep Any More: DAMN it was COLD in there! Had a heck of a time trying to warm up! I speculated to the maintenance man "It is -15C outside, the ice is -16C, so is that why if feels like -31 in here????" No sympathy, none at all .... so I threatened to build a fire in the end zone

Had 15 minutes warm-up on ice and then took 15 minutes in the lobby (while my coach was with another skater) to sit with my skates over the heat vent! (Gotta get a bunch of hand-warmers so I can slip one in each boot before I leave the house in the morning!)

Awake: Lesson went modestly well. Worked on upright and sit spins, back XO's. and a bunch of other stuff - eh, so-so.

SURPRISE!: Coach said 'why don't you try a catch-foot spiral?' Oh yea, RIGHT! I am almost 60, I frozen to the bone, stiff as a board and you want me to ..... holy Moses! I got it! Well 1 out of 4 isn't bad (or was it 2 out of 5?) I didn't know I could do that!

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

Yay for you!!! And thanks, I'm thinking it's either fluid in the inner ear or some of the little "earstones" knocked loose either of which will resolve itself soon....but moving quickly sends me reeling.
Bet that was a good feeling!!!

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

Wide Awake: I had my second good lesson in a row yesterday. I don't think that's ever happened before. I landed a really good double loop, sal, and toe loop. It's a miracle!

Asleep: STILL haven't landed that $%$#@! axel. I've done about 100 of them that were perfectly good except I keep bailing out on the landing. I actually put more energy into bailing out of the jump than if I just went with it. It's a total reflexive action. If I knew ahead of time that the jump was going to be good I wouldn't have any trouble landing it. It's all the bad ones inbetween than mess up my head.

Yeah, mine too - but it's different when you have to do it in time to the music and in time to a husband, too! These, incidentally, are very often two different things.

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

Asleep Me this morning. The alarm went off for the 7:00 session, and it quickly turned to "i'm going to the 8:00" since I didn't skate for long anyhow, it didn't matter. I just couldn't sleep.

Sleeping skating- everything. My blades are just sliding all over the place. I think I need to switch my radius for the winter. (The sharpener gave me 1/2" because of the "soft ice" we have in the summer. She mentioned once it gets cold and the ice harder, i won't like it anymore). They also just need to be done period. I was wobbling like crazy in all my spins, and just sliding all over the place in 3 turns.

I basically made myself skate for 30 minutes. I did scratch spins, back spins, and change foot (not going well). Skipped camel and sit. None of those went well.

I also didn't jump. I need to jump.

Sort of awake The moves I did weren't horrible. Well, actually my CCW 8-step mohawk was, by my CW one wasn't. And my cross rolls are getting pretty good, IMO. The 3s in the field weren't on pattern, but I did all the turns, even the inside ones- assuming you ignore me sliding out of half of them.

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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)

Yea that's the story of my life - I can do strong growling edges with no music or off time or I can do the steps to the music with practically no edges. Edges AND timing? That's the trick I don't quite have yet.

j

Okay NOW Im waking up and theres a sing along going in one of the conference room..aka Sweet Sixteen Party with a DJ..gotta love it. I was called in to work and was NOT happy about it. But skating went pretty well, there were some great things and some things that were more...ehh. But I guess you always need something to work on...so without further adoo...

Wide Awake: (I wish I was)
-Power threes-They're starting to have power and VERY consistant
-Spirals-They've improved so much over time..maybe not in flexiblity, but I can hold them much longer.
-My jump warm up..not 10, but 12 waltz jumps They're just really fun to do
-JUMP OF THE DAY AWARD....goes to....once again....LOOP. Once again that jump is extremely fabulous in everyway and I tried it with four different variations and landed every one of them perfectly clean. So congrats Loop!!
-Axel and 2sal attempts- Soooooo much better than last week. There were times when it was so close that I could taste it. However I focused most on the take off and for the most part Im not dragging my left foot. Also for 2sal, I, for some odd reason, forget to pullin. My first attempt I jumped up and literally pulled my arms in too fast and if landed properly it could have been a triple...but I fell...so that didn't quite work
-Toe loops-behaving nicely today. I landed every one of them clean and had a really nice 'pop' to them.
-Scratch spins-They're coming back, slowly but surely
-Ughh my camel spin-Actually wasn't all that bad today. I made myself try 5 hard attempts and did three out of five really nice ones. My first attempt actually being the best. So it's starting to go in the right direction.
-SPIN...no wait...SPINS OF THE DAY AWARD...goes to....LAYBACK AAAND FLYING BROKEN LEG WHOOHOO! WHOOHOO! WHOOHOO!! Both were behaving very properly and just terrific. I had to give it to both of them because my layback really has improved since last week. My flying broken leg has also. I get alot of air and hold onto the spin for a while..so hooray for both spins.
-My 'Music Box' programme is great as always. I changed up the begining and end pose adding a more 'doll like' appearance and it seemed to work out very nice. I just love that programme..dont ask me why, it's just special and just a nice programme.
-For the most part I stayed on shedule with my goals outline and used those as a guideline for what to practice.


Now for the things to work on and not so good things

Asleep:
-Back powerpull/ bracket pattern-Was alot better last week and resulted in a pretty fall in which I slid 3/4 across the ice on my bum. Lovely right? And this was at the begining of the session where most people were warming up or getting on the ice. Definately lost some dignaty points
-My Flip was half asleep. It wasn't horrid or anything and I had my handful of really good ones, but it just wasn't consistant.
-Had a pretty fall involving me doing a sit spin...or some kind of spin. I fell out of it and did a butt spin. Seriously I should look into breakdancing...it was just lovely.
-Ummm....oh yeah and I may be replacing my 'Slow Me Down' programme with something else. Its just awkward and there are alot of parts that I cant do. I mean the modernesque idea was original..but that particular programme is just....strange. So I may look into something different. I like being graceful and lyrical, so maybe something with vocals.

Umm I guess thats it...till next week

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[i]Beauty May Be in the Eye of the Beholder
But passion is in the heart of a skater.[/I]

Well, I broke down and went to club ice today...man was it crowded! with only two sessions per week we have to cram everything in to them vs. the four we used to have. No sleeping on the ice or you would get creamed!

Wide Awake: our "off-ice" coach taught me the old-fashioned way (1940-1950 era) of backspinning...it was different. It did work though. You go into it the regular way but instead of having your arms shoulder height, the one on the same side as your skating leg is low...that one comes up in a scooping motion across your body as you straighten your spinning leg. In return, I showed him a salchow from a mohawk entrance.

Scratch spins were really good, I actually had one where my ankle was crossed and my hands were touching my chest and i was able to exit normally. Not too travelly either. I was pretty tickled!

Asleep: my back was killing me this morning. Not sure why unless it was the weather. I mean it hurt BAD! It did not start feeling better until this afternoon (long after my skating session ended). Oh well.

My loops were not working today so I bailed on them, especially with my back hurting. No sense adding fuel to the fire.

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

[Wide Awake]
Got to coach this morning....it felt amazing to be back in that role....I loved it before and I love it again...maybe not so much the snowplow 3/basic 1 class I had (give me a basic 3/4/5/6/7/8 class any day of the week over a basic 1)...I had a snowplow 3/basic 1, basic 4/5, and freestyle 4 today, and I just had a lot of fun...I also had a basic 6 (these girls make my Saturday!) and a basic 1 class at another rink...

Skated for 45 minutes or so (and paid $20 for it! ), did moves and some spins....there was an older lady out there who commented that she was impressed by my skating...

Then, took a group of students to the campus rink tonight....I didn't do much because I actually don't like showing off, but I got board and did a spiral and then did some laybacks and a camel/back sit...when I went over to the girls who were watching they commented about how pretty they were....

Between those two different experiences, it was a reminder that while coach and I may nitpick at what I am doing...or not doing! (not enough revs, stretch more, better edge quality, etc.), to others, it's amazing that I can even do these things...

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Wide awake: The outdoor rink downtown is open and I got to skate on some of the best ice i've ever seen at an outdoor rink! And after months of frustration, I did my first ever real scratch spin! woohoo! It felt great! Spinning is not my strong point, so to finally get a scratch spin was amazing.

Did a great forward and backward spiral that even my husband commented on - "that looked really good!"

Waltz jumps and toeloops are looking good and consistent. Salchow is almost there - somedays great, otherdays not so great.

And I landed a flip a couple of weeks ago.

Asleep at the job: Skating at the outdoor rink has left me feeling self-concious as people like to stop and watch, which makes me all nervous, and then I don't skate as well.

My loop jump is still AWOL.

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My Blog - FINALLY updated!
Living out my childhood dream

Fast asleep: The muppet who turned off the plant - at least, assuming someone did, and it didn't turn itself off. The ice was a sheet of water this morning! Husband kept soaking the coach when he stopped anywhere near us. I refused to try to skate full patterns as I knew I'd bottle, and I really didn't want to do that so near competition.

Wide Awake: However, Husband did one of his best camels, and we did some good end patterns to the Fiesta.

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

And to those people that can barely stand up on skates...even a waltz jump is an amazing accomplishment!

I'm sure your camels and laybacks are very pretty indeed!!!

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

Fast asleep: Me--I've been down with a bad cold since Monday, so I haven't skated since last Sunday! I didn't even entertain the thought of going to my usual FS sessions yesterday and today. I know I'm sick if I'm too sick to skate!

Wide awake: Had some good practices last week and got to see a skating friend I haven't seen in a while.

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

Asleep: went to my Sunday rink, and since my lesson is an hour into skating time, I was feeling worn a bit when it was my turn.

We agreed that jumps should be first. There were girls running through their Christmas program....so several aborts occurred...no sleeping there!!!

Wide Awake: went to do my loop and the first few attempts were really pathetic replays of how it's been done for the past few years. Then i don't know what happened but I managed to bring my left leg UP and land on my right leg, not once but at least 6-7 times!!!!

WOOOO-HOOOOO!!!

Of course, my coach, being a COACH felt cheated with my lack of rotation (only made it 3/4 of the way around).

I was just jazzed to finally be able to repeat it!

Asleep: scratch spin was dorky; my free leg was dropping and not cooperating. Homework: enter the spin, keep leg up as high as I can for as long as I can.....without bringing it in. When it's centered CONSISTENTLY, then i can bring it in....sheesh! Same for the backspin-she wants more height on the free leg.

I was fairly happy about the session. And did not get lost driving home this time. That is another milestone for me (I'm always getting lost).

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

Asleep:
Schaffer pushes. Have a HARD time pushing harder. Also doesn't help that I constantly had to watch behind me to make sure no one is right behind me.
Speaking of which, I went and knocked a small little public session kid off his skates by just TURNING AROUND!!! (Didn't even MOVE... just turn around 180!!!)

Wide Awake:
Yes, too bad said kid decide to go RACING THRU the middle and thought he could just push me aside... and at least ONE coach had already WARNED him NOT to go thru the middle b/c it's dangerous!!!

My forward crossovers are better. I've also had the change to practice the edge exercises my choreographer had me do towards the end of the session too.

Asleep:
Didn't do much jumping or spinning other than waltz jumps. Too D*** crowded!

Wide Awake:
Waltz jumps are okay... did tried to do couple of a half axels just for grins (since a couple of our skating kids were there doing full axels for fun and all. Hey! Can't let them have all the fun, right?)

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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!!!

This is for all last week...in attempting to use up the rest of my PTO for the year before I lose it and in procrastinating when I should be using that time off work and my weekends to study for my final exams next month or finish my final paper due today, I skated a lot instead (1.5 hrs Tuesday of just dadnce, my usual 1.5 on Friday and 2 on Saturday, and I picked up a dance session at another rink on Sunday for an hour).

So....dances are coming along. Tuesday I only did dance--my knees were bugging me so I didn't want to jump. Coach's knees were bugging him so we didn't partner, just worked on my solos of the blues and paso. They're coming along quite nicely, just need to smooth out the choctaw on the blues and get more of the lilt and knee bend action going down the sides of the rink. Paso--timing of the mohawk is my biggest issue there but I'm working that out. Friday we did get to spend a few minutes partnering the blues and it's getting better, not too much longer until I can test this one. It's funny that *usually* for me, partnering the dances is the easy part (after a zillion years of synchro and freaking out when it comes to skating alone), it's the solos that need the most work because I actually have to think about where my shoulders, hips, etc are going. However, with the pre-golds, it's totally the other way around. I think freestyle is helping me get more confident in dance.

Dance session Sunday was awesome! I think I'll add this one to my weekly skating schedule as often as I can, even though it's 45 min away. There were a few juv/intermediate dance teams, my friends (ad gold dance team), and a few others. I hadn't been on a strictly dance session in a long time, since all the sessions at my rink are open/general. Olympic sized rink meant I could actually push out dances where I'm normally in the wall. I worked on the blues and paso again, did 2 really good patterns of the Starlight (probably the best I've ever done!) right at the end of the session. There was someone working on the silvers so I also skated through those whenever the music came on just for fun. OH!! And I learned the silver samba!!!!! Walt and Victoria were working on it since it's a compulsory for gold this year and I followed them a few times. Steps are pretty easy and it's really fun.

Did freestyle on Friday and Saturday. Axel has just a slight touch down of the L foot on the landing still, which is pretty consistent, but I'm able to still get the foot back and get an (uncleanly landed) axel with a toe loop tacked on to the end. I took a really nasty fall Friday that I think freaked me out a little. The rest of my jumps are good, getting more height in general on my flip, lutz, and loops in combination as the 2nd jump. Loop on its own not so much (for some reason that just kills my R knee, it's really the only thing that bothers it, so I don't do more than a few per session). My coach and I worked on spins, mainly entry to my back scratch, back camel, back sit (wasn't holding the edge long enough). Back camel is getting MUCH better. Also fixed my flying camel--he taught it to me but in my own practice I had it totally screwed up and was jumping to the wrong place.

So overall a good week. Next week I need to start getting my program back together for the Columbus competition.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything