Blackjack or Bust 3/14/05 - 3/20/05

[jazzpants]

Don't know why I thought of it. Maybe it's because I was playing Black Jack on my husband's cell phone! :P

Blackjack:

Loop and flip both made an appearance today!!! :mrgreen:
Bronze moves was okay when I wasn't getting blocked by the other skaters!!!
Bust:

Backspin didn't make an appearance.
Sit spin was wimpy for me. My husband took pictures of me doing my sit spin and showed it to me. GAWD!!! My big ol' but is sticking out! :lol: :P The position was okay. (It was definitely a recognizable sit spin!) but I tried to get it lower still and ended up sit spinning with my butt on the ice!!! :P
Spirals were kinda wimpy this evening. Hubby was right! I was TIRED!!! (I took a nasty fall doing spirals when I'm tired but kept going anyway. Never again!!!) :P

[falling_rain]

blackjack: my dancestep sequence for freestyle four is getting better, finally. that second backward threeturn is getting there! :)

bust: not in much of a mood to practice anything other than dancestep sequences today...i didn't feel like i had the energy to jump and thus did not really jump at all and didn't spin very much either (even though i desperately need to work on my sitspin. sigh.) i also fell on some turn or other and banged my elbow. owwie. :(

[dbny]

Blackjack:
My FO threes are definitely getting better. I start by pushing off from the wall to one side of a line and make the turn on the line, coming back to the wall. That's an exercise my husband figured out for me when I was completely blocked on FO threes, and it got me back on track. Today all my FO threes were actually on the line, meaning that I can finally hold off until the top of the lobe instead of turning early. FI threes are also better in that I can now do them on the right sized lobe. I had some good one foot spins today including one of at least four revs. FI Mohawks seem smoother every week. I can still do the power threes.

In general, my skating has really been cooking since last week. I'm working much harder in all my practices, and really enjoying it. Sadly, the enjoyment has been missing for a very long time, but seems to be back to stay. I'm feeling so positive it's almost scary.

Bust:
Still can't check FO three's sufficiently in Prelim alt three pattern, and still chicken out of the FI threes in pattern at the last minute, just touching free foot before the turn. Spirals are just plain sad, and even the placement needs work. Still cannot do the initial FO three in the Prelim power threes pattern.

[phoenix]

Blackjack:
My rocker foxtrot has become marginally consistent, which is good because I'm testing it in a week! I'm trying very hard to not think about the fact that if I pass it I'll be up to pre-gold, which I've wanted for so very, very long--don't need that extra pressure! Plus it's my first time taking it so who knows what the judges will say. On a good day, provided I don't make all the mistakes I *sometimes* make, it should pass.

AND, in anticipation of working on junior free dance, I've been doing lots of twizzle exercises, & I feel like I'm finally understanding them. For the fist time EVER, I can do all my forward twizzles off any edge (never could do the FO ones much at all before). I'm very happy about that!

Bust:
SOOoooooo sick of this rocker! Some days it's hard to keep up the momentum & not let it slide & work on other, more fun stuff instead.

And worst off all, I am so tired of trying to skate dance patterns on freestyle ice which is mostly little kids who don't know how to watch & who don't move much around the ice so they're always in the way! I am constantly having to bail out of whatever I'm doing. We have NO dance ice at my rink, & it's dangerous! Much as I'm looking forward to being on pre-golds, it's not gonna be fun doing patterns of the Blues (almost all backwards) trying not to kill the kiddies in the process. They need to at least start splitting out high & low skaters on different sessions.

[Skate@Delaware]

blackjack: was able to remember the steps for our show routines <g>; not bad for an old gal!

bust: laid up now with pneumonia! Could not catch my breath at rehearsal on Sunday morning and thought I was going to pass out-went to doc on Monday after breathlessness continued. He also said no skating this week...... well, ya can't skate if ya can't breathe!

[MannyisHOT]

Blackjack: Landed a double toe
Bust: Fell on a double toe on a flip and a half. Hurt my knee. Flip and a half is at the end of my program and when I fell on it I just didn't stand up and layed on the ice until my music finished. Couldn't walk all night.

[Mrs Redboots]

Bust: Have a cold, and it's the worst day of it, and despite cold cure I didn't have much energy, so skated very lack-lustre. Did run through a few dances solo, but so slow you'd think my blades were glued to the ice. Plus yet another cut of my music doesn't work.... I think I know how to fix it, but how many CDs does it take to fix my music???? The Mountain Cup is at the beginning of June, dammit....

Blackjack: I did do a couple of patterns of the Fiesta Tango solo, to the music, and didn't slow down, but it was horribly small. So was the Swing Dance, ditto. Sigh..... I hate dancing solo, it's so much easier with a man!

Great excitements, though, just as I was getting ready to go home. On and off through the evening the fire alarm had gone off. The duty manager checked, and said it must be a false alarm (this happens sometimes), and so we all got back on the ice, and the coach who knew how reset it and showed the duty manager how. But it kept on going off, and he kept on resetting it, and we kept on ignoring it.

Then, suddenly, someone came rushing out of the men's loo exclaiming that it was full of smoke.... No wonder the poor fire alarm kept going off! Duty Manager rushed in there with a fire extinguisher, and a moment or two later, he and the coach who'd gone into help came rushing out bearing a smouldering rubbish bin between them. I realised they didn't have a spare hand, so rushed to the nearest emergency exit and flung the doors wide and they ran out with their burden and deposited it on the tarmac. Coach went back to the ice, duty manager dealt with the rubbish, and I went back and finished tying my shoes. Drama over!

But what I still don't understand is this: this coach normally has the bladder capacity of an ant, and he is noted for running into the gents' between lessons - how come he didn't this evening? The whole thing would have been discovered much earlier.

[dbny]

But what I still don't understand is this: this coach normally has the bladder capacity of an ant, and he is noted for running into the gents' between lessons - how come he didn't this evening? The whole thing would have been discovered much earlier.

:lol: That's me! Maybe he limited his fluid intake in an effort stay on the ice longer. I've done that.


Sorry to hear you're down with a cold, but at least it didn't slow down your thinking, which was pretty quick to get you to the door in time to help!

Can you offer me some tips on the SW change of edge in the Fiesta? I'm skating solo and haven't had any instruction on it, just got the steps from a book.

[batikat]

Blackjack:
I'm beginning to see that my Free programme might actually be possible after all, even at the speed my coach wants and including my nemesis - the 'Loop'.

I actually landed a few of these today - OK so most were not fully rotated so I had to hop the landing but I did at least manage to take off instead of skidding to a halt at that point in the programme! :lol:

I still have 2 and a half months before I have to do it in competition so I am hoping it will be properly doable by then. This is a huge breakthrough for me as I have been trying to get this darned loop for 18 months or so - I think I spent the first 8 months just sitting back on my blades in the take-off position wondering how it was even possible to move from that position let alone jump. I guess the answer was that I wasnt really in the proper take-off position at all, just sitting there with my weight in entirely the wrong place. :frus: Now I just have to co-ordinate the arms better with the spring up and then work on a bit more speed going into it and checking out of it better. It all looks so easy - but it's so hard! As my coach says - "if it was as easy as it looks you wouldn't need me" - aaahhhhh bless!

Bust:
sit spin - not good today
moves my coach tried to get me to do - think I left my brain at home as I'd get part way down the rink and forget what on earth I was doing and coach would say "Hmmmm! That's different!" Sometimes I think he teaches me just for the laughs! 8-)

[MissIndigo]

Blackjack: Cross strokes. Forward has always been easy and good for me, and I'm finally getting more confident with the placement of my foot for the backward, as well as getting the edge deeper. Still awaiting that beautiful "rip", but I'm happy for what I did do.

Power pulls still coming along but I'm using my arms too much on the forward and not trusting my shoulders to help steer still--you guys were right, backward are easier!!! Rhythm, power, everything I can sustain longer. I am beginning to rip the edges now, so it (literally) sounds like I'm getting my power from the right place.

Bust: Right back inside three turn. Scary, scary, scary. :giveup: However, I did have decent placement on the 3-turns in the field, so that was good. Now I just want to get the lobes bigger.

And speaking of those 3-turns in the field...the rulebook's diagram shows eight three turns down the long axis of the rink, however my coach told me today that many of the kids when testing will only do 6 lobes of FO-BI or FI-BO turns. I'm concerned because I am trying to train placement for a total of eight turns, starting at the red dot at the upper end of the axis...and I have heard of recent tests (standard MITF track) in my area that have failed with eight three turns because the lobes were too small. I find that kind of puzzling if that's what the rulebook shows. Thoughts, anyone, especially if you've passed either the Pre-Juv test or the Adult Silver MITF?

[Mrs Redboots]

Can you offer me some tips on the SW change of edge in the Fiesta? I'm skating solo and haven't had any instruction on it, just got the steps from a book.Make sure you don't use your free leg to change edge, but that you use your blade, as you would for power pulls. If there are changes-of-edge exercises in your Moves in the Field, work at them. Don't forget it's 2 beats each bit, so it's a six beat edge - 2 beats on outside edge with free leg extended behind, two with it extended forward, and 2 on inside edge with it extended behind.

If you think of that inside edge as the start of the end pattern, it helps.

Slusher will be better at this than me - she's passed this dance & I haven't!

[dbny]

And speaking of those 3-turns in the field...the rulebook's diagram shows eight three turns down the long axis of the rink, however my coach told me today that many of the kids when testing will only do 6 lobes of FO-BI or FI-BO turns. I'm concerned because I am trying to train placement for a total of eight turns, starting at the red dot at the upper end of the axis...and I have heard of recent tests (standard MITF track) in my area that have failed with eight three turns because the lobes were too small. I find that kind of puzzling if that's what the rulebook shows. Thoughts, anyone, especially if you've passed either the Pre-Juv test or the Adult Silver MITF?

The primary focus of this move is edge quality. Perhaps the skaters who failed with eight turns and small lobes did not fail due to the number of turns and lobes, but rather due to poor edge quality. They may have been doing more turns because they were unable to hold the edge long enough to do bigger lobes and fewer turns. I'm guessing that not only did the failing skaters have eight lobes, but also that their turns were early and rushed. The placement of your turns precisely at the top of each lobe would be an indicator of edge quality. If you are able to do clean, strong edges with eight turns, it should not make a difference. Ask your coach about it.

[phoenix]

Picky things like how many lobes they want tend to be a regional thing--I'd check with your coach or other skaters who test in your area. If they don't like 8 lobes because they're too small, then do the 6. In my area, we pretty much always do 8 (& in general do it straight by the book), but I can't say that someone would fail for doing six. It might also depend on the size of the skater & the speed through the exercise.

[Thin-Ice]

And the length of your rink... when I took Pre-Juvenile Moves I needed 8 turns to cover about 160 feet. But I'm now working on Silver Moves and need about 6 turns to cover 200 feet... both are acceptable in our region.. it's more a matter of clean, well-placed turns and a reasonable amount of power (It shouldn't take what feels like a day and a half to do the pattern). It might be a good idea though to talk to a judge in your club about the number of turns that are acceptable in your area.

Good luck!

[Isk8NYC]

Blackjack: After having my blades adjusted and sharpened, I can now spin again! Did some wicked sit spins and a few fast scratch spins. Focused on change-foots, which weren't half-bad. MITF were fine, although I didn't try the threes-on-the-line, was able to handle the power pulls, forward and backward.


Bust: Weak camels. Too tired to jump much. Have to start working on footwork.

[Mrs Redboots]

For about the sixth time, what I had cut didn't work on the ice - it simply didn't come through the sound system. So my coach, seeing that I was upset, said, "Well, look, let's try the tape!" I always copy my music on to tape so that I can play it through the headphones while choreographing. And the tape played perfectly! Ta-daaa!!!!!! So spent ages beginning to choreograph my programme, which is going to be great fun, I hope.

Also did some great work on back cross-rolls & back cross-cuts. I'm hoping to get them ready to test by December, but this will be major work - they aren't even anywhere near ready yet. Still, I said to my coach, "If I have a fighting chance of passing them, I would like to test them then, before the system changes!"

Bust: Stayed on the ice over 2 hours with no significant breaks, and then stretched, and my legs are too tired for me to even contemplate doing my off-ice workout! Sigh....

[russiet]

...Power pulls still coming along but I'm using my arms too much on the forward and not trusting my shoulders to help steer still--you guys were right, backward are easier!!!...

Hmph! :?? So I'm a minority!8-)

BLACKJACK: Weekly training started again after 3 weeks of nothing :( : (1) cancelation for a hockey game, (2) school winter recess and (3) a snow day. Instructor says I've improved, never-the-less. My RB Power Pull is starting to make nice ripping sounds. LB is now working a little better.

BUST: My backwards cross overs absolutley stink, as my instructor pointed out. I cheat them all the time. I've promised myself that I'll concentrate on them over the next 4 months while on inlines.

[aussieskater]

Blackjack - Monday: at long last, the FI mohawks arrived (after about 9 months of struggle...) Yay!! I then did about 100 of them to ensure they would stick until Tuesday...
Bust - Tuesday: the FI mohawks disappeared. Why?? (And what can I do to help them return?)

[jazzpants]

Blackjack:

My forward power 3's have returned for the most part! Here's hoping that it will be here to stay by tomorrow. 8-)

Did one good scratch spin.

Bust:

Sit spin was okay the first time and a BUST the rest of the time!!! :evil:

I could not do the 5 step mohawk pattern -- b/c there's WAAAAY too many people on the public session. And I had an accident with another skater trying to do the pattern too! (I felt really bad for the guy. Fortunately, neither of us were seriously injured.)

And as for my lesson with my secondary coach... I'm trying to learn how to do proper back crossovers stroking (progressives) so that I get a lot more power w/o much effort. It's TOUGH to get a good push on the cross under stroke, isn't it? *sigh* :roll:
Spirals!!! My nice spirals from last week?!?!?! Where ARE you!?!?! :( (Legs were mildly sore.)

[sk8pics]

Haven't posted in a while because nothing was going too well... but now things are much better!

Blackjack Finally did a clean run through of the new version of my free program last night, with all the jumps done the way they're supposed to be done. :D Coach was very happy. Also since Sunday my salchows are the best they've ever been, and coach was nearly speechless yesterday at the first one I did --speechless in a good way, LOL! 8-) I actually have some run of edge on the landing of them now. It's a good thing, too, since I compete Saturday morning (with practice ice at 6:30 am! 8O )

Happy skating everyone. Wish me luck on Saturday! Maybe I'll see a few of you there, at Princeton.

Pat

[Mrs Redboots]

Blackjack - Monday: at long last, the FI mohawks arrived (after about 9 months of struggle...) Yay!! I then did about 100 of them to ensure they would stick until Tuesday...
Bust - Tuesday: the FI mohawks disappeared. Why?? (And what can I do to help them return?)Law of skating, my dear - you can never keep a skill at first. The only thing to do is go on working at them. All skating skills are patchy at first - you might land a jump, for instance, once in a hundred tries at first, then they build up to one in ten, then you get a session when you can't miss, and then 2-3 sessions when you can't do one to save your life! Skating is Like That!

Good practice this morning. Blackjack: Managed to run through a lot of my stuff that I do with my husband solo, as it were. Beginning to get more confident now. Have choreographed some of my new programme, but not all.

Bust: Twizzles weren't working so well - I do hope I can put a twizzle sequence in the routine, it cries out for one, but I haven't done this before....

[FrankR]

Hello all,

This is what happened the past couple of days.

Bust (Literally!) :cry: :
I got on the ice on Tuesday and felt that my left foot was pitching forward inside my skate. However, I thought that I could adjust to it and not have to re-tie my skate. Wrong! On my first set of forward crossovers around the end of the rink I felt like my left foot was scraping the toe. On the second set of crossovers I caught my left toe-pick and the next thing I knew I was airborne and hurtling towards the ice face first. I managed to bring my arms underneath me in the air and I hit the ice full force on my elbows and stomach. I knocked the air out of myself, my elbows were smarting like crazy and to cap it all off, because the ice had just been cut, I was soaked! :cry: Then five minutes later, my moves coach steps on the ice and I had to start my lesson with him feeling like I'd just been hit by a truck. I was a mess. Still, we managed to do some productive things and once I explained what happened to him he understood why I was a wreck during our lesson. I have a lump on each elbow but I can move my arms fine and as long as I don't touch the tender spot I don't really feel anything. I assume everything's okay in there. Luckily today was much better. I think having a day off in between helped me to settle down and forget the crash. During today's run-through I stepped out of the axel in the lutz/axel right at the beginning and the spins still need to be better. However, what concerns me most is that I need to put more energy into the performance of the program itself. It felt flat today. Oh well, there's always the second half of the week.

Blackjack:
Despite having the nasty fall right before the moves lesson, my coach and I were able to work on the forward and backward double threes on the gold test. I was particularly pleased when we managed to fix the back outside double threes to such an extent that I was able to actually complete the entire side on pattern. I kept running out of room before. We also managed to revive the back inside double threes to some extent. I had been having trouble even getting from the back crossover into the back inside double three. These were actually working when we finished our lesson Tuesday. It just goes to show that a lesson can still be salvaged despite having a near-death experience. ;) Today's freestyle session had some bright spots. I managed to fix my spins so that they don't travel as wildly as they used to just a week earlier. In general, I find that in isolation my spins are ok but when I'm in the program I tend to tighten up and things go downhill. Despite, the slight mis-cue on the lutz/axel every other jump was more or less clean and the steps were ok.

That's it for the first half of the week. Take care,

Frank

[NoVa Sk8r]

Frank,
While I'm sad to hear about your mishaps and missteps, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who injures himself on a seemingly weekly basis. :P

Oh, yeah, I need to revisit those gold moves, too!

[FrankR]

Hey Stephen,

I've had numerous conversations with my coaches and fellow skaters at the rink about this. I firmly believe that in order to be a figure skater that you must be in "injury equilibrium." Every figure skater must be in palpable pain and if an injury heals then a new injury must take it's place forthwith or a mishap must happen to re-injure the previously afflicted area. It's like Newton's fifth law, I swear! ;)

Tara and I are considering forming a support group for the walking wounded. :lol:

Take care and may we all heal up and not get injured immediately,

Frank

[NoVa Sk8r]

Sounds something akin to LeChatelier's Principle. Anyway...

Please add me to the support group mailing list. I tend to bruise like a summer fruit!

[FrankR]

Sounds something akin to LeChatelier's Principle. Anyway...

That's actually where I got the idea! :lol: Boy, my years as a science geek have left quite the deep scar haven't they? ;) I'm not sure exactly what to call this little theory just yet. Any suggestions?

Please add me to the support group mailing list. I tend to bruise like a summer fruit!

Will do! Although I don't tend to bruise for some reason. I just get bumps or I bleed. Ick! :??

Frank

[NoVa Sk8r]

I am forever traumatized by 8 years of higher education studying chemistry. Psychotherapy is NOT helping. :) (and this is what I'm reading--or supposed to be reading right now: " ... formation of metal-bound hydroxide from metal-bound water is key to the action of metallohydrolases ..." Blah. :??

Hmmm, I'll think of some name for your principle.

In my lesson a while back, I had a lesson on how to fall properly (I rarely fall on the ice, but when I do ... YOWSER!). My coach was in tears because she said I had the most affected fall ever; I was a little too graceful, perhaps? :P
It's hard to make yourself fall 'properly,' ya know?

[sk8pics]

I am forever traumatized by 8 years of higher education studying chemistry. Psychotherapy is NOT helping. :) (and this is what I'm reading--or supposed to be reading right now: " ... formation of metal-bound hydroxide from metal-bound water is key to the action of metallohydrolases ..." Blah. :??

Hey!!! What do you mean, "traumatized?" Chemistry is CHOOL!!! :bow: You just have to pick the right area to study or work in.

Pat, happy polymer Chemist who also happens to skate

[jazzpants]

Happy skating everyone. Wish me luck on Saturday! Maybe I'll see a few of you there, at Princeton.Good luck, Pat! Go kick some ice butts out there! :mrgreen:

[NoVa Sk8r]

Hey!!! What do you mean, "traumatized?" Chemistry is CHOOL!!! :bow: You just have to pick the right area to study or work in.

Pat, happy polymer Chemist who also happens to skateI have a Ph.D. in bioinorganic chemistry (I studied iron in biological systems), and I think grad school pretty much killed my desire for performing chemistry experiments. That may be due to the contentious relationship I had with my research advisor, though. I think I was going easy by using the word 'traumatized.' :P

Now, I get to read, write, and edit chemical stories.

[Terri C]

Bust is mostly the week's theme for me. I was supposed to have a nice relaxing break off ice for the week, but my mom was rushed to the hospital on Sunday afternoon with abdominal pain. So, I've been coming in to work early ( she's at the hospital where I work) and staying late, as well as getting phone calls/visits from doctors and nursing staff when I'm working.

The blackjack part of the whole deal is that it's only her gallbladder and she'll have surgery tomorrow!

I'll keep everyone posted if you all want!

[Debbie S]

That's great news about your mom, Terri! Well, not great that she has to have surgery, but it's great that she'll be good as new (well, almost) and it's nothing more serious. Best wishes to her for a speedy recovery.

The week has been mostly bust for me since I've had stuff to do every night this week and haven't skated since Monday, and won't skate until the weekend. So much for consistent practice on those Bronze moves. And my power 3's were terrible on Monday. But my coach and I got some more work done on the new program (we were the only ones on the ice!) and she added, among other things, a BO 3-turn before my loop jump - as if it wasn't challenging enough! We also worked on our usual crossover drills - boy was I tired after that!

Good luck this weekend, Pat!

[MissIndigo]

Hey!!! What do you mean, "traumatized?" Chemistry is CHOOL!!! :bow: You just have to pick the right area to study or work in.

Pat, happy polymer Chemist who also happens to skate

Heehee...and Physics is Phun. :lol:

My science geekdom always sneaks into my lessons and my coaches are like, um, yeah, if you say so!

I'm a physicist turned toxicologist gonna turn physical biochemist. Lucky me!

[Mrs Redboots]

That's actually where I got the idea! :lol: Boy, my years as a science geek have left quite the deep scar haven't they? ;) I'm not sure exactly what to call this little theory just yet. Any suggestions?One adult male skater said to me, "Of course I hurt - I'm a skater. Hurting is what I do!"

Oh, and for you chemists out there, my daughter's school ("High School" to you) once ran a pro-science campaign with the slogan "Hug a chemist today!" Unfortunately, since the Head of the Chemistry department also happened to be the headmistress (Principal), nobody actually did....

Terri C, I'm so glad it's only gall-bladder - they are truly easy to deal with, one of my grandmothers had hers done when she was in her 90s. The other grandmother had hers removed in 1957 and went on to enjoy several more decades of happy, active life!

As for me, I'm getting too old! I badly wanted to skate this morning, even though we have our off-ice dance class this evening, but just didn't have the energy.... Being middle-aged is AWFUL at times.

[sue123]

I guess among all these wizened chemists, I’d be a junior chemist. I’m in my third year of my biochem major. And next year, I get to look forward to instrumental and physical chem., and advanced inorganic. And I’m trying to make my schedule work with the rinks schedule. So far, it doesn't look too good for next year, unless the rink changes their times. :cry:

Anyway, on with the show.
Blackjack: I spun so fast and so many times I made myself dizzy. I succeeded in several hockey circles of back crossovers. And I improved on the new spin entry my coach taught me on Tuesday.

Bust: I could not, for the life of me, exit a spin. My coach wants me to put my right foot down and glide out of the spin on the right foot. Well, I did it in my lesson on Tuesday, but today, forget it. I fell about 20 times trying to do the stupid exit. To top it off, there were 3 really obnoxious boys at the rink. It was pretty empty, and I was in the center spinning, and then they push themselves off the wall, lift their arms over their heads like ballerinas, and say "look, I’m spinning, it's EASY". Now, if that's all they were doing, fine, I’d ignore them. But then they starting shooting down the rink and then sliding on their bodies when they reached the end, taking down anybody who happened to be in their way. There were a few kids who stayed after the LTS class and they were around 3 of 4, and they got so scared. Of course, there was no rink guard since usually no one is there. The mom of these 3 kids was there, trying to get them to stop, but to no avail. I was actually glad when one of them crashed too hard into the boards. Serves him right.

[NoVa Sk8r]

I guess among all these wizened chemists, I’d be a junior chemist. I’m in my third year of my biochem major. And next year, I get to look forward to instrumental and physical chem., and advanced inorganic. And I’m trying to make my schedule work with the rinks schedule. So far, it doesn't look too good for next year, unless the rink changes their times. :cry: Wow, lots of skating chemists. Interesting ...

And--whee!--you get to take advanced inorganic.
I had the extreme pleasure of teaching an advanced inroganic lab while a grad student. 8-)

[Terri C]

While we are relieved that there was no cancer found with Mom's gallbladder, she did have some breathing problems post op. Add on to that a difficult medical history and she is now in ICU intubated and with more wires than a VCR/DVD player!
I'm definitely looking forward to starting back on the ice next week- I'll need the therapy!

[Scarlett]

Wow! Apparently science geeks are attracted to the ice. Actually I'm biol/medicine not chemistry but anyway....

Bust-- I hate the choreography my coach is trying to do for my program. I think I might just change music. My spins went away. I was told my sit spin is the ugliest thing ever seen. Ok that one I agree with.

Blackjack-- I actually get to read for fun this week. There is nothing good about my skating this week with maybe the exception of my salchow which made a welcome appearance.

[jazzpants]

Blackjack: Picking out music for this year! This year it's artistic for Skate SF 2004. I'm opting for a different person to do choreography this year instead of having my primary coach do it. I want to give someone else a shot at trying to make me look like a decent skater! :P

Bust: It's possible that my coaches would not like ANY of my music except for one, but from what I've heard, there's at least 4 people at Pacific Coast Sectionals that did my default choice. :( (It *IS* a lovely piece though...) :D

[NCSkater02]

Hmph! :?? So I'm a minority!8-)


My coach had me working on beginning/two foot power pulls, and I found the forward to be easier than backwards. Guess that puts me in the minority also.

[russiet]

My coach had me working on beginning/two foot power pulls, and I found the forward to be easier than backwards. Guess that puts me in the minority also.

There are sooooo few other things that I can do better than my skating buddies. We gotta make 'em a little jealous once in a while!

At the risk of being repetitious, the ease with which I do forward PPs may be attributable to a lot of time on skis. It's a slalom type of movement.

[mikawendy]

Bust--
Arrived at the rink this morning and got ready to pay for ice time when I realized that prices had gone up! If I had read the fine print on the schedule I got last week, I would have known to buy some punch cards before the price increase!! :evil:

Blackjack--
Finally feeling less draggy from the virus I had and was able to skate for two sessions instead of one!

[FrankR]

Bust:
I learned a very valuable lesson today. I was running through my program for my coach and the first minute was about the best I've ever done. I got to the flying camel and it took off and spun immediately and I was really stretching out as much as I could stretch. While in the midst of the spin I thought to myself, "Hmm. This run-through is going so well!" Well no sooner did that thought enter my mind when SPLAT! I lost my edge on the spin and found myself sitting on the ice wondering what happened. Grr. :evil: I shouldn't have let my mind wander. :roll: The scratch spin was still very travelly. Bah! :frus: My coach and I are considering changing this final spin to something that won't travel as much. I don't get it. I can do other spins with much better centering. Just don't ask me to do the most basic of spins like a scratch spin because I'll travel the length of the arena. :oops:

Blackjack:
Both yesterday and today in both run-throughs all the jumps in the program have been clean. The lutz/axel sequence in particular has been working very well. (Let's hope it stays that way!) The axel in the axel/toe-loop/loop can get spinny so that needs work but regardless of that flaw I manage to land this cleanly even if it's a bumpy ride at times. Today, the camel-sit was a bit better behaved. I also managed to finish today's run-through while maintaining the energy level of the program even with after the problem with the flying camel. My coach was very happy about that. :D

Well that's it for this week.

Take care,

Frank

P.S. Terri, I'll be thinking about your mom and you'll be in my prayers.

P.P.S. Shall we skating chemists get together at Adult Nationals? We could get together to discuss LeSPLATlier's Principle. (Hey Stephen, I think I found a name for my perpetual injury theory. ;) )

[NoVa Sk8r]

Shall we skating chemists get together at Adult Nationals? We could get together to discuss LeSPLATlier's Principle. (Hey Stephen, I think I found a name for my perpetual injury theory. ;) )A bunch of chemist's convening? ... Sounds dangerous. :P

LeSPLATlier's Principle -- Brilliant. Quite a "smashing" name! 8-)

[Terri C]

P.S. Terri, I'll be thinking about your mom and you'll be in my prayers

Thanks Frank! She came off the ventilator this morning and her vitals are much better than yesterday afternoon. Her voice is barely audible and hoarse, because of the vent, but it will get better in time as well as the swelling of her hands - that was from all of the fluids they had to pump in her yesterday.

I decided to skate a a smaller rink that is 5 minutes from the hospital today. I just ran over my basic freestyle elements and skated to blow off steam!

[jazzpants]

Terri: Glad to read that your mom is recovering!!! Meanwhile, she's still in my prayers until she's out of the hospital alive and well!!!

Blackjack:

Landed a couple of loops and flips
Forward spins are okay
I did managed to make a subtle change on the arms and torso on the power 3's that helps me to step onto a FO edge for the next FO3 (instead of stepping inside and then "shuffle" on to a FO edge.)
Bust:

Those pesky KIDS!!! AUGH!!! :frus: (No offense to the kids on this board reading this. I meant the ones that don't pay attention and just skate right in front of 'ya.) Moves practice was mostly a BUST b/c of the crowd. Can't go fast... :(
Ice was CRAP today!!!
Sit spins! Back muscles were stiff today!!! WAY too cold!!! :(

[falling_rain]

blackjack: i landed 2 cheated axels today! one was during my lesson and the other after the lesson. they're cheated in the sense i landed them after 1 and a 1/4 turns then just backspinned my way into a landing position.

bust: they're ONLY cheated axels, i still cant land a full one and everytime i make the full rotation i fall really hard and my body is aching so so so badly now. also, after falling on an axel try, (that's about all i did today..) this small kid holding a metal bar pointed at me and laughed. and laughed. and laughed. i swear, i must have been wearing a clown hat or something cos that kid was *really* amused. pfft. *was pretty discouraged after that...sigh.*

but yeah. i'm stoked i landed a cheated axel at least. after 986247136 years of trying to land it.

[Mrs Redboots]

Well done falling_rain, even a cheated axel is better than none! Terri, so glad to hear the good news of your mother.

Bust: There are times I get very fed up with my coach, he keeps telling me how cr*p I am. Like it's not his job to help me get better? I keep telling him we really need to get our dances up if we are to be competitive, and then he says it's because I don't skate well enough..... Mind you, when he said that if we were to do the Fiesta Tango at the sort of speed we ought to be doing it at, I'd probably bottle out of the mohawk & then be on two feet thereafter, he does have a point. I wonder, though, if we practised it some of the time at that speed, I wouldn't be able to manage it by the time Mountain Cup comes around.... I think I might just suggest this to husband, as it's something we can do privately in our practices!

Blackjack: Not a bad skate overall, though. Spent some time with my husband's coach working on my RFO3 from both the Willow & the Free Dance, which I've been having trouble with - not doing, but afterwards. Seems like when husband does the step to forward solo, his shoulders do exactly what they should, but not when we are in hold. She transformed it by telling us to be much closer together (like I hadn't told him that 20 times already, but he doesn't listen to me - I, after all, can't skate, according to ur coach, so....). I could wish our Willow was going to be better - it's a lovely dance, and such a pity we scrape so. I scrape so.... it's still awkward, the way we dance it. Our Swing Dance is getting to be the best now, there's still one place we we reliably go out of time, and my Mohawk is still awkward, but.... trouble is, husband's is one of the best in the business (although his Willow mohawk is rushed), so mine looks even more awful than it already is, by comparison.

Someone else commented, in passing, that our dance spin would be faster if we could bring our hips closer together and lean apart with our upper bodies. That's more or less what our coach says - to brace with our arms (our spin is arm-in-arm, as we can't quite manage a conventional spin yet - not side-by-side, though). I need to work on keeping my free leg with me, it's apt to blow in the breeze.....

Oh, and I think I might manage a change-edge into a 3-turn in my programme.... hope so, anyway.

[sk8pics]

Wow, who knew there were so many science geeks/chemists/biologist and related folks who skate, and who post on this board? The comments were hilarious.

Terri- glad to hear things are better with your mom.

As for me, it's all Blackjack. I had a great time at the Princeton Open yesterday. It was well run, well organized, and everyone was very nice. For example, I had made a stupid mistake on my practice ice form, and signed up for Sunday morning, instead of Saturday, which wasn't helpful since my event was Saturday! LOL, I have a Ph.D. in chemistry but apparently I can't read. :roll: Anyway, they let me swtich to Saturday and pick my session. I picked 6 am 8O and lucked out because only 3 of the 6 or so who'd signed up actually showed up. My coach even made it on time and was such a sport about it. And the monitor was there with the rink open well before 6! And the registration packet was so great. They gave us: water, chocolate, and a pair of those stretchy black gloves. Useful stuff!

The other adult skaters were all very friendly and the bronze ladies group was very strong --except for me, of course, since I'm actually only pre-bronze! But that's okay! I skated first and had to skate around on the ice for probably around 2 minutes waiting for them to actually announce me. The announcer kept looking over at me and holding up 1 finger, saying, just a minute, just a minute... And it was freezing! But it didn't matter because I skated as well as I could have, did all the jumps and everything just as well as I do in practice. 8-) And shook like a leaf the whole time! :roll: My coach was very happy, told me I'd skated "great!" He always sounds a little shocked, though, I suppose because I always fall apart a couple weeks before a competition and then I get it all back together. I just like to keep things interesting, LOL!

Couple of funny things: the organizers had misspelled my first name on the entry confirmation and had marked me down as a man! They were very apologetic when I called to inform them that I'm NOT a man! The other cute thing was that one of the kids who also takes from my coach who was in this competition, too, was sort of "consoling" me for being 4th (out of 4). She was so cute, but I was so happy to skate well I didn't care at all! Oh, and walking up and down a ramp and steps in skates was hard! I had visions of spraining my ankle before I ever got on the ice! My coach helped me with the steps and had to come running back to me when the last skater was done as he'd wandered off. But he came back just as I was saying that he'd desserted me! But it was fine.

But anyway it was a good experience and I'm glad i went. Oh, and I almost forgot to say that the nicest thing was a friend who lives in Princeton took me out to dinner on Friday evening. That was so nice of her!

Thanks to everyone for their well-wishes.

Pat

[Mrs Redboots]

Well done, Pat - I'm so glad you had such a great time at your competition! You're a winner.... you were there, you were pleased with how you skated, and you had fun. And that's what's important about our sport!