Mists or Mellow Fruitfulness: 19-25 September 2005

[Mrs Redboots]

In honour of the season!

Mists: My poor coach's wife had her handbag stolen yesterday, not from the rink but from the swimming pool. Horrible for all concerned.

Meanwhile, we skated this morning, and actually had a really good run-through of everything, but I still can't do back cross-cuts. Sigh!

Mellow Fruitfulness: You know, we might actually be about to peak at the exact right moment for the BAC in ten days! Our free dance was one of the best run-throughs we've ever had, and I just feel so much more confident. Oh dear, famous last words....

[Mel On Ice]

good luck at BAC Mrs. RB!

Fruitful: had a GREAT time at the ISI Adult Champs, winning two bronze and a silver. I competed at the 4 level for the first time, and wasn't expecting to win, but was surprised to finish as well as I did. I had a clean compulsory event, two footed a turn on the dance step and two footed a toe loop in the freeskate, and had a firecracker of a performance in artistic, the only mistake was cutting a loop to a half-loop, but it was in a footwork sequence and I did it so fast, I made it look like I meant to do it.

Mists: competition hangover. After a long weekend in Vegas (I know, sounds terrible, doesn't it :roll: ), hubby and I came home cashed. We took the red-eye in to Michigan and I was supposed to make it to work at 8:30 am yesterday, and called at 8 am while still in baggage claim.

Also, what can you do to get over the idea that once someone beats you, that they will always beat you? I want to give credit where credit is due since I got beat soundly by three gorgeous ladies in all three of my events, but know what? I'm a gorgeous lady too :D, and want to give myself props and not take an attitude of "Christine/Judy/Karen is entered in this event, better hope for second place" into each competition. It's an inferiority complex I'd rather no carry around with me. Any suggestions?

[jazzpants]

First thing, congrats on ISI Adult Champs! You've kicked @$$!!!

Second thing, YOU GO, MRS RB!!! KICK some @$$ at BAC!!! :D

Also, what can you do to get over the idea that once someone beats you, that they will always beat you? I want to give credit where credit is due since I got beat soundly by three gorgeous ladies in all three of my events, but know what? I'm a gorgeous lady too :D, and want to give myself props and not take an attitude of "Christine/Judy/Karen is entered in this event, better hope for second place" into each competition. It's an inferiority complex I'd rather no carry around with me. Any suggestions?
MYOS = Mind Your Own Skating!!! (And yes, I get those "Oh, so and so is in this event! Better hope for second place" feeling too.) But you can't control what they do, only how YOU do on the ice! If you concentrate on what you need to do in your program, you may find yourself in a position doing much better than you think. And striving for your personal best is the key to success in skating, right? ;)

Of course, this is coming from someone who has come in last place!!!

[icedancer2]

Also, what can you do to get over the idea that once someone beats you, that they will always beat you? I want to give credit where credit is due since I got beat soundly by three gorgeous ladies in all three of my events, but know what? I'm a gorgeous lady too :D, and want to give myself props and not take an attitude of "Christine/Judy/Karen is entered in this event, better hope for second place" into each competition. It's an inferiority complex I'd rather no carry around with me. Any suggestions?

You just have to get over it. I have seen adult competitions where there were two events in one day, skated by the same three ladies.

First competition: Judy/Cathy/Suzie

2nd competition: Suzie/Cathy/Judy

(of course, Cathy is asking herself, "Why do I always come 2nd?" But really anything can happen, even with the same group of skaters!!

Good luck and have fun! :)

[Skate@Delaware]

Mists: Group coach noticed that there was "air" between boot and blade-gotta put some screws in... :oops: but still fighting the battle of the too-big boots :cry: :cry: :cry: and these blasted things are new! and I haven't lost that much more weight!!! :evil: dang!

Fruitful: practice today ROCKED! (didn't put the screws in yet) It was one of those days when several things clicked:
back crossovers-getting off the toepicks involved pushing through the heel and not looking under my arm....but over with peripheral vision
long entry into the spin involved a very bent knee (this went well until the rink know-it-all came over and I lost my rhythm :evil: )

Also managed to do some sort-of sit spins from t-entry with several revs (okay, about 2) each; cool!

ps-came home and put in a zillion screws....that should make everyone happy-hope I can skate this afternoon (if we end up going, daughter had an errand that might keep her and if so, I won't go).

[Terri C]

This is for yesterday that was nothing but fruit!
First of all, the sitspin has returned from vacation and the backscratch keeps getting better. :D :D
Jumps were very fruitful too, Coach commented on the lift I had on my waltz jumps- it's the biggest she's ever seen from me.


Coach asked (strange at this point in the season, but oh well) if I was going to keep my freeskate music. While I told her that I'll keep it for the rest of the season, I gave her some ideas for me for next year.

Now me wants more fruit on the ice tomorrow with Coach#2! :twisted: :lol:

[Terri C]

Also, what can you do to get over the idea that once someone beats you, that they will always beat you? I want to give credit where credit is due since I got beat soundly by three gorgeous ladies in all three of my events, but know what? I'm a gorgeous lady too :D, and want to give myself props and not take an attitude of "Christine/Judy/Karen is entered in this event, better hope for second place" into each competition. It's an inferiority complex I'd rather no carry around with me. Any suggestions?


Mel,
Please read my signature for a good idea on how to alleviate this. I went into my freeskate at Peach with this approach and had the best freeskate of my current program to date!

[sunshinepointe]

Mists With the hurricane and all the rink was still open but I got DRENCHED getting from my car to inside the rink - I turned into a popsicle out on the ice and it took me slightly longer than normal to warm up. Brrr...

Consecutive brackets on the left foot, blech. I don't do them great on the right foot either, but at least I can get in 4 or 5 before almost falling over. Left foot, I got nothin.

I had no pop in my jumps today - especially toe jumps. Lutz was 1/4 underrotated sometimes - other times I was landing kind of flat, but I had two good ones. Took a not-so-bad-but-looked-bad-fall on the last lutz of the day that caused my friend some alarm.

Because of the storm my friend also left her video camera at home. Gah, one of these days I'll just drag the boyfriend out to the rink again.

Fruitfulness

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

Some BIG developments for me today. I'm managing 2-3 revolution backspins - not three turns, but backspins! They're so slow and ugly, but you gotta start somewhere. Better than NO revolutions on Thursday.

Loop jump - although I need my blades sharpened I think I figured out what I was doing wrong on my entry. From back crossovers I was sitting in the prep too long, so now after I get speed from crossovers, I stand up, THEN sit and jump all in one motion. I had good speed, good flow and despite slipping off my edge every 5 seconds I landed MANY good ones today.

I tried a split jump but man is that thing scary. I'm going to wait for my coach to help me out there.

I actually grabbed my otther hand in a Bielmann twice today - I need to work on getting a little more flexible. and looking BACK on the spin, but my friend was ultra impressed. Now I just need more speed and revolutions. Yay Bielman spin!!!

CAMEL SPIN - Mark it down in history folks, I'm putting my camel in the GOOD category today. I figured out that if I LOOK in the direction of the spin with my head that I'll keep rotating. I did several 4 rev camels, one 5 rev camel, nice and centered. A bit slow, my legs could be straighter and my chest lower but it felt GOOD. On the first one I did my friend was like "I didn't think it was going to end!" Man - this could be the start of something beautiful.

I actually feel like I made PROGRESS today - I'm figuring stuff out and writing it down immediately in a little journal so I can remember just what it was that I figured out.

I'm hoping that with a good blade sharpening that I'll be able to get a grip on my takeoff edges on edge jumps and spins. I'm doing pretty good though.

I'm excited because if I get a semi decent backspin soon and my loop stays consistent and I land my lutz a little better - AXEL BABY! I'm stoked to start working on it :)

I'm thinking of adding a 15 minute MIF session with my coach. I'd like to start getting more speed on my moves and maybe test Pre-Pre...

Skating = LOVE

[figure_skater]

fruitfulness-

-camel spin (actually felt right... i was spinning)
-back scratch... after about a year of barely 3 rotations, somehow *poof* i got it perfectly! my coaches were thrilled and now i can do a perfect one the lasts like maybe 15 rotations!!!!!! woooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! :D :D :D
-flip... i tried it again knowing it would be bad and somehow i landed like 10 of them cleanly with plenty of speed!!!

this was a good day!

mist? ok i dont get the whole "mist" thing.... is it supposed to be bad?

-loop... still not there
-lutz... two footed
-sit... not as low as i wanted...

Have an AXEL-LENT day!

[Kit kat]

fruitfulness : I GOT ON THE HARNESS TODAY. YAYY!!!!! it was harder than i thought, but i landed the axel once! i was waiting for this day for SOOO long!!
camel spin was good and flips are good. i did only ONE good sit spin today
mists : i lost my lutz and sit spin after the good sit spin. I think it was because the ice was really messed up. but its okay cause getting on the harness made my day :)

[aussieskater]

Warning - long post (sorry!)

Mellow fruit first

DH is back from his travels (work sent him overseas so we missed a few practices and lessons), and we had our first joint practice in a little while this morning.

In his absence last week, the dance coach gave me a basic stroking exercise for us to practise together and solo. I've been doing it solo, so today we tried it together. Once I managed to keep the head up / keep the free leg extended / keep the toe pointed / keep the arm stiff (in Killian hold) / keep the count correct; *and* track properly (all at the same time), we didn't do too badly for beginners.

Put it this way, no fewer than 5 strangers came up to us at different times during the session. The blue-boot brigade all said we looked "awesome" (equals "can stand up and proceed forwards on one foot", I suspect); while a couple of strangers stood at the end of the rink and as we came round for another lap, told us (forcefully) to point our toes. Obviously coaches or former dancers, but not familiar to us. Nevertheless we took their advice, since I figure you can never point your toes or bend your knees too much!

Anyway, we're obviously making progress. (Mind you, DH got rather bored doing lap after lap of basic stroking in Killian hold, so when I said we had something else to do, he perked up, but was less than impressed when the "something else" was the same thing in reverse Killian! See, Mrs Redboots - we are doing it both ways!)

Mists (more properly, full-on storms)

Our adult synchro coach informed us about 2 weeks ago that we would be competing (with our last program) in a local competition in mid-October. Everyone said "OK", thinking that our last program was the one we'd just presented, and he would merely delete sections to cut it down from 3min30 to the required 2min for this comp.

We found out last week that, no, he was in fact starting on next year's routine (to be ready by Nationals in Aug 06), and *that* was what he is planning to compete in 3 weeks' time! We're trying to learn this routine to the same music, so apart from anything else, I for one am trying not to get confused and do the "old" step on the music cue, rather than the new one (and how hard is that??).

Not only that, we can currently practise only once a week as a team, and for not one of those practices do we have a better than 70% turnout. Reason - everyone thought that, as in previous years, the period from end Aug until Christmas was not synchro-focused, but was a period when we could improve our individual skills while at the same time *start* setting the following year's routine in various individual and small group practices. So everyone made other arrangements for what was our regular practice night.

Then I had a big whinge because I'm a CW skater and for once he has a section in the routine which requires CW skating, and where am I? On the CCW side. And it's not as if he has CW skaters and to spare either.

My extended family are supposed to be coming to watch this thing (they missed coming across the country to Nationals), and I'm really annoyed because the way he's structured the whole thing, he's really setting us all up for unnecessary failure.

There - I'm over it now.

[Mrs Redboots]

Mellow Fruitfulness: Well, bring on the competition, I think we're ready. Of course, we have another ten days to go.... why does this always happen? I seem to remember it happening last year, too, longing for it and dreading getting stale or getting an injury!

Great run-through of our free dance, one or two untidy bits still, but I think it'll be fine on the day. The new transition into the step sequence is really working now, and means we don't have too much of a stop. Must stop rushing the lift/assisted jump at the end of it, though.

Mists: Posture, posture, posture, posture and posture! Don't know why both our friend who was watching our run-through of the Golden Skaters' Waltz and my coach decided to give me the same exercise today... I suppose I msut have been worse than usual. Sigh! Husband, who did it with me off-ice, reckoned he'd practice while waiting at the railway station!

Back cross-cuts. Still can't do them most of the time - and on the rare occasions I can, I have no idea what I am doing differently and why they are working! Grrrrr..... frustration..... :frus::frus::frus:

[Skate@Delaware]

Tuesday PM Update: Managed to get to 2nd practice session---think I'll have to move my skating days around as I'm getting a bit worn (although I'm sleeping better!); and because we were late to the session, no charge!

Ok, screws really made my skates feel better! Guess they were a bit "off"

Tried different insoles (memory foam), yuck! I'm going back to my other ones. My daughter tried some others also and her arches hurt (she has flatter feet and needs the ones without an arch...) poor ducky! She ran through the beginning of her program (without music) and it looks good!

There were only 4 of us on the ice so after I warmed up I worked on back crossovers (as well as I could with the yucky insoles) and waltz jumps (with some speed-which got some positive comments from my skate buddy)!!! Didn't feel as though I got much height, I'm not doing something.... but I'm not pitching forwards! The posture lesson is working (you know-pretend ya got a string through your head pulling you up..)

Worked on some spirals-inside and outside edge, then the salchow walk-through...very good. Can't wait until lesson time and see what's up her sleeve!

[luna_skater]

Fruit: Finally managed to not be a total waste of skin on the ice for the first time in a week! Got my flip back, barely. It's not as confident as before, but it's almost there. Made some improvements on the loop, as well as sal-loop and waltz-loop. Even managed a toe loop-loop, which is rare!

Edited - I forgot to add my eureka moment! I have discovered that my jumps are much better when I concentrate on what my free leg is doing, instead of my skating leg.

Mists: Am definitley flutzing my lutz. :( Need to fix this before it's too late!

[Terri C]

Fruit
It's official the sitspin is back!!! Had a good spin again today and jumps were just as good. Secondary coach had to make little,if few corrections.
I also had the best freeskate runthrough that she has seen so far and she's had me as a student since March.

Mists
Had a nasty fall on a camel attempt. Coach wanted me to lower my upper body and raise my free leg and in doing that, slipped on a edge and fell onto the left side with my elbow hitting the ice. Elbow now has a ice burn and left "rump" is sore.
Also had a "click of death" and fell on back crossovers. thus setting the record for the number of times I've fallen in practice/lesson.
Then again, it's said that if you do not fall, you're not working hard enough on the ice.

[Debbie S]

Ouch, Terri, I hope you're OK! Congrats on your sit spin!

Fruit:
Had a great moves run-through today - actually, I got to do many run-throughs of certain moves that were giving me trouble, since there weren't that many people on the ice. The back perimeter pattern felt really good, and I felt like I was covering the ice well. Same with alt BO edge glides. Power 3's were fine when I did them along a line with the corrections my coach wanted me to make, but then when I actually did the moves pattern, it seemed like everything went out the window! :roll:

Mists:
My forward crossovers feel completely off-kilter. I'm trying to do less step-over and more push-under, but I feel like I'm wobbling and sliding a lot. (I imagine my blades needing to be sharpened may have something to do with that.)

[Skate@Delaware]

Had a very good lesson from my "own" coach last night. Ice was crowded though and it was difficult to find "holes" to jump in. Now I know how the ice dancers feel!

We settled the issue about competitions, HC is out, several ISI's are in, she is scouting around for some, as well as our in-house exhibition in December (which is an open one)...

We worked on spins first and I showed her my entrance. She had me do it without the windup (weird-no arms!) and it was ok, then we added arms and it was ok, then she had me pop up on my leg and it was ok. So we added back crossovers and I rushed it and it was crap....so I did a few more and it was better but not ok....so that's something I need to work on. But I'm getting there. Popping up in the leg is something I'm not used to doing, but it's helping.

Next was the Salchow! She showed me the "check" which I never understood but she explained and now I get it so we did a few and I've almost got the darned salchow! Amazing! After one year of frustration and she helps me get it after 2 lessons.....We moved on to the toe loop and 3-turns and more checking. Again, I've almost got that one.

Waltz jump: these were a bit off-I was nervous about the number of people on the ice, esp the little kids who don't know the rules about where they are supposed to be. I might recommend a place for them to skate be coned off, as they were all over & not looking where they were going. Anyway, she had me set up a pattern for my jump, so I need to practice that, with more speed and "oomph" which I didn't have much of last night. I did some Tuesday that rocked....Have to remember to push up from my leg and roll off my toepick for that height. She did remark that I approach my jumps "aggressively" but don't know if that is good or bad (I'm thinking bad-more like rushing...)

For some reason, I had the shakes. Don't know if it was nerves or blood sugar. I did eat something about 3, then something just before skating so I'm not sure what it was (maybe nerves). Not my medication because my toes weren't tingling...

Then, to wrap up, she asked me to skate certain things for my routine (she liked my music). So, I did a lunge (straighten that back leg); did a spiral-waltz-spiral; outside edge spiral (get more on the edge); lots of arms stuff while on an outside edge. These are all stuff to work on for the upcoming week, as well as the jumps. I feel that I will have a full rotation jump if I get enough speed and height going. I would really love that! Anyway, before we ended, she asked me if I'd ever seen a video of my skating and I said yes, "yuck" which she thought was funny. She wants to video a lesson and point out some things during an upcoming lesson. Oh boy....

I just love having a coach of my own! I like her and the way she explains things. And I like my group class, with the other adults. This is going to be a great skating year (any year on the ice is a good year!)

[skatergirlva]

Fruit
Loops-I worked on my program today with Nick. He added some really fun connecting moves and a little new footwork, but he said that he didn't think it looked to bad at all. I will show you on Monday. :)

Mists
I have a 4 blisters from skating without socks because I was running late to teach and then I skated afterwards the other day. :(

[jazzpants]

Mist
Came in late for my lesson. Oversleep and was half asleep going into my lesson. Coach says "Why are you late? And you look AWFUL!!! You look like me... and that's NOT a compliment!!!" :lol: Wanted to go back home and sleep after that comment... :P

AUGH!!! It's bad enough to do RFI3 at higher speeds after doing a Chinese spiral but do it AND make it look pretty too??? 8O (Yeap! Extension, extension, extension!!!)

Fruit:
That I was at least awake for my lesson??? :oops: Actually we also worked on my Chinese spirals and extension on my spirals and 3 turns. There were some improvements but boy, they are HARDER to do than it looks!!!

A treat after the session -- a couple of skaters from Disney On Ice came by to practice on our rink. One guy did these BEAUTIFUL (figure) loops as part of his warmup. One skater commented, "He makes it look so pretty that he could easily beat us in a competition doing his WARMUP as a program!" :lol: :P

[sunshinepointe]

Pardon the ignorance, but what is a chinese spiral? I've heard spirals called different things - champagne glass, charlotte (although I know what this one is), and now chinese...

:oops:

[jazzpants]

Pardon the ignorance, but what is a chinese spiral? I've heard spirals called different things - champagne glass, charlotte (although I know what this one is), and now chinese...

:oops:Pardon me for embarrassing you, TashaKat, but here is a beautiful example of a Chinese spiral (http://www.geocities.com/lynne_99_uk/)... (I can't raise that leg up that high yet, unfortunately...) It's better known as a "catch foot" spiral.

[Petlover]

Mel,
I just read your post and have to tell you my story. A good skating friend (who is 15 years younger than me) has beaten me for eight years. A couple of years ago she even said to me "You have never beaten me have you?", of course after she said it she realized how offensive it was and gave me her heartfelt apology. Well, last June, she beat me in the first three programs, but in the Spotlight program, she skated right before me and had a wonderful skate. I skated after her to "Play That Funky Music" with a wild costume and a toy purple guitar and skated the program of my life! I guess I've always wanted to be a rock star, and this was my chance to act like one! When the results were up, I won! The first time in EIGHT YEARS I came in ahead of my friend - who, by the way, was a great sport about it, and was really happy for me. Don't ever give up!

Fruits: I finally have a loop! My coach, who didn't want it in my artistic program for the Brandon competition said Tuesday that she wants me to leave it in, it's good enough!

Melons: That darned outside mohawk. Ever since I took a bad, tooth jarring fall on it, I've been afraid of it. Oh well, it's still in my program, it's just a bit rough.

[luna_skater]

Fruit: Big progress on the axel prep! We've been working on waltz-jump from a standstill, into a backspin on the landing. Only started this last Thursday, and I didn't practice it all week because I was so freaked about losing my flip. Anyway...worked on it more again today. When I we got to the point where I was on a deep LFO edge, then sprung up and pulled in right away, what a difference! I was basically over-rotating the waltz jump, and could see an evil gleam in coach's eye. :lol: Shouldn't be long before I'm splitting my head open on actual axel attempts!

Did some work on hip placement, which improved backspin, loop, and waltz-loop. Made some nice improvements on forward spin, too. My leg is much higher and more forward, making me spin faster.

Landed some flips and lutzes for good measure!

Mists: Salchows SUCKED today, after being so good yesterday. Oh well, I guess it's a small price to pay for the improvements in other areas. I think if my coach takes a look at it, we'll get it sorted out. Also, still flutzing. Arrrgghh!!! Don't practice the lutz too much, for fear that I will get into a bad flutzing habit.

[jazzpants]

Mists:

I walk in expecting a nice quiet public session, only to have the rink manager ask me "You SURE you wanna skate with 90 kids on the ice???" I said "where are they?" and she pointed to a HUGE slew of kids putting on their rental skates on the side!!! HOLY S***!!!! 8O 8O 8O

THEN primary coach comes up and says "You turned off your cell phone!!! B/c I left you a message saying "There's 90 kids on the ice right now? You wanna change your lesson time to the afternoon FS session???" I told him "To hell with the kids!!! I'm HERE NOW and I'm SKATING!!!" (With the attitude of "Kids, GET OUT OF MY WAY!!! This Bronze Moves is MINE!!!" :evil: )

Mellow:

Lucky for me the majority of those kids stayed hanging near the wall (they're beginners for the most part.) and I managed to get thru all FIVE moves with only one time where I actually had to stop for one of those kids. Primary coach was still beating me up on those details but the majority of the time he was quite complementary about it and was quite calm about it. (WOW!!! I might actually have a chance of passing this sucker at long last!!! 8O )

[Mrs Redboots]

Mists: Last night I had hoped to have a run-through of the free dance with Husband, but was held up in traffic and only just got on to the ice in time for Dance Club. Can't do the Foxtrot. Can't do the 14-step. Sigh......

Really tired this morning; only went skating because I was meeting a friend who had promised me a bag of tomatoes from her allotment!

Why does every coach in the rink have to yell "Point your toes!!!" at me.... no, don't tell me, I know - I need to point my toes more! Oh dear.....

Mellow Fruitfulness: We did a really great Prelim/British Waltz! Felt fantastic and fast, and covered the ice. Why don't I need that dance for anything now we're getting good at it????

This morning, we had good run-throughs of everything. The Junior couples were working on their Westminster Waltz, which was great because it's the same music as the Golden Skaters' Waltz, so we were able to have several run-throughs to the music. Only went badly out of time once (I think!).

After Husband had gone, I worked on one or two things - managed to get music for both Dutch Waltz & Canasta Tango as someone else had a dance lesson, so did those solo. And I really think I've had a breakthrough on my back cross-cuts - I was watching a coach and his pupil (who is still at the stage of holding his arm 90% of the time), and found I was doing them far better.... obviously, the secret is to keep my head very still! I then did a couple of lengths focussing on a specific spot, and they were infinitely better than they've ever been. Still not great, and I still can't quite manage a whole length without grinding to a halt, or leaning forwards, or whatever, but it is obviously going to help! :)

Oh, and the tomatoes are delicious!

[aussieskater]

And I really think I've had a breakthrough on my back cross-cuts

Forgive me, but I'm still confused about what a back cross-cut is. I understand back crossovers (and can even stay off the pick doing them - shame about the push-under part); and I understand back cross-rolls; but what are back cross-cuts? Are they back cross-in-fronts (sort of the opposite to forward cross-behinds)?

[jenlyon60]

In the UK, a back cross-cut is a back cross-in-front onto a back outside edge. My coach (who's British) challenges me with them every once in awhile (I have pretty nice back cross-strokes/cross-rolls, but back cross-cuts? Ugh.)


Forgive me, but I'm still confused about what a back cross-cut is. I understand back crossovers (and can even stay off the pick doing them - shame about the push-under part); and I understand back cross-rolls; but what are back cross-cuts? Are they back cross-in-fronts (sort of the opposite to forward cross-behinds)?

[sunshinepointe]

Mists I dropped off my skates to be sharpened before the public session last night but the dolt at the front never gave them to the skating director so I was skating on dangerously dull/nicked blades.

Because of this, and also because of a little but of laziness, my spins were very off. I spent a good chunk of time working on non-existant backspins and one foot/scratch spins that were travelly. My heart just wasn't in it last night - I think between the anxiety dreams, and being tired, and my skate buddy not being there I just felt very blah.

Consecutive brackets = suck. I have negative flow. If my brackets can be done in a one foot patch of ice, I'm set. If you expect them to travel across the ice with good speed and flow, tough.

I tried the things I learned about my camel, backspin and loop jump and they weren't as effective as they were on Tuesday. I'm chalking this up to lack of energy and laziness.

Fruits My lesson was pretty good. My coach fixed my sit spin - he's like "would it be too much trouble for you to you know, STRAIGHTEN YOUR LEG AND POINT YOUR TOE! Act like a skater, not a rag doll!". As if by magic my sit spin gained speed and rotation and center. Duh. I guess that's why I pay him the big bucks. I also had coachitis where I performed a good scratch spin for him and he didn't believe that I was having any problems.

We spent a good deal of time on the backspin. I have a tendency to lean too far back or too far up on the toe. I just need to find that "balance" in between and I'll be fine. Stupid backspipn lol.

My camel was NOT as good as it was on Tuesday, but my coach said this about it: "You're getting pretty consistent with entry, rotation and position which is good - definitely an improvement from where you used to be....but we still have a long way to go". This was said with a smile, so I took it to mean that I'm making good progress, but this is no time to get lazy about it. I did manage to do a good camel spin in front of another girl at the rink who I admire - she's a fabulous spinner, but her camels suck. Mine is better than hers in fact and thats not saying much.

With that same girl we worked on split jumps. I definitely get a "split". but its not very good, especially considering how flexible I am. I'm sure I just need a bigger lift off, which means bigger knee bend. I'll get it one day, I have a great split leap off the ice.

My coach seemed to want to work on artistry - he had me do a pretty waltz/balletic sequence into my waltz jump, landing in a back spiral into a back pivot. Everything was nice except for the back pivot. I don't get those yet and I spent a lot of time working on it. But because I was using arms and making it more than just "skate skate skate jump land" I felt like a SKATER. The other people at the rink told me how pretty and graceful it looked. Sweet. Ballet lessons for like 16 years paid off.

Coach also wanted me to do a three turn sequence into a salchow. I can do it on the right side, but since I'm a CCW skater that doesn't help me much. I tend to rock on the toe pick doing the back 3. He wants me to keep my right arm in front and my right leg extended behind me throughout a sequence of threes and then on the last one do the salchow. It looks cool - I've seen the "good" skaters and even the elite skaters do this in their routines, but it's tricky for me since I've only ever done three turn sequences with a change in arm position and free foot position. If I can do it on the right, I'll get it on the left.

I also worked on a pretty one foot spin variation - turned out passe with soft angled arms. My coach said "gorgeous". Yay, ballet again!

I think that was it from last night. Now I have even more stuff to work on, but I feel like I'm making progress. I left my skates with the skating director last night so they should be ready by Saturday for my marathon skating session. Hopefully I'll have more energy and get all my skating moves up to where I know they can be :roll:

[slusher]

Mists:

It's really humid and all the rinks, even the one with the state-of-the-art dehumidifier are all fogged up with ice drips on the rink. Unfortunately even through the mist my coach was able to see my inability to get a jump off the ground. I like soft ice but it was just too mushy, that's my excuse anyway.

Mellow Fruitfulness:

My spins came back home, I asked them where they went on vacation but they just smiled and made nice tight circles for me. Super mellow happiness, club ice starts next week so I'll be back on home ice with all my friends. It's been a gypsy summer, following ice around the county. I think that's why my spins got lost.

[aussieskater]

In the UK, a back cross-cut is a back cross-in-front onto a back outside edge. My coach (who's British) challenges me with them every once in awhile (I have pretty nice back cross-strokes/cross-rolls, but back cross-cuts? Ugh.)

I agree with you. Our synchro coach has decided to put a whole series of these suckers into our next routine (you know, the one we're competing with in a couple of weeks and it's not yet fully choreographed...) *HOW* do you get these things to continue to travel backwards?? They seem so inefficient - back cross-rolls cover so much more ice. I either end up with my backside poking out in the direction of travel (not attractive), or on the toepick, or if I'm in the right position, there's no push.

[luna_skater]

Try to think of stepping right onto the back outside edge (as opposed to just stepping on flat and then switching to outside), and really put pressure on the edge. Edge pressure is what makes you move; the more edge pressure there is, the more your blade cuts into the ice, the more friction is created, and voila! Movement!

Another thing to watch is your shoulders. Make sure they are under control, and are offering counter balance...but not trying to swing you into position.

[Skate@Delaware]

Fruitful: Managed a Salchow! Finally after one year of trying and not getting it! Now if I can get the speed up on the 3-turn...and my spirals look great with the new technique-lock, lift, lower! I'm told they look graceful.

Mists: Spins are still crap, but a bit better. Gotta work on edges (grrrr)

[Raye]

Fruitful: Am in Ottawa for Autumn Skate and have had three really great sessions of practice ice. All my elements are working fine except the loop :frus: which I think I will scrap for this weekend. (I Managed fine at Peach without it! :roll:) My footwork is clean and I've even gotten a handle on my backspin and camel.

Mists: I still haven't been able to do a complete run-through of newly lengthened program. I had gotten quite used to the 1:40 timing and am finding going back to the Canadian time requirement of 2:30+/-10 extremely challenging. My music comes in at 2:20.09, but I'm out of gas just past the two minute mark :giveup:

Great about the Salchow and Spirals Skate@Delaware!! :bow:

[Mrs Redboots]

I agree with you. Our synchro coach has decided to put a whole series of these suckers into our next routine (you know, the one we're competing with in a couple of weeks and it's not yet fully choreographed...) *HOW* do you get these things to continue to travel backwards?? They seem so inefficient - back cross-rolls cover so much more ice. I either end up with my backside poking out in the direction of travel (not attractive), or on the toepick, or if I'm in the right position, there's no push.Tell me about it! I simply can't find the right place at all. I do know, though, that you really need to involve your abdominal muscles. And swing your free leg through.

My coach says you need to bend your knees more so that when you put your foot down, both feet are on the ice together and you can push with the lift-off foot. But I haven't worked out how to do that yet, either.

And my husband, and another friend who passed her Level 3 Dance Moves shortly before he did, no longer practice them, and can't remember how they did them! Husband uses the back cross-rolls that are on the same test to warm up his back outside edges, he says they help. I haven't quite got there yet, but I see why he says it.

But those cross-cuts..... and the oddest thing of all is that NISA, in its wisdom, has put them in the Prelim Field Moves test, while the back cross-rolls are one level higher, at inter-Bronze! But many of the Moves are like that, with the harder before the easier. As is true of the dances - who on earth reckoned the Willow Waltz was harder than the Foxtrot, but here, Willow is Level 6 Silver while Foxtrot is Level 5 Silver! And my Foxtrot is far too seek, but I have a perfectly respectable Willow Waltz!

[Skate@Delaware]

Fruitful: Am in Ottawa for Autumn Skate and have had three really great sessions of practice ice. All my elements are working fine except the loop :frus: which I think I will scrap for this weekend. (I Managed fine at Peach without it! :roll:) My footwork is clean and I've even gotten a handle on my backspin and camel.

Mists: I still haven't been able to do a complete run-through of newly lengthened program. I had gotten quite used to the 1:40 timing and am finding going back to the Canadian time requirement of 2:30+/-10 extremely challenging. My music comes in at 2:20.09, but I'm out of gas just past the two minute mark :giveup:

Great about the Salchow and Spirals Skate@Delaware!! :bow:
Thanks!
I had a friend (12 years old) show me her newly found backspin-beautiful! Mine is non-existant; Congrats on yours! It's a hard thing to do....(a fall waiting to happen :lol: )

I'm sure your program will mileage will increase as you do your run-throughs and your stamina improves. Good luck!

I'm thinking of taking the video camera to the rink one day. If I do, then I'll video my spiral and post it......I'll through in my lunge for laughs!

[aussieskater]

Tell me about it! I simply can't find the right place at all. I do know, though, that you really need to involve your abdominal muscles. And swing your free leg through.

My coach says you need to bend your knees more so that when you put your foot down, both feet are on the ice together and you can push with the lift-off foot. But I haven't worked out how to do that yet, either.

If you're supposed to place the free foot down onto an outside edge, do you somehow "sickle" your foot so you can push off it, back out towards the side the free foot came from?

If not, do you *somehow* end up pushing further to the skating leg's side? Hard to explain, but if I think of it as some weird crossover, the "push-under" part of a regular crossover has the legs crossed at the thighs. I have visions of these cross-strokes also ending with the legs crossed at the thighs, but instead of pushing with the underneath leg as in a regular crossover, you end up "pushing" (if you could call it that!) with the leg on top...

Help!

[sceptique]

Mellow

Salchow is now consistent and I found my loop where I left it last week, proving it wasn't an accident. Still, I land about 1 in 5 and it's really awkward and shaky.

Mists

Despite a few good bits had a typical "can't do anything right" session. Felt exhausted and 200 years old. For the whole last week I've been doing great strong jumps off ice, and come Saturday patch time - even waltz is letargic and forced. :cry:

Need a hot bath.......

[luna_skater]

If you're supposed to place the free foot down onto an outside edge, do you somehow "sickle" your foot so you can push off it, back out towards the side the free foot came from?

If not, do you *somehow* end up pushing further to the skating leg's side? Hard to explain, but if I think of it as some weird crossover, the "push-under" part of a regular crossover has the legs crossed at the thighs. I have visions of these cross-strokes also ending with the legs crossed at the thighs, but instead of pushing with the underneath leg as in a regular crossover, you end up "pushing" (if you could call it that!) with the leg on top...

Help!

Although it may be scary, try building up some speed with regular cross-overs or just back pushes. Then try to really bend, and step onto that back outside edge, to get the rhythm. Once you have the rhythm of it, you will find it easier to actually GAIN speed. Try it with a buddy holding your hands out in front of you. When I was learning how to do this, I also found that it helped to really exaggerate my lean. Good luck!

[dbny]

If you're supposed to place the free foot down onto an outside edge, do you somehow "sickle" your foot so you can push off it, back out towards the side the free foot came from?

If not, do you *somehow* end up pushing further to the skating leg's side? Hard to explain, but if I think of it as some weird crossover, the "push-under" part of a regular crossover has the legs crossed at the thighs. I have visions of these cross-strokes also ending with the legs crossed at the thighs, but instead of pushing with the underneath leg as in a regular crossover, you end up "pushing" (if you could call it that!) with the leg on top...

Help!

You do have to push from a pigeon toed position. The push is from the outside edge and is the exact same push as the under push in B crossovers, and is from the under foot. Of necessity, your thighs will be pressed tightly together, and begin to be pressed together at the beginning of the cross in front.

[Raye]

I Actually Landed A Loop Jump On One Foot Today!!!!!

[Skate@Delaware]

I Actually Landed A Loop Jump On One Foot Today!!!!!
Congrats Raye!!!!! (from one jumpin' bean to another, altho none of mine are one-footed yet)
And here's to many, many, more!! :bow:

[sunshinepointe]

^ yay! Doesn't it feel awesome?

Mists VERY crowded public session today, but that's alright. It's good for my agility.

My only big mist is my inability to land my loop consistently. I can't figure out why sometimes it's great and then other times it's not. It seems like everyone else doesn't have a problem with it - but me, it's hit or miss, with MORE misses than hits. I'm going to make a seperate thread on timing...

Fruits GOT MY BLADES SHARPENED. Thank god. Edgework and other moves were so simple. Waltz jumps and salchows were like second nature.

I figured out how to get height in my toe loop and now I kind of have a delayed/floaty toe loop. Finally, sheesh.

I landed some fabulous flips today. A bunch of kids witnessed the few that I had room for and landed well and they were like "omg how do you spin so high up in the air like that?!?!?" Hehehehe.

I'm being more aggressive in my camel spins now that my blades are sharp and it's helping me get the momentum I need to go into the camel fast and straighten the knee more. I think I felt my hamstring pulling so that tells me it was working. It was hard to do them though with the session so crowded.

Sit spins were travelly, but I'm getting a good amount of rotation and speed. Sometimes my coach does know what he's talking about.

I figured out those stupid consecutive brackets. Now I just need to keep up the momentum and flow and improve the edge quality.

We worked on alternating 3 turns - or at least I think thats what they're called...like a LFO3 and then a LBI3 to a RFO3 to a RBI3 etc etc. I'm better at them on my right than on my left but I was able to "sort of get them" by the end of class. I still can't do the three turn sequence into the salchow but whatever.

I started working on outside spread eagles. My right hip doesn't want to turn out...my left hip is very open. Strange. Anyway, my spread eagles are ugly and they suck, but maybe eventually I can coax my right hip to open up a teeny bit more so I can manage an outside spread eagle. Imma keep working on it, but it's promising because I didn't think I'd ever be able to do them. Now it looks kind of promising, but I know it'll take some work.

Ummm...scratch spins were good today too, and I got comments from a handful of people that they're much better than they were. Coolio!

I'm SO CLOSE on the Bielmann - so close.

Overall a good skating day. :)

[sk8pics]

Congrats to Raye on her loop and Skate@Delaware for her salchow! :bow:

As for me, I have been coachless for a few days for a variety of reasons, but have a lesson with my regular coach tomorrow. He will be surprised to see that I can do my new compulsory moves program (for HC), so I'm pretty happy about that! Friday I got through it all pretty well, and did my first waltz jumps and toe loops out in the middle of the ice without my coach nearby and with my new blades. 8-) It all felt really comfy, and my salchow was pretty good, too, although I just marked it in my free program and my interpretive. I love having a rocker and nice sharp blades!

Happy skating everyone!
Pat

[aussieskater]

You do have to push from a pigeon toed position. The push is from the outside edge and is the exact same push as the under push in B crossovers, and is from the under foot. Of necessity, your thighs will be pressed tightly together, and begin to be pressed together at the beginning of the cross in front.

O-o-o-h. NOW I see. I've been trying to push with the upper (? over? in front?) foot. No wonder I was travelling nowhere.

Report for week - Mists - school holidays have started so the rink is on holiday timetable, and the ice is full of blue-booted kids going everywhere except in the direction they're supposed to go. It's very hard to get anything done in the public sessions and the freestyle sessions are jam-packed with regulars who are avoiding the blue boots. So no luck there. From a skating perspective, I hate holidays because it wipes out about 3 of my regular sessions (although it's great to have the kids home for a bit). And with a competition in 3 weeks and the holidays lasting for two...well, you can work it out!

Fruit - not much. I'm finally getting the CCW twizzles he wants in this blasted synchro program. Not good and not pretty, but I'm getting them. The twizzles drop immediately into a lunge, so picture this: I discovered that if the person in front of me in the line does her twizzle with her arms stretched out, she takes me out at about neck height as I go round. Duh. (That was the first time we tried it). The second time, I delayed my turn to allow her arms to pass, and promptly got caught in her blade because she was down in the lunge...again duh. Need to work on the timing here.

[Skate@Delaware]

O-o-o-h. NOW I see. I've been trying to push with the upper (? over? in front?) foot. No wonder I was travelling nowhere.

Report for week - Mists - school holidays have started so the rink is on holiday timetable, and the ice is full of blue-booted kids going everywhere except in the direction they're supposed to go. It's very hard to get anything done in the public sessions and the freestyle sessions are jam-packed with regulars who are avoiding the blue boots. So no luck there. From a skating perspective, I hate holidays because it wipes out about 3 of my regular sessions (although it's great to have the kids home for a bit). And with a competition in 3 weeks and the holidays lasting for two...well, you can work it out!

Fruit - not much. I'm finally getting the CCW twizzles he wants in this blasted synchro program. Not good and not pretty, but I'm getting them. The twizzles drop immediately into a lunge, so picture this: I discovered that if the person in front of me in the line does her twizzle with her arms stretched out, she takes me out at about neck height as I go round. Duh. (That was the first time we tried it). The second time, I delayed my turn to allow her arms to pass, and promptly got caught in her blade because she was down in the lunge...again duh. Need to work on the timing here.
Gotta love it! Maybe some of your freestylers can get together and rent some private ice-sometimes that's what our dancers do, they rent and "invite" certain people on, and split the ice fee. Works great! We all get to play our music and do stuff, they get to do their dance and everyone is happy.

Your synchro reminds me of our Spring show-one of the girls decided that instead of passing to the outside, it would be cooler to pass in-between me and an other person, without telling us---collision! we narrowly escaped a nasty fall. She got huffy and said we should have known what she was going to do!?! :frus: Yeah, right! Synchro is soooo much fun, though! It will all work out!

[The Ice Demon]

Frutiful

The whole session was fruitful today, spins were all working for once, and not travelling too far. My axel is back, i landed all attempts and felt comfortable with it, first time in ages ( I always knew it was a mental thing and finally worked through it). Traded 2 sals with axels with a fellow skater, you know, you do one, i do one, it stops me putting off my double atttempts and 'just checking my technique is still good singles'! Worked on russian splits with coach, although they are ok I need to practice them every session so i become more used to them if i am going to improve them... funny that!

Mists
Need to get my skates sharpened. My edges slipped out from under me a couple of times. School holidays start here too and with everyone away at competitions there is hardly any ice time for the next two weeks.

[Mrs Redboots]

I Actually Landed A Loop Jump On One Foot Today!!!!!Raye, that's fantastic!!!!! Well done - and I hope it's not only the first of many, but a jump you'll be able to show off at the European competitions next season so I get to see it!

In the meantime, we only had a short practice this morning as there's a RIDL match this afternoon :( and I was preaching, so we didn't want to get too tired. I end up changing clothes about six times on this sort of day!

We had 45 minutes of lessons, as Husband's private lesson with coach2 was scheduled for after our couples lesson, so we just sort of carried on, as it was our last joint lesson before the British Adults.

Mellow Fruitfulness: There is nothing major wrong with anything, just the odd place where we need to point toes, straighten free legs, stay in time to music, etc. Coach2 put one tiny change into the start of our step sequence that has transformed it - IF we remember to do it! We will - it'll get practiced all week.

Mists: We didn't stay totally in time to the music on our compulsory dances, and we really do need to or we'll have no chance of beating Other Woman and her husband. They, whatever their other faults, are always in time! Oh well.... all we can do is go out there and hope we are pleased with ourselves after.

[*JennaD*]

Fruitfulness!: I landed some ok axels!! They were a bit cheated and my position wasn't the best, but I still managed to not fall on my face!

Also, I made progress on my skills !!!! I have been messing up all the 3-turns in it for months, and I finally was able to do 4 out of 5 clean outside 3 turns!

[sceptique]

Mellow:

Because of crazy practice schedule (Open Competition is tomorrow and all kids are on ice at once), I had two lessons today back to back - a full hour of coaching! (one was a substitute for missed yesterday's).

My yesterday's perseverence through wooden legs and pain in the right foot paid off: today, properly rested and warmed up, I pulled my best jumps ever. Salchow is now quick and fluid, waltz is getting higher (both my coaches noted that), and, although they are both underrotated and hence lack a proper exit, both loop and flip still land on one foot most of the time.

I even had a go and tried learning a lutz today: approach, take-off and two-foot landing, but then....

Mists

I collided with another skater today - a really nice teenage girl who was running through her programme - and knocked her off her feet. I could tell it was quite a rough fall for her. She looked really upset but said nothing - I just hope she wasn't hurt too badly to not be able to skate her best tomorrow. She's been working really hard for this day.

And, as if this is not enough..... I hate spins! Everytime I think "i'm getting somewhere" that "somewhere" disappears the next day. Grrrrr.....

[slusher]

Add me to the congratulations for Raye and Skate@Delaware!

I'm happy for anyone that can do a loop and a salchow because both have deserted me.

Mists:

Well jumps haven't quite deserted me, I can do them from a slow speed. However, my solo program was choreographed last week and the salchow comes at a fast moment and the loop also has to be much much faster, and "if I could" try to learn how to do it out of consecutive 3 turns that would "be so much nicer". I can't even do a back 3 and you want me to do running 3's into a jump? So, I spent the rest of my skate time trying to do a salchow out of fast back crossovers and popped each and every one.

I'm not a little tiny skater. I have mass. When: mass + velocity + takeoff = splat splat spat. I cannot check my 3 turn entrance and control my free leg to get around fast enough to grab the take off. I'm extremely frustrated.

At this point, the daunting outside mohawk in the fourteenstep is looking pretty good, I want to go back to dance again! Of course my coach put in outside mohawks, both ways, in my program, because he knows I have a mental thing about them. How better to get over that by then putting them into a solo? I don't understand coaches sometimes.

Mellow Fruitfulness:

Despite me missing everything in my solo, I like it. It's going to be fun to do. I can see that I can accomplish the choreography and eventually hit the highlights of the music so it is not impossible. Maybe I'll just change that footwork piece around myself, think the coach will notice? ;)

[kiwibabe]

Mists: Its only 17 days until my first compeition and New Zealand Nationals Figure Skating Competition is on at my rink for the week. So that means there is no skating for me this week. After that my coach is going on holiday. I'm getting really worried.

[Skate@Delaware]

Mists: Auditions for the winter ice show was this morning....I got drafted in case they need more adult skaters. I usually sew costumes and skate but it is nerve-wracking doing both. We do have more seamstresses this year so that's a help. Not sure how I feel about skating in the show (although I am better) and working for my tests, but at least it won't be any synchro skating! Maybe a snowflake...

Tried some spirals on an outside edge-I'm uneasy but will give it a go somemore. Just need time to get comfortable. They are looking better. Worked on the salchow some more-I'm not springing up and jumping it but I think I was just too pooped today! Even my waltz jumps stank-on my toepick again and no spring. Of course, my scratch spins still stink :giveup:

I need a rest, so no skating until Tuesday. I need to adjust my diet or something because I'm running out of steam. I'm not hungry-just pooped! Not sure whether to add carbs or protein. Water, yes!