Flying high or falling flat: 28/01-03/02/07 [Archive]

Mrs Redboots

01-28-2007, 10:07 AM

Flying high: We were able to skate again this morning, and had a good time. Husband and I were so pleased with our Swing Dance - someone was slightly in our way, so we had to really steepen the edge to miss him, and that made the whole dance way better. So we did a couple of laps of chassés, just focussing totally on finishing the edges properly, and got so much speed. But because we were letting the edge do the work, I didn't find it too scary.

Falling flat: I wish my dance moves were more consistent! I did one reasonable lap of the cross-cuts and then they didn't work again. Cross-rolls need to bring the free foot in closer behind, they'd look better. Was having trouble keeping the free leg in front long enough, but not too bad. Wish they'd let you play a waltz while you were doing them, it does make it easier! Preferably a Viennese or Golden waltz!

Husband, meanwhile, was having his lesson and demanded a week off from dance moves. He was working on combination jumps, salchow-toe-toe and loop-loop. And salchow-loop. If we go to the Coupe de France, and we are seriously thinking of doing so, he will just rejig the jumps in his programme and leave the rest as is. I think he _must_ work on his cherry, though - it's a toe-3 jump at the moment, especially on the end of a salchow! And two of them.... we're looking at -3 GOE here before we even start!

Skate@Delaware

01-28-2007, 12:42 PM

Flying High: wore my Under Armour Cold gear skating today..and except for my feet I was warm! I didn't put my toasty toes in my boots. Ran through my program and it was really nice except for falling out of my spin. Coach actually asked me to not pick so far on my 1/2 toe walley!!!

Falling Flat: My spins have been awful so we spent most of the lesson picking it apart and trying to figure out what's up with it....got it figured out and now I have tons of un-doing and re-doing....then we hit the backspin (I think my blade needs to be moved a bit too). Backspin from pivot, backspin from loop entry, then the loop. My insecurity keeps me from lifting that left leg and keeping it off the ice!!! DANG IT!!!

I am going to dig out my off-ice book and do some exercises for the jump. I really want to make this happen!

Talked about testing. I am going to put it on the back-burner. Was hoping to test at my rink but since it's a wash this year (someone screwed it up for the rink) I will wait until fall. There might be others that want to test so coach might drum up some other business for that also. Unless I go up to Lake Placid Adult camp for vacation and end up testing there.....just a thought!

doubletoe

01-28-2007, 07:57 PM

Flying High:
I landed a clean double salchow today, not one of my usual 1/4-turn cheated ones, but a clean one! And even better, I know how I did it.

I landed my axel in my program run-through today for the first time since changing the setup.

Even though I fell on the double sal in my program, I managed to get up and get into position for my flying camel and, to my surprise, actually complete it! I also completed my other two spins in the program. :)

Falling Flat:
- Fell on my double sal in my program.
- Had trouble staying in the middle of the blade on my RBO spiral and toepick-scraped myself down to a crawl. I'm hoping it's just because the dimensions of the Olympic-sized rink changed the angle of entry to it and that I won't have that problem when I'm back on my usual NHL sized rink (fingers crossed!).
- Messed up on the loop-loop part of my lutz-loop-loop at the end of the program. I skated my program after an hour and a half of practice, so I figure I was probably just tired and shouldn't worry too much about it.
- When I saw myself on video later (my husband recorded my practice session. . .he's just the best!), I saw that my free leg is now barely above the hip on my right forward spiral. Pulling my right hamstring two weeks ago was a really BAD idea! I sure hope I've worked through it by Sectionals, but I know how long these things can take, having gone through the same thing on the left side already. . .:(

Isk8NYC

01-28-2007, 10:09 PM

Congrats on the double sal and the axel, doubletoe.

Flying High:
MITF were good
Started skating to whatever music was playing and I did well. No trips, no falls, no collisions!
A skater came up to me later and said "My mom likes the way you skate. I do too!"
Spins (forward ones at least) were great - I even did a crummy layback without travelling too much.

Falling Flat:
It was way too crowded to really jump. Did a few good ballet and waltz jumps.
Left the rink a half-hour early because DH is ill and there were science fair projects to finish.

jazzpants

01-29-2007, 01:07 AM

Flying High

I had ONE nice waltz jump. At least one kid had a 8O. Funny thing was that it didn't feel like it was high. It's "nice, easy & light." (And the imagery that secondary coach had me thinking about did help me to kick thru higher! :twisted: Hey, I told my "niece" about it for her axel and it helped her to get thru it with less stress, so why not???)
Loops at the wall were fine until towards the end of the session.
Spins are fine.Falling Flat:

Tried to mimick what I did at wall it on the blue line (away from the wall again). Probably should have stay at the wall for now. :twisted: :P (GRRRR! My body *knows* when it's away from the wall. Can't even pretend there's a wall there. :frus: )
Flips are also all two footed landing, but I feel a wee bit straighter this afternoon.
Didn't stay long after the ice resurfacing b/c I had to rush to a friend's b-day party right afterwards.

flo

01-29-2007, 09:29 AM

"A skater came up to me later and said 'My mom likes the way you skate. I do too!' ''

Isk8NYC - :bow: Worth any medal!

Flying: skated Sat am at one session then by chance caught a session at another rink. It was great - there were three of us on the ice.
Choreograpghy moving along.

Falling - Water main broke close to the house and there's a mini rink on the street.

doubletoe

01-29-2007, 03:16 PM

Congrats on the double sal and the axel, doubletoe.

Flying High:

A skater came up to me later and said "My mom likes the way you skate. I do too!"

Thank you! :D
And what a wonderful compliment for you to get! Were you walking on air for the rest of the day? I would be!

sunjoy

01-29-2007, 03:38 PM

Falling Flat: I took someone out yesterday at a general session, & I'm still mortified. I *should* have stopped, or turned, but it was so sudden that I just hit the deck and took her legs out from under her. There was a recent thread about this kind of thing, and now I know. The other skater was ok, maybe a bruised finger, but she left the rink imediately. I appologized and all, but only afterwards did I think that I should have offered to buy her a hot-chocolate and pay for her admission. :(

Flying: I'm getting complements from others on a predictable basis now at general sessions. I'm having trouble doing my two-foot spin, but that's because it's naturally going into a one-foot spin, and the hard part is keeping my right foot doing anything useful on the ice -- this I take it is a good thing.

None of that makes up for the fact that I caused an accident. Now that I'm skating as fast as the hockey guys, I think I'd benefit from taking a few hockey lessons to learn some quick manouverability and stops.

Team Arthritis

01-29-2007, 03:46 PM

FLYING:
was so jazzed by Lysacek and Bradleys fantastic skates and the quad toe triple toe that I promised my wife I was going to do a Waltz, toe, TOE! this AM:D

trying to get back into dance and learn the Willow Waltz!

SPLAT:
my toes ended up with me coming back the way I came after a 3 jump combo:giveup:

The Willow is weaping, now what do I put in the other half of the ice????:roll:

Lyle

e-skater

01-29-2007, 04:39 PM

We were able to skate again this morning, and had a good time. Husband and I were so pleased with our Swing Dance - someone was slightly in our way, so we had to really steepen the edge to miss him, and that made the whole dance way better. So we did a couple of laps of chassés, just focussing totally on finishing the edges properly, and got so much speed. But because we were letting the edge do the work, I didn't find it too scary.

I landed a clean double salchow today, not one of my usual 1/4-turn cheated ones, but a clean one! And even better, I know how I did it.

I landed my axel in my program run-through today for the first time since changing the setup.

I had ONE nice waltz jump. At least one kid had a 8O. Funny thing was that it didn't feel like it was high. It's "nice, easy & light."

Mrs. Redboots, "joy" on the Swing Dance, and here's to deeper edges! I bet you noticed a huge increase in flow.

Congrats, Doubletoe on the clean 2sal and landing the axel within your program.

JAZZ! Yeah! Good for you! You'll get the loop away from the boards....I used to move away in increments, yet remain parallel to the boards, and eventually I got it. You have to be far enough away that you know you can grab the rail, yet simultaneously it's "there", so you can see it and do the jump. LOL! Hey, it worked for me!

FLYING:

My second time two hours in new boots. I did more backward skating today, back swingrolls, tried back cross strokes, and many back xovers.

Knee is getting better, but there is still something wrong with it. It feels a lot better than it did. It's probably a good thing I can't bend a lot right now, or jump.

I got the backspin back today for a bit. Still cannot find my balance point on the rocker, but it was way better than Friday, when I........(see below)

SPLAT:

......got three new scars on my brand new boots *already*:roll:, from stabbing my R toe/foot trying the backspin.

Could not do twizzles (which the most I do is a double on the R foot right now). Could not get just to that rocker yet in a twizzle. Meaning, I can't practice the backward twizzle in my new program, at least not yet.

Terri C

01-29-2007, 06:22 PM

Flying High:
It's so nice to be able to go to the rink after work again!!
Spins were okay
Forward power pulls are making progress. I actually did the whole length of the rink only putting my foot down once!
Ran freeskate program sans jumps- had a nice backscratch spin!!
No heel pain at all.

Falling Flat:

Okay, now this is weird:
Struggled with the backscratch spin warming it up and did a perfect one running through my program!
Had no problems with the sitspin, but blew it in the program runthrough.
Only skating one hour as opposed to the hour and half/two hour practice I did in order not to aggrivate my right ankle/ heel anymore than I have to.

Isk8NYC

01-30-2007, 10:16 AM

Flying High:
I taught my favorite, but most whiny, private student last night. After almost a year of skating for about 40 mins a week, (give or take a few weeks missed) she can now do RoL crossovers. I got ugly with her last night for refusing to try the LoR (again) and MADE her do them. Surprise! She did really crappy ones, but she didn't die, the ceiling didn't fall, and she actually CROSSED OVER!!! Hooray!
Now maybe we can get the outside three turns. *snicker*

I did lots of back inside edge/leg lifts while skating last night.
Much stronger than they were - of course they'll crap out tomorrow just in time for my lesson.

Did low-level stuff, but I did it well: Spirals, Lunges, and back spins.

Falling Flat:
I think I strained my right wrist hauling my skate bag in and out of the car. I took out my extra skates (only use them on Weds) and that seems to help. I'm cringing every time I guide one of my students. Owww!

I've been teaching Mazurkas for the past two weeks and I can do it easily from a standstill. Still, I chicken out from the moving edge. (Lyle-I need a chicken smilie, please!)

Mrs Redboots

01-30-2007, 12:19 PM

Flying high: So just as the season ends for our elite skaters, our competitive season begins, since we'll probably be going to the Coupe de France at the end of March! So in our lesson we worked on the Willow Waltz. Lots of stuff to remember. Coach sighs, but I think we're already doing it better now than when we last competed it.

We spent the last few minutes of our lesson working on skating backwards together in hold which, needless to say, worked far better with him looking at it! He made us try to increase the power a bit once we got to the red line half-way up (or down, depending on which way you look at it) the rink, and that helped, too. We even managed something that might vaguely have looked like an edge if you squinted at it sideways.

Falling flat: Dance moves had totally abandoned me today. Sigh. I do wish they were more reliable. But they weren't, so I went upstairs and did some stretching and weights instead.

Flying again: British men's singles champion came in with his girlfriend; I said he was a glutton for punishment skating so soon after the Europeans (he's not going to Worlds, I gather), but he said he was just having fun today. I suggested that he and his girlfriend do pairs, a suggestion eagerly taken up by girlfriend's sister, who was warming up with them, but he just laughed and said he'd need to put on too much body mass to do that!

Anyway, he'd had a lovely time at Europeans, which is what counts!

jazzpants

01-30-2007, 01:46 PM

Falling Flat:

Secondary coach is sick as a dog but still came in to teach! She has a squeaky voice this morning. (Should have STAYED HOME!!!) :twisted:
Tried to do backspin on the wall. Was fine at the beginning and ended up getting screwed up along with the ones away from the wall! :frus: (At least now both are consistent. :roll: )
Spiral still needs improvement. I have to get more of a turnout on the free leg. (Free big toe is pointing DOWN!!! :roll: ) More stretching! More strength on the free leg. Have to work out my trainer situation.Flying high:

Secondary coach did acknowledge that it is getting better. I did one right after the lesson and saw my reflection. At least NOW the free leg IS hip level! :D
Secondary coach's last student of the day... she is SO CUTE!!! :D She was upset when she couldn't find Mommy (Mommy had to drop off little brother at daycare.) but I managed to cheer her up by drawing pictures on the ice and encourage her to draw pictures on the ice while I try doing my backspin drill.

vesperholly

01-30-2007, 02:16 PM

Flying High

I passed my Junior Moves today! :D All three judges passed me over, and one was .5 over passing. 8O I messed up the first set of power pull-quick rockers :frus: but I got a reskate. I asked for a practice one (so if I screwed up the first one, I could have another shot) but I skated the first one fine and they said "We'll take it!" :D :D :D

I cannot believe I am on Senior Moves ...

Falling Flat

My friend fell on the double three-rockers during her Senior Moves test, and then put her foot down on the quick edge step circle. She couldn't have a reskate because that was two mistakes, and she failed. This is her sixth time taking the test. :cry:

Isk8NYC

01-30-2007, 02:18 PM

CONGRATULATIONS, VESPERHOLLY!

jazzpants

01-30-2007, 02:37 PM

Flying High

I passed my Junior Moves today! :D All three judges passed me over, and one was .5 over passing. 8O I messed up the first set of power pull-quick rockers :frus: but I got a reskate. I asked for a practice one (so if I screwed up the first one, I could have another shot) but I skated the first one fine and they said "We'll take it!" :D :D :D

I cannot believe I am on Senior Moves ...YAAAAAAY!!! Congrats to you!!!!

SENIOR MOVES!!! We're not worthy! We're not worthy!!! :lol: :P :bow: :halo: :bow: :P :lol:

e-skater

01-30-2007, 03:27 PM

Flying High

I passed my Junior Moves today! :D All three judges passed me over, and one was .5 over passing.

I cannot believe I am on Senior Moves ...

CONGRATULATIONS! :bow: :bow: :bow:

What an achievement, and good for you. On to Senior Moves (which are beautiful to watch --- I've had the pleasure of seeing three senior Moves tests, and it is really something to see skaters demonstrate those skills.)

Hope your friend succeeds at her Senior Moves, too.

mikawendy

01-30-2007, 03:52 PM

Flying High

I passed my Junior Moves today! :D All three judges passed me over, and one was .5 over passing. 8O I messed up the first set of power pull-quick rockers :frus: but I got a reskate. I asked for a practice one (so if I screwed up the first one, I could have another shot) but I skated the first one fine and they said "We'll take it!" :D :D :D

I cannot believe I am on Senior Moves ...

Woo-hoo! Congratulations, especially on the .5 over!!!! On such a high test, that much over the passing standard means they REALLY thought you did it superbly. (Which move were you over on?)

vesperholly

01-30-2007, 04:02 PM

Woo-hoo! Congratulations, especially on the .5 over!!!! On such a high test, that much over the passing standard means they REALLY thought you did it superbly. (Which move were you over on?)
The judge that had me .5 over (total) had me up .1 on the power circles, over .2 on the outside rockers and choctaw sequence. Power pulls were passing and inside rockers were .1 below.

All three judges had me .1 under passing on the inside rockers. :?? I didn't think they were that bad ... :) The other two judges both had me .1 over on the forward power circles and the choctaws and passing on everything else.

Here are the sheets:
Judge 1 (http://users.adelphia.net/~jdelmar/images/jrm1-2.jpg) / Judge 2 (http://users.adelphia.net/~jdelmar/images/jrm2-2.jpg) / Judge 3 (http://users.adelphia.net/~jdelmar/images/jrm3-2.jpg)

flo

01-30-2007, 04:03 PM

Congrats V!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Debbie S

01-30-2007, 04:36 PM

Congratulations, vesperholly!:D Those are great scores!

Flying high:
Ran through my FS program twice last night, so at least I'm able to get the practice time on it. Added an extra forward crossover before the spiral, as it seems to make that part of the program flow better. And I was able to hit (well, better than it's been, anyway) my change-foot spin (hopefully it will show up Sunday at NYI). CM program is coming along well, although traffic issues made it harder to complete everything in each single run-through.

Falling flat:
Flip out of footwork is still unpredictable, and when I mess up, it costs me a lot of time. Back scratch for CM is not getting the number of revs I'd like. And the back cross strokes and BO 3's (for the MIF event) are still inconsistent - Sunday should be interesting....

Edited to add that I just heard the weather report for this weekend - temps in the 20s both days - eeek! Maybe wearing a sleeveless dress for my CM event isn't such a good idea. Plus, it's supposed to snow a few inches on Thursday night - but I have to skate Thurs night - my last chance for practice (and a lesson) before NYI - aarrgghh!

Jenlyon, mdvask8r, anyone else....is Ashburn totally brutal when it's that cold outside?

Terri C

01-30-2007, 06:09 PM

Jenlyon, mdvask8r, anyone else....is Ashburn totally brutal when it's that cold outside?

I remember in 2004, when it was not only freezing cold, but some of us stayed at a Hampton Inn where there was no hot water on Saturday morning, the rink itself was pretty balmy.

aussieskater

01-30-2007, 06:42 PM

Wow, Vesperholly!

Congratulations!

:bow: :bow:

jazzpants

01-30-2007, 06:50 PM

Flying high:

Okay, at least I'm still sitting on the correct "cheek" when I fall out of my back sit. :roll: :lol:
Most of the "wall loops" are okay....Falling Flat:
...until some college kid came by and tried to bug me to get a Psychic Reader from her. (It's $10.) Needless to say, I told her that "No offense, but I got to get back to practicing my skating. My coach is watching." :twisted: (Not exactly a little white lie either... since primary coach was there!!!)

Flying high:

Camel is still spinning.Falling Flat:

Too bad spiral position is still sucky! (See this morning's lesson notes...) :roll:
One scary landing on the flip. I was all twisted up! 8O (It was clean though.) :PFunny note:
Primary coach is wiggling his leg to "get his hip socket back into place." He was doing a bunch of double sal and axels earlier and fell a bunch of times!!!
Me: "See why I wanted to wear hip pads now?!?!?!" :twisted:
Primary coach: "No! It's b/c I'm 46 years old and should be STRETCHING before I do all those jumps!!!" :twisted:
Me: "Yeah? Doesn't explain why I saw you looking at me funny when I was jogging off ice earlier."
Coach: "Oh, you actually saw me looking at you on the ice? :oops: :lol: I was thinking 'What is she DOING jogging on the mat???' :?? "
Me: "It's called WARMING UP!!! Since I'm an old lady, I have to do that type of thing, you know!!! :twisted: :lol: "

tidesong

01-30-2007, 07:52 PM

Flying high:
Axels and double salchows are coming back...

Falling flat:
I still feel yucky in general, unmotivated, busy, stressed.... sigh :frus:

doubletoe

01-30-2007, 10:06 PM

Flying high:
Axels and double salchows are coming back...

Yay! Let's hope the axel and double sal fairies stick around for awhile! :)

doubletoe

01-30-2007, 10:09 PM

singerskates

01-31-2007, 12:33 AM

Passed Junior Moves and onto Senior Moves vesperholly? What freeskate level are you? I hope somewhere in the Masters category.

Flying High: Only botched two flips today even though I have a sinuse infection and the flu while practicing at adult public skating. I must have done about 15 of them. On about 4 of them I tacked on the toe loop. Had one decent forward behind catch foot spin where I got 6 to 7 revs and then I thought when I exited the spin that I would fall over from the dizziness. Somehow, I got one centered scratch spin (8 revs) accidently even though when I was doing it, I felt like I was going all over the place.

Falling Flat: My spins didn't want to center today. :lol: I also barely made it off the ice when jumping. The flu has been giving me an achy body especially my feet. When I woke up this morning (Tuesday), my feet were throbbing and cramping. And I haven't skated since Satuday and I was fine the day before (only ear and sinuse problems Monday). Both my 22 year old daughter and my husband have been sick for the passed two weeks and my body just couldn't fight their bugs anymore. Luckily, I went to the doc today after skating and got meds for the infection. This way, I won't get just about deathly ill like my daughter and husband. The other thing I found weird was that on all of my jumps today, I was leaning so much out of the circle in the air (what air I must ask?) that when I landed my jumps I must have been first landing on the inside edge of my landing foot and then switching to the outside edge. Even when I two footed I was too far over to the left side though I felt like I was over my right side. This bug must have gotten into my inner ear.

Funny how a bug can mess with your senses. :lol:

vesperholly

01-31-2007, 02:24 AM

Passed Junior Moves and onto Senior Moves vesperholly? What freeskate level are you? I hope somewhere in the Masters category.
I'm in Silver. I'm not exactly a jumping bean ... :) Now that I have my axel, I'm hoping to move up to Gold for next year.

Hope you feel better!

Mrs Redboots

01-31-2007, 06:10 AM

Vesperholly, many congratulations! Awesome accomplishment! :bow: :bow:

As for me, still don't have a test date but it's probably going to be in two or three weeks - I need every minute, although in one sense the sooner the better, get it over with!

Flying high: Coach reckons I might get a passing score for the back cross-rolls, which would be good.

Falling flat: But nobody could possibly imagine that I'll get one for the cross-cuts; the only hope is that I skate better on the day because it's in front of the judges and an audience! We shall see.

Worked on exercises designed to help me rock the ankle over, which were quite fun but scary! Also worked on waltz 3s, and on getting the rebend in the right place to push into the 3-turn without scraping too badly.

I then went and did my off-ice workout, so I now ache and am tired!

Skittl1321

01-31-2007, 07:48 AM

Flying HighI DID A RBO 3 turn! YAY! And a couple almost passable LBO 3 turns. Of course as soon as I had the right one, with a good glide out of it my coach told me "now try it with this leg position" and I can't do them anymore! Lesson was great fun- we spent the first half interpreting music to pick a program. I'm going with the little swans variation for my freestyle and magic carpet ride for my exhibition. Once I start competing we're going to switch to miss otis regrets for my spotlight. Music is so much fun! It makes skating incredible. And my toe loop got an "it's not a toe waltz" so YAY! And I got 20 minutes of semiprivate ice and 10 minutes of a rink all to myself!

Falling FlatI am a complete fool when it comes to backward edges. I always forget to bring my leg front first, and go immediatly to my heel. I can never remember where my arms go, or where my head goes. Working on these with a coach makes me want to cry. Working on them on my own makes me feel hopeless.

LoopLoop

01-31-2007, 09:27 AM

Way to go Vesper! You rock. :bow:

Rusty Blades

01-31-2007, 09:40 AM

Flying High: I put my whole warm-up routine in an MP3 last night, music with voice ques, so I started the session with the 20 minute off-ice warm-up, booted up, and started the on-ice with cross-overs, turns and backwards.

Falling Flat: (<- no, I did that last Wednesday!) Something definitely "off" today, a real "space cadet", like everything was happening in a different galaxy - maybe singerskates' "bug"? - but I still managed to work through the first half of my program a few times and started out being way behind the music.

UFO: I figured I had better start pushing some CCW left-foot turns (all my "good" turns are CW right-foot). Humm LFO3, sort-of a LBI3, RBO3 - where'd those come from? I have never done those before. Nothing to write home about but better than a kick in the ribs (ribs that are still sore from last Wednesday's fall!)

Flying High: When coach arrived and I skated the first half of my program, I was AHEAD of the music!!! Go figger! We ran through it a few times and I was finally hitting the halfway point within half a beat. We discussed some of the transitions in the first half and she urged me to slow down some of the elements 8O - said it looks much better slow. (Yea? My skating probably looks best STOPPED! 8-) )

Friday we work on the second half and start putting them together. Oh joy :roll:

Isk8NYC

01-31-2007, 10:30 AM

VESPERHOLLY: I liked the smilie face at the bottom of Judge 3's sheet! *chuckle*

Flying High:
I've actually had a really, really good day so far, including my lesson. So good, in fact, I bought a lotto ticket!
Pre-Prel MITF were fine, just had to watch the crossovers underpush. (Didn't point my toe on the LoR ones.)

Did 2:1 crossover circles. 2 weak side for every 1 strong side. I still have to remember to push backward on the LoR crossovers or I push out to the side.

Back scratch spins were good, surprisingly enough. (As long as I stayed away from the divots)

Falling Flat:
The ice had a bunch of deep grooves in it; I guess they didn't cut the ice, just laid water. I reached into my pocket for a tissue packet as I got caught in one of the ruts. My foot went sideways and with my hands caught in my pockets, I plopped right on the ice! No pain (other than the already-achy wrist) but it was actually comical.

Forward spins, including my sit spin, are traveling. Finally got a few under control at the end, but I think the insoles of my skates might be the problem.

Leveling out:
I really have to remember to (1) bring my skates in from the car on cold nights; and (2) waterproof the soles soon. My feet were freezing this morning - had to retie my skates after warmup.

doubletoe

01-31-2007, 12:18 PM

I'm in Silver. I'm not exactly a jumping bean ... :) Now that I have my axel, I'm hoping to move up to Gold for next year.

Hope you feel better!

Wow! With skating skills like that, you won't even need the axel! :bow:

coskater64

01-31-2007, 02:38 PM

Congratulations Vesperholly! I hope to get those Jr moves done soon, unfortunately I can't do the r side of the edge pull quick rockers yet, the doctor seems to think about 6-8 more weeks-- so maybe I'll test in may. I can finally do the choctaws.

I think there is another silver skater who has actually passed her Sr. and there are a few on Jr so you aren't alone but edge quality is always helpful in competition.

I must admit there is a certain joy to being injured--that is I'm not allowed to push to hard, so--- no axel or doubles and I skate my program clean very easily, I haven't done that since 2003 so I like being injured. It helps to rebuild my delicate8O 8O ego!

mskater93

01-31-2007, 03:07 PM

Holly: Congratulations!

There's at least one Silver Lady who has tested out in MIF that I am aware of in the Midwest. :bow:

I am planning to take my Novice MIF this summer. I keep getting yelled at to PRESENT these moves better. :frus:

Team Arthritis

01-31-2007, 03:29 PM

way to go ! Axel too huh, wow:bow: http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/videogame/pikachu.gif (http://www.thesmilies.com)http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/videogame/inky.gif (http://www.thesmilies.com)http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/happy/applause.gif (http://www.thesmilies.com)http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/happy/goodvibes.gif (http://www.thesmilies.com)
Lyle

Terri C

01-31-2007, 06:35 PM

Flying High:
Silver moves are fun to do, for now ( no aspirations to take this test anytime soon)
Yesterday, on off ice workout at the gym, not only managed to stand on one foot on the Bosu ball, but started working on spin positions on it!

Falling Flat:
Why do my spins fail to show up for lesson?
After I did some left over right back crossovers to warm up, I noticed that my right heel/ankle was a bit sore. So much for thinking that this ligament strain has resolved.

Tessa

01-31-2007, 07:43 PM

Congrats Vesperholly! Way to go!!!!

Flying high -- got to concentrate on choreographing my program today. Only had to do 1 MITF -- backward power xovers -- and they went well. Loved hearing my music on the speakers filling the rink and loved skating to it.

Falling flat -- well... trying to skate to the music. Coach even told me we're just doing placement and timing now but when the music started I HAD to skate full out. And it was pretty bad. Man o' man is my cardiovascular system sucky. By the time I got to the footwork I was DYING, gasping for breath, not to mention I have planned a loop at the end of the footwork. Hah! That will happen....in a couple of months. We still have about 1/2 the program to go.

It sure was fun to skate to the music.

Oh and there was a GINORMOUS spider on the ice. After successfully dodging him for MITF I ran over him during footwork. Gross! Weird bugs always drop from the ceiling at this rink.

aussieskater

01-31-2007, 09:14 PM

Flying high

First real practice since early-mid December now that the long summer holidays are over and all the school kids are back where they should be (and not at the rink!! :twisted: ) And didn't it feel g-o-o-d! (Mind you, having the DD's at home for 6 weeks was really nice - no rushing around and having to get up so early every morning!)

Falling flat

Well, it's about how you skate when you've had no practice at all for nearly 2 months...:P

Anyway, DH and I had a great time today and can't wait to get back. So much to learn this year - same as every year, really! :)

Emberchyld

01-31-2007, 09:50 PM

Falling flat:

Today was a flat day... got to freestyle session late, and when I was on the ice, I could barely do anything. So I stuck to mohawks, 3-turns, crossovers, and trying to stay warm and upright. Oh, and I got to go to work with "rink hair" (my poor curls/waves don't love the air in skating rinks-- it gets flat and frizzy and yucky)

I now have this theory that I have a limited amount of skating "fairy dust", and it takes a while to replenish. So that's why I'll have a fantastic day (or days) followed by a complete inability to do anything and looking like I've never been on the ice before. I was out of skating dust today :frus:

Flying high: I'm starting to kind-of get used to spins in the CCW direction. It's very slow, and when I get frustrated, I turn back to CW for a bit just to unbruise my ego for a minute, but it's getting there. It doesn't seem as impossible now.

Rusty Blades

02-01-2007, 04:18 AM

.. I now have this theory that I have a limited amount of skating "fairy dust", and it takes a while to replenish....

CUTE! The Good Skating Fairy and the Bad Skating Fairy? I wonder if my coach would buy that?

kateskate

02-01-2007, 07:39 AM

Flying High
I finished my new programme with the music - finally after a lot of rejigging!
Axels - had a breakthrough and landed 3 without a thud, to backwards, with a running egde. I think my arms were wild and my feet definitely weren't crossed but it was better.
Camels and camel sits feel altogether more spin like.
Most of my bronze field moves felt ok - FO & FI double 3s, BO double 3s, brackets, double mohawks and left choctaws. Need to keep these ticking over....

Falling Flat
RBI double 3s have gone shakey. Not good considering my bronze field moves test is soon. Right choctaws still lose quite a lot of speed too.
Dance teacher was 15 mins late for lesson AGAIN. So I only had 15mins
Willow waltz needs to lift more - feet are fine but presentation is poor
Generally I'm not 'getting into the ice' enough.

LilJen

02-01-2007, 05:31 PM

Flying high: Got to practice Mon & Wed. Good runthrough of prelim dances with dancebuddy, and pointers from him. Can't believe I get (essentially) free ice dance lessons. It's awesome.

Falling flat: Yesterday was a fat day. You know how you just have days when you feel fat & ugly? (Well, maybe men do not have these.) Wearing a huge sweatshirt to the rink didn't help (I video'd myself doing a few things). (I hereby resolve to wear slightly more form-fitting clothes.) And you know how you think a jump is nice and high and it's just dinky and stupid looking???? Yeah. Lame-o waltz jump. Camera does not lie.

Flying high: I video'd a 2-footed spin, and was pleasantly surprised to see FIVE revolutions. Now, COP-friendly it ain't, but having come from last summer, when spinning just 1 or 2 revs (if I could even eke them out) made me want to throw up, I feel at least like I've accomplished something. Still get a bit dizzy but no nausea and the dizziness disappears quite quickly. Progress is slow, but hey, it's progress.

BatikatII

02-01-2007, 06:17 PM

Second lesson after passing moves test (Vesperholly - many congrats on your test success!:bow: ) and I've got so used to doing them now that I actually enjoyed doing them as a warm up. I need to get back to practising elements now though and revive my programme which I haven't done since the summer when I hurt my back. Hopefully we can revamp it and up the difficulty of the step sequence.

Flying high: finally managed a decent loop and flip - they keep disappearing on me:frus:
Forgot to take my programme music to the rinkside so ended up doing more moves instead. Coach was in a funny mood. I think my rapid improvement in the 3 weeks leading up to the moves test surprised him, (it surprised me! - though I'm not sure how aware he was of the extra lessons I had on them with dance coach!) and while doing some complicated move, he started to compliment me on my edge work and said I was better than he was when he started:lol: Pretty sure this is not true:lol: :!: :!: but it was nice of him to say so.8-) Apparently his coach when he was a youngster had despaired of him, as he was so bad at skating and had refused to teach him anymore and sent him away - but he went back to the rink to find that instructor taken ill and it made him more determined to succeed and with a different coach he went on to be a Russian champion. Shows what a bit of determination can do in this sport.:D

Falling flat: backspin still elusive - I know it's out there somewhere..........

vesperholly

02-01-2007, 11:04 PM

Flying high
Well, Senior Moves are quite interesting! I can do most of the steps, but I don't have the power to make them all fill the rink. I can't figure out how to do those quick mohawks, they're called QFLopMo (I'm saying Q-Flop-Mo!) and of course they're in three patterns, so I couldn't get a whole lot done.

I taught myself the back half of the footwork circle, dabbled in the 3turn/quick rocker pattern (EVILLE) and went through the steps of the sustained edge and spiral patterns, which I already mostly knew. I do like the footwork circle. The rhythm of the back half is kind of cool - I made a little mnemonic device to remember the steps: edge/edge/edge/rock/step/rock/cross/rock/cross/edge/cross/push/choc-taw/choc-taw/rock/rock. :D

I also got more of my program choreographed. I did the entire basic layout. My elements are: Lutz-loop, axel, camel-layback-back sit, sal-loop-toe loop, spirals, layback, circular footwork, flip-toe loop, flying camel. Now I need to go back and add in the connecting stuff, do the footwork, and adjust for timing of elements to the music. I feel much better about Sectionals being only 3 weeks away now!

Falling flat
Couldn't manage an axel today. :( Landed some lovely ones on Monday, but I didn't skate Tuesday (test) or Wednesday (subbed for a learn to skate class). Spins were also somewhat rotten, although I did manage a camel-layback that was insanely centered. Too bad I didn't have a camera.

becca

02-01-2007, 11:34 PM

Flying High:

Passed my Jr. Silver FreeSkate and Argentine Tango today! I also managed to remember that I have knees during the test day which is a new development for me. This week I have been going into my axel and double jumps way faster.

Falling Flat:

My double jumps still land on a tight little cirle (both the cheated ones and the clean ones). Otherwise, I'm too excited by the tests to remember most of the bad stuff (although I'm sure that there was a lot)

aussieskater

02-02-2007, 12:27 AM

Flying High:

Passed my Jr. Silver FreeSkate and Argentine Tango today! I also managed to remember that I have knees during the test day which is a new development for me.

Way to go becca! That's a real achievement! :bow:

(Now share the secret - how did you remember you have working knees in a test?)

vesperholly

02-02-2007, 02:08 AM

Passed my Jr. Silver FreeSkate and Argentine Tango today! I also managed to remember that I have knees during the test day which is a new development for me. This week I have been going into my axel and double jumps way faster.
That's great, congratulations!!! :bow:

Thin-Ice

02-02-2007, 04:15 AM

CUTE! The Good Skating Fairy and the Bad Skating Fairy? I wonder if my coach would buy that?

Would the Bad Skating Fairy actually be a troll? (or would she be Tinkerbelle (from Peter Pan)... jealous when good things that happen to other people and she's not directly involved? That said, I've always liked the feisty side of "Tink"!)

Mrs Redboots

02-02-2007, 07:13 AM

Flying high: Good dance moves day. I was definitely on edges doing the cross-rolls and actually gained speed on them! Even the cross-cuts weren't bad; husband doesn't think they'll pass, and nor do I, but they are a lot better than they were.

Falling flat: Quite literally! Husband and I were doing swing rolls in waltz hold with him going backwards and me going forwards; I suggested we increase our speed a little as these were very, very slow and stately - so he dug in to push harder, caught his blade, and we both measured our length. It was one of those spectacular falls that attracts the attention of everybody in the rink! I now have a very large, and extremely painful, bruise on my right knee

Rusty Blades

02-02-2007, 10:10 AM

Falling Flat: DIDN'T work much on the last half of my program (as planned) - after the workout on Wednesday (first half repeated a zillion times!), 1/2 hour off-ice warm-up, and a half hour on the ice warm-up, I was still pretty stiff. I think I need to scale back my warm-up to just stretches if I have skated in the previous 48 hours. Funny, the 57 year old body just doesn't seem to recover as fast as it did 30 years ago 8O Wonder how that happened? :roll:

Flying High: We tweaked my opening a bit (better presentation), and put a little silliness in the second half of the program. With the rink being unusually busy for a Friday morning (all of SIX skaters - I am SPOILED! :giveup: ), we didn't get to do complete run-thoughs of the second half of the program but I am not nearly as concerned about timing since the second half has lots of ways to pick up time or loose time.

Falling Flat: Back on the ice tomorrow at 9 a.m. - a whole 24 hours off!

Flying High: Oh well, time for a nice steamy bubble bath tonight :mrgreen:

Isk8NYC

02-02-2007, 12:51 PM

Went to an empty freestyle this morning - one other skater and she (an adult) was great! Her music, which played the entire time, was less than inspiring but she had a beautiful axel and double sal. Hard ice, sand base; not great for me, but it's good for a challenge.

Falling Flat:
Well, I didn't fall but I was pretty flat. Just couldn't get into a groove.

Pre-Prel MITF and freestyle moves were okey-dokey, nothing spectacular.

Prel MITF were shaky, but accurate.
Still hate those threes on the line, but they're controlled better now.
Inside spirals are yuck. Have to really strengthen everything.

Toe loops are sloppy and need work.

Flying High:
Actually centered several spins, which is unusual for me at this rink.
Sit, Scratch, Back Scratch, and sit-change-sit were all good.

Basic jumps were good, although I'm sure they were sloppy.
Waltz jumps were great, with growling edges.

Did lots of salchows. I almost like this jump now.

Half lutz is no problem until I land. I'm overrotating and I end up three'ing the landing. Not bad, considering I never have ice to practice these.

Did a few half-axels, (LFO edge takeoff, one rotation, forward two-foot landing) just for fun and didn't kill myself. YAY!
Always hated landing that way, still do in fact.

jazzpants

02-02-2007, 02:13 PM

Hard ice, sand base; not great for me, but it's good for a challenge.Hmmm? Sounds familiar! Have I been to this rink??? :lol:

Flying High:

Passed my Jr. Silver FreeSkate and Argentine Tango today! I also managed to remember that I have knees during the test day which is a new development for me. This week I have been going into my axel and double jumps way faster.Congrats becca!!!! Nice job indeed!!!! :bow: :bow: :bow:

Falling Flat:

Coming in to a HUGE group of 8th graders (about 60 of them at least 8O ) Needless to say, it's "spin day!!!" :frus:
Backspins are okay but not great! I had trouble getting enough momentum to do a decent pushoff for a change foot spin.
Back sit... can't get and stay into a LBO edge. I couldn't even get myself to stay on a LBO edge "shoot the duck" w/o having me falling on my butt from the duck shoot back!!! :roll: :P (I could just see in see my secondary coach reading this and hearing her say "Heh heh heh!!! :twisted: And you better be doing those "wall backspin" exercise (http://www.skatingforums.com/showthread.php?p=306937#post306937) I gave you!!!" :roll: )
Camel: Well, fear of falling flat on my face anyway!!! Primary coach's method of trying to get me to do a camel.
Method 1: Tried to spin me around like a top
Method 2: Had me in a spiral position but at a standstill. He grabs my torso and free leg to make sure I STAY in position as he slowly spins me.
He threatened to make me do a pairs camel with him (my direction) but I said "Ummmm... no thank you!!!"
Flying High:

One foot spins are fine.
Sit spins are good enough for primary coach. (I did one of the one foot spins and one of the sit spins and that's enough.)
Well, camel still needs work, but the rewards are that primary coach caughts glimpses of glory -- I did a couple of good 2-3 rev camels! :D (Of course, now he's just as frustrated with me on the camels as he is on the loop b/c I'm "so close" to getting them!!! :lol: :P :bow: )

doubletoe

02-02-2007, 03:03 PM

Flying HighI DID A RBO 3 turn! YAY! And a couple almost passable LBO 3 turns.
Falling FlatI am a complete fool when it comes to backward edges. I always forget to bring my leg front first, and go immediatly to my heel. I can never remember where my arms go, or where my head goes. Working on these with a coach makes me want to cry. Working on them on my own makes me feel hopeless.

Skittl, take heart! I always got confused, too, but then I finally figured out a few simple rules of thumb that kept me straight (and someone please correct me if I transpose any of my outsides and insides, LOL!): The free leg positions may vary by coach, so if what my coach taught me is different from what you've been asked to do, just ignore the free leg parts.

EDGES: Inside - face inside, Outside - face outside
On inside edges (both backward and forward), you want your chest to face the inside of the circle you're on. On outside edges, you want your chest to face outside the circle. So it's chest inside on insides and chest outside on outsides. Of course your head will also face the same direction as your chest, butit will be turned a little farther so you are looking in the direction you're going.

3-TURNS - Forward: Entry - face inside, Exit - face inside
This rule may be different if you're doing the 3-turn as the entry to a jump or a spin, but if you're doing forward 3-turns on a lobe, as in a MIF pattern, here's what you want to do for both outside and inside turns: Entrance edge- chest faces inside the circle, exit edge- chest still faces inside the circle. So it's entry - embrace the circle, exit - embrace the circle. You'll notice that to do this, all you need to do is keep your shoulders and head in the exact same spot while you just pivot your hips to execute the turn.
FREE LEG: either free leg extended behind or free foot at heel of skating foot

3-TURNS - Backward: Entry-face outside, Exit-face outside
When you do any back 3-turns on a circle, it doesn't matter whether they are back outside or back inside 3-turns, you always want to start at the top of the lobe with your chest facing inside the circle, then gently rotate your shoulders so that your chest is facing outside the circle by the time you do the turn at the midpoint of the lobe. When you exit the 3-turn, you still want to face outside the circle. So for any backward 3-turn, it's entry edge-turn away from the circle, exit edge-stay turned away from the circle.
FREE LEG: Outside-free leg in front the whole time
Inside- free foot at heel of skating foot or in front

doubletoe

02-02-2007, 03:23 PM

e-skater

02-02-2007, 08:18 PM

Passed my Jr. Silver FreeSkate and Argentine Tango today! I also managed to remember that I have knees during the test day which is a new development for me.

LOL re the knees during test day! Wow, impressive on the Argentine Tango. :bow: :bow: :bow: That is a great dance to watch---congratulations! Also on the Jr. Silver FreeSkate. Kudos all around.

Emberchyld

02-02-2007, 08:53 PM

Flying High:
The magic skating fairy dust is slowly replenishing itself... and I did my first decent 1-footed spins these past two days (wow, my coaches are right about holding my arms open for a few revolutions before pulling them in:lol: Who'da thunk it?)-- now I want to know why it is that I knew this intellectually all of the time, but only brought myself to doing so now...

Falling Flat:
Breaking in new pointe shoes for ballet combined with a really pointe-heavy class last night has contributed to two lovely popped blisters on my left toes. I didn't think it was going to be a big deal in skating until I laced up my skates this morning. 8O I can dance with my feet torn up and ignore it, but pulling those laces tight and getting out onto the ice was a shock. 3-turns on that foot were nightmarish.

Rusty Blades and Thin Ice: :lol: on the Skating Fairies! If there is one, mine is really stingy with the fairy dust!

phoenix

02-02-2007, 09:45 PM

Flying High: Me, just before I hit the ice last week after a back to back collision. I landed on my head, & I don't remember the fall. My chiropractor tells me that means it was a concussion of some sort. Head is fine, but body still aches everywhere from the whiplash trauma. Yesterday was my first day back on the ice.

Falling flat: Yeah well, besides that, had my first lesson today in 2 weeks. WHY can I skate just fine in practice, and never, ever good in front of my coach?! Even I am sick of that excuse: "It was fine yesterday." Ugh. I fear he's getting bored with my slow progress.

newskaker5

02-02-2007, 09:57 PM

Vesperholly- Congrats! How long have you been skating for? I'd love to think I could one day achieve such an awesome goal!:bow:

vesperholly

02-03-2007, 12:10 AM

Vesperholly- Congrats! How long have you been skating for? I'd love to think I could one day achieve such an awesome goal!:bow:
Oh, let's see ... I started in learn to skate when I was 8 or so. I started private lessons when I was 14. I am 26 now. So ... a long time! :lol: I'm aiming to get my Gold medal by the time I'm 30. I was expecting to be on Junior for a lot longer than a year and a half, since it took me 3 years to pass Intermediate and 4 to pass Novice. I am really excited to be working on Senior!!

Flying high for today: Landed 4 axels, two that were really solid. I hadn't landed one since Monday so I was pretty pleased.

Rusty Blades

02-03-2007, 04:42 AM

Flying High: Me, just before I hit the ice last week after a back to back collision. I landed on my head, & I don't remember the fall....

Good Lawrd! Glad you are ok. That was nasty.

Scarlett

02-03-2007, 07:01 AM

Flying high - Got back on the ice for the first time after my cold/sinus infection. Started working on preliminary dances and I have the dutch waltz down. Tried a new entrance on my salchow that made all the difference in the world...the jump is now high and not swingy.

Falling flat - Spins! I couldn't even manage a decent upright spin. Decided to get off the ice without even attempting moves, other jumps, or other crappy spins.

Feeling steady - I got a scribe off of e-bay. Now to figure out how to use it and find an instructor that still teaches compulsory figures. My coach did them as a skater but hated them.

techskater

02-03-2007, 09:08 AM

Feeling steady - I got a scribe off of e-bay. Now to figure out how to use it and find an instructor that still teaches compulsory figures. My coach did them as a skater but hated them.

Scarlett-
Where are you located? In the Chicago area, there's one rink that has Monday patch and another with Saturday patch and at least one person skating patch somewhere else. Rochester, NY also has at least one skater doing patch and the LA area has someone who passed their 8th (2nd half) in the last couple years.

Scarlett

02-03-2007, 11:20 AM

Terri C

02-03-2007, 01:15 PM

Flying High:
Today I did my very first back three on one foot- it was the RBO3!!
Eight step mohawk is coming along- need to pick up the feet on steps 5-6.
Did forward power pulls and forward crosstrokes on the long axis today- not bad!!
While I know that there is a lot to learn on the Silver moves, I'm amazed at how quickly I'm picking up things.

Falling Flat:
All of this came on lesson after me and my family made the painful, but necessary decision to put our 14 year old Lab/ Chow mix to sleep. He crossed the Rainbow Bridge at approximately 10:15 this morning.
Now skating related- the constantly busy Saturday 11am-2pm freestyle is only going to be 50 minutes next week- all the week before a local competition for our skaters. The week of the competition, there will be no freestyle at all.ARRUGH!

Laura H

02-03-2007, 01:42 PM

Flying High . . . figuratively not literally . . . I actually *GOT* the salchow today. Lots to work on still but I made it OFF the ice in the correct manner and an honest to goodness one foot landing . . . yeah!!! The help everyone gave on my "I don't get the salchow" thread really helped . . . so what if I go through the jump mumbling, turn . . .hold . . . scoooooop!! and jump! :lol:

Also flying high . . . one foot spin with the entrance and exit and everything!! I don't know *what* I was doing before, but it's really clicking now, I can feel the centering and everything. Still traveling some, but hey, I'm upright, I'm not falling off the blade - I can work with that!! ;)

Group lesson with the kiddos this morning was fine . . . we worked on spread eagles and Bauers which were pretty much new to everyone, so that was fun.

Falling Flat . . . the *dents* in my shins from my (obviously not-QUITE-broken in) boots after I finally got off the ice this morning . . . but that means I'm bending more, I suppose.

Oh yeah . . . the backspin . . . (I was so excited about my forward spin that I figured I'd give it a shot) . . . not there yet. Pretty scary, actually.

Skate@Delaware

02-03-2007, 02:21 PM

:cry: didn't skate Wednesday because of a super migraine (but I still had to go to work because I'm the only one that does the payroll stuff)....was going to skate today but was too busy playing catch-up AND had a rebound headache AND all the neuro stuff (shakes, imbalance) I get after a migraine.

My comp is on the 11th and I feel out of shape...I only have 3 skating sessions till then...:frus:

Rusty Blades

02-03-2007, 02:32 PM

mikawendy

02-03-2007, 08:27 PM

I'm DC based. I'm hoping that with all of the rinks and coaching available somebody will be willing to teach patch. I'm going to press my coach a little harder and mention that I already own a scribe. Hopefully that will make a difference.

I'm also thinking of actually doing the ISI tests for figures. We'll see.

Northwest Ice Rink in Baltimore, MD, has Saturday morning patch (http://www.northwesticerink.com/northwest-ice-rink-freestyle-sessions.htm). (The time is slightly different in the summer.) There's also freestyle and club ice afterward. I've never been to a patch session there, but a friend of mine used to go from time to time and had offered to show me stuff from the first figure test. I don't know if any coaches go there to teach on patch.

Isk8NYC

02-03-2007, 08:49 PM

Oh and there was a GINORMOUS spider on the ice. After successfully dodging him for MITF I ran over him during footwork. Gross! Weird bugs always drop from the ceiling at this rink.One of my twins is terrified of spiders for some reason. One day, she went to the bathroom at school and saw a big one on the ceiling over the door. She couldn't leave the room. The teacher had to send someone escort her after she missed 40 minutes of class. When I went to school later that day and heard the story, I had to look for myself. It was huge and DEAD, caught in a cobweb. I grabbed a mop and swatted it down, then flushed it. Didn't want a repeat the next day. Personally, I think she just wanted to miss the handwriting lesson. ;)

Falling Flat:
Still punking out on jumps.
Note to self: do not attempt sit spins or shoot-the-ducks while wearing baggy ski pants.

Flying High:
I've almost got a tango stop. Another four inches forward and I can start doing it on one foot. The practicing is really good for my ankle rollover, too.

I was told that I taught Pre-Prel and Prel MITF very well this afternoon.
For some bizarre reason (:roll: practice, maybe?) I know my Waltz-Eight was perfect and the kids I taught it to picked it up right away.

Did a 3/4 lutz while demonstrating because my "assistants" were off yakking in a corner. :frus: Another few inches of height and I'll have this sucker.

Started playing with different upright spin positions and did some very nice, centered ones with turned head, stretched arms. Also demonstrated a layback that was decent and I DIDN'T HURT MY BACK! YAY!

FWIW, one of my students started landing her flip today, another nailed her loop, a third did a beautiful inside spreadeagle (give her three weeks and she'll have an outside), and "knee slide boy" can do a camel as well as an accidental jump-sit! Not to be left out, my twins skate beautifully and started working on MITF today. They also showed me their salchow (eh) and "toe loop" (wow!). 8-)

Bill_S

02-03-2007, 09:13 PM

Flying High: The office workload has slacked a bit, and I've been able to skate several times this week. A friend was playing a CD of Tango music yesterday, and I really got into the music while skating. Something clicked while ad-libbing Tango-like footwork and one of the coaches said "wow!" as I skated by. Wish I could remember what I did.

Falling Flat: Left ankle, injured about 1-1/2 months ago, still bothers me when skating - especially when stepping into a spin or picking for a toe-loop. I thought that it would be healed by now. Can't quite put a finger on where it hurts exactly, but the achilles tendon is a candidate.

doubletoe

02-03-2007, 11:43 PM

Mrs Redboots

02-04-2007, 02:52 AM

Flat: No skating today - we were just about to leave the flat when the coach rang up to say Don't Come, as the rink is closed due to a stabbing there last night. Police and crime tape everywhere, apparently.

We just hope it will reopen later this week, but apparently it could be closed for up to a week. If I weren't preaching today, we'd have headed off to one of the Sunday morning clubs we know about and know we'd be welcome at, but no time to get to one and be back for 10:30! Sigh.

Rusty Blades

02-04-2007, 04:17 AM

Flying High: ... A friend was playing a CD of Tango music yesterday, and I really got into the music while skating. Something clicked while ad-libbing Tango-like footwork and one of the coaches said "wow!" as I skated by. Wish I could remember what I did....

REALLY??? I had something similar a few months ago - which brings up an interesting question. I am going to start a new thread called "Reservations?" (rather than derail this one) - lets see if this has happened to others.

Annabel: A stabbing??? Good lawrd woman, your skaters over there play ROUGH!

Scarlett

02-04-2007, 07:31 AM

Northwest Ice Rink in Baltimore, MD, has Saturday morning patch (http://www.northwesticerink.com/northwest-ice-rink-freestyle-sessions.htm). (The time is slightly different in the summer.) There's also freestyle and club ice afterward. I've never been to a patch session there, but a friend of mine used to go from time to time and had offered to show me stuff from the first figure test. I don't know if any coaches go there to teach on patch.

Thanks..I will definitely go and give that a try!

Scarlett

Mrs Redboots

02-04-2007, 07:57 AM

Annabel: A stabbing??? Good lawrd woman, your skaters over there play ROUGH!
These would have been muggles on a public session, not skaters! Sadly, there are a lot of gangs in our area....

According to the BBC (http://messageboards.ivillage.co.uk/iv-ukdfgidiet/?msg=1235.1), it was a shooting, not a stabbing. And it was fatal. Deep sigh.

Clare

02-04-2007, 08:56 AM

These would have been muggles on a public session, not skaters! Sadly, there are a lot of gangs in our area....

According to the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6329569.stm), it was a shooting, not a stabbing. And it was fatal. Deep sigh.

It's really quite scary, but as Mrs R says, due to the gangs in the area, unfortunately not as unusual as it should be :(.

Clare

Mrs Redboots

02-04-2007, 09:58 AM

It's really quite scary, but as Mrs R says, due to the gangs in the area, unfortunately not as unusual as it should be :(.

Clare
At least, according to the updated BBC story, the victim wasn't skating at the time!

slusher

02-04-2007, 10:59 AM

Flying High:

Learned a new dance this weekend. I'll digress first to complain about the "test system" for dance. I've tested through the Willow Waltz in Canada a long time ago, that's Junior Bronze dance for those keeping score. According to "tradition" I should be diligently be practicing the Fourteenstep as it is next in the list. Considering that there are three dances in Senior Bronze, Fourteenstep, TenFox and European Waltz, nothing is written in stone that it's got to be the Fourteenstep next but that's just the way things are. Once you get through that level of dance, the coach then teaches you the next set.

From the beginning of dance I discovered that I was good at waltzes and bad at mostly everything else. I wanted to do all the waltzes first but no, I had to do them by levels. Yes I understand that there are things in dances that train you ie the Canasta will teach you to chassee like no other dance, but I'm a grown up and want to have some say in this - which is why I had a big fight with dance guy last year.

So, I'm officially working on the European as the first of the current set with my dance guy, I got at least that concession. I know the steps to the other two but will do them if I have to.

Well, since dance guy is now away again I take dance from my freestyle general purpose coach and when I said no no no to doing any of the dances I was "supposed" to do, my coach got this silly look, and the next thing I was learning the rocker foxtrot, about four dances ahead of where I'm at, but I can do a strong LFO rocker from freeskate so it was easy and the Starlight Waltz! Well we didn't get through the Starlight other than walking through the changes of hold, but it was so much fun doing something different. Heh, if there was a dance with a RFO rocker, forget it, can't do that one!

I'd like more lessons like this. I've found the low level dances to be somewhat boring, and having seen some of the fun of changing holds in the higher dances, I'm enthused, it's fun!

I don't know if I'd be ready for a dance weekend, because I've almost always done dance with one person, even though my other coach is quite good but shorter than me, it was hard getting used to a different person. I don't know how people deal with that on social dance sessions.

Falling Flat:

An abbreviated freeskate lesson. All I'll say is SIT-CHANGE-SPLAT! It wasn't a spin day.

slusher

02-04-2007, 11:06 AM

oops posted twice!

But I'll add, the other part of the "test" structure is how once you've passed a test, you very rarely skate it again. Since I've passed the primary dances, I'm on an intermediate session and primary dance music isn't played so I don't get an opportunity to even do them anymore.

Skate@Delaware

02-04-2007, 08:01 PM

Flying high: Woo-Hoo! Got to skate today!!! No migraine and only a little unsteadiness (after a huge migraine, I sometimes have tremors and other wicked things like not being able to walk without going crooked suddenly).

First, after I got used to being on the ice again (slow deliberate crossovers and run-through of my program "chunks") it was lesson time. Did a complete run-through of my program and was only a bit winded. No big deal. Ran through again after advice from coach. Not as good but ok considering the people I dodged (didn't feel like mowing anyone down today).

My waltz jump had been crappy lately, and now it's fixed as long as I remember to keep my arms square!!! My spins are better, go easy, lengthen that entrance edge and be slow to bring that free leg around and in!!!

After all that, and some small chit-chat, we worked on the loop again. Which meant hitting the backspin (yuck)...So, I did manage a few with my free leg finally in the correct position (in front)!!! Then she had me do some loops and I tapped the free foot down (durn it!!!) so she had me do a backspin-hop! Did some. Loop. Tap on landing. Backspin-hop. Loop. Tap on landing. Repeat. Finally....SUCCESS!!!!

I LANDED A LOOP ONE-FOOTED ON THE CORRECT FOOT!!!!!!!! then promptly fell over onto my hip :lol: !!!!!!!
Which shows that my weight was in the right place!!!! finally!!!!!

Of course, I could not do it again...:cry: that durn left leg kept tapping back down on the landing (although there were 2 that were very close to not being a tap) but hey, I did it once, I can do it again!!!!

So, besides preparing for Sundays competition in Bowie MD, I am also to do the backspin-hop/loop exercise!! No problem!

jazzpants

02-04-2007, 09:37 PM

Falling flat:

Loops away from the wall... not so good.... (I tried to pretend that the line was the wall and I couldn't get myself to do it...) :frus:
Only landed ONE flip today clean. The rest were tapped....
Don't ask about back sit...or rather "back sitting on my butt." :roll: (It's okay though. The idea is NOT to be fearful of falling back at low heights for my back sit, so I'm supposed to be "falling flat" on my butt. ;) )
After the ice cut, the ice was VERY VERY BUMPY thru the middle. Ice monitor says that it's b/c the Zamboni blade is broken and needs replacing. They'll do that tomorrow and do a couple of clean runs with the new blade to get rid of the bumps.Flying High:

Wall loops were good....
Did wall backspin exercise...well, when I wasn't dodging little kiddies hanging onto the wall too... Didn't want to risk doing them away from the wall until I get it...
MAJOR FLYING HIGH!!! I think this year's the year of the camel!!! :mrgreen: It's not perfect spiral position and the spin is MAJOR slow towards the end, but it's recognizable and I could do about 2-3 revs consistently and sometimes I get about 4 revs now. (But I won't change the sig to definite camel until primary coach sees it for himself and says that I have it... :D )

Mrs Redboots

02-05-2007, 03:16 AM

Way to go, S @ D and Jazzpants! :bow: :bow:

Husband's loop is pretty reliable now, but his coach broke his camel spin and it isn't mended yet!

Thin-Ice

02-05-2007, 04:26 AM

Falling Flat:
All of this came on lesson after me and my family made the painful, but necessary decision to put our 14 year old Lab/ Chow mix to sleep. He crossed the Rainbow Bridge at approximately 10:15 this morning.

My condolences to you and your family. :cry: I'm sure your fur-baby had a wonderful life and will be telling all the other dogs what a great thing he had before.. and will wait patiently for you.

Flying High: This is for Saturday... I went to a "Grassroots to Champions" seminar with Audrey Weisiger and a couple other coaches. GREAT time, GREAT tips. Dr. Caroline Silby talked about mental preparation... and how not to psych yourself out about competition. It was cool watching a lot of the kids who are just barely landing double toes do Audrey's double Axel preparation exercises. And none of the coaches denigrated the adults who were there (we had 6 adults in most of the on-ice sessions). I had a 20-minute private lesson with one of the coaches (Sheila from Minnesota.. she makes the "Champion Cords") and worked on my weird camel and backspin. I managed one 4 revolution backspin from a pivot -- I've never been able to do more than 2 revs. before and 4 strong revolutions on a camel... which has only happened one other time. All this in 20 minutes! And YES, I bought one of her cords.... hey, if it worked before, it could work again.. and $21 was a pretty cheap investment considering how much I've alread invested in lesson time on these two spins! I can hardly wait to show my primary coach. The other thing that was cool was watching her work with some of the higher level kids. We have some who are VERY flexible... but she put them in spin positions Carolina Zhang would be proud of.. and things they had never tried before.

Falling Flat: My feet and lower back are still a bit sore... I spent about 4 of 9 hours on the ice.... and changing back and forth from trainers to skates back to trainers, back to skates, back to trainers (REALLY wanted my slippers about then) back into skates for 90-minutes on-ice... didn't help my feet. As for my lower back, ANOTHER reminder I need to stretch more.:giveup:

e-skater

02-05-2007, 08:23 AM

Today I did my very first back three on one foot- it was the RBO3!!
While I know that there is a lot to learn on the Silver moves, I'm amazed at how quickly I'm picking up things.

All of this came on lesson after me and my family made the painful, but necessary decision to put our 14 year old Lab/ Chow mix to sleep.

Terri, good job on the RBO 3! Great that Silver moves are coming along so well.

Though we've already talked about Spike, again, sigh, so sorry to hear about his passing. Please take care.

Tiggerwoos

02-05-2007, 10:07 AM

Flying high: Crosstoe spins are improving after starting to relearn them in my last lesson and sit spins getting slowly lower as I get my flexibility back

Falling flat: Plenty of times on my bum as I practiced my sit spin......... Got up and laughed each time though!:lol:

doubletoe

02-05-2007, 01:10 PM

My condolences to you and your family. :cry: I'm sure your fur-baby had a wonderful life and will be telling all the other dogs what a great thing he had before.. and will wait patiently for you.

Flying High: This is for Saturday... I went to a "Grassroots to Champions" seminar with Audrey Weisiger and a couple other coaches. GREAT time, GREAT tips. Dr. Caroline Silby talked about mental preparation... and how not to psych yourself out about competition. It was cool watching a lot of the kids who are just barely landing double toes do Audrey's double Axel preparation exercises. And none of the coaches denigrated the adults who were there (we had 6 adults in most of the on-ice sessions). I had a 20-minute private lesson with one of the coaches (Sheila from Minnesota.. she makes the "Champion Cords") and worked on my weird camel and backspin. I managed one 4 revolution backspin from a pivot -- I've never been able to do more than 2 revs. before and 4 strong revolutions on a camel... which has only happened one other time. All this in 20 minutes! And YES, I bought one of her cords.... hey, if it worked before, it could work again.. and $21 was a pretty cheap investment considering how much I've alread invested in lesson time on these two spins! I can hardly wait to show my primary coach. The other thing that was cool was watching her work with some of the higher level kids. We have some who are VERY flexible... but she put them in spin positions Carolina Zhang would be proud of.. and things they had never tried before.

Wow, sounds like an AWESOME seminar! What were the tricks that helped your pivot-backspin and your camel spin?

doubletoe

02-05-2007, 01:11 PM

Falling flat:

MAJOR FLYING HIGH!!! I think this year's the year of the camel!!! :mrgreen: It's not perfect spiral position and the spin is MAJOR slow towards the end, but it's recognizable and I could do about 2-3 revs consistently and sometimes I get about 4 revs now. (But I won't change the sig to definite camel until primary coach sees it for himself and says that I have it... :D )[/LIST]

YAY!!!!:bow: I can't wait to see it at Sectionals!! :D

doubletoe

02-05-2007, 01:15 PM

Flying high: I LANDED A LOOP ONE-FOOTED ON THE CORRECT FOOT!!!!!!!! then promptly fell over onto my hip :lol: !!!!!!!
Which shows that my weight was in the right place!!!! finally!!!!!

Congratulations!! I have the feeling we're going to get the "I landed it clean!" post this week! Just think about keeping your shoulders level and just twisting to counter rotate the hips against the shoulders instead of dipping your landing side shoulder. Also, try raising your arms up in the air on landing. It might look a little silly, but that trick has helped me save my double sal landings many times! :lol:

doubletoe

02-05-2007, 01:19 PM

Falling Flat:
All of this came on lesson after me and my family made the painful, but necessary decision to put our 14 year old Lab/ Chow mix to sleep. He crossed the Rainbow Bridge at approximately 10:15 this morning.

Oh, I know how sad that is! We had to put my 15 year old kitty to sleep last year and it's just so, so hard! But you must know that the length and quality your doggy's life was in the top 1% of the lives of all dogs of all time, and you did absolutely everything you could to make it easy, so you can feel good about that. And when the time is right, I'm sure he would want you to give another dog the same love you gave to him. :)

kateskate

02-05-2007, 06:33 PM

Oh, I know how sad that is! We had to put my 15 year old kitty to sleep last year and it's just so, so hard! But you must know that the length and quality your doggy's life was in the top 1% of the lives of all dogs of all time, and you did absolutely everything you could to make it easy, so you can feel good about that. And when the time is right, I'm sure he would want you to give another dog the same love you gave to him. :)

Reading both of these made me sad! I know how hard it is to do that. We put my cat down in October - she was 17 and I'd had her since I was 9 years old. But she had a good life, like your dog. But its still very sad. I'm sure your dog is watching over you.

singerskates

02-06-2007, 01:41 AM

Sorry to hear that Terri. I am Mom to a very spoiled fur-baby and know how hard that can be.

Falling Flat: I was up at 4 a.m. again and off in a balmy -37C to a rink over an hour away. The longer I skate, the more demanding the sessions become and the longer it takes to recover. I skated yesterday so damn I was stiff!

Flying High: I wanted to spend some time on backward edges and managed to tough it out for an hour and spend a lot of time on backward. It was worth it.

It was nice to see one of my friends again, one of the mature coaches with a demented sense of humour like mine. Her “standing jibe” is about me doing an axel - “Well, am I going to see your axel today?” I told her I was going to learn to do an axel in secret just so I could land one right in front of her and say “SO THERE!”

Fiery Crash! I stopped by the chiropractor on the way home. Since my fall last Wednesday and the sore ribs, my back was bothering me so I thought I would get adjusted. I told him about the fall but I guess I didn’t stress the sore ribs enough. He made one adjustment that startled us both! The yelp must have been a give-away! 8O He had to help me up and I had to sit for awhile before I could stand. I guess he knows about the ribs now . . . That's the second time I have smashed my ribs in a year :?? Maybe I should be wearing a flack jacket when I skate, like the ones the bull riders wear - LOL!

Are you going to survive until Adult Canadians? Try getting one of those puffy bomber style vests for added protection from falls and the cold. Then if you fall again on your ribs, you'll have a little padding. Best learn to fall on the hip instead of the ribs, K? I need to see you competing at AC.

One thing I have to watch out for when running through my interpretive is to not get too far down in my lunge. On Thursday, I got so far down that I was doing almost a 45 degree angle with my skating leg and my free leg just about was flat on the ice. After the 5th time doing the lunge, I felt like I pulled something in upper part of my left inner leg and just above my left knee on the left side. I really paid for trying to get low. I think I'm going to stop at 90 degrees now on the lunges. Can't afford to pull or damage my forward spins, waltz, salchow, flip and lutz because of how I was doing my lunge. After pulling the muscles in the last lunge I did, I couldn't do a forward scratch because I couldn't stay on my leg long enough to at least get 4 revs. When I got off of the ice, I could barely walk. I did immediately stretch it out as good as I could, but once I got out in the cold to go to my car. I started to stiffen out. I'm just starting to get the swelling and pain to go away. And yes, I skate today (Tuesday). Thankfully it's not on club ice.

Thin-Ice

02-06-2007, 04:27 AM

Wow, sounds like an AWESOME seminar! What were the tricks that helped your pivot-backspin and your camel spin?

Well this is going to sound like a commercial for Champion Cords.. but the cord actually was what made the difference for me. On the camel, she had me attach the cord (a very skinny piece of elastic, about 3-feet long, with a looped handle on one end and a clip on the other) to the skate on my free foot and my opposite hand. The trick for me was to keep the cord taut.. it felt weird setting up for the spin, with the cord pulling across my back, but once I was close to the camel position, I could feel the cord kind of draping and loose across my back... so pulling it out with my skating side arm and back harder with my free foot by REALLY pointing my free toe put me in the right position to hold the spin.

And for the backspin from a pivot, I had been so worried about the foot I was standing on, I wasn't paying much attention to my free side. She just had me raise my free hip just a tiny bit "above square" and that was enough to get me in the right position. I know, I know, this sounds really obvious, but it wasn't to me before this. I've done both of these spins a couple times each since the seminar so it wasn't "new coach effect". Now I'm just hoping I can repeat them during my lesson with my primary coach on Wednesday.:)

doubletoe

02-06-2007, 12:16 PM

Well this is going to sound like a commercial for Champion Cords.. but the cord actually was what made the difference for me. On the camel, she had me attach the cord (a very skinny piece of elastic, about 3-feet long, with a looped handle on one end and a clip on the other) to the skate on my free foot and my opposite hand. The trick for me was to keep the cord taut.. it felt weird setting up for the spin, with the cord pulling across my back, but once I was close to the camel position, I could feel the cord kind of draping and loose across my back... so pulling it out with my skating side arm and back harder with my free foot by REALLY pointing my free toe put me in the right position to hold the spin.

And for the backspin from a pivot, I had been so worried about the foot I was standing on, I wasn't paying much attention to my free side. She just had me raise my free hip just a tiny bit "above square" and that was enough to get me in the right position. I know, I know, this sounds really obvious, but it wasn't to me before this. I've done both of these spins a couple times each since the seminar so it wasn't "new coach effect". Now I'm just hoping I can repeat them during my lesson with my primary coach on Wednesday.:)

Great progress! Thanks for the details! :)

Isk8NYC

02-06-2007, 12:20 PM

Well this is going to sound like a commercial for Champion Cords.. but the cord actually was what made the difference for me. I use it for beginner spins, connecting the free arm to the free foot. (Sounds like assembly instructions.) That way, the skater must bring BOTH around together. Most bring that free arm forward before the foot and get all off-balance. Same connection for the waltz jump - bring them through together!

Congrats!

tidesong

02-06-2007, 12:40 PM

Flying high:
First lesson with new coach is good. new coach new perspectives and we got on to working with things, he pointed out old things in ways and sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't but it was really nice and fresh. The best part though was the confidence I got from him on the toe loop. I learnt how to do a straight entry today... and I never realized just how much check I needed for that, I only thought it was needed for the lutz.

And yeah generally I felt the best things coming from the toe jump areas, I can now work on a straighter entry for my flip. And I took off on the lutz for a true lutz in a long while. (fell on that one) then I did a wobbly one after that... but one good take off is a precious thing!!!

And yeah good news is that my axel and double salchow were still with me, although as wobbly as ever, we tried to work on them a bit but i was getting panicky (i keep getting that and stressing myself out in the lesson and then everything goes wrong... for both the axel and double salchow my attempts got better and better and then went down hill pretty quick again.)

Spins are cool, he likes them in general but we can always work on more speed and centering and stuff, today was kind of a show him what I've got day. So yeah we went through alot of things in a short time.

And well we didn't touch it in the lesson because I needed more help in the other areas, but I showed him my spirals after that (which I'm rather happy about) so it was really cool.

Falling flat:
Rink is closed from friday to sunday for hockey tournament :(

doubletoe

02-06-2007, 01:52 PM