Olympic/Titanic Lessons and Practices, 8/16-8/22 | Golden Skate

Olympic/Titanic Lessons and Practices, 8/16-8/22

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Well, its an Olympic week, so are your lessons/practices swimming Olympically along like Phelps, Coughlin and the "Thorpe-do,", or did you just hit the iceberg????

Sink, sank, sunk: I had the most horrible day in my history at work yesterday. Guess its to be expected. I'm in my last few weeks here as I will be shifting out of clinical and getting into medical education full time next month, so I'm sure lots of stress is in the offing. As a result, I didn't skate in our exhibition last night. I barely made ithere in time to see it. :mad: :mad: :mad:

Gold medal: We had our awards banquet last night where we give out skater awards both for our USFS club and ISI team. Much to my surprise, I won the sportsmanship award (ISI), tying with a charming young boy skater from our club. I was very honored and even more pleased to see another adult skating buddy who skates with me in the mornings take the perseverance award (ISI). (No, not my husband, but we're all of similar age). Nobody works harder than him. Wow, two adult skaters getting awards, whoo hoo, and we both have the same coach who was very pleased!!!

Even more golden: Coach started my new program for the USFS comp this fall, where I'll skate "no test." We're using her favorite cocktail "lounge" music collection again, including an orchestral variation of the theme song from the old TV series "My Three Sons." We already got through more than one third and I can keep up with the music!! I can't do anything higher than toeloop or salchow, so it will have those plus some half jumps and one foot and two foot spins. Her choreography layout is great, I'm very happy so far and its only the first day. A "first rate" skate after a rotten day yesterday. :D
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Congratulations on the sportsmanship award, Yazmeen! I'm sure it couldn't be better placed.

Do you think medical education will be more stressful than clinical work, or is it just the change that you think will be stressful? To me, training students can't possibly be as bad as making life or death decisions about patients. (That's why Mrs. MM went into radiology -- as far away from the responsibilities of direct patient care as possible, LOL.)

Mathman:)
 

Glacierskater

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Yazmeen,

Way to go on your award and on your new program. You have come so far and I love to read about your progress. Don't worry about a bad day at work. They will pass. Don't you feel lucky to have something so wonderful as skating to take all your troubles away?

I have to live vicariously thorugh you all this week...our rink is closed for maintenance as well.
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Mathman: I should explain, I won't be teaching. I'll be managing CME (Continuing Medical Education) projects through a CME communications company. This involves the rules and regulations that govern medical education for physicians beyond internship and residency. I'll be taking over two existing national projects and hopefully bringing in some others. I've managed CME at my hospital and also worked at the state level too with it and discovered I was enjoying my CME work more than my clinical work, and I can't do much more with it at the hospital level, so it was time to move on. The stress is just trying to buff up all the non-clinical stuff I do here, there's a lot to do, plus sorting through years worth of file and things and getting ready to move. Luckily for me, the new job is a lot closer to home. I plan to take some time off in between and skate my little heart out during that time along with a little vay-kay. I need it. By the by, my current specialty is diagnostic imaging, too, and I may still do some image reading after hours along with the new job.
 

GordonSk8erBoi

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
For my lesson yesterday we worked on backward edges. I'm a newbie skater, hoping to take my adult pre-bronze MITF test in the spring, and I have a long way to go. My back edges are coming along but getting the free foot in front is a struggle. Nothing for it but to persevere!
 

sk8pics

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
Yaz-- Congrats on your award! And also on the progress on your first competitive USFS program! Wish I could see it, but I will be at Skate Canada during that competition. Good luck with all your work-related stuff. BTW, those flowers you gave me at Skate Wilmington lasted until a couple of days ago!

As for me, I'm starting to hate that backward perimeter crossover stroking move from the bronze moves test. :\ Just not getting the pattern quite right, never mind going fast enough! sigh.

On the other hand, yesterday I got the hang of doing 3 waltz jumps in a row without any steps in between, so that was cool. I don't have a lesson until Sunday so I'll have to wait until then to show my coach and get his stamp of approval. Also more improvement on the 5 step mohawk: although they're tiny, I can do each side consecutively without any extra steps in between, although I do have to slow down a bit. I can't wait to show that to my secondary coach next week, since the last time he taught me (2 weeks ago) I could only do one side of it! :D

Happy skating everyone,
Pat
 

luenatic

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Welcome Gordon. Hope you'll have run skating. Do keep us posted on your adventure!

I have one week left before the MITF test. I'll have both Pre-Bronze and Bronze tests on the same day. I'm getting a little nervous now.

While I was practicing this morning, there was a test session going on. The skaters seemed pretty relax and they looked great! I hope I can handle the pressure like them.

My practice went OK. The backward perimeter crossover stroking is getting better. I'll keep improving this and surprise my coach next week. Coach is out of town this week so there's no lesson for me. :( I'll have 2 more next week before the MITF test. I'm getting really nervous!!! :eek: Must calm down, must calm down... Breath, breath...
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
luen: Deep cleansing breath!!! You can do it!!!

I learned a cute bit from a magazine. Singer Norah Jones was talking about taping Sesame Street, and she said that every time the director cued them, he'd say, "5,4,3,2---HAVE FUN!!!!" She now says that mantra before concerts because it makes her smile and helps her relax. I plan to use it for my next competition. Give it a try with your tests!!!!
 

GordonSk8erBoi

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
I had my 2nd lesson this week on Thursday...

Olympic: Worked on spins. I'm still working on picking my foot up from the 2-foot spin. I did my best-ever in front of my coach, about 2 solid revs and then a nice landing position exit!

Titanic: Coach went back to work on the perimeter power stroking (adult Bronze move, though I've not even tested pre-bronze yet). While it's much improved from the last time I tried it, it leaves much to be desired as far as being able to remember the pattern and not get distracted/flustered/confused.
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Ahhh, the joys of Wintersport early evening summer Friday ice, which may get me through the last few weeks of my present job!!! A whole rink to myself!!

Much to my shock, I suddenly seem to be able to do forward three turns (outsides) from forward stroking--those of you who know me know that 3's are my personal demons. I have to assume this is all part of coach's work on my speed, power and edges. She's put threes into moves in my new program, and while I certainly ain't speedy, I can do them and that's a HELL (pardon me, Paula) of an accomplishment compared to just 6 months ago.

A fun skate. The dude on duty and I were comparing ages when he asked if the classic rock station on the speakers was OK with me (heck, yeah, where else could I have skated to both Lou Reed and "Walk on the Wild Side" uncut and "You Rock Me All Night Long"????) I was shocked to find out he had 5 years on me!!!!!
The PERFECT way to unstress from the week. :D :D :love:
 
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