Wild-Wonderful/Wacky-Woeful Lessons/Practices 5/19-5/25

[Cinderella On Ice]

Wild-Wonderful/Wacky-Woeful Lessons/Practices 5/19-5/25

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's Monday again, and we want to know how your lessons and practices go this week. Will they be just terrific (Wild-Wonderful), or will parts of them be not so hot (Wacky-Woeful). Do be sure to check in and let us know how it goes.

 

[Yazmeen42skater]

Back to practice

Haven't been here in a while due to practice for competition, which was a mixed bag again for me. Came in 3rd of 3 in Elements and Freestyle, which was less than I'd hoped for, but Elements were much stronger. My Freestyle was going swimmingly until I slipped on a crossover and botched my edges slightly, and I was the only competitor to make a mistake, so that was that. Footwork was against the book, but a big plus. I got very high scores from one judge who also went out of her way to tell me that she loved the program. Stroking went great (gold, against the book, but again, high scores from one judge who also complimented me, which was really nice). I tied for gold with my buddy Anna in Interpretive, and we almost did the same moves on the ice--nope, no collusion, we just had the same ideas, apparently!!! :rollin: I was a little down until this morning (see practice report below).

Felt woeful intially, now feel wonderful:
My first practice and lesson after the competition today. Coach and I were the only ones there--I guess everyone else decided to rest.

We spent about half the time talking, and I feel much better. I was so afraid I had let her down when I blew those edges in my Freestyle program on Saturday, but instead, she told me she was very proud of me. She said I had never skated better overall and my speed was much better; in fact, she noted that I might have gone into my crossovers with more speed and that might have been why I slipped. She was much happier with me doing the program full out with better speed and making a mistake than doing it "wimpy" but clean. Geez, did I feel better after that, and it really reinforced that overall, the competition was a big success for me after all. Sometimes you have to see it through someone else's eyes.

Worked on crossovers, back spiral (go figure, I'm a beginner at it and I get my leg higher than my forward spirals ) and half lutz. Goals for this season are taking my pre-bronze MITF and possibly the same freestyle test, too. We won't worry about competition until after summer, probably next year at ISI FS2 or 3, depending on how I progress. We'll definitely do a new footwork program and I brought up doing Artistic instead of Freestyle, where I'm not restricted to certain moves and there's more emphasis on presentation, which is a strong point for me. She liked that idea. Overall, a very good morning, even though I'm still exhausted and stiff. (Time to get one of my DO's here to work on my poor neck and shoulders!!!! )

Skate with joy, everyone!!!

Yaz

 

[starshinexavier]

Re:Wild-Wonderful/Wacky-Woeful Lessons/Practices 5/19-5/25

Wild: -My camel spins are getting better. They're faster and have more revolutions in them. Doing them in every spins session every week is sure helping.
-Nice run through of the interpretive. The changes we made last week added quite a bit of difficulty, but a more polished look. That's esp. at the end of the program when I'm dead tired.
-my 2 sals are back to the form they were in when I stopped doing freeskate because of carnival practice. They go up and down so gracefully and with more power and speed. It feels so nice to be able to do them well again.
-my axels have a lot more power in them for some reason. It must be from lifting cases of beer at work. <img border=0 src="http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif" />

Woeful: -Camel change camel. The first camel works nicely, but the change camel, umm.....he's gone back to the desert where he belongs.
-didn't do any 2 loops or 2 flips today. Much to busy with the sals and interpretive, and people talking to me. Grrr.....do I have a sign on me that says "TALK TO ME"?!?

On an bit of an off-topic note, the one guy that I work with, Chris, is a major cutie, and when I worked with him last Friday, there was a bit of flirting going on! <img border=0 src="http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/happy.gif" /> I was on cash and he was getting the beer for me. Most of the customers were using debit at one point, and he started taking orders of people in line. I yelled at him to stop a few times(It was a playful yell, not anything mean). The last time I yelled at him to stop, he grabbed my hand and looked me in the eyes and told me that he'd stop. His face was maybe 6 inches from mine. It was so cute. <img border=0 src="http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/happy.gif" />

 

[Cinderella On Ice]

Re: Re:Wild-Wonderful/Wacky-Woeful Lessons/Practices 5/19-5/

YAZ - Glad to hear the camels are really coming along (except for poor Joe Change Camel, but don't worry, you'll get over the "hump" soon! :lol: Sounds like the interpretive is just getting better and better. Perhaps Cutie Chris will come sometime to see it in action??!!

STAR - And I use that name deliberately, because it sure does sound like you've made the best of your competition and learned lots to boot! There is no dishonor in a slip-up, especially when it may have arisen because you are speeding things up and showing some POWER out there. Good for you! Your coach sounds like one smart cookie and you're lucky to be teamed up with someone who doles out motivation along with constructive suggestions. Part of the beauty of competition is to see where your strengths are, but also your areas for improvement. Not everyone has the guts to get on out there, so you've succeeded in any number of ways. You go, girl!

As for me, I FINALLY got back out on the ice today after two weeks off due to work commitments. Woeful - every single jump I did took at least two tries to "get it back" due to timing issues. Even my first waltz jump was a waltz flub! Sheesh. I think I'm still just tired from the grueling schedule last week (non-stop days and nights, little sleep, tons of walking all over the convention floor). My legs just didn't feel as strong as usual. Wonderful - just being back on the ice was a rush, I've lost a couple of pounds thanks to smart eating and all that activity last week and it felt GREAT to float over the ice, and generally speaking once I got started, all the moves were working again. So nothing lost. My coach wants me to hone my Gold Moves for a July 18 test, and possibly also my Bronze Freestyle. So I've got to buckle down and get back to skating 3x a week. My skates need sharpening badly, so I dropped them off after practice and will pick them up this evening. Whee, I'm skating again, life is good! :rollin:

 

[starshinexavier]

Re: Re:Wild-Wonderful/Wacky-Woeful Lessons/Practices 5/19-5/

Aww.......thanks Cinderella! <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> I noticed that you mixed me and Yaz up though. It must be cuz you're so tired after the convention. It's getting close to crunch time, my test is in 3 weeks. There will be lots of guest skating and run throughs to come really soon. And I hope that Chris can come out and see me skate. It's not like he doesn't know where that arena is. (he plays hockey there)

Good luck with those tests too! You should be really proud of the fact that you'll be testing your gold moves. That's a real honour. You'll feel much better when you're out on the ice on a regular basis again. Best of luck with working on those tests.

 

[Cinderella On Ice]

I'm a Doofus!

Sarah - You're right, I totally confused that entire last message, mixing up you and Yaz and just otherwise making a mess of the whole thing! I was going to go in and edit it and realized that it's just too jumbled up.

My brain is definitely on overdrive at the moment, so thanks for the forgiveness. Three weeks--gosh, you can almost hear the clock ticking. Remind my feeble old brain which test it is that you will be taking? And I'm so pleased to hear that Cutie Chris is a skating man--those hockey players are the best!

 

[starshinexavier]

Re: You're not a Doofus! Just not completely with it!

I'm testing for Gold Interpretive. It's a Canadian test. This will be the second time that I'm doing it.

Interpretive tests here were recently called Artistics (or autistics as they're called at my club, esp. if your interpretive is really dramatic, silly or just plain weird). Everything changed about interpretives, so instead of skating to the words or pretending you're a character or something, you now have to interpret the music. It's like a freeskate solo without jumps and spins, just the inbetweens.

We got it right this time, thankfully. I'm excited about testing it after my good evaluation, but nervous as well. I still have 3 weeks, so all is good-for now!

About hockey players, I LOVE EM!!! Well except when they wreck the ice.

 

[Cinderella On Ice]

Re: You're not a Doofus! Just not completely with it!

Star - see, that's a whole line of testing that I didn't even realize existed. No wonder I'm always so confused. So much to learn! So much to do! I hope your mom will take lots of pictures so we can get a feel for the whole program. It sounds really hard (without the jumps and spins, you've got to be dang GOOD at artistic impression), but you are SO ready for this. Best of luck. What's the date of the test?

I agree 100% on those hockey men chewing up the ice. Two weeks ago I had a mongo fall because of a huge "pothole rut" they had left and the Zamboni guy merely "filled in". I hit it on my axel take-off, the false covering just shattered to heck, my blade caught in the rut and I just went flying. That's the way you break a leg or ankle. But I blame the ice resurfacers who don't know what they're doing and can't/don't take the time to do repairs on the big stuff and just let the Zamboni run over it, which is never enough.

I'm sure Cutie Chris would NEVER deliberately chop up our precious ice, though! :lol:

 

[Yazmeen42skater]

Re: Wild-Wonderful/Wacky-Woeful Lessons/Practices 5/19-5/25

We worked on spirals yesterday. I did forwards on both feet, both edges, on the circle to improve the edge and get a better feel for it. Another "go figure"--my right leg lifts higher and straighter than my left, even though I'm not as comfortable with spirals lifting my right. I know my left calf and hamstrings tend to run tighter as I've had plantar fasciitis on that side a couple of years ago. My coach taught me a stretch at the boards: One leg up, foot turned out, stretch upper body over the leg, the turn the foot in and face the other direction like you are doing the spiral and drop the opposite hip slightly. First you stretch the hamstrings and calf, then the quads and calf. It was murder, but it should get better with practice. I'm also going to consider taking a flexibility class this summer.

I also worked on half lutz and half toe walley, and both are pretty solid. Reviewed half flip from the three turn entrance (I use the mohawk entrance in my programs as I do much better mohawks than three turns.). All in all, a solid lesson and practice. When I come back from the ISI convention first week of June, its time to get back to the toeloop and to work on the footwork pattern for ISI Freestyle 2, which I have yet to learn.

Well, off to Vegas for ISI tomorrow. I'll write a report when I get back. Scott Hamilton is special guest speaker, so that should be interesting. I'm looking forward to the sessions on judging and working with special skaters, and I'll take my Bronze level ISI Judging test, my first one, on Monday. Ahh, road trip with the girls, (leaving hubby behind, but he doesn't mind!!!) "See" you all when I get back.

 

[Cinderella On Ice]

Re: Wild-Wonderful/Wacky-Woeful Lessons/Practices 5/19-5/25

Yaz - great practice and good luck in Vegas. Sounds like lots of fun and we can't wait to hear how you passed your judging test with flying colors.

I had a WONDERFUL practice today. I woke up and was feeling all barfy and kind of mingraine-y and was getting depressed as skating time neared, thinking I wouldn't be able to do much. Instead, I worked long and hard on my Gold moves and felt like I nailed a few things right on. For the first time ever I was able to do those consecutive 3-turn things around both ends without feeling faint or dizzy, and I felt like they were fast but in control. I also worked hard on my power circles to get the timing right (Chug ... chug... chug..chug..chug..chugchugchug, etc.). Phew, those wore me out! I wasn't going to jump at all, but once I started, I just blew myself out of the water. I landed everything, including loop/loop/loops and other combos, the lutzes, and five out of five axels. Wow, it was so invigorating. Worked on split jumps and feel like I'm getting closer to 180 degrees (probably 16 , and the height is great. Anyone with any tricks about how you get the spread, I'm all ears.

Next week is the last adult session over the summer, but we got some good news, which is that they're going to do an adult contract ice session at the same time. I'm going to rev up my practices to 3-4x a week so I'll be ready for testing on July 18.

Except for feeling barfy, there was nothing woeful about this practice. Woo hoo!

 

[starshinexavier]

Re: Wild-Wonderful/Wacky-Woeful Lessons/Practices 5/19-5/25

Yaz-Best of luck with your test! Enjoy Vegas, and make sure you stop in Casino Royale(where my aunt works).

Cinderella-Great job at practice! Those split jumps sound fabulous! Keep it up! With the way things are going for you, you'll pass your tests on July 18th.

My test is on June 14th, I think. I'm not too sure yet. There will be a test list up soon, so I'll pass along the details when I get them.

Happy skating!

 

[Lanechka]

Re: Wild-Wonderful/Wacky-Woeful Lessons/Practices 5/19-5/25

I just went for about twenty minutes with my mom who was visiting because doing jumps I fell on my left knee and have a horrible bruise that hurts constantly. I'm used to them by now! I'm trying to get full rotation, but it sucks. I've been getting much better at my spins... did a lot of those! Mom said I was very fast, so I guess that's something. Have fun you guys!
-Lanie