De-Lightful/De-Mented Lessons & Practices 9-14 to 9-20 | Golden Skate

De-Lightful/De-Mented Lessons & Practices 9-14 to 9-20

Cinderella on Ice

Bless you, Fairy Godmother, I'm Having a BALL!
On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
We know you're out there skating, so you better let us know about your great accomplishments (De-Lightful) and those things that you wish had been a little better (De-mented).
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Creme Demented: Back outside edges. Ick, yuck, I hate them. My lessons are now 40 minutes on Tuesday and 20 on Wednesday due to my coach being very popular with the little ones this season (good for her--as it should be!!!). We're going to divide them with half of the longer lesson being MITF and half Freestyle--jumps and spins, with more Freestyle and program type skating on Thursdays. That said, we worked on pre-bronze moves today. Stroking was pronounced solid and testable, as were forward edges and oddly enough, she thought my back inside edges were coming along swimmingly--but the outsides? My main problem seems to be my push and finding the intial edge. I can do them, but they aren't in anywhere near good enough shape for testing (maybe you can help out--see my other thread). :mad: :(

Deeeee--lite!!!: Two foot spins. I probably knocked off the best ones I've ever done. I was getting down into them well and coming up and increasing speed and consistently hitting three to five revs. Coach was very pleased and wants to translate that into the one foot. I have a little trouble pushing out of them strongly, but we worked on practice techniques for that. :)

On Thursday, its back into "harness" (literally) to keep on improving jumping. I asked her today if the word "loop" was going to be entering our teaching lexicon soon, and she affirmed that. Oh, my!!!! :eek:

Happy skating, everybody!
 

blurrysarah

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 21, 2003
I'm dying to use the harness, looks like fun. Of course, my coach doesn "believe" in it or something like that. :cry:

Demented: Everything. Such a terrible session on Sunday. I got off prematurely because my right ankle was hurting again - my boot and the fact that it lets it twist and buckle. Of course, my coach didn't believe me, as predicted, but I got off anyway. So the whole atmosphere that morning was pretty uncomfortable between us. What made it worse is that I found out there were no Risport RF3 boots in my size in the whole COUNTRY! "All sold out, factories closed, no new shipments for months." I was told. None of the skate shops we rang had them, the importer didn't have them, it was looking like a lost cause.


Delight: Um....hmm...nothing skating wise. However, after that awful Sunday session, my mum and I took one last trip to a skate shop where the guy said he had a model one size UP from mine. I thought perhaps I'd try it and maybe it would suffice, though I wasn't particularly happy about it.
Walked into the shop, saw a display model of the boot I wanted on the glass shelf. I picked it up, low and behold - MY SIZE! All the other display models? MY SIZE! I bet the reason they had none in stock was because they were all sitting on the display shelves no one checks! :mad:

So I found my dear booties after all! :D
 
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Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Sarah: Hugs to you since you had such a rough skate, and CONGRATS on the beautiful new boots. Your ankles will be happy and comfy in no time!!!! :)
 

Cinderella on Ice

Bless you, Fairy Godmother, I'm Having a BALL!
On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Blurrysarah - WOO HOO on the skates! I would never have thought about the fact that shops also have skates on display. What a bit of luck! I know what you mean about broken down skates. It seems like overnight my beautiful new-but-old (bought 'em in 78, only used them a couple of times until the last 14 months) SP-Teris have suddenly collapsed. They honestly provide no more support than houseslippers. When I went to get fitted for new ones, the guy tsked loudly several times and burst out laughing. He couldn't figure out how I was landing axels because they have a ridge so deep, you can fold the top down over to the side! Ah well, I can't complain, as they have never hurt me and now are buttery soft! :laugh: Sorry to hear about your bad skate day, but put it behind you as happy days are in the future with the new skates.

Yazmeen - so good to "see" you again. Yowza on the two foot spin. Soon you will be Lucinda Ruh! I have always been fascinated by the harness, but have never used one. We didn't have one at my rink when I was a kid -- and now I don't know whether my coach wants me to use one or not. We've started on the 2sal and while I looked longingly in that direction, she never gave it a second glance. Guess we'll see how things turn out!
 

dlkksk8fan

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
De-lightful-One and only one good scratch spin-one is better then none:D
Waltz jumps were a little higher then last week and I tried a Salchow jump that wasn't too bad. I had some good stroking around the rink with good forward edges.

De-Mented-back outside edges especially my left side. I keep falling into my inside edge. I also scrape my toe picks when I do back crossovers and almost tripped myself. Boy do I need a lesson.
 

luenatic

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
De-Lightful: Jumps. I worked on jumps mostly last night.

Started with waltz. Now my coach's goal is to have me extend my legs more in the air. Ultimately, both legs will be parellel to the ice, almost a Russian split position. Right now, my leading leg is parellel to the ice, only my other leg is dragging behind. I guess I'll have to do a lot of off ice jumping exercise to learn that Russian split position.

Salchow: Nothing unusual on the salchow. Working on the timing a little bit to make the jump looks light and easy.

Loop: Tried various entrances into the loop jump:
RFI 3 into loop,
Mohawk into loop,
RFI spiral, 3 turns into RBO and loop.
RFI spiral, 3 turns, LFI edge move, RFI 3s into loop.
Waltz-loop combo.

I was getting loopy after all these loops

Flip: Really worked on the flip a lot. And finally, I landed one flip with full rotation. The rest of them were 1/4 short. The good thing is I'm not afriad of the flip jump anymore. The mental block is gone. :) My coach said 1/4 short is fine for now. She just wanted me to get used to the back spin position in the air. Once I can get comfortable with the jump, I'll add more speed going into the jump and a full rotation will come. I sure hope so. So the exercise for me to do right now is to try the flip for a while. Then go back to do the loop so I can get the feeling of the backspin air position. Then go back to try the flip again.

Also work on the spiral a bit. RFI-RFO change of edge spiral, RBO spiral, RBO spiral into a waltz jump, RBO spiral into back outside pivot, RFI spiral into inside spread eagle, RFI spiral into Ina Bauer, inside SE into Ina Bauer. Don't know what my coach will do with all these moves. She's trying to put together a FS3 program for me. I guess she'll pick and choose and see which one will work well for the new program.

De-mented: 1-foot spin.

Now my entrance to the spin is much improved. The problem is I can only do 3 revs, and maybe 4 on a good one. I'm still having trouble to pull my leg in and keep the balance at the same time. My coach's response to this? "Good, something should be difficult for you" :(

Happy skating everyone. :)
 

singerskates

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Well, my coach is just the right coach for me. She knows just what to
tell me to get me to do something.

Today, she got me to centre my forward spin again and to get it to go
even faster on a clean edge. Oh, I rotated 6 revs even though I only
need 2 revs to pass this one. She said I hit her V position in the
spin and the exit.
Then, she fixed my left forward spiral got me to get my free foot
above my head. It was that I was not placing my back right and my
shoulders. She's preparing me for a camel spin.
Worked on the sitspin position at the boards. Found out how weak my
right leg is in the sitspin position. Got to work on getting more
strength in that leg.
Getting closer to a passing backspin. I only need another half
rotation. Her in Canada you only need 2 rotations to pass the
backspin in the preliminary level. My coach wants me to have at least
2 and half rotations on this spin. I'd like to try for 6 on this too
before testing.
I seem to be falling onto an inside edge on my jump landings and this
won't let me stay on my landing edge for more than 4 seconds and my
coach now wants me to practice getting a back edge flowing around the
hockey circle completely to fix this.
Waltz jump I got a few nice ones. (OK, I'm being picky here. I want
Axel quality waltz jumps to prep for my axel.)
Toe Loops, were OK but I'd like a little more height. (Coach is
already talking about doubles in the future.)
Salchows were decent from the mohawk entrance.
Loops, didn't have time for them.
Flips, keep forgetting to check hard enough on the mohawk and then
use my arms, so I end up doing either a half flip or sort of a split
jump.

May or may not skate next Wednesday because some high level judges
are coming to test a pairs team and a male skater during ticket ice.

Brigitte
 

dobiesk8r

Rinkside
Joined
Sep 6, 2003
I started skating again last week after a 3 month hiatus where I just didn't feel like going to the rink. I still did the gym, Pilates and my walks, so I'm in shape.

But.

First my backspin was crazed. Took me until yesterday to get it faster. Nearly took a good fall on it the first day back. I hate to fall, I really hate it. I am not one of those skaters who feels that one must fall constantly to progress.

Then my forward scratch was uncentered. It was driving me crazy, because it and the camel spin were my totally reliables. Well, duh. I had on a loose fleece jacket. Took it off, and voila.
Centered scratch spin. Centered backspin. Decent speed too.
Amazing what you forget.

Did loop jump from back crosses and inside threes. Small, but it's there.

Did salchow/loop. Again, small, but it's there. Flip, small, but there.

Camel spin, check. Catch-foot camel, check. Sit/change sit, not as fast as it should be, but check.

Moves. I'm doing 5step mohawk, takes me 4 mohawks to get down the ice. That's good, but my left mohawk is not a thing of beauty. I don't even want to try the 8step. I hate outside mohawks, and I don't see myself taking any more tests for a while. Good pushes though.

Forward cross strokes. I did them well - once. Then the feeling was gone.

Power pulls. Oh my these have suffered. They'll be better in a couple of weeks.

I vow to skate three times per week.
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Congrats, everyone, on all the cool moves you've been doing. Everyone seems to be skating well.

Dr. Demento: Just getting moving this morning (my paragraph on my dance class below will explain this).

Afternoon (well, Morning!!!) Delight: Jumped again today, with mostly good results. Waltz arms are much better, as is salchow waltz, especially the arms. Did toeloop in and out of harness with good results. Then she had me do combos and reverse combos: Salchow-waltz and then Waltz-Sal (that felt REALLY weird at first). Waltz-toe, then Toe-waltz--man, did I get dizzy after that one!!!! :laugh: Then I worked on my stroking and edges. Back outsides are starting to get better.

LUNEATIC: Every time I do a RBOE, I keep mentally chanting, "Lune says bend--Lune says BEND" I think its helping!!!! You're my inspiration!

I finally restarted bellydance lessons last night after eight months away from lessons and dancing. I had to find a teacher closer to my home and wanted something new, so I decided to try Tribal Bellydance. Tribal is essentially mid-eastern dance's version of synchro. The movements are smaller and very concise, and they must match up with the other dancers just right. I'm used to Cabaret style (what you usually see at restaurants and shows), and this is very different. First off, I'm going to be dancing on the flat of my feet most of the time, not rising up on toes as is common with Cabaret. My new instructor told me this will take time to get used to. I loved the class and the teacher---she's just like my skating coach, she breaks things down well and is very encouraging. I did, however, re-find a few muscles I'd forgotten I had, so it was a bit difficult to un-stiffen for skating this AM. It was also a bit rough to do turning moves in dance class in both directions, I'm so CCW now!! I was good, however, at looking backwards over my shoulder with backwards turning moves. Hmmm, wonder why????? ;) :laugh:

Have a good weekend guys. Hubby and I get Sunday Freestyle back this weekend, and its time again for me to help with beginners in groups--whoo hoo, one of my favorite parts of skating. :D
 

Lanie

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Yay!

De-lightful: Choreographing a program is much fun. Coach taught me toe steps, side chassees (I think that's on, like, the junior MitF test) and a series of threes into a mohawk with lots of arm movements, and a back three with arm movements and a step out of it. I caught on quickly, and it was just a lot of fun to improvise and think about the character of the music--it's "flowy"--and move accordingly. Coach praised my posture and had nothing bad to say about ANYTHING like she usually does; she nitpicks about positions usually, but today she said the ballet class MUST be helping, since I'm more graceful and my positioning is better and I don't bend forward anymore. Woot! We did some salchows and waltzes, and she said they were nice, although my salchow entry was a little wonky.

De-mented: Just annoying, really, but my sit spin and scratch spin = bye bye! It was because of the boots, really, not tight enough and I kept losing control of the edge or something. Need to get those bladies sharpened there... I think we're ordering new boots on Saturday or Sunday; driving to the Pickwick Arena in the Los Angeles area. Woo!
 

singerskates

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
I did the biggest right back spiral I've ever done today while my
choreographer was choreographing my interpretive freeskate; When You
Believe from the Prince of Egypt. It was way over my head. Took me by
surprise and I hit my LFO spiral wrong and tripped over my toe pick
but didn't fall only to do some fast feet instead. Worked on ina
Bauers but got incredible sore back from it. LOL It's ok now. Man the
stretch you have to do to do one is something else. Youchers! I'll be
working on that stretch for quite sometime. But I want it for Adult
Canadians. Found out that my freeskate will be from the Prince of
Egypt as well; The Red Sea track and a few other parts from the CD,
if my choreographer does it for me. I may end up doing it myself.
Just wish, I could get my computer working so I could burn my CD.

I didn't jump all that much today since I had a double lesson with my
choreographer instead of my base coach.

I coached a little girl today on her first day ever on the ice. As
soon as she got on the ice and I let go of her hand she fell on her
bottom and cried hard. But she was a tough little cookie because
after consoling her, I got her to skate with me holding her hand
twice around the rink and worked on her arms for balance. Then I
taught her how to fall down on her hips so she wouldn't hit her
tailbone. I also taught her how to get up. She learned very quickly.
I'm going to see her again next week on Learn To Skate.

I'm doing another learn to skate and a CanSkate tomorrow morning.

Brigitte
 

sk8er1964

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Delightful:

Passed my Intermediate MIF's today. Passed by all three judges! :)

Demented:

Fell in warm-up on the CW back power circle. Slammed into the boards and cut my right inner thigh - I have a perfect back-of-the-blade shaped cut now. Oh well, it was worth it!
 

rachelstarlet

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
I FINALLY skated today... it'd been almost two weeks. Argh. It's just hard to get the motivation to take the bus. Even though it does take me a shorter time than it took back home. I got my cousin to come with me and she was very tentative on the ice but I got her out in the middle by the end.

Delightful: It was really fun to show off my moves bcs my cousin hasn't skated w/ me since I started lessons. I was warming up back crossovers and she was like, "Wow!" It was good bcs it reminded me how far I've come... compliments from fellow skaters are wonderful, but usually they're better than me, so it's a different feeling. Anyway I impressed her w/ waltz jumps and spins... I told her to make me try a few toe loops and she did. It was really funny bcs I've forced her to watch skating on TV w/ me sometimes and she's heard my criticisms of certain skaters and so when I was doing a spin she was like, "HEY, you're traveling!" She counted six rotations on my two foot spin which is really good for me.

Demented: So, since I was doing well on my two foot spin, I decided to try picking my foot up. The first attempt was shaky but good... second attempt, I managed to get a whole rotation, and then something in the ice sent me flying forward and I landed sort of splayed out on the ice and cut my arm somehow... it got all bloody. It didn't hurt too bad and was actually kind of humorous at the time. Plus they have public sessions on Rink 2 now and the ice isn't as good and it's smaller and colder... I spent a lot of time looking forlornly over at the other rink where a freestyle session was going on. Sigh. Someday.
 

singerskates

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
De-Mented: Was late to coach Learn to Skate today so I had to wait for CanSkate.

De-Lighted: Coached CanSkate. I started with one group and then my coach had me write the kids's names down. Today was the first day and we had to find out where everyone belonged in the CanSkate program. Not much learning happened today except for the coaches. We had to find out where everyone was at in their skating. Then, I moved on to another group since my first group was moved to an existing group. I then got this other group who were at the second level once we found out how they skated. I demonstrated two foot turns, gliding, jumping on two feet in the same spot and two foot spins. I had all of that group doing my every move as the coach with the coaching licience told them what to do. Then, I was told to write down all their names and their level. Got a thank you from the head coach of my club and my coach as well. One mom thought I was a coach and made her daughter listen to my every word about not eating the snow from the ice and about wearing mits instead of gloves because they are warmer. CanSkaters don't move very fast, so they don't generate much body heat.

My base coach asked me how I like my choreographer after CanSkate. I told her he was good and that I had fun but that I was freaked out over how high I had my freeleg on my RBO spiral which cause me to step wrongly tripping over my left foots toe pick as I went into the LFO spiral. Took me by surprise.
 
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hlagirl25

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 18, 2003
de-lightful:

I stayed today after skate school and practiced with some kids and was shown how to do rockers and a few other footwork steps. The really fun part was when we were showing off and this girl kept showing me her scratch spin and I was like I can do that and I did. Whereas hers traveled all over the ice mine was nicely centered. I felt really good because about six months ago she was ragging on me for not being able to do a salchow and now we're tit for tat spin-wise. I showed her my attitude, beginning layback, and Y-spin (think Michelle Kwan), as well as my sit. Also de-lightful, my coach gave me an extra 20 min lesson this week and we got to work on my bronze moves as well as my freeskate elements.

not so de-lightful:

I practiced so hard last week on my 1/2 loop and back spin and going into lesson day I felt like this would be the day when I could finally have my coach help me to nail them. Instead we did MIF which I appreciated but just didn't want to switch gears when I felt so close to a break thru. All in all, she liked my moves and said that I need to work on keeping better rhythm so that all the elements are done at the same time.

now on to de-mented:

I usually take a power class in skating school and with this being the last day new class recommendations came out. My skating school instructor who is also my private coach recommended me to take a class of freeskate technique for the skater who can do a waltz jump and two foot spin. Seeing that just took all the wind out of my sails. The things I can do, I feel I do well and in my mind passing my prebronze MIFs and freeskate were validation of that. I really wanted to take a footwork class and had been meaning to talk with her about whether or not she thought I was ready. But in seeing that class recommendation I’m wondering if she’s trying to tell me I’m not ready or did she just write something to be writing something. This is something that I know I must talk to her about. About two weeks ago my rink switched from ISI to Basic Skills. I go for my private lesson and instead of working on my bronze elements she goes over all the things in Free Skate portion of the basic program. If someone out there knows please tell me but I thought once you tested onto another track, in my case adult pre-bronze, that you can’t go back and skate in a basic competition. I hope I won’t have to look for another coach but this is the second time I’ve felt we’ve had a miscommunication problem. No matter how good a class this freeskate technique could be I just know that I am not going to be challenged by taking another class with 10 year olds who do wobbly waltz jumps and don’t know there inside edge from a flat. I’d rather take a footwork class with the fsi 4 and up girls and struggle than not be challenged with the beginning freestylers. Anyway if the footwork class doesn’t pan out, I’m going to invest that money into taking a 15min jump lesson with another coach so that I can go ahead and learn my flip, lutz, and axel.

Thank you in advance for letting me vent and please send me some advice.
:D :D
 
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