Darling / Snarling Lessons & Practices January 5-11 | Golden Skate

Darling / Snarling Lessons & Practices January 5-11

Cinderella on Ice

Bless you, Fairy Godmother, I'm Having a BALL!
On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
It's the first week of the New Year. Tell us all about whether your first lessons and practices in 2004 are wonderful (darling) or in need of improvement (snarling).
 

Cinderella on Ice

Bless you, Fairy Godmother, I'm Having a BALL!
On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Snarling - gosh, Mondays are a tough day for me to get started. I puttered around and "wasted" at least 25 minutes of my potential practice time. I've got to get a grip on that.

Darling - got to the rink and no one was there! It was open, but I was the only one on the ice. Oh heaven, heaven, heaven! I mostly practiced my new footwork/connecting moves, trying to create better flow, deeper edges, and more extension. I'd rate my efforts about 87% successful.

Did some work on my lutz/loop, trying to get more speed coming out of the landing. Funny thing - when I'd get the speed, then the following connecting steps were tougher. So there's quite a bit of work left. Guess that's why skating is so darn addictive!
 
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yumyum

Spectator
Joined
Nov 11, 2003
snarling: i was working on my my 3 loop and another skater wen i was in the air decides to skte right behind where i was going to land so i completely crashed on the ice i was so mad. i usually am careful to watch for others but oo0o0o0 i wanted to do just one more jump before i left but ohwell

darling:got my new dress in for my comps its absolutely gorgeous lol it better be for wut it cost( 600) but it fits perfectly on me and with my music i am doing this music called la reve oriental its kinda of like greek rocky dancy music. i landed all my jumps cleanly today (with the exception of the 3 loop) soo my coach was very happy and in the last 10 minutes we worked on different moves one i tried was like that move sasha cohen does where she lifts her leg and does a three turn i can pretty much doit excpet i caught my toepick and neerly fell but it was very funnn though
:love:
vicky
 

dlkksk8fan

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
After two weeks off of the ice I started back today:)

I only spent 1/2 hour on the ice (didn't want to over do it), so I just used the time to work on my stroking.

Darling-did some nice centered spins.

Snarling-nothing to report here, I guess that's good:D
 

icer

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
Snarling: Really terrible... they suddenly cancelled the evening adult classes on Monday nights AND the Monday night public skating session after it (think there's more money in hockey)... that leaves the Wednesday night class, but they cancelled the public skating session after that! I never had much luck with the weekend classes. Suddenly, at a time when I'm really happy with my progress, I'm in a situation where it will be very difficult to get in good skating time.

Darling: Other than THAT catastrophe, things have been going well. I have the feeling my jumps are on the brink of transformation from tentative hops to real leaps (same way I was suddenly spinning). I'm getting the body coordination AND starting to be less afraid of digging in my toe pick to take off. And the private lessons over the break were really great.

So, to be positive- one of my goals was to improve enough to skate on the free style sessions- still a ways to go. If I can get there, I may be able to skate BEFORE work. And somehow I'll find ice time for more private lessons...
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Dahling!!!!!: Another good breakthrough today, on going into forward outside threes from gliding/movement. I have to enter both power 3's and "pinwheels" (3 turn with back extension) after fairly fast glides in my Artistic program, and I simply couldn't get the brain to do this--if just didn't wanna!!!! :eek: So today, Coach looked at me and found the problem. Many moons ago, when I was first learning three turns, she had me "wind up" a little, like going into a spin, to help me. Now my edges are much stronger but I still tend to wind up and it ends up sabotaging me--even to the point of trying going into an outside 3 from an inside edge, and the laws of physics and skating ain't gonna allow that!!! She took me to the half circle next to the announcers box, and just had me do a three turn with as much opening edge as I could then we added a gentle too foot glide before the three turn. The curve on the circle helped me visualize where I was going, and I started to turn my body in the correct direction (CCW) instead of trying to wind-up to the right. By the end of the lesson, I could do my glide and knock off at least a half decent three turn for the power 3 instead of stumbling, needing to stop or going off on my flat. Same with the "pinwheel" section, which comes out of a spiral. I was even able to do a RFO3 out of gliding too, so this was major progress. Whah-hoo-ah!!! :D

Snarl, snarl, snipe: Unfortunately, no skating for me again for about a week and a half. No ice on Thursday AM because everyone else is off to Lake Placid for the ISI Comp so no coaches to open up, and then its a conference week for me, with no nearby ice rinks. Of course, its also just outside of Disney World, so that's the good part!!! :) Happy skating, everyone!!!

Yaz
 

childfreegirl

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 6, 2004
Yazmeen said:
a conference week for me, with no nearby ice rinks. Of course, its also just outside of Disney World, so that's the good part!!! :) Happy skating, everyone!!!

Yaz

Yaz, I did a quick search for ya and found at least two clubs in the Orlando area, one in Orlando and one in Kissimmee.

Central FL FSC http://www.centralfloridafsc.org/

Citrus FSC http://www.citrusfsc.org/modules/news/

And Switchboard.com says there's something called Iceplex in Orlando. I don't know if any of those would be convienent for you. Please bear in mind that I know nothing about the area, lol.

Good luck and I hope you get to skate while you're down there!:)
 

Lanie

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Darling - my new skates rock.

Snarling - everything was a little weird today, as I got the new skates sharpened and the left boot punched out. Granted I spent about 20 minutes on the ice, but it's awkward as I'm still not back into the skating mode. I think after January I will, since during finals we get half days and every day I'm heading to the rink after finals for some fun skate time that really calms my brain. :)
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Thanks, childfree, but taking the skates on a plane is just too much trouble these days. I wouldn't want to check them, plus I won't be renting a car. Plus, I just LOVES my time off in Disney, so I don't mind not skating all that much!!! I'll have three days between the two back to back conferences I have this month where I'll be able to get in plenty of ice time, so its not a big loss. Luckily, my hospital gives us MLK day off so I'll be skating then.
 

childfreegirl

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 6, 2004
Well then by all means, enjoy Disney!:D I've been a couple of times, but I'd really love to do Epcot. Maybe one day.
 

Cinderella on Ice

Bless you, Fairy Godmother, I'm Having a BALL!
On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Sn-Sn-Snarrrling - Yesterday's practice was disheartening. My mind was distracted because one of my pets was having surgery right afterwards, and even though I woke up and was all excited to be skating, by the time I got on the ice I was kind of lethargic and scattery. My new skates were chewing skin off of my left navicular bone and right shin and hurting like heck. Also, my coach didn't show for my lesson (I later learned she was sick).

Darling - I worked for a long time on one connecting moves piece from my program, trying to deepen my edges and create more flow and artistry. After I tinkered a little with the choreography, I was very pleased with how it was coming along. My backspins were incredibly centered. In the evening, once I learned my pet was o.k., I decided to make an action plan for today's practice to focus me on what needed to be accomplished.

Ever-So-Dahlink - Today's practice; wow, having a plan made all the difference in the world. I started by attacking my back sit, both in the camel/sit/back sit and the flying camel/back sit. I also focused on the "flying" part of the camel, rather than it looking like a "fling yourself crazily in the air rag bag explosion." I then worked over my lutz/loop, expanding the time and distance I'm in the air, landing the lutz and taking off for the loop without scratching, and getting more speed on the loop landing. I then connected it all up with the footwork and moves, and was pleased to make progress. I finished up the session with several laps featuring power and extra leg extension.

Another happy surprise today is that our practice was moved to the big rink, and for the last 40 minutes, I had the rink totally to myself! If that wasn't heaven on ice, I don't know what was.

My coach wants me to come to practice tomorrow (usually my day off) to make up my lesson, so I am all smiles today. :D
 

icer

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
SNARLING: Well, they tell us that NEXT week there will be more teachers, but the new group skating classes are off to a depressing start. They have basically merged what used to be 4 class sessions into 1, so in each group there are LOTS more students at many different levels. And because they've cut ALL the evening public sessions, however depressing the class situation is, it's the only way to get on the ice after work.

DARLING: BUT after the class sessions (this week only I was told), the zamboni didn't come roaring on and no one told us to leave! So the few of us who stayed on had the whole rink to ourselves. It is GREAT to skate crossovers fast and to really be able to use the whole rink without having to pay attention to where everyone else is heading. It was really terrific to be able to skate powerfully and to start to work on control at that speed (as discussed in another thread, one side of the body is much more comfortable doing mohawks to change direction than the other). Also, had good chance to run through all my jumps, connect things more, and practice edges up and down the length of the rink (hard to put together more than two connecting edges in most sessions I skate in). Left the ice sweating and a little out of breath and thinking "I really love this sport".
 

Cinderella on Ice

Bless you, Fairy Godmother, I'm Having a BALL!
On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Dooby Dooby Darling - Yesterday's practice rocked! Got to the rink and everyone was just leaving, so I again had the ice all to myself. Put on some good tunes and worked hard on everything, jumps and spins, up to my doubles. Really made some progress on the back sits, and worked through my program several times up to the point the coach has re-choreographed (about the first third). Was supposed to have a make-up lesson at 8:40, but she didn't show. So then I went all out, really working up a sweat. I had just finished up and was heading off the ice when ... my coach showed up! Oh happy day. We spent the whole lesson re-choreographing the rest of the program. Other than the fact that she truly is absolutely insane (in addition to the doubles I cannot yet do, she has added two more that I can't do--a move where I pick my leg up over my head and a flying sit spin which I haven't attempted in over 32 years). She spent over 45 minutes with me and since I just I love her, over the next several days I'll try really hard to accomplish these things.

I'm totally psyched about the "new" program. I loved my Silver program to this music, but when we reworked it for Gold testing, it was not so exciting to me. And now, it's totally cool again.

I wouldn't have believed it, but today's practice was even better. I worked my butt off! I skated for 2-1/4 hours, and had such high energy throughout that even at the end I was practicing my axel/toe loops. I remember when I could only do them right at the beginning and tired out after 5. My spins were especially good today, and the lutz/loop is starting to gain momentum. I divided my program into 3 parts and worked through them over and over, and it's coming along. Of course, I still can't do four of the elements, but the connecting stuff is really shaping up and I just love the little changes the coach made. At the end I skated CW endurance for ten minutes until I just had not one ounce of energy left to give.

WOO HOO, I'm still high from the great feeling.
 
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dlkksk8fan

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
My goal for this year is to skate at least 3 times a week, and that is what I did this first week back on the ice! What a difference it makes with your skating.

Snarling-started working on my loop jump, not very good right now but at least I am attempting them. It is hard to get the rhythm down and with no toe pick to help it takes a lot of strength in my right leg, which is sore right now.

Darling-my toe loops are getting higher and higher and my sit spins are getting more centered.

Happy skating all:)
 

childfreegirl

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 6, 2004
I just posted here and it ate my post twice! Told me I wasn't logged in. Grrrrrr!!!:sheesh:

Anyway, I skated on the fake ice this morning. Started off marching a little and got into some pretty choppy stroking. I did manage to stay standing the entire time. Fake ice is nothing like the real thing. I need to work on picking up my left foot more. I think my left knee will appreciate that.:laugh: Which is weird b/c I started off better with my left doing better, but once I got the hang of using the right outside edge, the left went downhill. Weird. I also figured out how to go backwards, kinda. I started out at the rail and did back criss-crosses on my inside edges. Probably not correct, but it worked. I was quite proud of myself. I also turned in a circle (on both feet) a couple of times. I skated for about an hour and a half.

This week I'm gonna get back on the treadmill and work on my leg muscles some more. Hopefully that'll help. It can't hurt.

One thing I noticed is that the skates have no toe pick! Oh well. Probably a good thing for me today b/c I did a couple of moves that if I'd had a toe pick, I would've ended up splat!

I talked to the girl that was working there and she said that they're going to redo the skating area and have a grand opening in February. She also said that they were going to have classes, which she thought were going to be free, but she wasn't sure.

Basically I'd like to get my confidence up on the fake ice so that when my brother gets back from Iraq (hopefully in February) and we go up to Pelham I'll feel more comfortable on the real thing.

Enough ramble from me for now.

Jo
 
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