Whiteout/Redhot Lessons and Practices, 3/15-3/21

Gee, guess you can imagine the weather conditions here by the thread title (hint: think "flaky...)

So, how's it going? Are you hotter than a jalapeno, or do you want to erase some practices this week?

Hot, hot, hot: Good lesson and practice this AM. We worked on jump entrances, lenthening the back edge from crossovers to make the entrance to waltz and salchow smoother. Also worked on half flip and half lutz to make them "jump" better. (I use half flips out of mohawks as footwork and they've become a bit "steppy," so it was time to get back to jumping). Half lutz had some progress, I've only really worked on this once or twice before. On Thursday, we go back into harness to work on toeloop. A good morning (aside from going from no snow at the rink when I left to blizzard like conditions 6 miles away in my driveway!!!! )

Snowing here, too. Heavily.

Red hot!: I am really spinning up a storm. In a few months I have gone from timid, scary 2-foot spins to strong forward 1 foot spins, with good progress on sit spins and camels. Wow! With that sense of confidence, on to the back spin, which is really not there yet at all- like the forward spins when I started it just does not make sense- I try to awkwardly pivot into it, but still no go. So, I have to trust my coach, who has successfully brought me this far (and who assures me that once you get it, back spins are actually more natural than forward spins- hmmm).

White out!: I am missing something on my jumps. I just don't trust myself to go for it. I want to just be able to JUMP them and have to continually remind myself I AM making slow progress (lots more jumps in my practice reportory in the past few months- waltz, toe loop, salchow, half flip). Practice. And I think being patient enough to keep them small while I'm getting the coordination. Spinning was scary to start with... I know I can really jump if I keep working at it. Right?

Real flaky: Off the ice for a few days as I bladed myself in the left shin doing a one foot spin.

My dignity hurts more than my shin.....

Back on the ice on Thursday.

Oooch, Figureskates, take care of that shin!!!

Icer: I'm your opposite--I love to jump and I'm not afraid to really try and jump up, but spinning can rattle me. I'll be back to working on one foot spin soon, and believe me, if I can get the spin, your jumps are going to get better, too!!!! Practice and patience, practice and patience...

Whiteout-no snow where I live only SUN shine
I'm getting use to new boots so yesterday was spent trying not to fall the first hour on them.

Redhot-I got use to my skates pretty fast and they are sooooooooo much more comfortable then my old ones. I was able to do my waltz, toeloop, salchow jumps pretty good. My scratch spin and sit spins weren't too bad either. I have a pair of those parabolic blades. I can feel that they make holding an edge much easier then my regular ones.

I can't wait to get out on them tomorrow!

Okay, I'm posting my beginner lesson for all the newbies out there. Today was really good, I learned forward outside three turns and forward inside 3 turns plus I was a little better skating backward crossovers but still not very good. I'm still not there with the mohawk but I should get that pretty soon. I'm really happy because I was just twirling around and I am getting back a lot of my confidence and losing some of my fear of falling. I'm also doing two foot spins but I get so dizzy. I like working on edges and turns the best.

Hotsy/Totsy: Whoo hoo!! A great jumping day. Back in the harness and we got MAJOR height and flow with the waltz jump, and it translated well out of the harness. We moved onto waltz-toeloop since I'm more comfy doing toeloop that way, and again, major progress. I did a few out of the harness and they were pretty solid. It was wild at one point to finish the combo and realize I was a least six to seven feet down the ice from where I started the waltz half of it, and I had gone in pretty much a straight line. We did single toeloops too, out of FI3 in harness, and they looked pretty good. We'll be back in the harness again on Tuesday to work on all of these, and I want to get the formal toeloop out of three turn onto the ice without harness assistance. Coach was very pleased, and I'm still floating. YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

Good for you, Yaz! (and you are right, we are opposites in spinning and jumping- our common ground is the dreaded, but ever improving, FI 3 turns).

Hot! Working on stuff for the pre-bronze moves test, which keeps me focused on doing the basics well. Some elements are easy, others have taken more work than I would have thought when I started working towards this. Definite improvement on control of the alternating FO 3's. Definite improvement on the clockwise forward cross-overs (they never change skating direction in the public sessions on my rink, so it's hard to really work this side). Alternating back inside edges are more consistent. Takes patience to work on this when the spin attempts are so much fun and the jump attempts are (well...) so exciting, but this work is definitely making my skating better!

Cold! Sore from my last Pilates session. Will help in the long run, but hard to skate fluidly when you can barely walk.

Back on the ice again.

Alternating 3s are actually showing improvement. Doing figures is beginning to pay off. Still have a way to go on edge control, especially back insides and back outsides but at least demonstrative progress is now being seen.

Staying away from one foot spins until the gash on my shin heals completely.

I seem to be finally moving off the plateau I have been on since the beginning of the year...finally.

Red Hot: My University is holding an agricultural fair this weekend, and the University Skating Club was asked to do an exhibition of the skaters of the club, so I volunteered. It was today, and it was amazing! The stands were packed, and the crowd was great! I skated 3 numbers as well, a free program, a solo dance and and an interpretive.

My free program was so much better than when I competed it 2 weekends ago. It was 30 seconds shorter, and with less content, but it was great. I nailed 2 great 2 loops, and my spins and the rest of the jumps were bang on. It felt so good to skate so well after skating so poorly 2 weeks ago.

For the solo dance, I skated the Blues. The last time I skated it was in January of 2003, so I was a bit rusty, but overall, it wasn't too bad.

My interpretive was incredible. I skated to "Secret Agent Man" by the Guess Who, and got the crowd going. It was bang on, and just such a fun piece of music to skate to. My gramma even threw flowers on the ice when I finished that skate.

It was great to see so many people come to see us skate. It made us all feel really good, and we had such a blast showing off our skills. What made this event even better, was it was the first time that the Club had been invited to participate in College Royal, and hopefully because of the success of the exhibition, we'll be able to perform in it next year. I can't wait until we get our videos!

Starshine: How COOL!!!!! You skated so well, too, good for you!

Good freestyle today. Did several solid waltz-toes, and waltz itself in getting higher and higher. Overall, a good practice.

Best of all, hubby created an MP3 of my program music for my little MP3 player, so now I have a lightweight system to wear on the ice and practice to the music. This is a lot better than that clunky cassette recorder I used to use. Ahh, every so often I DO love technology!!!

Thanks Yaz! Sounds like you're doing awesome as well!!

I've heard on another message board that Cindy had a solid skate at Mids, and did very well. There's no placement or anything too in depth, but those who saw her skate were very impressed with her. I just want to say CONGRATS CINDY!! You really are my hero! Good job girl!

Starshine & Yazmeen and everyone else - hey, thanks so much for the kind words!!! Yes, I had an absolute BLAST at Mids and now I've got the skating bug worse than ever. I posted my results on the other thread with my name in it (thanks for that, too, you fab friends!).

Starshine, I was so thrilled to read about your great performance and especially the cool interp to Secret Agent Man. I'm so old that I actually liked that song when it first came out!!! It is so wonderful to "hear" you being joyous about skating again. I know you've got so many things going on in your life right now. But it's great that you're making time to skate again.

Keep up the good work everyone. I've fallen weeks behind in my posts because of work obligations, but I'll try to get back on board in a week or so. In the meantime, hope you all continue to skate with passion!