Thursday, January 28, 2016

Axel Lift SUCCESS!!

It has been a long time coming. Several months to be exact since we have started working on this both off and on the ice. We have been struggling for a myriad of reasons. Lately, we have been able to get this lift up in the air while we are off the ice at not on ice.

Yesterday after a brief hiatus from doing lifts due to my partner's small injury we attempted the lift before we got on the ice and after warming up we decided to "go for it" and after two tries… We did it !!!  Although it was far from perfect and my legs were piked (in a bad position)... We did get the lift up on the ice and much to my surprise my partner announced while I was up there that he was going for the turn. I never expected that and I think by the time I realized I was up there I helped myself down during the turn. He said if I has just hung on longer we would have completed the rotation !! 

Anyway it was a great practice today. We worked on some new things and some old things, some choreography, footwork and spins.  I guess we were thinking about making up for a bad practices on Monday and Tuesday.

 I will be officially on vacation tomorrow for the next few weeks… I have decided not to bring my skates which may or may not be a good idea with competition so near. It was just too difficult to try and find ice time in Australia and New Zealand on the days we would be there . If I have any OZ or Kiwi readers -- sorry I missed the chance to skate at: Canterbury Olympic Ice in Sydney, Paradice Ice in Auckland, and Dunedin Ice Stadium in that city.

Till then.... E noho ra (that is me Maori for farewell)


Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Single For A Day

 Taking advantage of a free day to work on my singles events ...

 My silver free skate is nowhere near ready for competition I can't imagine how hard this crime is going to be after I get back from vacation


Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Beginning a new Paris program

 After having our first lesson of the year and starting to put together a new program we put into practice some of the things that we learned… Of course rearranging a few things but this is what we got so far ..


Monday, January 25, 2016

Hangover Monday

 Hangover Monday .... OK it's not what you think, the hangover is from binge watching the 2016 US nationals. Once I start watching I just can't stop - especially when the skating is as exciting as it was this year ...way to go Gracie Gold.  The men were amazing as well.

Since this is a blog about my skating and not about the status and future of US figure skating I won't vent here about my thoughts about all the pressure to do quads and so forth but wait I guess I already did.

I'm from the Peggy Fleming era and I miss graceful artistic yet athletic skating.  We live in an era of explosive multi rotational- who can do the most jumps and bend more like a pretzel era.

 So today we had a lesson but nothing seemed to go right including the recording of our practice ---
 We had a lesson working on our choreography and footwork nothing seem to gel today


Friday, January 22, 2016

New Light Entertainment Program

I had this vision for last year, but I didn't end up skating any competition.  Costume is 99% done and music was cut so I stuck with it for this year.  Rosie The Riveter .... I love the old music.  I just wish I possessed enough character to pull it off ... oh yea.. and skating (theatrical skills).

Anyway... here we go.  Choreography = Sessions of Dyslexia.  It takes me FOREVER to learn it.


Thursday, January 21, 2016

Beginning The Push

I can't say peak because a week from tomorrow I'm going on a 16 day vacation.  I'm not complaining I'm very excited about my trip to Australia and New Zealand however my skates are staying home ... I didn't think it would be fair to my husband to spend my first time in a faraway land seeking ice time.

But the push back home has started to  gear up and try to turn this flimsy program into a competition program .... During.  My freestyle lesson today my coach found three places where I needed "extra steps" leading into jumps of course she's right but every  extra step I take takes another breath out of me ....

 Video today's a little bit longer and it's mostly raw footage ..

I also had a Pairs lesson later on today but our coach was using my phone to listen to the music and choreograph so no video just as well it was one of those days.

Tomorrow choreographer....

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Pairs Tuesday

Together again. We made some baby steps of progress today on our crocodile pair spin and it was a complete miracle that we even attempted to do a pair sit spin and attempted our waltz/Axel  lift  without our coach being present .... We feel like we are chiseling away bit by bit .


Monday, January 18, 2016

Monday MLK Madness

 I always have my camera out but today I didn't have the nerve.  I have never seen so many people on one freestyle session before. There must've been 27 or 30 and it was on our smaller of our two rinks. Young and old, big and tiny, four coaches one was even using a  fishing pole harness...  I know some of you who read this blog deal with crowded sessions like that all the time .....  I don't know how anybody could make any progress when you have to abort three out of five attempts at doing anything because you're going to run into somebody  or vice versa .

Here's a quick minute from the last five minutes I spent on the ice after the crowds thinned down.
I'm trying to remember how to do an Illusion.


Friday, January 15, 2016

Friday ... Before Breakfast

I had to drop my husband off at the airport very early on Friday so I took the opportunity to make a rare morning appearance at freestyle session. I'm kind of lost in this video because of the other skaters on the ice don't get distracted by all the double jumps around me !! I'm just learning how to do combination Jim's two or three jobs and I'm finding it a lot harder than I thought ....


Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Lift Off

... As in a day off lifts for Hank. Sore neck from yesterday's falls.

I'll start with what I did at the very end of my session. I attempted a program run of my non-competitive version of my Silver Free Skate.... I pooped out before I finished.


Monday, January 11, 2016

Something Old Something New

... something BROKEN ..... Well nearly. A multitude of falls and wreacks today. Poor Hank. We started learning a new pair spin. Not sure of its official name but our coach called it a crocodile....


Thursday, January 7, 2016

Pairs Day 2 - 2016

 Going my way?
I guess that's toward competition. Between yesterday and today I decided to go "all in" and enter the  qualifying event for ladies silver free skate at sectionals. Chances are I won't place high enough to qualify for nationals but I will still be able to skate at nationals during the non-qualifying open event. If that made any sense to you you're definitely involved in US figure skating. I entered all the events that I entered for 2014 ..Only at the silver level rather than bronze.  Plus this year I'm adding pairs to my repertoire. My coach and choreographer had a good laugh when I told them. They know how stressed out I get in and were a little surprised by the big bite of this sandwich.
 But the way I figure it I don't know how many years I have left to skate competitively I'm certainly not getting any younger or stronger ...  So why not? I decided to skate 4 events at nationals but only one at sectionals due to the exorbitant costs of registration.

 So I took Wednesday off to contemplate all that sign up and absorb the idea today I skated with Hank we had a great practice especially off ice… We're getting much better and actually getting our excellent in the air. But when we get on the ice it doesn't seem to happen... I think a few more practices will have it down... No wait up!


Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Happy New Year 2016

New year.  New goals.

Get ready for Silver Pairs FS at Adult Nationals in April.

Get ready for Silver FS, Dramatic and Light Entertainment at Pacific Coast Adult Sectionals in March.  Not sure if I will do all three however, since I am skating pairs.  4 events will be stressful, exhausting and expensive, but I already have a costume for my LE program.  Such a dilemma.

I'm still contemplating whether or not to register for the new Silver Qualifying event or if I will just skate the Non-Qual events.  I can't imagine skating against 21 year olds ... Potentially.  Some of those ladies have Axels and Flying Camels!!

Today we had a long lesson and we finally got our Axel lift up in the air both off ice and on ice.
Far from perfect, but it's a huge improvement from our last attempts.


Getting busy on these Silver Dances

I have been working on these silver dances too long!   Planning to go all in on them until I can test them in the next few months.