Skating

I can't do it at all. Either way. *Grr* I'll get back to work, now that I can spin again!

They did that to me too! My friend and I were doing couples, and these two bitty little girls got ahead of us because their music had issues and they didn't burst into tears. We were better than them, though. That's the problem with little skaters, you know. They can do all these high level jumps, but they have neither grace nor flow. *sigh* I'd rather have more flow and fewer jumps than the other way around. And the judge was the opposite of the ones here, apparently. Either way, it's painfully unfair! My brother skated for... six weeks? something like that. He does Karate now. I can still beat him in any fight he chooses to pick. .

I used to have Reidels, but they died. It was sad. I had a painful session on Tues, though. It was the first time I'd EVER been on the new ones, and I couldn't do ANYTHING! My coach says I was hanging on to her with a death grip the entire time. I'm not surprised.

Ooh, good for you! My friend's starting to work on hers. This one scary coach said that both my friend and I should be landing ours by the end of last year. that hasn't happened. I hate her, anyway. This is the lady who, for FIFTEEN weeks or so (three sessions, I believe) had us work on NOTHING but loop jumps and back spins! (I still can't do them, but maybe that's the reason.

I'm sure you'll do wonderfully in your program. And then it'll be over and done with!

It took me ages to get mine. I kept on throwing myself up in the air and then going completely off balance so I fell really awkwardly on my side. And then I just chickened out and didn't even jump half the time. So I had to try going into it really slowly and not too deeply to start off with, and eventually I got it right

I don't like little skaters. I know it sounds mean to generalize, but they all bug me. They don't get out of your way on the ice because they think EVERYBODY has to move for them (just because they're little) and then you get the ones who somehow beat you in competition because the judges like them. And this girl I'm talking about didn't have good jumps OR flow. It was completely unreasonable. Lol, my brother would probably woop my butt if I tried to fight him (I've got good muscles, but his are WAY better - he does hockey, which I think I've already mentioned. He's been playing for Western Australia at the nationals for three or four years.)

I know what you mean! When I first tried my Jacksons I couldn't even tie them up because it hurt so much (I have nasty blisters on all my fingers from my skate laces) and then I couldn't even do any spins, so I had to go around warming up edges. It was horrible - my feet were so sore by the end of the session! And then I found out that the blades weren't properly set, so they could have fallen off at any time during that session. We had to get them fixed before I could wear them again, and my other skates were too far gone (they buckled at the ankles, pretty much) to wear again.

My axel was still okay yesterday, so I'm happy about that. But the arena's closed today (Good Friday) so I don't get to practice again until tomorrow morning I hate it when coaches tell you you should be landing jumps by a particular time. It doesn't have anything to do with time, it depends on the person. If it takes you a long time to adjust to some moves, that's completely fine, it just means that you might not be as natural with that kind of move as some others who learn it quicker. I've been skating since I was five (I had bad coaches at first, and also I took a one year break somewhere in there, and a two year break more recently - it's been less than a year since I came back to it, but I've improved hugely, so I'm very happy with my coach) Anyway, I've been skating for ages, but I'm still working on doubles. The good thing about having skated for ages, though, is that even if you don't have the jumps, you can be really natural on the ice. The ice is practically my home

And don't worry, I'm sure your loop will improve. You've just got to get the hang of throwing yourself up into the air. I've always had trouble with backspins. I can spin really fast and centred and all that, I just do it on the wrong edge (forward inside instead of backward outside). It's something about being a reverse skater (I don't think I mentioned that before, lol). None of us seem to be able to get it right for a long time. Oh well, my coach doesn't seem to mind, because later on you can get extra marks for switching to a forward inside edge.

Thanks I'll be SUPER nervous, though. Last time my coach was so worried about me getting nervous that he made me sit in the coach's room for the whole time before my turn so that I couldn't see the other people skating, and so I didn't get discouraged or overconfident.

Well, it won't exactly be over and done with, because there are still two more competitions. After that, hopefully I can get through some tests, and then I might be able to move up to the next ice time and get away from the little brats!! But then on the higher ice time you really have to watch out for the crazy people throwing triples

I quit skating lessons when i was 8 years old.. i had just learned how the spin.. i was sooo proud of myself.. but then my coach told me that i was dead weight to the team... so i quit.. i havent been in skates since..

Aww, coaches are so harsh sometimes. My coach's wife is always telling us we're no good, but everybody just ignores her.

The kind of funny thing about my coach is that when we're not, say, jumping high enough, he'll come over and throw us really high into the air, and make us try to land the jump. It's really scary, because sometimes you just feel like you're going to fall on your head. Another time, I wasn't swining properly with my right arm in my axel, and so my coach gave me a huge Chinese sunburn (you know when they twist the skin around really hard?)on my arm so that I would "remember it was there"

I can't get the hook thingy you have to do before you jump to get halfway around for my loop. it just doesn't work for me. but maybe i'll get it with my new skates. i've worn them all of twice, and i got off the ice on saturday (yesterday) and my ankles were BRIGHT red. i'm going to try to get them heat molded some time this week in hopes that that'll help. my friend's mom says to put orange peels in them, but hate oranges, and that would make my skates smell like oranges and that would be bad.

I know how you feel about little skaters. They think they're all that just because they're doing axels. they fail to take into account that i am taller and stronger and heavier than they are, and i have no qualms about running into them, and if i do run into them, it will be THEM, not me, who fall over. That sucks. I hate it when judges go for the little cute ones. How old is your brother? Mine's 12, but he's a wimp. I don't even have that good muscles, and if he tried harder in karate, he could kill me, but he doesn't, and I'm relatively strong, and I'm not about to go easy on him.

I have blisters too. I couldn't even stroke properly when I got on for the first time. AND, they were newly sharpened, which didn't help. My blades are almost properly set, but the skates are slightly too big, so i need to get Dr. Scholls thing-bobs to put in them to take up space. Right now, it feels like i'm wearing a clunky platform shoe, not like my skates are part of my feet, which is what it used to feel like.

I hate it when coaches tell you that too. My coach is a dancer, so she's not too big on jumps, but she's really nice about the fact that I have NO talent. She's willing to show me the same move seventeen times before I get it, which is good, since it usually takes me that long . My synchro coach isn't nearly as nice, and she yells at us all the time. *shrug* we deserve it, though. Besides, I'm more a spinner than a jumper, so I get those more easily. I've been skating since I was 10, which is really late, but I'm still really at home on the ice. I love just skating around without even doing anything, which is important. Congrats on the axel. I'm sure it'll be great by the competition!

I can spin really well forwards, and I can sometimes do it well backwards, I just have to figure out the right spot to put my weight. It took me a while to find it forwards, so it's not surprising that I haven't found it backwards yet. My friend's a reverse skater. I'm not, though. I remember I used to go into spins backwards, though. My coach got mad and I got stubborn and for like two months, I went into spins the same way I'm supposed to go into jumps. God only know how I managed to do it . Actually, my change-foot back spin is better than my normal one. Maybe because I already have the momentum and centrifical force I need....

lol, nice. i don't compete singles, and we're usually the only team, so we don't have that problem. there will be lots of teams at worlds, though. (which i'm going to have to miss on account of not being in the country at the time. . It's at OUR rink, too!!! *grrrrr* )

Well, true, but the first one's the hardest. Actually, the little brats are one of the reasons I don't compete. When your competing against people who come all the way up to your waist, it's kinda sad. And when said people BEAT you... well... THAT'S just embarrassing! skating with really good people is scary too, though. *sigh*

bookdruggie, that's too bad! i hate it when coaches do that! mine is really nice, but my synchro coaches are all like, "you guys are an embarrassment to us!" she actually said that to the bitty team, which was sad! they're all, like, seven, and they're SOO proud of being on the team, and then she says they were so bad she was embarrassed. it was sad...

I'm having the same problem with my double loop. I can get heaps of height and control on my single, but when it comes to doing the double, I end up throwing myself off the edge, so then I land on the wrong foot. And you should try putting ceran wrap on your foot. My sister did that when she got her new skates. It worked, apparently! Mine were slightly less painful to break in, so I never had to try

Haha. But the little skaters at my rink aren't even doing axels. They're just bumbling around the rink being idiots, and acting like they're the best just because their coaches think they own the rink. I could easily knock them all over, if I wasn't afraid of getting kicked out of the arena (it's the only one in the state, so that would be problematic). My brother is 13, turning 14 in July. He could beat me up pretty easily... but I could knock him over. His balance is pretty sucky.

I hate breaking in new skates. For me, skates are more important than shoes (and skating is more important than walking), so it's bad when they're uncomfortable. But you just have to keep on wearing them in, and eventually they'll be perfect. They usually take about ten uses to break in properly, and that was exactly right for mine. I didn't get blisters on my feet from them. But I got REALLY bad ones on my fingers, which sucks.

Another freakish coincidence. My coach is a dancer too! He and his wife compete internationally. They went to the Four Continents in Korea in February, which was good, because they brought us back souvenirs They usually don't place too well, but they're fairly good. And my coach had all the jumps up to the double axel when he was 11, so he can do all the moves to (when he's demonstrating a single axel randomly on the spot, he basically just lightly tosses himself half a foot off the ground and lands perfectly. It's scary.) You're lucky you have a patient coach, though. Mine gets really frustrated when I'm not jumping properly. So frustrated that he throws me into the air so that I'll get it right.

I used to be better at spins than jumps, but now it's a toss up. My single jumps are really nice and high, but my doubles are stubborn. I'm learning all crazy new kinds of combination spins (and my coach is throwing them in my program as I learn them) so that's getting a bit tricky. I'm VERY happy with my camel spin, because suddenly it got really good (about a month ago) and I can spin really fast in proper position, and get as many rotations as I want, pretty much. I feel very special, because a bunch of the other coaches and parents keep going up to my mom and saying that my camel spin is looking really good, which basically never happens at our arena. And you're probably right about the change foot thing. Except in my case, if I get too much power, I end up throwing myself off balance. My forward spins are super fast, so I'm always dizzy coming out of it. 10 isn't that late for starting. You get people starting at 17 who think they still stand a chance at going to the Olympics. That frustrates me, seeing as I've been working at it all my life, practically. The ice is definitely my home. I feel more comfortable on skates than I do on shoes, and the cold in the arena is my refuge during the Australian summer

Oh wow, the Worlds are at your rink?? That's so cool! But it sucks that you have to miss it. I think it would be really cool if they held the Worlds in Western Australia, because my rink is the only one there! Then I could be hanging around the arena for more time than necessary, and I'd have an excuse. Of course, that'll probably never happen, so I shouldn't get my hopes up.

Well, as long as they split my level group by age this time (they do that if there are too many people) then I should be competing against people over twelve. And I've gotten way better than the little girl who beat me last time, so ha! I'm not sure about my chances in this group, though, because the odds are fairly even, I think. We'll see how it goes The best thing about competitions is sitting and watching the rest of it with your friends after you've competed. And at our rink everybody hands out candy and chocolate to the competitors, so that's definitely a highlight.

Some coaches don't understand what they're doing to kids when they say stuff like that. Yesterday at off-ice, my coach's wife was going on about some fat five year old in her little kiddies group, and how bad she was, and she went on and on about it. It was really horrible to witness her talking behind a little kid's back about how overweight they are.

... can you compress that down to say, 5 sentences or so?? It was very confusing at first glance.

sorry lilly. you have to be a skater to figure it out, probably. basically, though, sam's working on her double loop (i would explain the edges that make it a loop, but i don't know if you would understand it. basically, it's one of many jumps that make you spin around ).
i'm getting used to new skates and she's giving me tips on how to not get blisters doing it.
little skaters are evil.
sam's camel spin is really good, which is amazing.
Worlds are being held at my rink which is cool, and i'm not going to there, which isn't.
competing against people half you height and losing to them is annoying.
coaches who talk trash about kids behind their back are being stupid.

And sam, here is my answer to you:
you're lucky that you're doing doubles. i tend to land my jump cross-legged, which is annoying. at one point, i could do it from a 3-turn, but no longer. now i just can't do it at all. *sigh* i'll try the ceran wrap. i've only used my skates twice, so i probably shouldn't be expecting a miracle .

little hockey players are like that too. it's irritating. a lot of the little kids at my rink are doing almost axels, but their flow is nonexistant. like this one girl (actually, she's the youngest daughter of the guy who owns the Broncos, but that's beside the point) was doing alternating 3-turns, and she was really bad at them! mine aren't wonderful, but they're a lot better than hers were! i'm getting ready to take my pre-juv moves test in april or may, which means that i'll be caught up with my friends again. i'm kind of worried, though, because my one friend has failed that test about three times, and she's better than i am. *sigh* i'm planning on taking it on a synchro session, though, where the judges go easy on you . my brother's balance is pretty bad too, actually. mine is SO much better, it's almost funny

Oh, totally. skating is WAY more important than walking! even if the new skates are throwing me off balance because they actually have real toe picks. the ones i had before were pretty close to these:

Spoiler:

very scary to do back power pulls on them! now that i have real skates, though, it's hard to get my balance right. *sigh*

holy yow, another coincidence!! this is getting frankly frightening! my coach doesn't compete (though my friend's coach made it to the Olympics for dance. her name is Carol Fox. i'd never heard of her before, but it's way cool anyway!) hey, at least they get there! and holy yow, double axel at 11?! that's insane! that sounds really cool. and daunting. my coach is like that with moves. she's just like, "la di dah, i'm going to go into perfect three turns here without a care in the world..." *sigh* being chucked up into the air to get a jump right sounds scary! i'm glad my coach doesn't do that!

at least you're doing doubles... congrats on the camel spin! i still fail at that. oh well. i fail at spirals in general . my scratch spin is really good, though. *snort* that's the last one i mastered before the episode of the sucky skates . Now i can get back to work on my sit spin and my beginner's layback, though. . true about the power thing for the change foot... still, i'd rather have too much power than too little. i get dizzy too, but i can control it. most of the time . ten isn't too late when you're willing to really work at it. I'm not, though. *shrug* at least i'm not delusional about my talent. starting at seventeen and going into the Olympics? that means you would have Ice Princess levels of talent. (that movie made me angry. why did she get her double loop from scratch in two months?! *snort*) the ice and the computer room are my two homes . and yeah, the cold of the rink is a nice change from the heat inside. (my relatives yesterday for Easter were talking about a movie theater, and they were like, "wear you coat, because it's usually about 35 or 40 degrees inside," and i wanted to inform them that 40 degrees is NOT cold at ALL! though, this is coming from the girl who sees anything above about 25ish and says, "it's not cold!"

It's amazing! They're putting in new floor already, and everyone's all hyped up. My friends are planning on competing in couple's dance, and I want them to videotape it so that I can see it. i'm going to be in france during Worlds, though, so i think it's a pretty fair toss up... though I AM going to give them a blank notebook and tell them to get the autograph of anyone famous they see. why shouldn't they be at your rink? my rink is a bitty rink no one's ever heard of, and this is the 2nd major competition held here. there's always a chance!

over twelve is good. beating annoying little people who think they're all that is good too . i'm sure you'll do wonderfully. you should videotape it and put it on YouTube for us to see . yeah, that's the best part, hands down. my synchro team went to Seattle a couple years ago for Sectionals, and we had way more fun at the hotel and watching the other teams than we did actually competing. (maybe because we lost. *shrug* that was because we were competing open juv, and all the teams competing open juv should have been intermediate or novice, but the age limits changed and so they competed against us instead. *grr*) you get free chocolate? no fair!

I know. and that's horrible! at least if i talk about people, i know that i don't really mean it and that they're my friends. (here i am admitting to gossiping. shame on me. but i really don't say anything mean, and i don't care if they talk about me, so i consider it a fair trade off). but i don't tell people that they're fat and useless, even behind their backs. that's horrible!

Lol, I think it's kind of (REALLY) a lost cause for anybody to try and read or understand this. Sorry Lilly

Doubles aren't as fun as they sound. They're really quite impossible. Yesterday I got my double salchow a few times, but my double loop is still trash, and my double toe-loop is non-existant. I'm sure you'll improve. Loops are really misleading jumps - the coaches make them out to be all complicated, but really, they're the simplest thing ever. All you have to do is jump from one leg, rotate, and land on one leg. The trick is throwing yourself into the air. And yeah, ten seems to be the magic number, so you should be expecting a miracle by then

Almost axels were what really bugged me in Canada. People thought that throwing themselves around, cheating on the entry and the exit, but just landing on one foot, meant that they were doing an axel. All the coaches at my rink would scoff at that. I'm guessing alternating three turns are the same as what we call Canadian three turns? Lol, there's a lot of different terminology. But yeah, little kids can never do them properly. In fact, little kids don't even go on edges. That's good that you get to test The annoying thing is that the levels here don't quite match up, so I don't really know what exactly the Australian equivalent of Pre-Juvenile is. In the Australian levelling system I'm in Preliminary, if that makes any sense at all, but I can do all the moves required for Elementary 2 (which technically is Pre-Primary). My coach likes to hold people back.

Ooh, my mom has those skates! I've had proper toe-picks on my skates since I was about seven, so I've been used to them for a long time Don't worry, you'll get your balance soon.

The Olympics? That's cool! The name kind of rings a bell, but then I'm probably just imagining things. Yeah, when I found out about that I was kind of freaked. But do you know the Japanese skater Mao Asada? She's the World Champion right now, and she's been my favourite skater for ages. But anyway, she could do a clean triple axel when she was 11. CRAZY! Except in the Worlds this year she fell on the entry... it looked really dumb, but I felt sorry for her. She won anyway, though Being thrown into the air is very scary, especially when you have no control over where you're going to land, and there are a million people around you.

I'm not amazing at spirals. My coach's wife is really frustrated with all of our spirals. So my coach makes us hold onto the boards while he pulls out leg up into practically split position... *shudders* I don't usually get all that dizzy, but in my program I have a big long combination spin (camel-sit-random twisted sit) and then when I pull out I have to go into a really fast, really crazy footwork sequence that also involves spinning around. I kind of lose it there And oh my god, don't even mention Ice Princess! That is the STUPIDEST movie ever made!! She was landing triples in a matter of months, and she passed into JUNIOR by doing a double flip and a layback. You need TRIPLES for that. And ugh, she managed to skate almost perfectly wearing new skates! That just bugs me! (Sorry, I know I'm going overboard here, but I actually did an English project once about how unrealistic this movie is, and at off-ice we - my coach included - had a big long discussion about how stupid it is. It was hilarious - my coach was quoting the movie ) Anyway... my two homes are the ice rink and my fantasy world. And I'm a lot like that - I think anything above zero (Celcius) is not cold. All my friends start wearing jackets to school when it's 25 C, and I'm boiling.

That sounds really cool I doubt they'd ever hold an international competition in Australia. People just don't believe that skating even exists in this "desert." It's kind of like the Jamaican bobsled team thing. Little do they know, our rink is training some REALLY top notch skaters. We've got twelve year olds throwing triples. But then, at all the international competitions, Australians always place really badly because there's so much prejudice against them. A guy from my arena went to the Jr. Worlds this year, which I thought was really cool

I wish I could go somewhere for skating. But unfortunately, the States are always held at my rink, and to go to Nationals I need to land all my doubles and persuade my coach to let me do a LOT of testing.

Well admitting to gossiping is better than gossiping and not lying about it. It is horrible, I know. I couldn't believe anybody could say something so rude about a five year old!

I agree. unless you're a skater, that is. then you might understand it, but since this is the two of us... maybe not

they might not be fun, but at least they give you bragging rights. . I have issues with loops, as i'm sure you've guessed. possibly because, by this point, i'm just afraid to do it right. *sigh* my fee leg won't cooperate either. it's sad. *shrug* oh well. i'll just have to work on it more. i'm getting them heat-molded on wednesday, so that might help. tues is 3 times, so i'm getting closer!

ugh, that sounds annoying! i hate cheated jumps. i try not to do them, possibly one of the reasons why i'm not getting very far . coaches that let their kids get away with cheated jumps are irritating as well. it's just as bad as telling the five year old they're fat, only in the other direction. alternating three turns are like edges, only you turn in the middle. personally, i hate them, but i'm decent at them. yeah, it is funny how the terminology is slightly different. like, i know what you mean when you say three-turn, but i don't know Canadian three-turns. . Little kids just have issues skating in general. I mean, it's good to start young, but you should spend some time getting used to the ice before trying to do doubles! i'm happy too ! let's see, in pre-juv, we do power pulls, what we call snakes (around the perimeter of the ice doing crossovers), three turns in all 4 directions, the five step (step, inside mohawk, stretch, inside mohawk, slip forward) and i think that's it. we do everything except the 5-step forwards and backwards, though. so in australia, is prelim a lower level than pre-primary? here, it goes pre-premil, prelim, pre-juv, juv, intermediate, novice, junior, senior.

mine were my mom's too. *grr* but i have pretty skates now! i love them even though they're painful! i hope i will! skating like a crippled old lady is a bit irritating, not to mention painful .

it is cool, whether or not anyone knows her. yes, i know her. she rocks! and... triple axel at 11?! that's insane! (when people find out that you skate, is that the first question they ask you? 'cause everyone asks me that. it's annoying, actually). at least she won. falling is okay if you win later. . it sounds highly scary. i'm not allowed on the harness until i learn an axel, but that's about what it does to you. and i hate skating on sessions with millions of people! my practice session is sooo crowded, and there are people everywhere, and you run into them all the time and it's irritating!

my spirals, in a word, suck. my coach says that it's because my legs are really muscular, and thus very heavy. *sigh* i suppose that's really a good thing, but it does make doing spirals a pain. when my coach holds my leg up, i can get it into a really nice position above my head, but i can't hold it there when she lets go. *sigh* ooh, sounds fun and painful at the same time. you'll get better at the footwork. it takes me forever to learn it right, and then i can never do it up to tempo. (like in our synchro program, we get to do 3 three-turns in 2 beats. i still haven't figured out how to count that one properly!) Not quite the stupidest, but way up there! i mean, talent is one thing, but you need to work at it too. You do not go from sucky spirals on a pond to double flips in months. and, considering that you need all your singles up to loop to pass the lowest level here, i doubt you'll get junior with anything less than triple flip. learning doubles from a computer program was pretty stupid too, as was ditching the Harvard interview for the stupid ice show. I mean, get a grip! There will be other competitions. There will not be other Harvard interviews! And i've been in new skates recently. Not only are you physically incapable of doing what she did, but you feet do not look like that afterwards either. you did an English project on how wrong it was? awesome! . the discussion sounds amazing too. my friends and I all went to see it together, and we decided that it was one of the stupidest things we'd ever seen as we walked out. Yay for fantasy worlds! I spend a lot of my time there too. since 32 F is freezing, then we're about the same. and 25 C? That's not cold! It's really nice at 25 C! it's like the people who thought it was cold at 40 F. *shakes head* some people...

it is cool. i suppose you're right. a lot of people don't even know that it snows in australia. people's lack of geographical skills amuses me as much as it bugs me. i mean, if a fairly high percentage of high school seniors couldn't find the usa on a map, then i suppose there isn't much hope for snow in australia... twelve year olds throwing triples is a scary thought. i mean, like, very scary! that sucks that they do badly, though. more judge biases? i hate that! oh, awesome! the pair that won junior nationals skates at my rink, and her mom knows my mom by sight and by name. I was amazed when I heard that, considering that I've never spoken to either the mom or the daughter. she's scary tiny, though. she's our age, and she's the size of an average twelve year old.

we only went once, and we lost. *sigh* my friend, who skates on a different (and better) team got to go to Chicago and Rhode Island and Nashville to compete. I was jealous! i'm sure you'll get your doubles, though. as for the testing... well, far be it from me to argue with a coach about this . ever noticed how they think they are the ultimate source and always right about everything?

very true. that's one thing about me: i'm honest about my faults. i don't care much about fixing them, but at least i know what they are. and it's one thing to say it about a kid our age, who can do something about it, but a five year old? that's awful!

probably, but i am trying. figure skating is facinating to watch.

yeah, it is. i love watching the really good skaters! they leave me in awe!

HOLY HUGE POSTS!!!!!

yup. we have fun here.

Fun indeed I like confusing people. It's one of my specialties. And I agree, the high level figure skaters are VERY fun to watch. I love Mao Asada, she's brilliant. And Yuna Kim is great too.

Don't worry MT (Mental Twin, lol ), I'm going to write you a nice long reply to your nice long post up there, but I can't right now, because I have to study for a test. Tomorrow I definitely will, though

confusing people is indeed lots of fun ! they are amazing. i love johnny weir, but that's almost more because of his hairstyle than his skating. his skating is amazing too, though.

ooh, yay! study hard, though. hope you pass it! i have to go back to school tomorrow. grr.

Okay, now I will FINALLY give you a reply

That's true. Bragging is half the fun. And I suppose the jumps themselves are fun enough, but they're just frustrating. I like double salchows, because you can get so much power going into them. I still can't do them right, though. I had trouble with my loop when I came back from my long break from skating, because I was afraid to jump. But then I just forced myself to do it, and I perfected it. As I keep saying, you really just need to throw yourself into the air - that's a MAJOR breakthrough in itself (for many jumps). Yay, only seven more times!! (probably much less by now ) And heat molding should help. I didn't get mine molded because apparently, in the long run, they weaken the boots. But that's more of a worry here than over there, because it costs so much to get even the worst quality skates here.

Cheat jumps are okay to a point, as long as the people throwing them don't actually think they're landing them. Some of the little kids whose coaches have told them they're special, I swear, have egos ten times their puny size. They think the own the rink, which they don't - they're not even supposed to be ON it in the first place. When I was first learning my axel, my coach told me to land on one foot, no matter how cheated it was, and I got that landing straight away (he was surprised by that). I worked the cheat out of it eventually, but then it came back, and now I get it on and off. Oh okay, I get it. Canadian three-turns are just forward outside three-turns, but you hold the backward inside edge for a bit and then step forward onto an outside edge and start again. They're easy peasy, but they're a good exercise for centering your weight over that supporting leg. Hmm... would you know what I meant if I said... double bracket? Twizzle? Choctaw? Rocker? Lol, sorry for all the questions. I'm just curious I know, little kids never have the flow that older, more experienced skaters have. I mean sure, they can do the jumps, but what's the point of skating if you're not graceful? Here, the level system is like this: Aussie Skate, Preliminary, Elementary, Pre-Primary, Primary, Intermediate, Novice, Junior, Senior. But it's really messed up, because there's a huge gap between Aussie Skate and Preliminary, and if I were, say, to pass my Elementary 2 test, I would be in Pre-Primary, because I'm over twelve. It's complicated. And the levelling is never fair, because some coaches (like mine) hold their students back so that they'll do well in competition. Just to give you an idea of what I'm working on, there's... let's see... flying camel, catch camel, sit spin (holding your leg and touching it to your head), back camel, back sit, change-edge backspin, axel, double salchow, double loop, double toe-loop, occasionally double flip, Biellmans, split jumps, stag jumps, and some other stuff. At stroking on saturdays we do a lot of varied exercises, including double brackets and some really complicated stuff.

Haha, I love my skates too, even though their laces tear my fingers to shreds. I want to get better ones once their worn, though, like Grafs. They're good (but freaking expensive ). And yeah, I can't imagine that would be very fun. The first time I wore mine (well, the second time, but the first time since the blades were set properly) my coach had me doing camel sit spins and attempting axels. My jaw almost hit the ice () as soon as he told me to do that stuff. I was like, "What, are you CRAZY?" But it wasn't too bad, just tricky.

I know, it's insane. And yeah, that's usually the first question I get asked. It seems to be the only move people know the name of here - if they know the names of any moves in the first place - so they use it because they want to sound knowledgeable. Yeah, Mao is known for screwing up in random places in her program. Before her exhibition at Skate Canada, she was just skating around in a circle and nearly fell, twice! Our arena used to have a harness (one that hung from the super-high ceiling) but they got rid of it for some reason. Now they've just got the manual ones, and I never get to use them. Well at least with the harness you've got something holding you up a little, and you're not flying freely through the air It is irritating. Half the people on my session aren't meant to be there, but the person who runs the rink is way too leniant.

Don't worry, my spirals aren't that great either. I can get them above ninety degrees, but my coach's wife hates them. My legs are quite muscular too (there's no way they wouldn't be, with the kind of stuff we do at off-ice) but they're still fairly long and thin, so that makes it a little easier. Yeah, I'll get better, if I can learn to do it while I'm dizzy without tripping, and without knocking a thousand people over in the process. That does sound hard... some choreographers are totally unreasonable. As for Ice Princess, I still vote it the stupidest movie ever (okay, so there are some Australian ones that would offer some pretty decent competition for that title, but still, this is the winner). You're right. It's completely impossible. I hate how they portray skating as such an easy sport, where you can just do the moves without even putting much effort into it. And the physics thing? *mimicks stupid Casey Carlyle in a high-pitched voice* "I bet there's an exact aerodynamic formula." WAKE UP! There's not! Skating isn't about science, it's about talent, and artistry. She just wants to prove that she's a stuck up know-it-all - or at least, that's what it looks like she's trying to prove. And seriously, Disney isn't promoting a very good message for kids. Ditching Harvard for a sport she only started less than a year ago? Somehow I don't think that's the most rational decision. She could have skated and studied, but of course she's gonna go PROFESSIONAL. I completely agree about the new skates thing. I could barely spin when I first went out on mine, let alone land triples (not that I can do triples anyway, but you get the point ). And your feet may have blisters afterwards, but they don't get torn up like they showed on there. Yeah, I did. I did a whole summary of all the flaws, and focussed a lot on how her final performance in the movie couldn't possibly have scored so high, because of her stupidly laying on the ice for ten minutes, her deviation, and her stopping to stare at her mother for an additional ten minutes. After all that, she had no deductions. By then she should have had at least three points deducted, if not more. And yeah, the discussion was pretty fun, especially when my coach was mimicking Casey at the end (he was immitating the part where she stops to look at her mom, and he was saying "This is for you, mama!"). It was hilarious, because he has a Russian accent. I didn't see the movie until about a year after it came out, but my sister and I rented it, and we laughed our way through the whole thing, because of how unrealistic it was. I agree, 25 C is lovely. we get over 40 C here, which absolutely sucks. The lowest we ever get is like 10 C. Except for in the arena, which, of course, has to be below freezing, otherwise there would be no ice Some people are just complete temperature wusses.

Yeah, a lot of people don't know that. It's only in a few little places in the east, though And yeah, it was about 50% or something like that, which I think is just shocking. It is scary, especially when these particular twelve year olds whip around the ice like they're on steroids. We have a ten year old who's around the same level, though she's not working on triples yet. That's really cool, the thing about the pair and their connection with your mom At our rink we have the Junior Men's national champion (14) and runner up (16 or 17), the Novice Ladies national champion (13 - she should be in Junior, though) and runner up (12), the Primary Men's national champion (12) and a Senior guy who's good enough for the olympics. We also have pathetic Aussie skaters who can't do waltz jumps, so there's a wide range, but let's not go there That's scary, that somebody our age is the size of a twelve year old. Then again, until this past summer, I was the size of a twelve year old, and I'm still not that big...

Your friend is so lucky!! And yeah, I guess I eventually will, but it'll take some time, and a lot of practice and effort. Yeah, coaches do tend to be like that. But then, if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be getting anywhere, would we?

It's the same with me. I know my faults. But usually I do try to do something to fix them, because I'm a bit of a perfectionist in some areas. If I can't fix them, I just live with it, though. I agree. It's horrible.

Just on a random note (to make this post even longer ), I was at a writers' workshop yesterday, and I recognized this girl, and she recognized me, and we realized we both skated at the same rink. It was really cool, because we got into a whole discussion about coaches and competitions and moves and stuff (as you know, I love talking to people about skating). We were really annoying the other girl we were sitting with, though, because she didn't skate. It's good, because now I'll have somebody new to talk to at the arena!!

*sighs* here we go again..... *settles more comfortably*

Well Anne's better at the summaries, but I'll give it a go.

We've been talking mostly about:
- double jumps and the bragging rights that you get when you start learning them
- difficulty with loop jumps and double loop jumps
- breaking in new skates
- our hate for little kiddie skaters who cheat jumps and think they're the best even though they suck, and who get in your way because of their inflated egos
- the difference between North American and Australian levelling systems and skating terminology
- Mao Asada, the greatest skater in the world
- People getting the wrong impression of skating
- On that same note, the stupidest and most unrealistic movie ever, Ice Princess
- twelve year olds on steroids (not really )
- notable people who skate at our rinks
- coaches thinking they know everything... and the fact that they probably do

Back to talking about skating I know I've already said this in many other places, but I just thought that posting it here would make it official. I've perfected my axel! It's consistent now, with a nice and clean, light landing and everything. Some things could be improved, but I'm glad I've got it now. My coach had me working on a double toe loop, which is very cool but also completely impossible. I'm very happy right now

i get to go skating on the 29th. i get to skip school to go ice skating with the band! i have no idea how, but i think i will kill myself.

Haha, don't worry, everybody spends most of the time on their butt the first few times they go skating. Even I did (but I started lessons when I was five, so I don't remember much...) Just hold onto the boards as much as possible for a while, until you get your confidence (to avoid embarrassment, that is ) And you never know, maybe you'll find that you're better than you think

ya anne can you got good skates now you can pass the test wood
dont wory im not that good eather

emo penguins? amusing.

i'm not affraid of imbarassment on ice. i do that without it all the time. i'm just afraid of like breaking my leg or something. it wouldn't be anything new....lol. im clumsy!