From: loosemore-sandra
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 20:19:49 -0400 (EDT)
To: skatefans-l@UDel.Edu, skaters-l@UDel.Edu,
        rec.sport.skating.ice.figure-news@babyblue.cs.YALE.EDU
Subject: another report from Simsbury
Sender: owner-skatefans-l@UDel.Edu

Well, with great trepidation because of the flames I got the last
time, I am posting yet another rink visit report.....

Since I am currently without ice locally (the Yale rink is not yet
open, and there are no public sessions at Hamden this month), I've
been making weekly trips to skate at Simsbury so I don't get totally
out of shape.  Last week I tried a nighttime public session, which was
not very satisfactory; it was crowded, with a lot of out-of-control
kids and several other skaters who were better than I am monopolizing
the middle of the rink.  

So this time I rearranged my work schedule to go up for one of the
daytime adult sessions, and it was bliss: only three other skaters for
most of the session.  For once I felt like I had enough room to work
on things like back spirals and backward power pulls, which I'm
totally afraid to try in more crowded conditions.  But why is it that
I can now only do forward spirals on my left foot and backward ones on
my right?  Oddly enough, I can do both inside and outside in each
direction, but only on one foot and not the other!  I was pleased to
find that my scratch spin is working again, after having problems the
past couple of weeks with keeping my shoulders level.  And I spent a
little more time working on my counters and brackets and a few easy
jumps.  Unfortunately, the time went by all too quickly (this was a
90-minute session) and I never got around to working on all of the
other things I ought to be practicing -- my back spins, the
mohawk/back three step sequence, etc.

Besides skating myself, I did get to watch the elite skaters again.
The primary change from my previous visit was that Ekaterina Gordeeva
was missing (since she's doing that team competition tonight), but
Brasseur & Eisler were there and looked great.  They were practicing
their old "Copacabana" program and a couple others that I thought were
new.  When I was watching them, I had a thought about how strange it
must be to make your daily living being carried upside-down 10 feet in
the air.  Of course, Isabelle would probably think that what I do to
pay the bills is equally weird....

Scott Davis was working on both his short and long programs.  I think
his short program is going to be a real crowd-pleaser but the long
seemed kind of disjointed to me.  Although he was having trouble
with overrotating and stepping out of many of his jumps, he did land a
few solid triple axels and lutzes in between.  He was also working on
his forward camel spin and I saw him do a few where he actually got in
a full 6 rotations.  (He seems to have the same problem I do with this
spin: a tendency to drop the free hip, which causes you to make bigger
and bigger circles and eventually fall out of the spin entirely.)  No
back camel attempts today, though.

Oksana Baiul looked happier than on my previous visit, although I
don't believe I saw her attempting any triple jumps at all this time.
She was practicing a different program in a more classical faux-ballet
style, with lots of toe work.  Incidentally, the guy who works in the
snack bar claims that one of Oksana's other new programs is the
"Macadamia".  :-)  I also saw Oksana briefly skating pairs with Scott
and landing an impressive throw waltz jump!  :-)  In other amazing
news, I saw her do some ordinary spirals where she was simply
extending her free leg instead of pulling it up with her hands!

Also seen: Viktor Petrenko doing runthroughs of a couple new programs;
Jessica Mills landing both the triple lutz/double toe and triple flip
in her short program; and Eric Bohnstedt doing some more of his
impressive spins.  (Everyone probably knows by now about my tendency
to drool over guys with good camel spins....)

Finally, as I noted in another post, I asked at the rink office and
was told that the SOI practices that start next week will *not* be
open to the public.  Besides that, they've cancelled the adult skating
sessions and rescheduled all of the other non-elite freestyles for
early morning or late afternoon and evening, so I'm not sure whether
I'll be getting up there again or not; the Yale rink is supposed to be
open by the time Simsbury gets back on their normal schedule.  I may
check out some less-distant rink(s) in the meantime instead.

-Sandra