It must be fairly significant, or she wouldn't be hollering about it. But, I'm totally lost myself...are these steps up in skill or what?

Monster, if it makes you happy, I'm happy for you!

:cheerldr::cheerldr::cheerldr:

Are you a badass now?

Yay!

Thank for those who are happy for me. Grav, you nailed it. Yes, I'm badass, and yes, people who don't get it should perhaps be be a little less rude if they would like explanations, but of course I'm more than happy to elaborate for those who are interested.

Yes, each badge covers a set of skills/moves you must be able to perform. the first 8 badges are called Basic 1-8 and I think I have been sharing my success with all y'all on the cellar since about Basic 5. Basic 1 starts with skills like falling down and getting up, gliding on two feet, stopping and swizzles (a way of moving on the ice without picking your feet up) Basic 8 has a couple of jumps with half revolutions, a one foot spin and forward 3-turn (changing from skating forwards to backwards on one foot).

After the Basic Skills badges, we move onto Free Style (1-6). This breakthough has been a long time coming -it's been well over a year since I passed the final elements on my Basic 8 badge.

FS1 has some backwards three turns, two jumps, more advanced version of basic moves (like writing in cursive instead of printing) and a scratch spin -this means setting up the spin and finishing it correctly rather than just spinning.

This is a scratch spin (I only had to do three revolutions, though)



FS2 has a jump combination, a toe loop (yes, we're finally getting to jumps with the name you hear in Olympic commentary -real jumps! :lol:) Spirals (gliding in an arabesque-type position (I think I posted video of this way back when) ) and a back spin-which is a spin on the "wrong" foot rather than a spin in the other direction

Apparently I passed Basic 6 on May 2007: http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php...figure+skating

I couldn't find the threads for 7 and 8, but I know they're out there......

and yes, I took these badges to the kids school for show and tell at the office too :lol:

This thread has vids of me skating in April 2008: http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php...figure+skating

I like to think I look a bit more confident and jump a little higher than that now :)

I used to ice skate at our town's arena when I was a kidling. I loved it, but never could even skate backwards.

I did, however, master "Not Falling On My Ass As Much."

If I had some gumption about me, you'd be my inspiration. ;)

When I first started -when I got here- all I could do was skate forwards. No stopping and certainly no backwards :headshake: I stopped briefly when I was too pregnant for it to be sensible, but other than that have take a class almost every week , every year, Sep-May for 10 years. Slowly but Surely I'm learning to do what I always wanted to be able to do :)

Congrats monster. Applause and other signs of approval.

:lol: thanks. I'm in high maintenance mode today

My favorite course in college was probably ice skating. I was amazed at how much I improved over the course of the semester. Good job, Monster!

ADDAGIRL

you took ice-skating as a course in college? for credit?

I took golf. I can't for the life of me remember my other 1 credit phys ed class. :blush:

Liberal Arts education, I'm guessing. We took a bit of EVERYTHING.

My ex hubby took canoeing (did I spell that right ??) for college credit.

The "final" was a four day trip to the Flambeau River in upper Wisconsin. It was way fun.

Yeah. It was awesome. It was only 2 credits, but I had also taken a 2 credit scuba course, so they counted together as a real course. I can't remember if we had a gym requirement for graduation or if I just did it for fun.

The ice skating was me and 3 other students being trained by the hockey coach on skates that he had sharpened before every class and on ice that had just been smoothed by the Zamboni. It was awesome to have the full sized rink for just the 5 of us.

As a kid, I had just skated on the frozen pond near our house. Ripply ice with reeds sticking through.

Edit: Maybe they were only 1 credit each. Can't remember. All I remember is that I needed to take two gym courses to make the credits worth anything.

Bloody hell, no wonder college costs so damn much here. No phys ed requirement in UK. I had to pay to play badminton after hours. ...and I don't even know where the nearest rink was!

Yeah, that's why i like the Wednesday morning class -only about half a dozen of us on fresh ice. Ooh that reminds me, i think my skates need sharpening...

I totally want to skate on a pond, not done it yet.... but I'd need a different pair of skates.