F8, BO8

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice, 6 skaters.  I scribed circles and  warmed up with forward edges and BO edges.

Today's lesson:

• BI edges -- just to finish up the edges.  Pretty nice, actually.  Danette said I had good flow.  I do need to work on making the lobe sizes more consistent though.
• FO8 -- we actually made some progress on improving my posture and this also helped my flow, I got around about 3/4 of the circle.  I still need to get a better push.
• FI8 -- as usual these feel much better and I was making alllmoost all the way around the circle.
• BO8 -- Actually not that bad.  I did manage to push my feet out from under me on the transition to the LBO.  Lol.  

My takeaway from all this is that I really can fix some of these longstanding issues but I need to be more focused and consistent.

3s & The Stick

 My lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Beyootiful ice and just 5 skaters.  I scribed circles and warmed up with edges.

For today's lesson we worked entirely on 3s in the context of the waltz-8 (but, mostly, just the 3s part).  Danette had me holding the hockey stick and really making me turn into the circle.  I really need to turn a lot farther into the circle than I realize.  We spent about 25 minutes just drilling the 3s on the circle, alternating feet.  The last 5 or so minutes were spent doing the 3 and then continuing with the waltz-8.  Ugh.

My problems with the waltz-8 are now 1) the turn and 2) the step forward.  I think a big chunk of the step forward issue is posture -- if I'm not standing up straight how can I expect to turn and push onto the new edge?

Anyway, while certainly not my favorite lesson it does feel like it was worthwhile.

Freestyle

 Since I had the day off I got to skate the 3 p.m. FS at CCIC with my club!  Beyootiful ice and just 7 skaters.  I had not skated in my freestyle blades for... 6 weeks?

I spent about half the session working on Bronze moves.  Eeep.  It was a bit rough, especially to start. It was nice to be moving fast again though!  I mostly left the power-3s along but worked on the rest.

After that I worked on spins and jumps.  I did a couple of waltz jumps that were rough, but all things considered not that bad.  Spins were not happening.

Anyway, it was nice to see my clubmates and get some skating in!

8s

 My lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  8 skaters.  Ice was a bit rough in places.

I warmed up with all my edges and scribed circles.

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- it took a while to get my posture a bit better.  Still not making it all the way around but it was better than it's been.
• FI8 -- these were not bad, actually.  I actually made it around most of the time! 
• BO8 -- mostly working on getting free foot in front and, of course, posture.  Not horrible but not great either.  I did manage to have the slo-mo fall the first time as I pushed my feet out from under me, lol.
• BI8 -- just 3 minutes on these. Posture was actually not bad but push is still inadequate.

Backward!

 My lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Ten skaters.  Unfortunately due to overnight thunderstorms the rink was quite foggy and the ice was pretty bumpy.  I warmed up with edges.

Today's lesson was all backward stuff, mostly BO.  We started out working on the BO8.  Then we spent some time just pumping around the circle while trying to hold that skating shoulder back and the free foot in front.  From there we went to holding the hockey stick (yay) while doing the same thing, then back to BO8 with the hockey stick and then without.

This really emphasized to me how much more I need to engage my core, and how much I need to watch the upper body position -- not just arms/shoulders but also where I'm looking.  We did make good progress on getting me to (duh) look where I'm going.

Forward!

 My lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice, 7 skaters.  I was running late so just had time to scribe circles.

Today's lesson:

• F edges -- the FO edges were really rough.  Partly because I hadn't skated in two weeks (and, no warmup) -- so we spent a lot of time fixing them.  We also did some FI edges, which were fine.
• FO8 -- Mmph.  The RFO is not so bad, but we spent a lot of time working on the LFO to both fix the diagonal start of the circle and stay off the front of the blade.  Eeep.

Edges

 My lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate. Nice ice, 7 skaters.  I tried to scribe circles but the pen on my scribe is kaput.  Oh well.  I did manage to warmup forward edges.

Today's lesson:

• back edges -- most of the lesson.  We made some good progress on improving posture and flow on these, and getting me to actually hold the free foot in front and keep turned into the circle. Some real improvement here.
• waltz-8 -- just 3 or 4 minutes on these.  I just could not get myself to actually turn. Uck.

3s

 My lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult freestyle. Nice ice, 6 skaters.  I was a little late getting to the rink, so I just had time to warm up F and BO edges.

Today's lesson:

• BI edges -- posture is a bit better.  We worked a bit on the initial push and improved it somewhat. Still getting a little BO edge at the start, but less pronounced.
• 3s -- the bulk of our time.  Danette had me hold a hockey stick again.  We probably need to do that more as it does help me to be more aware of where my trailing arm, especially, actually is.