Twelfth Night

Well, twelfth lesson, really, I just couldn't resist the reference. My lesson tonight was really good. No sudden breakthrough moments or anything, just good solid progress. We started out looking at my swizzles again, and Glenn seemed pleased that I am showing more bend, more push, and more power, and I'm bringing my feet (almost) together at the beginning/end of each. I say almost because my knees do touch, but apparently I'm slightly knock-kneed such that when my knees are touching my boots are not, normally. I suspect a little bit more knee-bend would make it possible.

We next worked on the backward swizzles, and again Glenn wants me to bring my boots actually together. I'm not sure if this is really a swizzle issue, or an issue of the backward glide. We spent some time where I would bring my boots together, he'd push me backward, and then I would do a swizzle and bring my boots together again. It's hard to do, I really don't want to put them together -- it feels very unstable. Anyway, he got me to do it a couple of times and he suggested I work on it.

We also worked more on my one-foot glide. He pointed out that I'm tending to lean to get my weight over my foot, which then makes me unstable. I need to keep my shoulders even and just get my hip out more. We worked this at the boards and then he pulled me forward and had me do it. I need to practice this more, especially on my right foot!

We also looked at the 1/2 swizzle pumps on a circle. From talking to other skaters, I gather this is going to feed in to doing a two-foot spin (among other things), just as my two-foot turn also will be needed in order to learn to do the two-foot spin. Anyway, he had me practice them on the big hockey circle and emphasized that I need to keep my head up, my weight over the non-swizzling foot, and keep a good posture.

Finally, we looked at the two-foot turn. I was so pleased to be able to show him my progress. We worked on it a bit and he basically reiterated things I already knew, except that he told me it's okay to bring my leading arm across my chest during the preparation. Previously I'd just held it forward. The point about the turn is that I need to be more focused so that I don't hesitate. I just need to wind up and go and be confident!

At the end of my lesson I asked Glenn about the thrice weekly coffee club at the rink. He said if I can get the time, it's worthwhile, it's only adult skaters and it's only $8 for 1.5 hours of ice time and half hour group lesson. I'm going to try to make it a Friday routine, work permitting.

After my lesson I stayed another hour and a half and worked over pretty much everything. The ice was not very crowded, and after the 8 p.m. Z-break it was in nice shape. I was feeling very good about things and I worked most stuff. I STILL need to work my right foot more, though, gotta stop chickening out on that one. Also, it occurred to me I have not tried the turn clockwise, it's always been counterclockwise. I'll have to give that a try. With luck I'll be skating Friday at coffee club, and also Saturday I'm going to have a makeup lesson since I missed the first one of the semester due to being out of town.

All in all I'm really pleased with my progress.