Fundamentals

I went to coffee club today, the first time I'd been in 3 weeks. I really like this session, even though it's short and in the middle of the day (tough to arrange) it's not crowded and the skaters are good so you can get stuff done. After warming up I spent most of my time just working on same-old same-old stuff, in particular the turn, right-foot glide and T-stop. CC includes a free lesson, but it didn't start until 12:50 and I had to leave at 1 so it was quite abbreviated for me. The instructor was Cecilia, an older woman I'd not met before. It was just myself and another skater (Rosemary) who's much better than I am.

We spent our brief time working on some fundamentals -- forward and backward swizzles, backward 1/2 swizzle pumps and right foot glide. On the backward swizzles she emphasized to me (just as Glenn had) that I need to bring my feet together. On the forward ones she thought I needed to bend my knees more (undoubtedly true), especially toward the end of the stroke. On the back 1/2 swizzle pumps she had a lot of pointers for me, in particular my weight is not over the inside foot as it's supposed to be (duh!) and I need to keep back arm up, front arm down a bit, and get more knee-bend. On the glide she emphasized that I need to get my weight in the right position to begin with. Once more I noticed that my push-off really leaves a lot to be desired. I'm not getting any power. I think my knees need to be bent more initially and I need more follow-through.

Anyway, it was good and productive and I wished I could stay longer.