LFO/LFI!

I attended the public session tonight. When I got there I saw that my friend Amber Lee's friend Debbie was there, so I went to say Hi. I knew she skated but I'd not seen her there. Apparently she had not skated in a long time. Anyway we said hi and wound up talking a fair amount during the session. I got on the ice at 7:30 and stayed 'til just after 9.

I spent the session working over all my usual stuff. When it started it was very uncrowded (6 people or so) and it never got very crowded at all. I'd never (or almost never) gone on a Tuesday night, so this was good since there will be a lot of Tuesday nights in my future once school starts and my Monday evening choir rehearsals kick in (8/25).

Since it wasn't crowded I worked a bit more on my backward swizzles (though not as much as I probably should have). They are about where I left them -- solid, but I can't bring myself to put my feet together when I'm gliding in-between as Glenn wants me to. I need to spend more time on that.

I spent a good amount of time on my 2-foot turn, with some success. Since Glenn's had me putting my feet together so much, I put my feet together for that (before they were 6-8 inches apart) and it helps. I still need to concentrate on not leaning forward, and being more decisive/explosive -- not hesitating. I did turn out some good ones. I also tried a few clockwise ones, with no success. I decided I need to try a few clockwise ones on dry land, much as I'd practiced the CCW ones.

I worked on my stroking, of course, and that is coming along well. I spent a good amount of time working on my 1-foot glide. The big excitement for the evening was that just before it was time to go home, something clicked. It's not that I intellectually figured something out, it's just that somehow I found myself gliding confidently on my left foot. More than that, I found myself on an outside edge. Even more than that I was able to turn from the LFO to the LFI and back again!

Honestly, I'm not sure how I did that. Once I did it I wanted to stay all night just doing it again, practicing. I tried some on my right foot and while I couldn't do the RFO/RFI thing I was much more solid there as well. Anyway, I practiced for probably 5 or 8 minutes and then I had to go. I was reminded of what Glenn had said, that you get these things and then often you work on them hard to try to lock them in, but the next practice you've lost them. Still, he said, in two or three more sessions you will get it solidly and then it's more or less yours.

I am so psyched, I could just scream!