On to Basic 3!

At the beginning of my lesson last night, Glenn presented me with a completion certificate for Basic 2; despite his disinterest in the mechanics of the skate school I figured the skate school admins would take care of that. After that formality we went on to go through the various elements. He was pleased with my progress on the backward swizzle and my improved form (feet touching). From there we went on to look at stroking and gliding, and Glenn emphasized that I need to get more extension. I commented on the lack of power in my pushoff, and he said it's due to incomplete follow-through. So we worked on my glide, to extend the free leg fully (and point the toe!) before returning it to the neutral position (feet together) and then stroking on the other foot similarly. After that we spent a fair amount of time working on the two-foot turn, which we hadn't looked at in several weeks. After observing my attempts at it Glenn pointed out that I need to be more committed to my windup, and that I don't need to/shouldn't separate the windup from the release -- actually, they should overlap slightly. In other words, I can let my feet start to turn slightly before I complete the windup -- before my left shoulder (in this case) is all the way back. I tried it this way a couple of times with much better results. I did have an instance where I didn't complete the turn, and he said this was because I wasn't actually completing my windup -- I was starting the turn but not following-through (there it is again!) on the windup.

After my lesson I skated 'til a little after 9 pm. The rink was not crowded at all (yea!) so I spent a lot of time on the turn and it is much improved. I also worked fairly hard on the clockwise turn, mostly standing still and not actually moving forward, and was able to have some modest success. After the Z-break at 8ish, I was really "in the groove" and the ice was excellent. I worked more on my backward swizzles, getting good extension on my glides, and on my right foot glide (which still needs work!). I also did some of the forward 1/2 swizzle pumps on a circle -- I'm getting so that I'm actually moving rather fast at these. I also did a few where I would circle a couple of times, then straighten out and do a turn; it worked reasonably well. My turn is much improved, but I still have to work on being sure to bend my knees and to not lean forward ("straight you back!").

I left the ice in a really good, happy mood, feeling like I am making solid progress and starting to feel more like a "real" skater. I'm really excited about what's to come in the next few months.