Frustration

I had my second lesson of the semester last night. I got to the rink with only about 5 minutes to warm up, then classmate Ashley and I went into our lesson with Allison. We worked first on crossovers, both forward and backward, with the 1/2 swizzle pumps mixed in as warmup. We then reviewed the 2-foot spin (I needed some review, so that was good). From there we went to 3-turns and worked on both the LFO (good) and RFO (not good). Finally we looked briefly at an RFI Mohawk (which Glenn had taught us a while back) and a back Mohawk, AKA the "step-forward".

Strangely (but nicely) enough, I was actually able to do a couple of small and tentative RFI Mohawks. I think the difference is that I am pretty comfortable now with the LFO 3-turn so I was able to use the same rotation skill to get the Mohawk done. It was kind of exciting. The back Mohawk is a little daunting, mostly I suppose because it's the first backward-to-forward turn I've learned and it's scary because you can't see what you are stepping into, so to speak.

I'm rather frustrated with the whole group lesson scene though. I've noticed for the last two months (basically since the beginning of September) that starting with when I stopped having a group lesson of 1, the style of lessons has changed. In July and August when I had my instructor Glenn all to myself I felt like I was getting good feedback and learning to do things well. Once other folks joined the class, and especially now with a new instructor, it feels more like the "move of the week." Don't misunderstand, I'm as happy as the next person to get new moves under my belt. The frustration is that, especially now with the new instructor, I don't feel like I'm getting good feedback on what I'm doing right or wrong. It's all about this move and that move and I'm not feeling like I've mastered any of them. More specifically, I still can't do a good backward edge, so any time I do a 3-turn or a Mohawk I can't hold the backward edge I get. I work on it by myself a lot but I don't get any reinforcement (really) in class. So I'm frustrated.

The result has been that I've finally turned the corner on my thinking re: private lessons. After Thanksgiving I'm going to "audition" at least two of the coaches at the rink that I admire (assuming they are both taking new students) and then try to start private lessons in January. I'm not sure how I will manage this (dollar-wise) but it's just got to be done.