Cheaters Never Prosper

I had a meeting before my lesson today, so I only got about a 5 minute warmup before my lesson -- not optimal. I usually try for 15 or 20 minutes so that I feel comfortable.

For our lesson, we started with forward crossovers, then moved to back crossovers. I still can't really do them at all, but I think it's mostly a failure of nerve. I can do the back 1/2 swizzle pumps on a circle relatively well, so I ought to be able to use that to at least do a basic crossover.

From there we looked at a number of things. We touched on the lunge again (mine is decent), then looked at a spiral. I wasn't really willing to try it full bore (a face-plant seemed too likely). I think to really try it I'd have to get somebody to hold my hand the first time or two, which Allison doesn't seem motivated to do (although to be fair I didn't ask). Classmate Ashley was able to do a reasonably okay spiral. From there we went on to look at 3-turns (they are still where they've been) and then spins. We reviewed the 2-foot spin and then tried lifting up one foot during the spin, with okay results. I'll need to practice it obviously. The lesson finished up with looking at the Waltz 8. I can't really do one since I can't do a moving 3-turn (and certainly not the RFO) but Ashley was able to more-or-less do one.

After the lesson I was able to catch Anna and remind her about our lesson on Friday, and also check on her fee and preferred method of payment. I'm really excited about Friday.

After the lesson I skated for until 8:45. It was not very crowded at all and the ice was pretty good -- it had been Zamboni'd before skate school, apparently, so it was still holding up okay. I spent a lot of time on my backward glide and backward edges. These are really coming along. They are not at the point where I can, say, glide backward for half the rink or anything (so, nowhere near my forward edges) but they are becoming more stable and reliable.

The title of this post relates to a discovery that I made about my 3-turns, and why I was having problems with the RFO3. I'd noticed already that my free foot was always too far from my skating foot on the LFO3, and I had to put my free foot down right after the turn. I spent a little time really thinking about what I was doing, and I realized that I was cheating on my LFO3. I wasn't really doing a turn-and-check like you are supposed to, instead of was sort of swinging my free leg around in order to get my body to turn. The result was a very nice trace on the ice, but the lack of check and the distance between my feet had the results I've noted. Having seen this, I tried doing some where I basically took the edge and then planted my free foot firmly behind my skating foot and left it there. Sure enough the turn was extremely difficult! I think, though, that this is an important discovery and I'm really glad I got it. I'm really tempted, though, to try it with my instructors and see what they say/notice.

I left at 8:45, but not willingly -- they kicked us out early (session was supposed to run 'til 9:30) due to hockey. I was annoyed, especially since it was relatively uncrowded and good skating conditions. Oh well.