Motorin'

I had my 10th lesson with Anna today, and my first in my new 12:30 time slot. I really liked having plenty of time to warm up and get acclimated, so I think the switch is a positive one. During the warmup I tried some RB glides and wow! They have greatly improved since Wednesday. I did several that were quite long and nice and straight, dropping to an RBI only after 20 or 30 feet.

When we started my lesson, Anna asked if there was anything I particularly wanted to show her... I said "not really..." so she asked if there was anything I *needed* to show her, and I said "not really..." but I went ahead and showed her my LFI Mohawk and also my RB glide. She was pleased. From there we started in on edges. There are a number of corrections I need to make, especially on the FI edges. She's concerned I'm not taking time to really set my edge, and that I need to take more time to do that. She also thought I needed more kneebend ("softer knees") when I come up to the transition.

Next was back crossovers. She's pleased with my progress; we worked on getting a better posture and being more deliberate (that phrase again!) and careful -- when I get going faster I'm tending to rush my movements and then they are getting sloppy. I need to have good, careful technique regardless of how fast I'm going.

Next we looked at back edges on a circle. She says these look better than the back glide, which probably comes from practicing crossovers. From there we went to dreaded FI3s. My RFI3 is improved but I still need to work on my check; keeping my shoulders still and continuing to look in the direction I'm skating. For the LFI3 I'm still a bit stuck on that but we did some 2-foot turns that direction and worked on some issues there.

We finished up by looking briefly at my spin. It's improved. She wants me to have a bit more core strength, to support from the abdominal muscles better and to improve my arm position. Other than that I think it's improved.

After my lesson (which ran late, we started around 12:35 and didn't finish until 1:10) I just had a couple of moments to skate before the session was over. I worked on back crossovers some more and my classmate Nicole (Anna's other adult student) complimented me on my progress, "You're really motorin', Gordon!" It's nice to get positive feedback, especially since Nicole's been seeing me skate since 2 weeks after I started skating (last May).