Back Edges

For today's lesson, I reminded Anna that she had wanted to look at back outside edges. We went and worked on back edges (outside and inside, both) on the hockey circle for the first half of the lesson. Points to remember: hold the position (arms, head); point the free foot and keep the free foot together; keep the skating hip in and lift the free hip/side when the free foot leaves the ice. There was some progress but it needs much more work; I've been needing this kind of intense work on this for a long time so it's nice to be spending the time.

For the last half of the lesson we worked on lunges and spirals. The LF lunge isn't too bad but Anna wants more knee bend and a better stretch in the lunge. The RF lunge is kind of weak; Anna had me work against the boards to keep the weight more forward (keep the knee over the toe as the knee bends) and keep the free foot straight back in an "L", not coming behind the skating foot. On the spiral, the LF spiral was better, I got my torso more horizontal and more height/stretch on the foot. The RF spiral is still weaker and needs more conviction.

I was really pleased to spend quality time on the back edges, and I was really happy with my LF spiral today. In my warmup my FO3s are looking better. Over the weekend I need to work on my FI3s and, as always, forward crossovers.