Coffee Club Workout

Since I was off today I attended the coffee club session. It was on the back ice since there was a promotion going on on the front ice earlier and it was still a mess. I'm getting to like the back ice more, mostly because I don't have any identification of it with hockey boys and little kids slamming into me with their EZ Skaters. :-)

I had a really good workout. I worked a lot of stuff, but especially back edges and forward crossovers. I had one RBO edge that was *just right* but unfortunately couldn't quite reproduce it. I am working on getting my free foot tucked back behind on the RBO edge especially; it's difficult to do but seems to help if I can make it happen. On the FXOs I experimented with keeping my free foot close (no extension) and then crossing it. The advantage is that it appears I can keep the position of the arms and upper body that way. Of course the disadvantage is that I have no extension on the stroke. It's something to work on. I also worked FO3s and spins and Mohawks a bit.

I'm thinking that part of my problem with the FI3s is that I am dropping my free side on the entrance edge (since I tend to do that on the FI edges in general); this doesn't explain the overrotation but does explain why I can't come out on the BO edge but instead on a flat -- my weight placement isn't over enough to come out of the turn on the BO edge. Knowing that is helpful but I wasn't able to make a difference at this point. I did work my FI edges a bit and did get some improvement in the placement though.

All in all it was a good workout. I found out that Polar Ice taketh away, and Polar Ice giveth; I was complaining about the Sunday morning freestyle sessions going away, but just found out today that they have added a 5 p.m. freestyle Monday and Friday (in addition to the Tuesday and Thursday when I have my lesson). This is good news!