Spin Progress

For today's lesson we started by working on back edges on the circle. There is some definite progress on the RBO, and the LB edges are both not bad. That leaves the RBI as perhaps the weakest at this point. Anna reminded me to "be one with the circle" on these. After that we went to looking at the BO edges down the line. These are somewhat improved but there's still much to be done; especially to press the blade down firmly and to get a good rotation.

Anna introduced the BI edges. These should be more straightforward but I found them difficult, both just by their nature and also because I kept wanting to do them like BO edges! Not helpful. For the BI edges you started out facing outside the circle and then facing in with the rotation. I just couldn't make myself do that very well today. Anyway, I know how it's supposed to go so I can work on it on my own.

Next we looked at pivots. I'd only done an RFI pivot since that's how I start my two-foot spin; but we looked at the other 3 "easy" pivots -- LFI, RBI, and LBI. The LFI pivot just seemed impossible -- it's the CW rotation. Yech! Same for the RBI, although it wasn't as bad. They are all quite difficult for me. We worked on them for a few minutes, then moved on since, again, now that I've been introduced I can work on them on my own.

From there, with about 5 minutes left we looked at spins. These are looking better, at least when I don't let my right side drop. I had several that were quite good, so Anna moved on to picking up the right foot. I had actually worked on this last night so that was good. Anyway, it was quite exhilarating! I had a couple of quite solid one-foot spins this way, Anna said 2 revs. It was the most amazing feeling! It's not so much the sensation of spinning (although that is pretty trippy, really) -- it's the feeling of being perfectly (albeit briefly!) balanced on that spinning blade. It's amazing. The second one I could undoubtedly have held longer (I really had it solid) but I freaked out a bit (i.e. "I can't REALLY be doing this!"), so, like the coyote chasing the road runner who's fine in midair until he looks down, I was fine until I lost confidence and then I dropped my right side enough to have to end it. Darn. Anyway, the amazing thing is that now I know what it feels like and, somewhat, how to do it -- so of course I will practice it :-). It was cool.

I had a nice compliment from one of the younger male skaters (hi Dimitri!) who said he enjoys this blog. Thanks for reading!