Workout

For my lesson today we started by looking at my spins. I did some reasonably good 2-foot spins, and so we went on to the 2-foot to 1-foot spin. I proceeded to do my best one ever! For once, in front of my coach! I had about 2 revolutions then was able to do a nice exit, it was terrific. I was somewhat in awe and, as I said to Anna, "I feel like a real skater!"

We moved on to looking at forward crossovers. These have improved a little, in particular I'm more flowing on them. My CCW ones I still have a tendency to pause in the middle of the crossing stroke. As Anna says, if I'm going to pause I should do it in the extension position, then cross in one smooth motion. My CW ones are more smooth but I am not turned into the circle well enough.

From there we went to perimeter stroking, again working on extension and getting the end crossovers to work well. They are not particularly improved. After a few efforts (it was tiring!) we moved on to the perimeter power stroking, a.k.a. Russian stroking -- i.e., the Bronze MITF crossover pattern. Anna showed me how the pattern actually starts and I had a go at 'em. I had not done these since before my fall, and then only once or twice. The first time at them I actually did not so bad -- much better than I expected. We went at them a second time and it was not so good; I lost my focus and wasn't placing anything correctly. Still, I was pleased at having done so well. They have come a long way.

All in all it was a great lesson, although with all the stroking and crossovers it was quite a workout and I was very tired afterward.