Perseverance

I went to the public session tonight and got a good solid 2 hours of skating in. The ice wasn't as bad as last Wednesday, but it was pretty gouged up for all that.

I worked a lot of stuff, but especially those BO edges, FO3s , my Mohawk combos, waltz jump walkthrough and stroking. The BO edges are a little improved -- in particular I'm more-or-less getting that scissoring action with the arms, even on the RBO, and it seems to help me. I'm still having trouble getting the stupid head to turn! But it's a bit improved so I can't complain.

I've noticed my FO3s are improved in that I'm pretty much holding the exit edge okay; which is actually kind of surprising. What's not happening, though, is I'm not holding my check well enough to have a prayer of doing the BI Choctaw so I can do them in lobes. Well, Rome wasn't built in a day.

The Mohawk combo is looking good, the RBI Mo is getting less scary. The waltz jump walkthrough -- hm. I'm able to do it away from the boards! I'm not sure what's up with that. I feel more comfortable doing it near the boards even though I'm not touching them. Bizarre. But I am able to do it in mid-ice now.

My stroking is coming along; of course I've worked it a lot with Anna this week. I was thinking about it tonight and deciding that what I really need :-) is a song. There's a Josh Groban song that Jan (I think) plays at coffee club, and for some reason when I'm listening to part of that song I'm really inspired to stroke with power and even some speed. So I need to find that song :-) and listen to it enough to have it in my head when I'm doing the perimeter stroking. A cheat? Well, maybe. Still I don't see anything wrong with it. I think it's off the second album but I've been looking for it on iTunes and not finding it, so worst comes to worst I'll just find out Friday.

Update: I found it! The song I'm thinking of is "Oceano." A great song...