Another Backwards Day

Today's lesson was mostly backward stuff:

• back edges -- We worked on these for about half the lesson. For the BO edges the biggest correction is getting the head to turn correctly. In particular, making the turn of the head all of one smooth motion with the arms switching. On the BI edges, need to keep the push-off short and bring the feet together -- I'm still tending to pick the foot up when the feet are about 18 inches apart, which throws me off. Of course, I still need to work on staying turned out or in to the circle as appropriate, and to open the hips coming back to the line. Anna said that like on the FI edges I really need to work on thinking of coming up the line. In general Anna was very happy with my progress on these, though, and said I was clearly working diligently on them (I usually say "obsessively").
• back stroking -- We did just a little bit of this, working on keeping the free foot in front. The left foot is better than the right, still, but both are looking a bit better.
  
• back crossovers -- On these Anna had a number of points. One that took me by surprise was that she said (on the CW crossovers) that I am leaning too much into the circle. She said they really should not be leaned in, just straight up and down. In general we worked on getting a better separation of the feet, having a better weight placement on the back foot, and getting a better push from the forward foot. Anna said it helps to think of pointing the toe of the forward foot at the beginning of the stroke and then drawing it back in and across.
  
• forward-backward lunge -- We finished up with just a couple minutes on this. Anna suggested that I need to use my hips more and move the free leg less. At the end of the lesson I did a couple that were almost right -- I stayed down much longer. Basically if I do them that way and stay down in the lunge a few seconds longer they'll be spot-on. I was worried about over-rotating but Anna didn't seem to think it was likely to be a problem.
  

Anna said at the end of the lesson she wants me to really work on my ankles, on point-and-flex of the foot and on really digging in for stroking.