Backspin And Waltz Jump Prep

For today's lesson, I was very well warmed up since I had almost an hour worth of warmup on the public ice just before. We covered just a few elements:

• back edges -- Anna wanted to spend just a few minutes looking at my back edges to start. On the BO edges Anna said that the although the LBO lobe is a bit large, she likes it better than the RBO. The LBO has a better flow, but I need to be sure to follow through and get the head turned all the way. On the BI edges, Anna says they've improved a lot. I'm dropping my free hip too much coming back to the line, though, and I need to be sure to not come back to the line square (we worked on this before, I know), but stay open.
  
• spins -- we spent just a little time looking at my spins. Anna's main corrections were on the exit; she wants me to have a better RBO edge (it's often a flat at this point). She had me do the exit with my arms at my side -- very difficult! This exercise produced, Anna said, the best exit edge I've had. Her point was that I'm tending to have my left arm too much in front of me -- I'm trying to stop the rotation too much, so that I'm not continuing it to get onto a nice edge in the exit.
  
• backspin -- we spent a fair amount of time working on this developing backspin. We made a little progress; Anna says I was able to get about a half a revolution, and that I'm freaking out about it a bit not because I'm going to fall but because it feels so scary (which it does!). Her one correction for me was to try to keep my upper body more square, less turned to the right. Anna was pleased though, and so am I. This backspin stuff has been an unexpected bonus.
  
• waltz jump prep -- we did a variety of stuff on the waltz jump. We did a few double bunny hops, a few of the step-over (walkthrough) drills. One new variation was working on doing the stepover onto the toe, not just stepping backward. This is closer to the actual waltz jump. I made some progress. Anna reminded me to keep upright, or slightly forward, in the entrance -- no backing away. Anna says we'll work on it more on Friday.
  
• lunge/turn -- at the end of the lesson I showed Anna the progress I've made on my forward-backward lunge/turn. She was pleased. She reminded me that I need to keep looking up, but other than that she was happy with it. She said that she thinks doing the holiday show has been a good thing for me; and I have to agree.