LFI3, Again

At the beginning of today's lesson, Anna asked me what I'd learned at the test session yesterday. I shared with her some of the thoughts I recorded yesterday, and one additional one -- I'm not as bad as I (sometimes) think I am. Today's lesson:

• LFI3 -- as we'd discussed on Friday, we spent some quality time (almost half the lesson) working on the LFI3. Anna held my hand through it several times and I was able to do it that way. We still haven't fixed the problem, but we've certainly found some issues that are probably contributing. In particular, on my LBO edge coming out my hips are dead square so that I'm no longer turned into the circle. Looking at my LBO edge on the circle in isolation, it's very difficult for me to get and hold that turned-in position, I keep wanting to square the hips off. Just getting the hip turned in was incredibly difficult! Anyway, Anna suggested that I need to spend some time just on the LBO edge to feel that position so that I can "aim" for it. She also says just before the actual turn I'm going from an LFI to a flat, probably because I'm putting my weight back on my skate. I tried another LFI3 with a conscious effort to keep my weight placed just forward of mid-center on my blade and Anna said it was better. Really, there are several things going on here to work on. Now that I've got some ideas I'll spend more time working on it. I really need to get past this!
• crossovers -- we spent some time on the forward crossovers on the hockey circle. As an exercise, Anna had me not worry about pushing, but just cross the foot (similar to that backward cross step I've been struggling with) and then try to pick the new outside foot up straight. I was able to actually do this correctly a couple of times, which really made Anna's day. The key was actually just to... (wait for it!) .... push from the heel. Of course. Not a big push (I can't do a big push in that position!), just a small push, feeling the heel. So, more homework (icework?) for me for Friday.
• perimeter stroking -- Anna wanted to look at this again. Amazingly enough, something started to click and I was able to get better (not perfect) extension. Anna said it's the first time she's really seen me have my weight firmly over my skate and push out from the heel and hold it. Of course there is a lot of room for improvement (for one thing, it's not consistent), but most importantly I understand how what she wants feels, so I should be able to do it again (theoretically!). This made me really happy, and motivated to work on this.
• T-stop -- I had asked Anna to look at a couple of things for the holiday program. We didn't have time to work on the forward-to-backward lunge, but we did look briefly at my problem with quick acceleration and the sudden stop. The pattern that's giving me trouble is left-right-left-STOP. Anna suggested (duh, I should have thought of it myself) that immediately after the push onto the left foot I put the free foot into the T-stop position instead of trying to extend (or whatever) and then hurriedly get the foot into position. Done this way it became a lot easier. Anna says that, as for stopping more quickly, it's really just a matter of being more aggressive about putting my weight on that stopping edge. Duh!

Anyway, I was really pleased with the progress we made today. Yes, the LFI3 is not fixed, but the progress on the other stuff is really good, and I think I know some things to work on to fix the LFI3 eventually.

Anna said for Friday she wants to look at what I'm doing for the holiday show program so she has some idea of what's up for it. In the meantime she wants me to work on my crossovers and stroking.