Back At It

My lesson today was my first in a week and a half, and it was my first time on the ice since Monday, so it was a bit of getting back into things.

Before the lesson we had a chance to talk about music -- Anna had had a chance to listen to the CD I gave her. She liked the Man of La Mancha overture, and she especially liked the Gershwin. She said it's very carefree, which is very true. We talked about it being kind of ... Gene Kelly-esque. So we're on the same page. I was concerned that it's too difficult but she says she can make it simpler. So she's going to play around with both the Gershwin and the JFK soundtrack. Fortunately, as she said, there's no pressure on this since I won't need this for some time (like, the fall or later). So that's nice.

For today's lesson:

• chassés -- Coming from our discussion of the Gershwin piece, Anna had me look at the chassé. I had not done these in quite a while. Anna wants me to practice them to the same pattern as the forward perimeter power crossovers, with the chassé where the crossover would go.
• spins -- just as a reminder we looked at my two-foot spin and the one-foot spin. The two-foot spin is looking fairly good -- Anna says it's about as good as it's going to get. On the one-foot spin Anna said I need to keep my free foot from wandering out to the side, and of course (as always) to keep the free side up.
• backspin -- Anna seems fascinated by this, so we looked at it for a bit. I was able to get almost a full rev on the backspin (from a two-foot spin). The main problem seems to be that I tend to look down, probably because I'm scared since it feels so strange! Anna reminded me to really feel the ball of the foot. I had worked on it a little and I'll try to get some time on it tomorrow at the public skate if I can since spins are a good thing to practice then.
• scratch spin entrance -- back to this. Anna was very pleased with the progress I've made on the back crossovers into the step forward, so we mostly worked on the step forward and what follows after. Anna says she doesn't have any magic words :-) to help me feel that. We worked on it for a while and I did make some progress. A key seems to be to be looking where I'm going (as always) and to feel a certain... "leftness"? A feeling of the head being over the left side of the body? I'm not describing it well. Also Anna mentioned that I need to be sure not to step too wide when I do the step forward, as my weight is not over my skate when that happens; and to keep the free hip back when stepping forward. Some progress and a lot to work on still.
• Mohawks -- we worked these on the line. Anna's main emphasis is to keep the head up and to feel the free foot extending back after the turn -- and of course keep looking in the same direction. These are somewhat improved.
• Mohawk pattern -- we went back to the Mohawk combo from Hell. I'd not worked on this for a while but it was somewhat improved -- especially, I was quite happy that the cross step isn't so hard or scary as it used to be. We worked these in both directions. I need to practice this more. Anna reminded me that the upper body should be in pretty much the same position all through these. Easier said than done!
• back 2-foot turn -- since we were working on the circle, we went back to my other favorite combo :-(, the FO3 --> back 2-foot turn. We spent a fair amount of time on this in both directions. The back turn is really the crux of the matter, and it improved a little. The main points seem to be to feel a lifting of the toes and/or rock back on the heel *slightly* (as Anna said, "do this without falling backwards!"), and feeling the feet turn abruptly and together. It needs lots of work.

After the lesson we talked about our schedule and where I'm at. It turns out we will stick with Fridays at 12:45 (and Mondays at 5) at least until either my schedule or the freestyle schedule changes. As for where I'm at -- Anna said "I should go away for 3 weeks more often!" since I had worked pretty hard while she was gone, and she said it showed. As far as testing, we talked about the moves and freestyle test and agreed to make the May moves test our short-term goal. I always like to know what I'm aiming for. Anna said that the crossovers will need some real improvement before then, and of course the alternating 3s. Everything else should be okay.