Waltz Jumps, Still

Today's lesson:

• slaloms -- started off with these. Anna says I'm getting better kneebend than before. She still wants me to keep it in my warmup. I have to say doing a whole lap of these is just a bit tiring!
• alternating edges -- this is the edges-down-the-rink pattern. We did FI, BI, FO, and finally BO. Anna was relatively pleased with them all except the BO, which of course are the weakest. I am not getting good edges on these.
• edges on the line -- a.k.a. the MITF pattern. We went through all of these. The FO are good, the FI not as good but okay. BI are improved, but needing work. BO still need improvement. Fortunately I've got until May to get them up to snuff -- it looks like I'll need all that time.
• bunnyhops -- Anna always starts my jumping off with bunnyhops. It always takes me a few times to get the rhythm back, which says to me I need to start practicing them more, especially the 3+ in a row.
• waltz jump -- finished up with these. Plenty of working on getting better ankle action, and keeping that left shoulder forward a bit. I managed a few. I really wish I could just relax on these. I'm not sure what I need to do to make this happen. We went back and tried the double bunny hop thing, and sure enough it DID help a lot. For some reason that seems to help me feel to push off from the toepick. Anna said she wants me to practice the entrance-into-the-boards some more, she thinks it will help me get my timing together. I do have all the pieces, I just can't get them all together at the right time!
  

After my lesson I skated another hour (until 6). Maybe not such a good idea, as I was a bit tired when I *started* my lesson. Now, I am so wiped out it's unbelievable. It's been a lot of skating this week so it's not surprising. Still, in that hour I got some good work on my crossovers -- I think there's some real improvement there, especially when I relax and don't try to rush them. If I think of "edge pressure" and being somewhat deliberate, I can turn out some good CCW and some okay CW ones. Part of the edge pressure is feeling the whole blade on the inside foot, not just the heel. It's okay (I think) to feel the heel more on the outside pushing foot, but on the inside I need to feel more of the blade I think. At least, when I do that I feel much more firmly in the ice.

I also worked some more on those darn FI3s. The RFI3s are where I left them, the LFI3s not so much. Grr.

There are a lot of people preparing to test and/or compete (testing this Sunday, competition a month away) so I got to see some programs in various stages of preparation. Good luck to everyone who's testing Sunday!