New Moves

Today's lesson was moved up from 5:30 to 5 p.m. at Anna's request -- one of her new skaters (that she inherited from the coach that left) desperately needed another lesson before this weekend's competition. I can understand how that goes so it was not a big deal to me. Today's lesson:

• BO edges -- I had wanted to look at these anyway since it had been a while. Anna says they are looking good. Two important corrections -- 1) a reminder to be looking up the line the whole time, and 2) my RBO lobe was always smaller than the LBO lobe. Anna says that's because when I was striking onto the edge I was already on a diagonal instead of being perpendicular to the line. Once I started fixing this it made the RBO lobe much bigger (like the LBO) and also more comfortable and confident. Good stuff!
  
• BI edges -- Anna liked the confidence I've developed on these; also I'm getting a nice draw-in of the free foot at the beginning of the lobe and good action with the free leg coming back to the line. However! She pointed out that my rotation at the top of the lobe is very lacking, which makes my BI edges a bit inconsistent. Unfortunately, to fix this I need to start really doing the correct (skinny) rotation. Anna predicted that fixing this would (temporarily) screw up the rest of the action on the BI edges, and she was right. Still, I've got 3 months (well, a little less) to fix these so now is the time!
  
• Bauer/inside spread eagle -- Anna got that mischievous look in her eye that inevitably means she wants to teach me something new. "I'm sure you're bored!" she said, to which I in my usual gruff and grumpy tone :-) replied that with only 3 months to go before the test I am hardly bored. Anyway, off we went to learn how to do an inside spread eagle and a Bauer. Anna had me push off on an inside edge (we started with LFI but quickly realized RFI would be better) and just let the free leg trail. That's a weird feeling! Anna emphasized I need to get the weight firmly over the leading foot and then just let the back foot go. We played around with this for a bit without oodles of progress, but Anna said it's a start.
  
• FI Mohawk/cross step/step forward -- We finished up by looking at this pattern. It's a bit similar to my "Mohawk pattern from hell," only abbreviated. Basically it's inside Mohawk, then a cross step and and BO Mohawk, theoretically all in one smooth sequence. When I first tried it I was trying to check in between the pieces, but Anna said that's not the idea; it's really just one big turn/curvy thing so that it all flows. She said this is an important/handy/common piece of footwork, and sure enough later on in the freestyle session I saw another skater do exactly that move, so she is right :-). Anyway, I somewhat managed them but of course they'll need more work.
  

We spent almost 20 of our 30 minutes on the back edges, which was a lot. The new moves are a lot of fun but I'm not feeling too confident about them. After my lesson I had a half hour to skate on the session, which was crowded with people prepping for this weekend's competition.