Spin Entrance & Waltz-8

Today's lesson was at 5 p.m. due to Good Friday service. I warmed up on the public ice and then skated the 5 p.m. freestyle session, which was pretty lightly attended.

• BO edges -- some time reviewing these. Anna said it's time for me to start keeping my free foot in front at the beginning of each lobe. No more getting away with keeping it tucked in! Of course making this change totally threw me and I wasn't happy with how I did them. Sometimes it seems like I never practice these, but I know I spend significant time on them; and I practice them almost every (if not every) time I skate. Sheesh.
  
• BI edges -- I'm getting nice extension on the last half of each lobe, but the first half is a bit weak. I'm trying to do better about the rotation in these and also the free foot in front to start and it's still throwing me a bit.
  
• Waltz-8 -- as promised Anna introduced me to these. I'd read about them online and worked them a bit. They were not as hard as I was expecting, though of course I can't do them well yet. I was thinking the 3-turn would be the hard part -- ha! It's the least of my troubles. Really, the hardest part seems to be the step-forward; and it's not that it's hard so much as it's hard to do it and keep the circle so that I come back to center again. Sheesh! Still, definitely a practiceable element.
  
• Spins -- I had asked Anna if we could come back to these, so we did. I reeled off a reasonable 2-foot spin, so it was on to the one-foot spin; as always from a 2-foot spin (but see next element also). These were okay. Anna says I'm not standing up very straight over my skate; I'm either bringing my shoulders back or my hips forward (she's not sure which it is). We worked on them for a bit with a little improvement.
  
• Spin Entrance -- I've been dying to work on this for a while, so I was really happy Anna brought it up. This is the entrance from back crossovers. I still can't quite do this. Anna says I need more push into the step forward, still need to work on keeping free hip/free leg back on the step forward, and really need to bend the knee more on the step forward and get a real "grind" from the FO edge. In general, more aggressiveness. We worked on it for a while and had some progress, I think, but it will require more work still (and perhaps more determination to get that aggressiveness).
  

Sometimes it's just overwhelming, the number of things I feel I need to work on and it seems my progress is breathtakingly slow. Still, there is progress. I was skating after my lesson and just working on stroking for a bit. Now that I am working on getting better extension, I am also getting more power. It's very cool. I think getting down the ice in 4 strokes is almost within reach. Now, if I could just feel better about those end crossovers...

I sometimes worry that people reading this blog will think that from the way that I present things (the example that came to mind is my occasional heading of "Perseverance") that I am not enjoying myself in all this. Nothing could be further from the truth! Rest assured, dear reader, that while I sometimes get a bit frustrated, and while I'm certainly aware of my failings and imperfections and how much I have still to learn, I am enjoying this like ... well, like nothing else. When I practice 3-turns obsessively, it's in part because the feeling of doing them (especially those occasions when I do them well) is, well, delicious. Okay, so I'm less enthused about practicing crossovers and waltz jumps, but I know if I persevere I'll get to the point with those where I enjoy them more too. I'm actually close on the crossovers -- that edge-bite feeling is very cool. So, be assured that I am having a good time and while I am perhaps a bit obsessed, I'm certainly not torturing myself.

Thanks for reading!