Back To Jumping

I'm adapting or adjusting to being up so darned early. My warmup was much better and I didn't feel so dorky. Today's lesson:

• waltz jump -- I had wanted to work on these and Anna did too. The good news (and actually, it IS good news) is that although I had not seriously worked on these since I sprained my wrist (so, almost a month), they were not in bad shape all things considered. We started out by doing a couple of bunnyhops, and I got a correction I've gotten before -- need to stay straight up and down; I'm still leaning back a bit. Then we did a couple of our other preparatory things, then on to the jump. The main feedback was to get more toe in it, and to make the jump more of a continuous motion off the toe. Anna also reminded me to jump up, not out. Finally she also pointed out that I am tending to turn on my skate before the jump. I did get a couple that were not too bad. Anna said she is pleased that we have at least gotten to the point where we can work seriously on them -- generally speaking I pretty much always follow through on my attempts, no balking. That IS good. I do need to start spending more time on these in practice.
  
• spins -- I did one two-foot, which was okay. Then a few one-foot spins; Anna reminded me I need to be more "pulled-up" and have more pressure on the ball of the foot. We finished this part by working the backspin a little more; similar feedback to the forward spin on keeping the free hip up and being lifted straight up in a straight line over the skating foot. I did manage one really nice backspin of about 2 revs, which really made my day.
  
• BI3 -- we finished off with these, per my request. Anna reminded me the free foot should be in front of the skating foot, not crossed over, but pigeon-toed out across the tracing. I'm getting much closer on this; we ran out of time on it. If I can just get all the pieces together at the same time I'll have it; as it is I almost managed one. The big things to remember seem to be 1) free foot in correct position, 2) weight not too far forward on the blade (needs to be further back than I'm doing it), 3) look over the darn shoulder!, and 4) feeling the timing of when the turn wants to happen. The last is a feeling of allowing the curve to tighten (similar to the spin entrance but not so tight!) and then just letting the turn happen (lifting the toes). Like I said, I almost got one. I need to work these too.
  

During the spin portion of the lesson I asked Anna about the setup for the test for these. For the two-foot spin she said I can start from a pivot. For the 1-foot, she ran over to check her rulebook but it was somewhat unspecific so she said she'd ask. Generally speaking she said she would want the standard setup (i.e. from crossovers) but she's not clear on the free foot position.

After the lesson I asked Anna about blades vs. boots next year. She said I'd really have to wait and see. She thought Riedells or Harlicks would probably be better for me.

Ice Update: The front ice is still sitting there. I have not seen anyone working on it when I've been there but of course I have not been there much during working hours. I suspect it will be a while before it's fixed and operating again. *sigh* Also, I was told that there is sand under both the front and back ice, so I stand corrected.