Moves Woodshedding

Today's lesson was all about the basics:

• perimeter stroking -- Anna wanted to look at the CW ones, since I often cheat and we just look at CCW. Phew! Extension and power are both looking much better, but those crossovers! Eeep. I am not preparing them well enough; need to really turn into the circle and hold that inside arm/side high. Anna says I'm really dropping the skating side so it's no wonder I have problems. Have to think of that high, floating "L" shape.
• FXOs -- with that start we went to look at the forward crossovers in the moves pattern. Much the same comments as above, but also the need to take my time. The extension on the stroke between the circles was better, but Anna says what's really lacking at this point is the very first stroke of the new circle; it needs more/better push onto the new skating foot and (again) getting turned into the circle properly.
• BXOs -- we had not looked at these in a while, and it showed. I was thinking on Monday as I did some that they felt uncomfortable. Anna says it's not so much that my kneebend is bad as that I'm not keeping my back straight, and not keeping turned into the circle and looking over my hand. Hmmph!
• 5-step Mohawk -- I often feel this is more like the "4-step" since by the time I've done the first 4 steps I'm back at the line! Grr. Anyway, we spent some time on this. First we reviewed the slide chassé a bit. Then we went back and worked on the 5-step. I asked Anna about the rotation on the 3rd step (wasn't sure if I should be rotating skinny or wide) and she side she'd prefer wide. The 3rd step seems to be the real problem for me at this point. As Anna said, "the hurrier you go the behinder you get." That is, I try to hurry the 3rd step and wind up taking too long! She had me try just doing the first 3 steps and holding the BO edge (basically landing position), then continuing once I was comfortable. Part of the issue, too, is that I'm tending to rush so that I don't collect the free foot (i.e. bring it back next to the skating foot) for the step forward. When I did that it felt much more natural and not so rushed. So, some progress.
  

During the first part of the lesson (working on CW stroking) I had a very alarming head-on near-collision with one of the coaches. She was following one of her students working on a dance, and I of course was going the "wrong" way since I was doing the CW stroking, and while I missed her student (the lovely and talented Lisa M!) with no problem, the coach and I almost bonked each other. Eeep! It scared me for a bit.

It's funny how time can pass, or not pass, during a lesson. I remember looking at the clock as I was working on the 5-step (since I was facing the clock). 7:54 seemed to last about forever! Seriously, I think I had time to do 3 5-steps in that minute.

The best thing about today was that I felt much better about my skating. I don't know if it was because I had a lesson (quite possible), or just feeling more rested, or what, but it was a good lesson and a good skate and I was quite happy with that.

Lastly, a shout out to Jenny! Today is her 15th birthday. Many happy returns J!