Aggressive!

Today's lesson was great. I have to say, much though I grumble and complain about being up so darn early (I think I had 5 or 5.5 hours of sleep), generally I have had some darn good lessons in this time slot. Here's what we did:

• perimeter crossovers -- Anna pointed out to me that I'm still not turning into the new circle very well, which makes it hard to get my weight firmly over my skating hip/foot. She had me concentrate on remembering to turn my arms/shoulders and to really feel like I'm looking over the hand when I'm going into the crossover. Also she said I am supposed to do 4 lobes down the rink. I'm tending to not count at all and not remember where I am or when I'm done. Still, these have improved a lot, actually. Anna also reminded me to make the lobes a bit curvier than I have done, mostly in coming out of the XO.
• BXOs -- in the moves pattern. I'm not that thrilled with them. Anna says I still need to get more point in the toe on the free foot to get better separation. We did these mostly as intro to ...
• back perimeter crossovers -- she had showed me these once before a couple of weeks ago but we'd not worked on them or looked at them. They are fun! I'm pretty slow at them right now. Anna reminded me to place the XO at the bottom/top of the lobe.
• power-3s -- these have improved. It helps that I think they are fun and I practice them whenever I get a chance. On the other hand, I clearly haven't practiced my right foot enough! The left foot is not so bad, the right foot -- has issues. One of the things we worked on is to remember to be "led" by the hand in the BXO and to be sure to have turned into the circle when starting the BXO. Anna wants me to start these with the "wrong" hand/arm in front (e.g. left foot power 3s starting with right hand/arm in front). Otherwise she says there's just too much rotation going on. It was a little difficult to adjust to this but I managed. The best thing about these, Anna says, is that I'm really committed to the edge and so they flow really well.

Anna said at the end of the lesson that she's really pleased with the aggressiveness I'm showing in these moves. I am really pleased with my progress on them!

Random note -- Anna mentioned in passing that she'd had a dream about me doing a salchow! Don't know what that means, but it's interesting.