Waltz Jumps & XOs

I hadn't skated since Wednesday, so this morning's freestyle was a bit of a shock. Today's lesson:

• waltz jump -- we worked on these for about half the lesson. First we worked on holding the BO edge longer, and straighter. Anna had me do a pattern where I'd skate around the hockey circle, do a mohawk at a specific point, then hold the RBO down the line to straighten the pattern out before doing the jump. This seemed to help. I was also tending to extend the free leg before the (skinny) rotation, so we worked on staying on two feet until the midpoint of the rotation, so that the L leg extends as the L arm does -- THEN hold the RBO edge, "collect", step forward, and jump. I think basically Anna wants me to slow the process down and hold each position a bit. We made some good progress, but we still need to get to working on the step forward and jump to get better position and height.
• FXOs -- I wasn't in the mood to work on this, but Anna said we should get it out of the way for the week. They are continuing to improve; but I'm finding that I need to really get my weight more firmly over my skate. That's part of the reason for my lack of extension. Anna said, "I want you to cross because you want to, not because you have to." I really wasn't getting the firm edge that I've gotten in the past (at least at times). It would also help if I bent my knees more. All in all, stuff I've heard a zillion times and ought to know by now. For example, Anna had me doing the cross n' hold drill and if there's one thing I'm reminded of every time I do that, it's that I need to bend my knees more; there's no way to do that drill if you don't. So -- lots to work on.
  
• BXOs -- ugh. We worked these for a few minutes, and I'm not happy with them, especially the CCW ones. I am just NOT getting my weight on my back skate, and too much weight either between the legs or on the front foot, so of course I'm not getting the cross. Anna says my front foot needs to be further in front of me but of course it's not happening because there's too much weight on it. Needs work! Anna says she wants to look at back edges on Thursday to help with this.
  

All in all a good lesson. There's no coffee club this week so my only chances to skate will probably be Wednesday night and the freestyle Thursday morning for my lesson, unless I haul my butt out of bed and hit the 7 a.m. freestyle some other day.