Inside 3s

Today's lesson was somewhat focused:

• FI3s -- I asked to look at these because they were/are in really bad shape. We worked on them for almost 20 minutes. I was able to vastly improve the RFI3 so that it's not cheated (I can do it at the top of the lobe) and fairly clean. We worked on the alt-3 pattern to get into the LFI3. The main corrections for the LFI3 were to keep the free foot close (behind and pointed down, with some tension). Anna also said I am tending to lean back before the turn. She emphasized having a feeling of being led by the hand into the turn, and after. There was quite a bit of improvement, but they still stink (they just stink less).
  
• BI3s -- having worked on the FI3s Anna really wanted to work on the BI3. We started by doing back 2-foot turns, then worked into the RBI3. Anna had me come to the boards to get the feel for what the free foot position should be like -- in front of the skating foot (held over the tracing), turned out of the circle and with a nice lifted hip. It seems deathly hard to get the right position -- when I get the free foot position right I invariably am not looking where I'm going, or my arms are loose, and in almost every case I'm not sitting back on the blade. Grrr! These are going to be stinkers. I've not really worked on them much, either, which is my own fault.
  

This was my earrrrrly (6:30 a.m.) lesson. I am not a morning person and getting up at 5:25 is almost 4 hours earlier than I would normally get up (no joke). I was surprised that I felt pretty loose and pretty good. It was a good lesson, and my warmup before the lesson (it's a 6 a.m. FS session) was good too. I'm pleasantly surprised.