Moves Workout

Today's lesson:

• Perimeter stroking -- yep, back to basics. Anna was relatively pleased with these, even in the bad direction. Main correction was to not rush the extension; quick tempo on transitions but hoooollllld the extension. We worked some on just getting into the end crossovers pattern as that always seems to be an issue for me. Anna suggested I'm going to need to try to place the first full set of crossovers later so that I won't be cramped for space when it comes time to do the second set. Anna did utter the magic words ("Perfect!") for my CCW pattern though, which was gratifying.
  
• Forward crossovers -- Anna says I need to stroke out to the side more, not so much back. Still, they were somewhat improved, even the CW ones. Also she said I need to do the first crossover of each circle sooner. I'm still having some problems holding the larger circle size, but I made some progress. I really, really need to drill the bad side FXOs more so they are not so scary.
  
• Back crossovers -- ugh! Anna says I still need to pull the right hip back on the bad side (CCW) BXOs; for the CW ones she says I need to take my time more, don't rush, and hold the extensions. In general I could use more heel pressure.
  
• Edges -- we ran through all of them. FOs not too bad, although I wasn't impressed with the right foot. Still tending to rush the rotation on the FI edges, and I'm not holding the free hip up as well as I have in the past (sheesh!). BO edges, Anna really got on me to hold the initial position longer before the rotation, and to keep the free foot close until coming back to the line. Eep! This made these a lot harder! Anna says they are (or will be) more controlled though. On the BI edges, Anna says I'm not really getting over my skate/hip on the R foot -- and again, need to keep the free foot close and not let it wander. Also, for all edges, pushing onto a bent knee, slight straightening for the "set" and then bending again.
  
• Waltz-8 -- we'd not looked at these in a while, but since I'm going to have to test them at some point we are back at 'em. Anna drew me a circle to use though, which really help me in visualizing them. The diameter of my circle is roughly the center point of the hockey circle to the outer edge. Having the circle to trace really helped. With these the hard part right now is the step forward -- the 3 is trivial, the 2nd step (after all my work on the 5-step Mohawk) is easy too. It's getting that step forward that is hard, but we made good progress. Key seems to be a) ride that BO edge (2nd step) all the way, don't cut it short, and b) make the step forward just a step, not a push. These were pretty improved by the time we finished.
  

All in all I felt much better about things, and I was pretty tired -- Anna gave me probably 10 extra minutes. During my warmup I worked some waltz jumps with indifferent results. Next lesson is Thursday at 6:30 a.m. -- eep!