Spirals

Today's lesson:

• Spirals -- I'd asked to look at these since it had been a while. We worked on the Pre-pre pattern, which is just an LF spiral for the first half (lengthwise) of the rink followed by an RF spiral. Anna says my extension and flexibility has improved a lot, so I guess all that stretching is having some effect. Yea! I'm still tending not to put my foot down on a good flat when I go to do the RF spiral. Gotta work on that. Anna says I need to lift the free shoulder a little more, and feel more tension/stretch down the whole free side (from the armpit all the way to the toe).
  
• FO Spirals -- the PM pattern. These aren't too hard. Anna says I should do 5 lobes down the side of the rink. Still need more stretch and extension, with the skating shoulder/arm leading the edge. I need to work more on the transition between feet, also -- it's pretty awkward.
  
• FI Spirals -- the PM pattern as well. These are a lot harder than the FO spirals! Anna said to experiment with which arm I feel most comfortable leading with; I tried it both ways. If I remember correctly, the skating arm leading felt like I was going to fall off the edge, and made it curve harder. I'll probably go with the free arm leading.
  
• FXOs -- decided to get these over with for the week. Some improvement but I still, still need a better initial push and first crossover. Once I get into them they are not so bad.
  
• BXOs -- Anna's still riding me to sit back on the inside foot more, to look over my shoulder more/better, and to point the free foot/toe on the CCW ones.
  
• Waltz-8 -- the hardest part of these is to find your way back to the center! Anna reminded me to push more "out" on the second step (and the third step to some extent) -- similar to feedback I got on the 5-step Mohawk. Also she reminded me that I still need to "set" my steps, especially the BO edge; I tend to just step to the BO edge and then rotate and then have to sit on the BO edge forever. I think the other hard thing for these is just to have some idea where you are on the ice. Still, I'm pleased by how much easier they seem than in the past -- I think that's due to my work on power-3s and the 5-step Mohawk.
  

I was pretty happy with this lesson. The ice was good, although still incredibly humid and therefore foggy. My glasses kept steaming up if I didn't keep moving :-).