Perseverance

Had the day off so I got to have a nice skate at the adult session. I just got my blades sharpened so I had the usual interesting few minutes before they were more skateable. I spent a lot of time on the waltz jump, trying to get more lift and get rid of that scratchy edge. Some small success; one key is to get better knee bend before the jump, I think. I've noticed I'm getting much better knee bend on the landing lately. I worked on 3s and spins (not much going on there) and a little bit on power pulls (which have NO power and precious little pull), and of course edges. I practice edges every time I skate. I'm pretty happy with all of them these days except BI which for some reason have been pretty icky lately. *sigh* I also worked on the 5-step Mohawk and trying to teach myself the new APB Moves 3-turn pattern -- I can do one set but then I'm not ready for the next set, I'm off for some reason. I'll have to get Anna to show me that.

Bill was having a lesson with Lorie, she was teaching him edges. I had to smile as it took me back. They look so easy, "how hard can that be?" but of course they are not...

I spent a fair amount of time on crossovers, in the pattern and on the circle, and also in Russian stroking. These are definitely improving. I'm finding with the Russian stroking that if I concentrate more on doing a better job of just stroking on the FI edge before the crossover that they are much, much better. I'm actually almost happy with them. I finished up my skate with a lap of perimeter stroking, and although my extension wasn't quite up to snuff, I noticed that placement of my steps and my end crossovers were both right on, so that made me pretty happy.

Young Lisa M (not the older Lisa M!) was at the session. I had to give her a hard time when I got there -- in my best "official" voice, "Pardon me, ma'am, but are you old enough to skate this session? I'll need to see some ID!" (she just turned 18 a couple of months ago). Jan (who is 72) piped up with "I'm not old enough!" And we made the "shush, keep this quiet" gesture (finger to lips). These people crack me up!

Afterwards I got to talk to ice dancer Bob. He's amazing! I thought he was in his mid-to-late 60s but he said he started skating at age 68 (!), 7 years ago! He's done Moves up through Preliminary and a number of dances. He has really nice edges and is very smooth on the ice... someday I hope to skate that well. I also bumped into Rebecca and Rita as I was leaving (they were skating at the public session) -- I'd not seen them (or most of my other young skating buddies) in ages, so it was nice to say Hi and get a big smile.