Basics

For today's lesson, we were back on fundamentals:

• Forward edges -- Lucy was relatively happy with these. On the FO edges she reminded me to keep my shoulders down. On the FI edges she noticed I start with the free arm forward; she said she's usually seen skaters start with the skating arm forward on these. I'm pretty sure I've always done them this way. She said she'd check to see whether the judges actually care which way it goes, and let me know.
  
• Back edges -- these have lost a lot from where I used to be. On the BO edges Lucy reminded me I need to keep the free foot in front until the top of the lobe. On the BI edges there's a lot of stuff to fix -- my lobes are not very consistent (R foot much smaller/shallower than L foot), and Lucy told me I need to work on keeping the free foot pigeon-toed in for the first part of the lobe, and pointed on the 2nd half of the lobe. She also reminded me to keep the free hip up.
  
• FXOs -- these are getting better. Lucy reminded me to keep the shoulders down and to keep turned into the circle and eyes up. She also reminded me to work for the extension on the free leg. The CW FXOs are really improving, even though they still feel kind of awkward.
  
• BXOs -- we looked at the ISI-style BXOs. Lucy said she could tell I had worked on my BO edges, and they are a little better; but I still need to spend a lot more time working on skating those BO edges with the free foot in front and keeping turned into the circle. The LBO is much harder, for some reason.
  

After my lesson I only stayed about a half-hour, so about 1.5 hours of skating total. I was pretty happy with this lesson even though I didn't work on anything "fun." Next week I think we'll go back to the spin entrance.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to drop my blades off for sharpening, and get my new ones ordered.