A New Beginning

Today was my first lesson with my new coach, Lucy. We are going to have our lesson in this time slot, Sundays at 10 a.m. It's been a long time (4.5 months) since I've had a coach, and it's nice to be making a new beginning. Today's lesson:

• Stroking -- shouldn't every coach start with stroking? :-) Lucy's main feedback was to be a little looser in the shoulders, to get more extension (straighter leg), and to get the crossovers a bit smoother.
  
• FXOs -- in the Moves pattern. Again, more extension, better tempo, don't rush. Lucy said to remember to bend the knees more when I get my speed up.
  
• BXOs -- Also in the Moves pattern. These have deteriorated a bit; Lucy says I'm not getting a real cross even on the good side. Lucy wants me to work on improving my BO edges, working on just skating the BO edge with the free foot in front. After that she wants me to go to the ISI-style BXOs.... *sigh*. I know she's right, I'm just not looking forward to it.
  
• Spin entrance -- Lucy reminded me that the step forward needs to be on a bent knee. The biggest correction is to not let the free leg wander out on the step forward, but to bring it in to the knee in a sort of spiral as the spin starts. It's getting better but still a long way to go on this.
  
• Salchow -- just a little time on this. Lucy confirmed I'm jumping too late; she said I need to think of the "spin" in the air, not on the ice :-) and to work to have a more balanced tempo between the entrance and exit edge of the 3.
  

After the lesson I stayed until the end of the session, but by the end I was pretty darn tired. I need to get my stamina back to where it used to be.