Half Flip & Spins

The rink was pretty deserted today; apparently the threat of a winter storm caused many folks to cancel their lessons. Only 3 skaters and 2 coaches were present the whole time.

Today's lesson:

• LFI3 -- as usual, just a little time on these. They are slowly getting better. I'm remembering to look at my L hand and to actually bring it more into the center. Sonya worked with me to get more control, and to hold the edge longer before the turn. We also worked to hold the core firm and not tilt forward. We'll keep working them but I'm glad for some progress.
  
• BXOs -- Sonya really wanted to look at these since we made such good progress last week. The CW ones are not so bad, so long as I take my time (a recurring theme!). Sonya wants more actual underpush though! On CCW I'm tending to not line up my feet well, and not getting a good, complete cross. Definitely better.
  
• Half flip -- we got a little distracted as Sonya decided this was the time to fix my Mohawk entrance. She wanted more curve on the edge right before the turn and a closer step to make it less "hoppy". Once we fixed that, the jump itself is getting a little better. It still needs more "jump!" but the timing is improving.
  
• 1-foot spin -- We spent quite a bit of time on this, with some improvement, although I'm still suffering from the same problems. Sonya's corrections were -- stay down in the knee longer, remember to deepen the kneebend, bring the free leg into the skating leg (don't hold it out), bring the arms around. Also we decided it would be better if I backed off being quite so aggressive with the entrance, as I'm tending to be too frantic/frenetic/powerful. Strange advice (it seems so backward!) but it did help quite a bit. I would have liked even more time on these, but we used up most of our time here, alas!
  
• Scratch spin prep -- we closed with Sonya giving me a prep exercise for the scratch spin. It's pretty simple really -- an LF glide, extend the free leg in an "H" with arms spread out; then bring the free foot in to the knee, then bring the arms in, then push arms and free foot down, then two-foot glide. Repeat ad nauseum :-).
  

I feel like this has been a good week for skating. I didn't really miss skating the public session (except for not getting to see my skate buddies) and the extra FS really helps a lot.