Outside Mohawks

Today's lesson was complicated by an overnight dusting of snow, and some black ice that made the drive to the rink "interesting". At Sonya's request, we moved the lesson up to 7:30. Due to the weather the session wasn't too crowded, and at 7:30 it cleared out to just 3 of us.

Since we already had a lesson this week, we agreed to skip the LFI3s today. Yea!

Today's lesson:

• Outside Mohawks -- I'd asked Sonya in my last lesson to teach me something new, since it seems I've been working the same old stuff for quite some time; so we decided on outside Mohawks. We worked them against the wall first, then on the hockey circle. They went a lot better than I expected (though of course they are very rough!). I need to have a better FO going into these, and I'm tending to bring the back foot too far forward. I think I can fix a lot of these by taking my time more.
  
• BXOs -- these have improved a lot since the last time we looked at them. Sonya's 3 corrections were 1) Still need to push more from the middle of the blade (I think of pushing from the heel) and curl the ankle on the understroke; 2) need to pull the front shoulder back more, along the circle, and 3) need to look where I'm going (over the hand). I'm pleased that these have improved, but I want them better! If I concentrate and don't rush the tempo I know I can do them well. I need to be more consistent.
  
• Power-3s/Back Russian stroking -- I mentioned to Sonya that I'd been looking at power-3s so we went and looked at them again, especially the back lobe. The step forward on the power-3s is a bit problematic. The back Russian stroking is a lot of fun and I'm starting to really get the hang of it. Sonya also showed me a drill that's just some BXOs and then turn circles with the weight on the outside foot (like the back lobe). Doing these I really felt my arms turned out of/along the circle. It was interesting.
  

After my lesson I asked Sonya what my biggest strength and weakness as a skater are right now, in hopes of getting better feedback on what I need to be addressing most. The answers surprised me somewhat. She said my strength is that I have good posture, and I usually go into things with the correct posture instead of having to make an adjustment. My biggest weakness, she said, is that my edges (especially my back edges) are still a bit weak, and this is holding me back. She's right, of course. My problems with LFI3, with FXOs, with Mohawks and step forward are all due to poor edges. I was surprised only because I expected an answer like "fear" or "timidity" or "lack of practice time". So... this is a good thing, since edges are something I can work on and fix. I have lots of edge drills I've been taught and there's no reason I can't spend more time on them.

We also talked a little about our lesson style; Sonya wanted to make sure I was happy with how we set our direction. We've developed a fairly collaborative style; sometimes I'll have a bunch (or some) specific things I'll want to work on, and other times Sonya will. I told her so long as we both make sure that I'm going in the right direction I think it's fine.

Sonya mentioned she'd like to go over the Dutch Waltz with me next week; she think it will help my edges and other stuff. It will be fun to revisit the DW and see how it goes now that I've made some progress.