Perimeter XOs & Back Edges

Today's lesson:

• Back edges -- still working on keeping that darn free foot in front. I've made a lot of progress (amazing considering how little ice time I've had); I really just need to obsessively work on it. Even the BI pushoff has improved, and I'm able to do the BO pushoff without double-pushing as I had been (it's still weak, though).
• Forward perimeter stroking -- aka Russian stroking or perimeter XOs. These are getting better but my CW crossover is still stinky. Getting better at filling the rink and staying with the pattern, though. I have a hard time practicing these at a busy session; if anyone has hints for getting over that (other than repetition!) I'm all ears.
• Back perimeter stroking -- Sonya was pretty pleased with these. Same issues with fear of collisions, especially since I'm going backwards; but the XOs are not bad (hard to rush them in the pattern so they are better) and my change of weight wide step is not bad. These are fun.
• Spins -- I'd not done these in 2.5 months, really, so Sonya felt that she could start me over on them ("her way" :-)). We started with two foot spins and then went to one foot from a pivot and then finished quickly with a forward entry. Still having trouble finding the sweet spot but I did manage it briefly a couple of times. One of the one foot from pivot spins was really nicely centered and quite good.