Filling In The Cracks

Lesson this morning on the 7 a.m. FS as usual. It's actually light when I get to the rink, but that will change in a couple of weeks when the evil Daylight Saving Time starts. Grrr.

For today's lesson I asked Sonya to concentrate on the last half of the program, and especially the very end. So we did, but of course we did work the whole program. Many, many corrections. Here they are in program order:

• 3-turn section -- emphasis here is to keep going. As expected the CCW back 2-foot turn still stinks. Sonya reminded me to give myself a moment before the turn to actually bend my knees and get in position. For the LFO edge, Sonya agreed I could switch back to the original arm position she'd given me (R arm up, L arm down) rather than the hands at waist. My "4" position is pretty stinky though.
• Push back/2-foot spin -- Sonya wants me to not be so emphatic about putting the toepick in before the pivot, it's distracting. Also I reminded myself that if I look up in this section it looks much nicer AND I don't go up on my toepicks on the push back.
• Lunge -- Sonya reminded me that if I can't get the turn done, just stand up and keep going. Duh.
• FXOs/FI edges -- these need to be faster transitions and really bring the foot through. The mohawk following needs to be earlier so the following section is placed better on the ice.
• Waltz jumps -- not bad, but more collected and placed earlier.
• Spiral/turn/spin -- need to get in position for the spiral faster and really straighten the skating leg. For the turn Sonya reminded me to get a good check with the shoulders and not let the free leg get away from me. For the transition to the spin entrance she pulled out the funky step thing and now I'm basically just putting the free foot down and pushing into a BXO. For the windup, Sonya asked me to really look out of the circle and behind me before the step forward. This really helps! I did so much better with this, I think because when I step forward it's all together.
• Closing pose -- we finally got this worked out. It's brush back from the spin, then into an RBI pivot finishing FACING THE JUDGES :-), then stand, bring R arm over the head and down, L arm up and look along the arm up to the "sky".

*Phew*! Lots of work there, it was a great lesson. Sonya asked me whether I can get these transitions faster in two weeks and I said I thought I can get them somewhat faster, yes, I still need more practice. I'm going to try to practice a lot this week because I don't want to be wearing myself out too much the last week before the comp. Sonya reminded me that if I'm way behind in the second section I should cut the spiral and just go straight to the turn/spin/pivot/end.

I tried out my new Bunga pad on my toe today. It felt a little weird, but certainly didn't hurt. I'll keep wearing it and see how it goes.

Tomorrow I'm getting my blades sharpened and changing out my purple laces for black ones (*sob*).