YAMR

That's "Yet Another Moves Runthrough"....

Today's lesson was just that, at 6 a.m. Only 3 skaters on for the first part of the session, then some more showed up around 6:15 or so.

Today's lesson:

• Stroking -- I decided to start CCW since I want to have a good start to the test, and I reduced my intro steps from 5 to 4 to get better flow. These were relatively okay although Sonya reminded me to keep my head up and to hold the extension longer. She would like to see a quicker transition between strokes and not so much time with the feet close together before the push. Also a reminder to bend the knees more on the end XOs!
  
• Edges -- FO and FI edges pretty good. BO and BI still need to work on keeping the free foot in front or at least "forward".
  
• FXOs -- slow, but not too bad. The last circle was verrrry sllloooowwwww. Grr. I should probably try doing these really quickly to see what that's like (bad, I expect).
  
• BXOs -- first circle on each side not too bad but 2nd not as good. Still, these have really improved from a month ago.
  
• Waltz-8 -- horrible! Really, not too good. Okay, the placement of the 3 wasn't bad but the rest -- yech. Didn't hold the exit of the 3, didn't hold the back edge long enough, and step forward was pretty ukky. Really, not too great.
  
• 3-turn pattern -- Also, not too good (not as bad as the waltz-8). It's not the FI3, it's that I really whip the FO3 afterwards. Sonya did say the BXO was better. Sonya wants me to work on the FI3- FO3; really I just need to relax a bit and not rush (gee, where have I heard THAT before?!). There's plenty of time.
  

After the runthrough we had a couple of extra moments so we worked a little on BXOs to try to improve them. Sonya really had me working on trying to push the heel down on the back (leading) foot (how many times did Anna tell me that?!). Some improvement. It seems like the first circle on each foot is much better than the 2nd. I don't know if I just get tired, or if my concentration lapses, or what. Here's hoping the judges watch the first circle of each and then look down to write notes :-).