Moves & Spins

Today's lesson was the first in our new timeslot, 7:30 a.m. Mondays; I was on the ice at 7. Since there was a competition over the weekend it was quite quiet and for the last part of my lesson Sonya and I were the only ones on the ice.

Today's lesson:

• Waltz-8 -- I was practicing these before my lesson so of course that's what we started with. The good news is that the 3 is looking better and it's better placed. We worked mostly on getting the BO edge on the L side to be more steady; if that's better the step forward works much better. Sonya observed that on the R side (which is much better) I'm letting the edge curve around more and keeping my free foot close. On the L side I'm tending to bend forward on the BO edge and my free foot is extended. So we worked on trying to make the L side more like the R side :-). Some small improvement.
• 3-turn pattern -- I knew we would back to these pretty soon. They actually aren't too bad. Still trying to hold the entrance edge for the FO3 longer, it tends to be rushed. The other real area for work was on the back lobe, working to set up the BXO better by bringing the arm back AND shifting the weight (and turning the head) all together. When I actually remember to do this, it helps a lot!
• spins -- we worked these from the windup, and also a little from a T-position and a 2-foot spin intro also. I guess I'd summarize by saying Sonya is trying to get me to slow this down a bit so that I can be more relaxed in it and not rush it. Trying to get me to hold the LFO edge on the step forward, then snap into the spin. Eeeep. I have a lot of difficulty finding and staying on the sweet spot. Also we observed that the LFO tends to be not a very good edge and sometimes it's a bit flat... which led to:
• FO edges -- I used to never have issues with these at all but lately I seem to have a problem keeping my free hip up. Hmmph. We will probably look at them more and of course Kelli and I have been working on them as well.

I have some stuff going on at work this week which make keep me from skating until Friday. Grrr.