Critique

Today I had the APB Moves critique at 5:45. I got to the rink early and was on the ice at 5:15 and had a good warmup. The judge (Joan) showed up around 5:40, so I went and talked to her briefly, then finished warming up. At 5:45 Sonya and I met up with her and we talked briefly about upcoming changes in the adult testing structure. I told Joan I am working on figures and she thought that was great. With that, we got started. The format was that I would do a move, then come back to talk to Joan and Sonya. They stood together at the door to watch, and Sonya took notes that she has promised to write up.

• Stroking -- Joan had me come talk to her after the first one (CCW) and said that it was clear that I'd improved since my test (she was one of the judges from my November test). She reminded me that I need to keep my head up (especially on the crossovers, I do better on the straightaway) and to look confident and relaxed. Ha! So I went and did the CW stroking and it was better.
  
• Edges -- I did the FO and FI edges and came back and talked. Joan thought they looked pretty good, good lobe size and good posture. Then I did BO and BI edges. Joan mentioned that I am really widestepping my push (esp. on BI but also BO) and that I need to keep my feet closer together.
• FXOs -- Joan's feedback was mostly that my transitions take too long, and it made my L circle (CCW) bigger than my R circle (I start with the R). She asked me to do them again and I made some improvement I think.
• BXOs -- Similar to the FXOs, main feedback (that I remember) was that I wait waaaay too long to start the 2nd circle. Joan suggested no more than a two count in the transition before starting the next circle. I tried it and it was shorter but not short enough.
• Waltz-8 -- this actually went well (it's been my nemesis). Joan wanted me to hold the entrance and exit to the turn much longer, and to watch the step forward -- once again I'm not keeping my feet close (in spite of having worked on that a lot lately, grrr). She had me come back and just do some FO3s holding the entrance and exit and I held them realllly long, longer than I usually manage (Joan counted to 4 slowly). RFO3 not nearly as good as LFO3 in this respect.
  
• 3-turn pattern -- we were really short on time by this point. I did the LFI side and it was dreadful, just dreadful, but I went on and did the other side which was merely bad for the first couple and then I made myself slow down and they were better (so yay me on that part). Came back and talked about it and worked it a bit with Sonya and Joan watching.
  

And with that we were out of time. We talked a little after and Joan gave me some encouragement and I thanked her and gave her a thank-you card. She asked me if I had any questions and I asked her what the single most important thing for me to remember would be and she said "confidence." She reiterated that a skater should come out looking confident and sending a message to the judges that "I know what I'm doing and I'm going to do it for you." I agree... and I think this is one of my weaknesses. Hmmm.

With that Joan left and Sonya had another lesson to give. I spent the remaining 25 minutes or so of the session working on some of the things Joan had mentioned, as well as a little time on toe loop and spins.

After the session was over, Sonya and I talked for several minutes about Joan's feedback and talked about what things we want to work on in the limited time we have available. After that we went to the pro shop to talk about ordering me a spinner. Sonya has suggested this several times and I had never wanted to, but now I'm thinking it's kind of stupid for me to not do this if it will help (and several people have suggested it probably will help). I was concerned that I don't have any safe place to work with it (my house is not big enough), but I realized I can take it into the yoga/pilates/aerobics room at the gym at work and use it there and there should be plenty of space.

All in all I was quite pleased, all things considered. I was kind of tired, and I had a really horrible day at work, and the session was quite busy, so for me to have done passably well (I think) in spite of all that gives me confidence that I can do okay on Sunday. I felt some irony in that many of the moves (especially FXOs and some aspects of the waltz-8) were the best I'd ever done. I guess that is a good thing, but it made me wonder what the feedback would have been like otherwise!

Special thanks to Karly for moving her lesson time so I could have Sonya at this time. Also a number of folks both at Sherwood and also my Tucson homies have been really supportive. It means a lot.