Jumps & Spins, Still

Today's lesson had been moved from Monday due to the holiday, so it was on the 8:15 FS. As usual for this session, nice ice and not crowded (4 skaters). Before my lesson I warmed up with forward and back perimeter XOs. I'm being better about not stopping and doing a whole lap or at least a side (of course it helps when the rink isn't crowded!).

Today's lesson:

• spins -- my two main issues now seem to be that I'm a bit twisted (lol, so Sonya says!) (my R side is not keeping up) and that I'm not staying in position. We tried working both of these issues separately and did get some progress individually but couldn't get them both together. Also I'm widestepping the step forward a bit; need to bring it in. I did get a couple of 1.5 - 2 rev spins where the first rev was nice and tight, which is encouraging.
• waltz jump -- still working on timing on this. Sonya brought out the champion cords (I think that's what they are called?) and tied one to my R boot and had me hold the other end in my R hand. It's supposed to get you to bring your leg and arms forward together. After a couple of tries where I just couldn't make myself jump with this thing, I did manage several and it did indeed help me to bring my arms forward at the same time as the R leg comes through.
• half flip -- just a few of these. Not too bad but need to be sure to get the extension immediately on the landing.
• toe loop -- a bunch of these to finish up. Still working on uncheating them; it is getting better. I got one uncheated and several that were pretty close. Sonya reminded me that I need to keep the hips square until I actually bring the R foot in; I'm tending to turn/twist early which is what makes it so cheated. I think continuing to think about jumping UP is helping too, I'm getting more spring and it makes me get my weight in the right place.

All in all a very good, very tiring lesson! Just two lessons left w/Sonya :-(.

My friend John (one of my coworkers) is a sports photographer (in his copious spare time :-)), and he was at the rink this morning to shoot some pictures of my lesson. It's an experiment; he has a lot of practice with outdoor sports (esp. soccer and football) but hadn't shot skating (at least not figure skating) before. Hopefully some good shots from this shoot. He showed me a couple on his camera and it looks like it might be really instructive for me.