Figure Frustration

I had my lesson with Lynne at Chandler coffee club as usual. At the beginning of the session there were 3 skaters (there were more later) and we were all working on figures! It was amusing to see.

Today's lesson:

• FI8/FO8 -- the bulk of our time. Partly because I'd not practiced since my lesson (trips, sickness, general Christmastime rush) they were just not good. We worked a lot on my push to get my knee bent more (a lot more) which helped a bit. I'm still having trouble getting a really good edge and *keeping* it. It always amazes me how much harder this is on patch blades -- one minute I'm good and then I'm flat, and skidding. It's really tough. So besides working on the push we also worked on trying to keep my body position consistent. Lynne emphasized that I really need to not hunch forward, but keep a nice upright line (what Kelli would have called "staying seated"). When I can actually feel like I have my body position and placement correct it's really great but it was not happening (much) today.
• Serpentine -- we worked on these just a little at the end, working on the change of edge. We just worked FIO since I was having a lot of issues with my FO edges earlier. These need a lot of work; I tend to initiate the edge change okay but not getting my weight shifted enough to get firmly on an outside edge. Grrr.

This was a very frustrating lesson. I feel like I am making no progress.. but I reminded myself that I have had very little practice in my patch blades and it's unrealistic to think that the little time I've had in them is going to produce results. I need a lot more time on them. Next week I will start having more (and more consistent) practice time.