Spins and Jumps

Today's lesson was on the 7:30 a.m. FS at Gilbert as usual. Ice was a bit bumpy. Good session, only about 5 skaters and 3 coaches (maybe 4?).

Today's lesson:

• spins -- JJ reminded me to not rush the entrance. I did some really good ones, including a 3.5 rev that was nicely centered! Wow! I was pretty happy with this. I'm not sure what I fixed from yesterday so I'm ascribing it to the "reverse coach effect."
• salchow -- still a work in progress, but I made some big improvements today. JJ reminded me again to get a good entrance, a nice curve (I am doing these from the LFO3 entrance now), a good 3. I'm finally jumping at the right time, so even if the rest of the jump doesn't work (which it didn't a good chunk of the time) at least I've got that part right (*most* of the time). I noticed I am tending to come out of the jump with my R hand forward though.
• toe loop/back pivot -- we worked on the entry for the toe loop, trying to get a better RFI3 and then into a pivot position so that I actually can draw the R foot back. JJ mentioned to me that I need to keep the picking foot upright (big toe toward the ice) and not let it flop over so the little toe is toward the ice. Duh! Can't jump from that. It was a big help.

All in all this was a really terrific lesson! Maybe it was getting some practice yesterday (duh!) but I'm really pleased with my progress.