Spins & Back 3 Prep

FS lesson w/JJ on the 7:30 a.m. FS at Gilbert as usual. Only 3 skaters for that session. I stayed for the following session too and had the ice to myself for most of it :-).

Today's lesson:

• step forward -- I was working on my waltz-8 when JJ came on the ice so of course he wanted to look at what I was doing, in this case trying to fix my step forward (BO mohawk). We worked on trying to keep the skating knee soft while lifting the hip, with a little success. I need to spend more time on this.
• spins -- about 10 minutes on these. A number of good ones! Well, good for me. Not so much that I got a lot of revolutions (I'm averaging 2) but that I am getting my weight (almost) in the right place. I can do this JJ there and not so much when I'm by myself! Grr. Anyway the key as always is just to really hold that R side back until AFTER the 3 and just be willing to start the spin in a relaxed way with the leg/arm out.
• back 3 prep -- in a fit of -- whatever -- I told JJ we ought to start working on back 3s. So we started doing some prep, at the boards, working on feeling the shift of weight toward the back of the blade. We spent a fair amount of time on it.

All in all a pretty good lesson. After the lesson I worked on salchow, toe loop, more spins, some moves, and a bit of time working on my RF lunge -- it has been sadly neglected and it really stinks. Oh well, it got a little better. I did some LF lunges and discovered that if I work at it I can now eliminate the toe-scratch, so a small YAY for me.