Moves & Spins

I had my freestyle lesson for the week on the 2:30 FS at Gilbert since they had ice and JJ and I both had time.  It was a little crowded (like 8 skaters and 4 coaches) but not too bad.

Today's lesson:

• back perimeter XOs -- I had wanted to work on moves just a little bit.  Started into these and I was not watching as well as I need to and had a small collision with another skater.  JJ yelled at me right before so I was in the process of stopping, so it was more like a bump and nobody fell or was hurt.  Geez.  Anyway after that we worked on these.  The R side is pretty good but on the L side I'm not getting a good lean into the edge, and I need to look where I'm going on that side especially.  
• spins -- more work on "raising the curtain" (JJ's metaphor) with the free arm on the step forward, and bringing the skating arm around after the 3 and also turning the head into the spin at the same time.  I did this exactly once and wow did I get a faster spin!  These are still erratic though :-(.  Grr.
• backspin intro -- JJ wanted to spend a couple of moments on this, just getting the feel for the crossed-foot position and the entry.  Geez.  Scary stuff but I guess I will get there eventually.

All in all a good lesson.  Our lesson time for next week is Tuesday but exact time is TBD still.