Footwork

I was in Oregon and had a lesson with Sonya on the public session at WSC.  Very crowded, only 2/3 ice and crappy ice... but hey, it was a lesson!

For today's lesson we worked on the footwork sections in the free skate.  As usual Sonya's emphasis is on smoothing things out and removing extraneous steps.  So for example we worked on the moonwalk into the lunge, and she suggested rather than just step forward I should do a C-cut to get a little more speed/push.  She also suggested simplifying the entry into the spin by just going into the spin from the brush back (instead of the previous LFO3->BXOs).  Saves a little time.

We finished up by working on the salchow->pivot and finish. Going into this pivot really scares me (entry from a hockey glide).  Yikes.  We worked on it and it was much better.  She also gave me some suggestions for arm positions in the end that were pretty good.

All in all pretty productive for a public session!

A few minutes before the end of the lesson we had the following interchange with a boy (probably 10 or 11) wearing figure skates:

• BOY -- Are you having a lesson!?  An adult, having a lesson?!
• Sonya -- Yes!
• Me -- Yes, it happens all the time!

It cracked me up.  I wanted to tell him that he just wasted a minute of my lesson, so he owed me a dollar!  Too funny.