Power

My power lesson with Holly on the Gilbert adult skate today. I had about a 5 minute warmup.

Today's lesson:

• stroking -- I don't think I'm as fast as I was a month ago :-(
• slalom -- she had me go into this right from stroking so I was already going pretty fast.  Ugh, kinda scary.  My quads were killing me by the end.
• pushing -- I pushed Holly down the rink (both ways) while she braked with her toepicks.  Not too bad.
• swizzle pumps -- half-swizzle pumps around the hockey circles, so both directions and forward and back.  Ugh, again my quads were killing me.
• FI3/twizzle thing -- we did these down the line again, about 4 times.  They got a little better.
• lunges -- lunges down each length of the rink, alternating feet while pushing Holly.  These were actually not too bad.  I couldn't even really do these on both sides when we started.  Finished with half a lap (that was all I could do).

All in all quite a workout, as usual.  I do think I lost some ground in the time we had off, I was pretty winded by the end.

Preliminary Test; BO8

My lesson with Lynne on the Chandler Ice Café.  I warmed up with edges.

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- really, really nice.  I was really pleased with them.  Tracing was excellent and pushes were clustered nicely and pretty much in the right spot.
• FI8 -- very good.
• waltz-8 -- still working the same points. It seems to be mostly the RBO step forward that is an issue now.  The LBO, while not great, is much better.
• BO8 -- we had not touched these in a while.  I noticed that my free leg is extended on the RBO but not on the LBO.  Not sure what's up with that, but the LBO certainly looks neater/better and has better form.  I tried to keep the free leg in on the RBO and it weirded me out. I'll have to work on that.

After my lesson we had the group lesson, which was just me and Mary today so we worked on patch some more (Lynne was teaching :-) ).  I worked on serpentines (not bad, actually) and a little on 3s.

Jumps

My lesson with JJ on the 6:45 a.m. FS at Gilbert.  It was surprisingly crowded, especially with the 4 girls practicing for the Christmas show ("Hot Chocolate").  Looks like fun.

Today's lesson:

• waltz jump --  just a couple since I'd not skated for a week (!).  First one not so great but not too bad after that.  My lesson from this is that if I am mindful of the entry I can do a reasonably nice jump.
• salchow -- just two of these.  They actually were pretty nice! Not much lift, but timing was pretty good. I was pleased and would have liked to do more, but JJ wanted to move on.
• toe loop -- urph. These are about the same. Still landing two-footed.  Grr. I want to get these re-fixed!  That would require practice... :-)
• loop prep -- more loop prep on the wall.   Still a bit nerve-wracking for me but it's getting better.  We also did the two-foot backspin prep exercise, followed by doing an LBI pivot into the two-foot spin. Eventually I will need to lift that L foot...

After my lesson I only finished out the session (didn't stay).  I worked on 3s, spins and a few more toe loops.

Preliminary Test; 3s

My figures lesson with Lynne on the Chandler Ice Café (we switched to Wednesday due to a work commitment).  Per our current setup, Lynne scribed me some circles while I warmed up edges so we could start promptly after we got on the ice.

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- Okay.  I do think that doing these with little warmup is good practice for the nerves I'll have when testing/competing, but today I was just a bit off, more so than usual, which was a bit frustrating.  On the positive side I did get through it even with that, so I guess that's something.
• FI8 -- as usual, much better than FO8 and more or less okay.
• waltz-8 -- mmph.  The usual struggle.  Again to look at the positive side, I have a lot more control than I used to and I'm sure it at least looks like I know what I'm doing, so that is something.  The step forward is still getting me though.  Grr.
• 3s -- I told Lynne that in my skating this morning I'd realized how little control I have on my 3s anymore; so we worked on them as alternating 3s.  I actually have a lot more control on these in my patch blades than FS blades... which is really interesting.  I really do struggle to hold the edge after and get back to the line and be able to step forward.  I think this is worth pursuing as it does kind of isolate some issues.

After my lesson Lynne taught the group lesson, which was some basic power-y stuff.  Swizzles down the rink (forward and backward), swizzle pumps around the hockey circles in both directions, crossovers around the circles both directions forward and back, etc.  In patch blades it's... interesting.  I had some real difficulties getting a good RFO edge on the slaloms down the rink -- it tended to be flat and I'd skid.  An eye-opener.

Jumps

My lesson with JJ on the 6:45 a.m. FS at Gilbert.

Today's lesson:

• waltz jump -- trying to be a bit more disciplined on the setup and entry.  JJ suggested I try doing the whole jump on a hockey circle to keep it on one (not-too-curvy) curve.
• salchow -- I did a couple that were almost okay.  JJ keeps telling me the same thing in different ways, lol.  
• toe loop -- about where it was on Monday.  Good spring but still landing on two feet. :-(
• loop prep -- we did the backspin prep exercises (two-foot spin, weight on R foot)  and loop jumps at the wall.  Eeep.

After my lesson I had some time and then skated the 7:30 session as well.  I worked a little on spins but mostly on Moves.  Bleah.  I'm realizing my 3s have gotten really bad.  I spent some time working just on the alternating 3s and I can't do them without putting my foot down, which explains a lot about my problems with both the power-3s and some other places as well.  Yuck.  I need to fix these.

Perseverance

I skated the 7:30 a.m. FS at Chandler for freestyle practice.  I'd not skated freestyle for almost 2 weeks, and it's been a full two weeks since I skated just for practice and not a lesson.  Geez!

Having been off the ice for so long, I didn't expect much and that's what I got :-).  I spent half an hour on Bronze Moves, then worked on spins for 10 minutes and 20 minutes on jumps.  As I feared (and expected) I'm landing the toe loop two-footed again.  Grrr.  I'm sure I'll get it back, it's just annoying.

Preliminary Test & Serpentine

My figures test with Lynne on the Chandler Ice Café.  We got on the ice right as the session started, Lynne scribed some circles while I warmed up edges.  I see that we pretty much worked on the same stuff as last week -- I'm okay with that.

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- pretty good except for a rather bad wobble on the first RFO.  Circle size was good and my pushes are lining up pretty nicely.
• FI8 -- nice.
• waltz-8 -- I've mostly fixed the issue I had with cutting in the BO edge.  I still am not quite holding it long enough, though, and the step forward is of course still weak.   Overall I do feel it's improved a lot in the past month or so.
• serpentine -- Lynne had scribed me 3 circles so clearly this was on her mind :-).  Actually it went really well!  On the positive side I actually made it around ALL of my circles with no extra push!  That's a first, I think.  On the negative side I did have one loss of balance moment on one of each of the LFO and RFOs -- I was trying to push harder (and I did) but it threw me off a bit.  Transitions are not as nice as they have been -- a bit diagonal and not well controlled.  Still, it actually is pretty significant progress so I'm stoked.

After my lesson we did patch for the group lesson, so I worked on BI8 and 3s to center.  Mmmph, neither one was too great.

Preliminary Test & Serpentines

My lesson with Lynne on the Chandler Ice Café.  We start right at the beginning of the session, so Lynne scribed circles while I warmed up with edges.

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- pretty good.
• FI8 -- really nice.
• waltz-8 -- still working to get the step forward better.  The BO edges are tracking the circle better but it's still the step forward. Yuck.
• serpentines -- had not worked on these in a while.  My push for the FO edge is not strong enough, still, and the FOI change of edge is giving me issues.  Weirdly, the FIO change is actually pretty good and I was doing a nice job on the second half of the figure.

After my lesson we had the group lesson, which was also patch.  I worked a little on BO8, then some more serpentines and 3s to center.

Toe Loop & Loop Prep

My lesson with JJ on the 7:30 a.m. FS at Gilbert.  I warmed up with the first four Bronze Moves.

Today's lesson:

• toe loop -- I was really curious whether my success from Monday would stick... it did!  I did a bunch that were really good (okay, and a couple that were not).  I even got video of it :-).  Yay!
• loop prep -- most of the lesson.  As before we did two exercises -- two foot spin and working to get the weight on the R foot on a BO edge, and then stepping through the jump on the wall.  Ugh.  This is slow.  

I'm really stoked about the toe loop -- really, this feels like the first real "breakthrough" moment in literally years.  We'll see.

Alas, due to some schedule changes I'm going to have to move my lessons with JJ to 7 a.m. (ulp!) for the next 4 weeks or so... yikes.  On the positive side I will probably stay and skate two sessions so yay for more ice time!

Toe Loop Progress!

I skated the 7:30 a.m. FS at Chandler for practice today.

I spent the first 30 minutes on Bronze moves.  Bleah.  Not impressed, though I have to say I don't think they are particularly worse than when I tested so I guess that's something.   I did some work on power-3s but not much progress.

After that I spent about 20 minutes on jumps.  The thing that made my week was that I managed to start landing the toe loop on one foot!  I was so happy!  I did a few that were the same and then I somehow managed to land one on one foot, and then I did 6 or 7 more!  Then I had a couple that were two-footed but I kept working and got it back.  YAY!  It felt very... easy.  I pray this sticks!

After that I worked on salchow and waltz jumps, then a little time on spins.  I finished up by walking through my program without music. Yikes, I had forgotten a lot.  I think I mostly have it back but I need to watch video again to be sure :-)

Power

My power lesson with Holly on the Gilbert adult skate.  I just had a very brief warmup (stroking, perimeter XOs) and then we got started...

Today's lesson:

• stroking -- as usual.  This is still scary and I think I could probably go a little bit faster than I am.  Eeep.
• FXOs -- we did these around the circle for a bit, in both directions.  The CW ones were not as bad as I was expecting.  I tend to push so that I'm too forward on the blade on the inside foot, though, and that is unsettling/scary/unstable.  Trying to fix that.
• FXO pattern --  I whined about how slow I am in the perimeter FXOs, so we spent a little time working on that.  We fixed some things but I still feel like I'm slow :-(.
• lunges --  one length of the rink pushing Holly and then a whole lap around the rink on my own (first time).  Yikes.  I was able to do them though they were pretty awkward at times.
• fast swizzles -- a lap of swizzles as fast as I could go.  My quads were already aching from the lunges!  yikes.

All in all good stuff.

Preliminary Test & BI8

My figures lesson with Lynne on the Chandler Ice Café.  I got on and scribed some circles and then we started (no warmup :-( ).

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- pretty good, except for a little wobbliness on the first RFO.  Hey, no warmup.
• FI8 -- pretty nice.
• waltz-8 -- this is still slowly improving.  I'm getting much better control on the BO edge and the step forward, while still quite weak, is a bit better.
• BI8 -- just a few minutes on these.  The initial RBI is not bad.  The LBI is a bit weak but did improve.  The subsequent RBIs were no bueno - I didn't get a good push at first.   I was mostly able to fix this.   I really need more practice time.

After my lesson I had about 10 minutes of the group lesson before I had to leave.  We worked on elements of the Canasta Tango, which is, shall we say, interesting in patch blades.  Oh well it's all good.