Choreography

I skated the 9:15 a.m. FS at Gilbert (I had the day off so I got more sleep!) for my lesson with Holly.  It was a rather busy session!

For today we worked on refining the choreography we have and getting it smoother.  We didn't play music.  I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of what I need to do for this first part, but we've only got one jump and one spin so far.  We have a lot to do!

Patch With The Elites!

I skated the Gilbert adult skate today for my figures lesson with Lynne.  As I was signing in who do I see is signed it but Micah T and Daniel K!  Eeep.  Both are senior men who don't normally skate at Gilbert, but apparently there was not a good session for them to skate in Scottsdale.  So... I expected to be distracted and I was! 

I scribed some circles and warmed up with forward edges and then it was time to start my lesson (which was interrupted several times by Daniel zipping through at warp 6!  but hey, he's got Nationals next week so cut him some slack~!).

Today's lesson:

• Back edges -- BO were pretty good.  BI not bad -- we spent some time working on the first push.  I REALLY need to bend my knees more to avoid the wide step.
• FO8 -- we spent some time working to try to make the first circle a better size.  Eeep.  I really need to lean in to that edge a bit more at the very start.
• FI8 -- pretty nice!
• waltz-8 -- actually a little progress on these.  My 3s didn't look great print-wise but I had a better exit edge and they felt more secure.  The L side was much improved, the R side not as much.

After my lesson I worked a bit more on waltz-8 and also some BO8.

Perseverance

I skated the 5:30 p.m. FS for practice as usual.  I had the ice to myself for most of the session!

I ran through Bronze Moves, then worked on jumps as usual.  Some good salchows!  Toe loop was about the same.

Patch Perseverance

I had the day off so I was out at Gilbert to skate the adult session for patch practice.  Nice ice and just 4 or 5 skaters and 1 coach for most of the session.

I warmed up with edges, then ran my FO8 and FI8.  FO8 was a bit rough at first.  FI8 was pretty nice.  After that I worked on BO8 for a while -- the first RBO was really good!  Not as good after though :-(.  Then I spent some time on serpentines.

I finished up with some quality time on waltz-8, of course.   I actually had some that were not bad, but I notice it's usually the first set.  When I'm restarting I'm going faster and I have a hard time doing a good RFO3 (especially) which then has a bad effect on the rest of that side of the figure. Hmm.

Jumps & Choreo

My lesson with Holly on the 8:15 FS at Gilbert.  I warmed up with Bronze Moves.

Today's lesson:

• waltz jump -- working on getting a bit more spring and better form.
• salchow -- I did a nice one then a bunch of bad ones while I overthought everything, then finally managed to settle down and do a nice one.
• toe loop -- we actually made some sort of progress on this though I think I'm still cheating it.
• program choreography -- more work on this.  Here's what we have now:
• opening pose - hands in front of face, L hand on top, open fingers
• LBI pivot
• swizzle forward w/hands
• swizzle back into a back two-foot twizzly-thing
• 5 CW BXOs in a nautilus shape
• toe loop (changed from a waltz jump
• hockey glide w/arms/turn
• back hockey glide w/arms
• turn forward arms overhead
• turn back w/arms
• spin

Altogether we made some good progress. 

Same Ol' Same Ol'

I skated the Chandler Ice Café as usual for my figures lesson with Lynne. Relatively crowded today, about 8 skaters.

I was running late so just had time to scribe circles before we started.

Today's lesson:

• Edges -- pretty good.  Back edges were especially nice.
• FO8 -- several layouts.  We worked a bit to get the first RFO to be a better size.  Lynne mentioned in passing that my subsequent restarts tend to be a little diagonal crossing the short axis, so that's something to be aware of.
• FI8 -- pretty good.
• waltz-8 -- working to consolidate the progress we made last week on getting my turns better.  Slow going.

After my lesson I worked some more on waltz-8 and a little bit on 3s to center.

Perseverance

I skated the 5:30 p.m. FS at Chandler for practice -- 8 skaters and 6 coaches.  I warmed up, then worked on most of the Bronze Moves (except circle-8) and spent a little extra time working on 3s. Not happy with my lack of control on them but I made some small improvement.

After that I spent the last 15 minutes or so working on jumps. Waltz & salchow were okay.  Toe loop still stinky.

Jumps

My lesson with Holly on the 8:30 a.m. FS at Gilbert. I warmed up with some Bronze moves and a couple of waltz jumps.

Today's lesson:

• waltz jump -- just a few.  Holly wants me to actually concentrate on doing a good one! :-)  Head up, good entrance, etc.
• salchow -- actually, pretty good. I was pretty pleased.  Some work to keep the head up and get more lift, but not too shabby.
• toe loop -- a fair amount of time on these.  Holly had me work to do them on the hockey circle so that I should pick and jump inside the circle.  Hmm.  Also working to have a stronger check after the 3, which does help.

All in all not too shabby.

Plugging Along

My figures lesson with Lynne on the Chandler Ice Café.  Nice ice and just 2 skaters!  I scribed circles and warmed up with edges.

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- random layout.  First RFO still kind of large, and some other issues.  We did another layout and it was better so we moved on.
• FI8 -- random layout.  Some small issues but generally okay.
• waltz-8 -- About the same.  We took some time to work on the 3s as they were being a little problematic and I'm having issues holding the exit, which throws me off a bit subsequently.  We were able to make a good improvement in the 3s -- not so jumpy.  The trick is to come "up" but not too far up!  Still feel the ball of the foot/rocker pressing into the ice.  This helped a lot.

After my lesson I worked a bit on BO8 and serpentines.

Workin' It

My figures lesson with Lynne on the Chandler Ice Cafe as usual.  I warmed up with edges and scribed my circles.

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- layout in a random place as usual.   First one was not so great, my push on the R foot was inadequate and I had poor flow.  We laid out another set and it was much better.
• FI8 -- not bad.
• waltz-8 -- about half the lesson on these.  Still working the same issues.  My 3s were kind of inconsistent today which is really frustrating as it tends to throw everything off.

All in all not bad.

Jumps

My lesson with Holly on the 8:15 FS this morning. I had my newly-sharpened blades today -- they were fine.  Unfortunately for me this session was co-opted to host a TV crew doing a promo for the upcoming holiday show, which meant lots of TV cameras and extra people and props on the ice. In other words it was not very productive.

Today's lesson:

• waltz jump -- just a couple.  The first I broke at the waist a little bit so we did another one.
• salchow -- ugh.  I'm just not doing a good job of holding the check after the turn.  Bleah.
• toe loop -- also ugh.  I did one almost okay one at the end.

It was a very frustrating session.

FXOs & Program Choreo

My lesson with Holly on the 8:15 FS at Gilbert.  I warmed up with Bronze Moves (all of them!) then ran my dramatic program.  I finished a couple of seconds late, toe loop was kinda wonky and spins were crappy -- but at least I did everything.  I realized afterward that I need to re-center this program since we had adjusted it for Autumn Antics (3/4 ice) and now I need to move it to the "right" so I have better ice coverage.

Today's lesson:

• FXOs -- I asked to look at these as I'm still trying to improve them as far as quality and being able to do them at a faster tempo and more in a row.  Some improvement.  We also worked on the harder side to put the crossing foot down without having the toe turned out.  That worked but then I had to bend my knee even more to be able to still get an underpush.  So, some progress.
• Free skate choreo -- we continued working on this . So far we have:
• opening pose - hands in front of face, L hand on top, open fingers
• RFI pivot
• swizzle forward with hands
• swizzle back into a back two-foot twizzly-thing
• 5 CW BXOs around in a nautilus-shape
• push back
• waltz jump

All in all we're getting there.