Moves

My lesson with Holly on the Gilbert adult skate.  Nice ice and about 7 skaters.  I warmed up with stroking and crossovers, and a little time on 3s and circle-8.

Today's lesson:

• 3s -- about 10 minutes on these, sort of a continuation of my work with Danette yesterday.  We worked these on the crease.  They were about the same.
• circle-8 -- about the same as before -- still having problems getting around on the R foot.  Ugh.
• BXOs to BO edges -- These are actually not bad.
• power-3s -- we ran these and then worked on the back lobe.  I need to pull the shoulder back on the back lobe as I'm coming into the back choctaw; as it is I'm blocking myself from being able to step forward.  Ugh.

In the middle of looking at the circle-8, we spent some time looking at the blade alignment on my right skate.  I never feel like I'm quite over my blade on the right foot and it's difficult to feel I have a good RO edge.  Holly thinks my right blade is not aligned correctly, so I'm going to take it to Kelly to take a look and perhaps move it, just a little bit.  

3s

My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler Ice Cafe.  Good ice, 6 skaters.

I warmed up with edges, scribed circles, then worked on FO8 and FI8.  Really good tracings on both today :-)

For today's lesson I asked to work on 3s as I'd also worked on them with Holly last week and I feel they need work.  So we worked them first as 3s to center, then against the boards to work on getting a good check and "down" after the 3.

After that we worked them on the crease.  Danette had me work on trying to keep the free leg close, and have a better curve/edge into the 3.  Didn't seem like we made much progress :-(.

Patch Perseverance

I skated the Chandler Ice Cafe for patch practice today.  Nice ice, 6 skaters.

I ran through edges, FO8 & FI8.  Then I spent some time working on 3s to try to clean them up a bit.  From there I went on to work on the back mohawk (step forward) as it one of my problem areas in the waltz-8.  After some time on that I went to work on the waltz-8; it was a little better.  I finished up with some time on BO8.

Perseverance

I skated the Chandler Ice Cafe for practice today.  My original intent was to have my lesson at Gilbert on the adult skate, but I forgot that it was cancelled today due to ice maintenance.  So I drove to Gilbert for nothing!  Oh well.  After I found out it was cancelled I drove to Chandler and skated for 45 minutes so it was not a total loss.

I mostly worked on crossovers and the 5-step mohawk.  I did do a few spins and some jumps also.  Not a very exciting skate but hopefully I made some very small improvements.

FO8, FI8, BO8

My figures lesson with Danette on the 10:30 a.m. FS.  I had 15 minutes to warmup which was just enough to do edges and scribe circles and a little time on FO8.

Today's lesson

• FO8 -- most of our time.  Still working on posture and consistency.  I'm still tending to make the first circle too big.  Grr.
• FI8 -- as usual, pretty good. 
• BO8 -- not bad.  I'm still working on trying to consistently have good upper body position from the start and that's not quite there.  Also working on holding the free leg close. This is not too hard on the L foot but seems quite difficult on the R foot. Needs more practice!

Power-3s

My lesson with Holly on the 9:15 a.m. FS at Gilbert.  I warmed up with stroking and crossovers and then worked on perimeter XOs, BXOs to BO edges and circle-8.

Today's lesson was focused on the power-3s.  I ran through it once -- pretty rough and I'm rather rusty.  Then we spent the remainder of our time working on 3s on the hockey crease.  Working to keep the free foot close and stand up straight during and after the turn.  Ugh, there's a lot to fix on my 3s!

Patch Perseverance

I had an opportunity to skate the Chandler Ice Cafe for patch practice today.  7 skaters (!) and we were on the west rink (public skate for spring break on the east rink).

I had a good skate -- I worked on edges, FO8, FI8, waltz-8, BO8, and BI8.  Not too pleased with how I'm doing right now but some good practice at least -- I need practice and at least I got it.

Power

My lesson with Holly on the 9:15 FS at Gilbert.  Nice ice and about 4 skaters.

I warmed up with stroking and some crossovers.

For today's lesson, we first had a debrief of PCAS and how it went, and then some discussion on direction for the next few months.  We're going to focus on power for the next bit, and then probably work on Bronze Moves again.

So for the rest of the session... that's what we did!  Flashbacks to our old power lessons... laps of slaloms, swizzles, working on swizzle pumps and then XOs around the circles, and so on.  I am so out of shape!  It was exhausting.  I need to get back to the gym stat!

2019 PCAS Showcase Dramatic Program

I skated my "Years" program at the 2019 Pacific Coast Adult Sectionals.  This was my last time for this program (I've had it for 3 years).  I really like this program and I'll miss it.

I was skating with 4 other pre-Bronze skaters (all female).  We came out for the warmup and one thing was quite evident -- the freshly-zammed ice was much, much faster (and seemed harder?!) than during the practice ice earlier in the day.  Eep! I felt like I was flying!

Other than that warmup was fine.  I was skating last of the 5 of us, so I had plenty of time to catch my breath and try to relax.

Finally it was time to go!  I got out to my place and off I went...  in general it went quite well, and I did indeed do the dreaded bunny hop, so yay me!  On the negative side, something went weirdly wrong with my toe loop and it just didn't happen and I almost fell.  I managed to save it and the crowd was applauding and supportive!  That was nice.

In the end I got 4th out of 5, which I was pretty happy about.

Here's the video:

PCAS Practice Ice

My skating buddies Melissa and Jose and I arrived in Oakland bright and early Friday morning.  After arriving at the hotel, we checked our gear with the bellhop and grabbed some breakfast, then made our way to the rink to prep for our practice ice at 12:35 p.m.

My practice ice went pretty well.  I warmed up all the elements in my showcase programs (I didn't worry about the waltz-toe in the free skate).  The ice was hard but a bit rough (hadn't been surfaced) so it was okay to me.

After practice ice we went back to the hotel and waited until we could check in.  Then I took a nap and went back to the rink for my first event.

PCAS Prep

My lesson with Holly on the 8:15 FS at Gilbert.  Okay ice, 6 skaters.

I warmed up with stroking, some spins and a waltz jump.

Today's lesson:

• Jumps & spins -- we warmed up waltz jump, salchow and toe loop.  They were all pretty okay although Holly reminded me to pull up on the landing of the waltz jump (don't break at the waist).  Spins were okay.
• free skate -- we ran this first.  Geez this is tiring!  I am out of shape. It went really well though, I landed all my jumps. First spin not so great but the last one was really good!  I think I ended about a second late.  Eeep. 
• light program -- I did not have my prop!  It had been in my skate bag but when I went to find it it was not there.  Ack.  I hope it fell out in the house or something.  I had it last week :-(.  Anyway we ran this with the new configuration and it was pretty good -- again I did all my elements.  Only issue was that I bollixed up the end somewhat, I kind of forgot that I was trying to move that to the right to be in front of the judges.  I need to take the spiral out to the right side and then come back over to be in front of the judges at the very end.  I think it will be fine.
• dramatic program -- I had the same issue as I had at MidWinter!  I forgot where I was supposed to go after the spin.  So we started over and it was fine. 

All in all a really good lesson and I am really happy with all of the programs right now.  Good prep for PCAS!  

FO8, FI8, BO8

My lesson with Danette on the 8:30 FS at Chandler.  Ice was not too bad all things considered.  4 skaters.

I warmed up with edges, scribed circles, then worked on FO8 and FI8.

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- still working on posture and flow.  I was having trouble getting around on these, especially the RFO.  They did improve quite a bit. We also worked on getting the subsequent pushes to be closer to the long axis.  I really have to work to wait until the tail of the new skating foot blade is at the long axis.  Eeep.
• FI8 -- these are a lot nicer.
• BO8 -- we worked on these for a bit, then worked them on the wall before coming back.  I'm having a very hard time controlling the upper body swing, especially on the RBO.  On the positive side I feel like I'm bending into both the initial push and the subsequent pushes better, so yay me!