Edges & 8s

My figures lesson with Danette on the 7:30 a.m. FS at Chandler.  We had private ice!  I scribed some circles and then we started right away.

Today's lesson:

• edges -- not bad, really. The first two lobes of the BO edges were a bit too big so I had to make the 5th one small.  My first lobe of the BI edges has really improved so it's not so small as it was.  My LBI lobes were kinda shallow and too long though.
• FO8 -- didn't quite make it around the circles on the R foot and I had some control issues on the last LBO, but otherwise okay.  
• FI8 -- not bad
• BO8 -- Danette had me hold the hockey stick.  Ugh. We are trying to fix a number of bad habits on these and it's getting better but there's a ways to go still.
• BI8 -- Again, holding the hockey stick. Again, trying to get me to fix some bad habits as far as position of the free leg, looking where I'm going, and not rotating early.  Urp.

All in all we got a lot done!

Power-3s

My lesson with Holly on the 8 a.m. FS at Gilbert. I got on at 8:15 as usual... once my 45 min stickers are used up, hopefully the new system will be in place!  Nice ice, just me, Q and Addy.

I warmed up with stroking.

Today's lesson was just on power-3s -- we continued where we left off on Tuesday.  The good news is the 3s themselves are somewhat better.  We started working on holding the entrance edge longer as that is probably the biggest remaining problem.  I think a part of this is that when I step forward on after the BXO I'm not really balanced on my FO edge, so I turn to get it over with and to be more balanced.  At least that's what I think is going on.  We worked on some ideas to improve this but didn't come up with anything that helped much.

Moves

My lesson with Holly on the 8 a.m. FS at Gilbert (I got on at 8:15).  Nice ice, just me, Addy, Q and Gene.

I warmed up with stroking and a spin.  I was kind of rusty as was sick last week and didn't skate.

 Since I have 2 lessons this week (making up for last week) I decided not to work on program stuff today.

Today's lesson:

• FXOs-BXOs -- For not having done these in a long time, these were not actually that bad.  We spent some time working on my BXOs to try to un-scrape them, but without much success.
• power-3s -- we actually made some progress on these!  Holly told me to think of bringing in the free leg after I push, before the turn.  So the cadence in my brain is "push - bring it in - turn - extend and push".  This really helped!  Yay!

Thursday we'll need to return to the program work and especially to work on the salchow.

2020 MidWinter Warmup Showcase Dramatic Program

I skated my "Days of Beauty" showcase dramatic program at the MidWinter Warmup competition.  This was only my second outing for this program.

After skating my light program earlier, I had more than 4 hours so I took time to grab some food, relax and of course watch lots of great skating.

Finally it was time to get ready.  There were 6 people in my group (I was the only man).  I skated 5th.  The warmup was fine.  After my fall in my light program I was determined to do a good salchow, so I did a couple of them in the warmup.  The first was just okay, the second was pretty nice.

After warmup I had a lot of time to wait, but it went by fairly quickly.  Finally I went out to skate -- it went pretty well!  No falls, but my salchow STILL did not come off. Argh.  Very frustrating.  Other than that it was okay.

I wound up getting 6th of 6 for this skate.  No medal for me!  Oh well.

Here's the video:

2020 MidWinter Warmup Showcase Light Program

I skated my 'Jenny (867-5309)' showcase light entertainment program at the Adult MidWinter Warmup Open Championship at the East West Ice Palace in lovely Artesia, CA, hosted by the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club.  This is a great adult-only competition and besides being well-run it's one of the most supportive and awesome environments in which to skate.

There were 4 competitors in my event (event #3) -- myself and 3 women.  I skated 3rd.  The warmup went okay -- I ran through all of my elements and felt reasonably good.

When it was my turn I skated out and took my position.  Things were going fine and I felt like I was doing well, until I got to the salchow.  I went in and something weird happened, and I fell in the middle of the salchow (you can check it out in the video!).  I'm not sure why.  I rarely fall anyway and this was, I think, only my 3rd fall in competition in 12 years of competing.  Anyway, I got back up and finished the program and it wasn't so bad.  I was kind of annoyed though!

I finished 3rd of 4 and got a medal for my efforts!

Here's the video!

MidWinter Practice Ice

I and our whole crew had signed up for the 7:40 a.m. practice ice for the competition.  For once we restrained ourselves and only got to the rink 25 minutes before our session.

I had an okay practice.  I went through pretty much both programs and practiced almost everything, paying special attention to the elements that are in different locations for this competition.  The 20 minutes really flew by.  When I got off the ice I elected to keep my boots on (I was wearing my light program costume minus wig) since my skate was only 45 minutes later.

Ice Acclimation

We arrived in Artesia about 2:15 p.m., and I skated on the public there for about half an hour to get my legs under me.

 That ice was horrible! I don't often skate publics anymore anyway, but this was really bad.  A little crowded, but really it was just the ice that was so bad. Still, I'd not skated in my freestyle boots since Tuesday so it was somewhat worthwhile I guess.

Edges

My figures lesson with Danette on the 7:30 a.m. FS.  We're not usually here on Thursday but there's hockey tomorrow.  So, it was a bit more crowded than I'm used to.

Today's lesson:

• edges -- mostly working on posture.  It would be nice if I could start with good posture instead of starting with bad posture and having to fix it, every time.  Ugh.  We did forward and back edges, inside and out.
• back edge drill -- we spent a bunch of time on this -- this is the drill on the boards.  Mostly we worked on getting me to get the free foot in front in a good position with the thighs together AND look where I'm going. Ugh.

I left right after my lesson as it was just too crowded for patch.  I'm really hopeful that after this semester I can find a way to get some patch time at lunchtime.  It's just really hard to work on patch in this environment -- the ice is crappy and too crowded :-(.

Program Prep

My lesson with Holly on the 8 a.m. FS (I got on at 8:15).  Okay ice and just me, Q and Addy.

I warmed up with stroking and a waltz jump, spin and salchow.  I had my props for my programs.

For today's lesson we worked on my programs for this weekend's competition.  I told Holly I'd realized it would work okay to move the start point for my dramatic program from the center to the blue line since the judges are on that side and I'm usually crowding the other end of the rink in the first part of the program anyway. So we ran it that way and it was fine.  Then we ran the light program (I was wearing my practice shirt with the correct pocket) and that was fine.  Then we worked on some pieces and then ran each one again.

I'm feeling relatively ready. 

Edges, BO8, BI8

My figures lesson with Danette on the 7:30 a.m. FS at Chandler.  I had private ice for the first 15 minutes, then Donna came on the session.  We started my lesson right after I scribed some circles.

Today's lesson:

• edges -- I had no warmup, so this was it!  Danette had me do the FO again as my posture wasn't great.  FI was good.  BO was good and my BI, I actually had a really nice first lobe!  Not small, for once.
• BO8 -- we worked these with me holding the stick.  It's still an effort for me to make myself look in the circle on the LBO, but it's improving.  
• BI8 -- these are still kinda rough.

After my lesson I stayed 'til 8:15 and worked on FO8/FI8.

Program Prep

My lesson with Holly on the 8 a.m. FS at Gilbert (I started at 8:15).  I warmed up with stroking, a couple of jumps, a spin and then I worked on swingrolls a bit.  Then I ran my light program as I'd realized I hadn't really worked it in the "judges-on-the-right" configuration.  Ice was okay, and just 4 skaters (Q and Addy, and Gene, the adult snowbird who is working on Silver moves!).

For today's lesson, we started with the dramatic program and ran it once.  In general pretty good.  I was a bit faster, so I actually had a bit more time at the end, which surprised me. 

From there we worked on the light program.  The first time I ran it I fell after the salchow (too far forward) -- no biggie, except it took me forever to get up!  I tried to get up on my right foot and apparently that's just not the best way.  Anyway I got up and finished.  After that I practiced getting up and standing on the left foot first seems to work a lot better.  I should probably practice this a little.  Ran the program again and it was fine.

One lesson left before MidWinter! Eep.