Edges

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate. Nice ice, 8 skaters.  I was running late so I just scribed circles, no warmup.

Today's lesson:

• FO edges -- Meh.  Okay but not great. Did them over again and they were better.
• FI edges -- nice, as usual.
• BO edges -- eep.  As usual with no warmup, difficulties with posture and bringing free foot in front.
• BI edges -- we had to spend some serious time in the first push, as I am getting in my head about it.  Yuck.  Also I am still skidding on these, esp. the L foot.  I would blame it on my blades, but I felt them and they seem reasonably sharp.  I think it's because I am just up to far on the darn toe. 
• FI8 -- just 2 minutes on these. Not bad, but I am still only getting like 3/4 of the way around. I used to be able to do these nicely.  Urph.

B8s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice, 4 skaters.  I warmed up with edges and scribed circles.

Today's lesson:

• BI8 -- I am a long way from getting around the circle on these.  Still working to fix my posture and get a better push.  Unfortunately, when I get a better push I tend to push my feet out from under me and I'm on my toes.  Yuck.  The first push is the worst, for sure.
• BO8 -- These were somewhat better. Flow is better, push is better, but still not sufficient.  The L side is so much better/easier than the right!  Uck.

Talk Less, Skate More

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  I was running late, so didn't get a warmup and didn't scribe circles.

Today's lesson:

• edges -- that's really all we worked on.  Posture and flow were just Not Good.  Uck.

This was not a very productive lesson, for two reasons -- 1) we spent waaaay too much time talking about miscellaneous, mostly non-skating things; and 2) mid-lesson I felt a bit light-headed and had to sit down for a bit.  In retrospect I was sick and wound up staying home the rest of the week, and beyond. Ugh.

B8s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate. Nice ice, 6 skaters.  I scribed circles and warmed up with forward edges and BO edges.

Today's lesson:

• BI edges -- I was having some issues with the initial push, not sure what my issue was exactly but we straightened it out.  These were not bad, actually.
• BO8 -- we worked on getting a better push and better posture.  I did actually make it 3/4 of the way around the circle, which is my best in a while.  I couldn't repeat it though.  GRRR.  We spent about half the lesson on this.
• BI8 -- eep.  I am not getting over my skate well enough so my circles are curving in too much.  We worked to try to have the same approach (mostly) as the BO initial push.  It's still lacking, but the body position after is actually not that bad.
• FO8 -- just a couple minutes on these.  About the same as before.

The Stick

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Great ice, just 5 skaters.

I warmed up with forward edges and scribed circles.

Today's lesson:

• B edges -- these were actually pretty good. I am doing a better job of getting that free foot in front promptly.  Still some more work to do on not widestepping the first BI push, but in general not bad, and flow was nice.
• BO8 -- Danette brought out the stick for me to hold (it's a hockey stick that's been trimmed).  This really does help me be more aware of my upper body position.  So we worked on the BO8.  Besides the fact that my push is totally inadequate to carry me around the whole circle, the RBO was not that bad.  I was able to maintain a reasonably good position the whole time.  The LBO is a different story, so we worked on it a bunch.  Just really having trouble holding that upper body still and resisting the rotation.  Danette held the stick for me and that gave me more confidence to lean into the edge more as well as really to bend the knee and push harder.  More work required tho.

B Edges & 8s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate. Nice ice and just 4 skaters.  I scribed circles and warmed up with forward edges.  Considering I've been off the ice for 3 weeks they were not bad.

Today's lesson:

• B edges -- some time on these.  The BO edges were pretty nice.  We spent some time on the BI edges, especially working to avoid the wide step and get better posture/position on the first push and lobe.  Danette had me do an exercise we've tried before, skate 2 lobes on alternate feet and then a full circle.  Eeep.  At one point Danette yelled, "Gordon STOP!" as Sarah and I were both inadvertently headed for each other (I was going backward).  I was rather startled and wound up falling, my hardest fall in a long time.  I'm perfectly okay.  Rather proud of myself as for a minute I thought I was going to fall backward and I managed to fall to the side.  Yay!
• 8s -- from there we moved to the circles for the last 10 minutes or so.  FO8... eep.  I was going flat on the LFO.  Not sure what's up with that.  FI8 was relatively okay.  BO8 was not bad.  In all of these I'm not quite making it around the circle tho.  So frustrating.

B Edges, Waltz-8

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice, 8 skaters.  I scribed circles and warmed up with forward edges.

Today's lesson:

• B edges -- we ran through the BO edges several times, working to get the free foot in front more quickly and keep that skating shoulder back in the first part of the lobe.  For BI we also ran them several times to get the LBI free foot to come in nicely like it did on the RBI.  These looked much better when we were done.
• waltz-8 -- we'd not looked at these in a while.  We first did some 3s on the boards, then out to my scribed circles.  Danette held my hand through these, they were pretty rough.  The 3s were fairly ucky, although the step forward on the R side was okay -- L side not so much.  Then Danette got a hockey stick to hold while we went through it.  This really does help to feel where my hands/upper body are.  Eeep.