Edges

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice but a bit crowded -- 10 skaters.  I was running late and had first lesson, so we just dived in when I got there (5 min late).

Today's lesson:

• FO edges -- lack of warmup + usual posture issues = more time on these.  Posture is still a problem and I had a lot of flats to start with.  This did improve though.
• FI edges -- as usual, rather better.  Still need to stand up straighter though.
• BO edges -- once again a bit problematic.  More time on these.
• BI edges -- not bad.  Posture a bit of an issue but I have an easier time fixing it on these than the BO.

A bit frustrating, as usual.  I need to get my act together and skate more, or I will keep facing these issues.  No lesson the next couple of weeks.

3s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  First lesson so no warmup, and no scribed circles.

Today's lesson:

• Edges -- just a run-through of all of these.  The usual posture and lack of warmup issues.
• 3s -- some time just working on 3s on the wall and on the crease, a follow-up from last week. Some small progess.

3s To Center

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice, a bit crowded (9 skaters).  We had postponed from Monday as I had a lot of stuff at work to catch up on.

I thought I was going at 11:30 (first lesson, the session was 11:30 - 12:30) but it was actually 12, so I had a lot of time to warm up all my edges.  I hadn't brought my scribe.

Today's lesson:

• 3s to center -- we had not worked on these in a lonnng time. We worked them on  hockey circle, then spent some time just on the 3s at  the wall, then back to the circle.  After a bit more work we spent a fair amount of time just working the back choctaw as it was giving me problems -- basically the same issues as the step forward on the waltz-8, but worse.  I'm not standing up straight, not keeping the free leg close.  We worked this for a while and it did improve, so yay!

Edges & 3s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate. Nice ice but a bit crowded, and since I had first lesson on the session, no warmup nor circles.

Today's lesson:

• FO edges -- we did these a couple of times to get better posture. Considering the lack of warmup, not bad.
• FI edges -- okay
• BO edges-- relatively okay.
• BI edges-- We worked on the initial push some on the wall.  Posture, posture, posture!
• 3s -- just a few minutes on these, first on the wall and then on the crease.

FO8, FI8

 My figures lesson with Danette on the 11:30 a.m. freestyle at Chandler.  About 8 skaters, nice ice.  I warmed up with edges, but didn't scribe circles since it was a freestyle session and a bit busy.

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- we decided to do these w/out scribed circles.  It actually wasn't as bad as I expected.  Still only making it about 3/4 of the way around the circle; and still working on improving posture. Despite the lack of scribed circles I did a reasonable job of tracing my circles.
• FI8 -- as usual, better than the FO.  Almost made it around the circle.  Tracing was not quite as good.

BO Edges, BO8

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Once again gorgeous ice.  Five skaters.  I scribed circles and warmed up with forward edges.

Today's lesson:

• BO edges -- We ran these, they were so-so. We spent some time working the initial push (both directions! ack!) on the boards. Danette convinced me that starting with both feet on the ice for the initial push isn't cheating (lol) so that helped me to get my soon-to-be-skating foot turned out more.  After some work on the boards we ran the BO edges and they were definitely better.
• BI edges-- As usual, better than the BO edges.  We did run them a few times specifically working, again, on the initial push and avoiding the wide step and getting the body turned more.  It did help.
• BO8-- just 3 minutes on these.  The push was better (yay!) but I still need to work more on holding that initial position turned into the circle, and not letting the upper body rotate.  Uck.

BO Push, BO8

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  The ice was GORGEOUS.  6 skaters  I scribed circles and warmed up with edges.

Today's lesson:

• BO edges -- we ran these some more because I wasn't happy with them in my warmup. They did improve a bit.
• BO  push -- we transitioned into just working specifically on the BO initial push/start, as Danette noticed my initial BO edge push wasn't starting perpendicular to the axis.  So we worked these quite a bit on the circle to get a a better push and position and a better edge that actually followed the circle.  We did a bunch and it did actually get better.
• BO8 -- from there we worked on BO8, mostly holding the stick but without at the end.  The work we'd done did help but I'm still having some posture issues, need to not break forward.  I've also noticed I bend my knees much better on subsequent pushes than I do on the initial push.  Bleah.