Edges & FO8

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice, 7 skaters.  I was running late, so no warmup and no scribed circles.

Today's lesson:

• edges -- mostly okay.  Still some posture issues but with no warmup I'm not surprised.  I did definitely have some issues on the LFO -- leaning out of the circle and a resultant flat.  Ugh. Back edges were pretty nice, actually and I did a better job of controlling the free leg.
• FO8 -- meh. Push is really inadequate and still working on posture.  Not happy with these at all, really.  Danette held my trailing hand to try to get me to stand up straight and lean into the circle.

3s To Center, Again

 My lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Okay ice, still a little rutted.  I warmed up with edges and scribed circles.

For today's lesson, we continued working on the 3s to center. A little bit of improvement, mostly in that I'm more aware of what my problems are and slightly more willing to attempt the turn.  It's still far from a thing of beauty though.  Ugh.

3s to Center

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  About 8 skaters. The ice was very rutted (though, most of them were not deep).  I scribed circles and warmed up with F and B edges, which were actually more or less okay.

For today's lesson we decided to work on 3s to center as we have not done them in about forever.  As I rather expected, the hard part was convincing myself to actually attempt the turn after having sat on that FO edge for... forever.  Forget about the BI edge after!

Anyway, we did put in some solid work and I did at least attempt them (I also fell over one of the aforementioned ruts.  Grrr).

B8s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate. I scribed circles and warmed up with edges.

Today's lesson:

• BO8 -- Still working on improving my posture.  Push is still lacking.  Ugh.  The LBO is definitely better than the RBO.
• BI8 -- just a few minutes on these.  Posture is better, but push is so weak I'm not getting far.  Ugh.

Jumps

 My lesson with Holly on the CCIC 5:20 FS.  Ice was just okay, and about 11 skaters (competition on Saturday!).

No warmup as we started right away.

Today's lesson:

• waltz jump -- actually not bad.  Decent height and length.  We did a few to improve to work on holding the landing and not leaning out of the circle.
• Salchow -- hmm.  We did a bunch of these and finally got the takeoff to be more or less at the right time.  There was even some 'jump' in the jump.  But the landing is still wonky.
• toe loop -- hmm.  Still very cheated, and I need to jump 'over' (to the right) more.  Ugh.  Still considering how long it's been I really can't complain.

It was great to have a lesson with Holly again, but with the rink schedule and our work office moving I'm not sure what I'll do going forward to make this happen. Ugh.

3s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  I was able to warmup all my edges and scribe some circles.

Today's lesson was more on 3s.  Taking the insights we had about the trailing arm from last week, we kept working on trying to hold that upper body position.  We worked on the boards, and then on the circle, and toward the end we grabbed a hockey stick to make that trailing arm stay back. It really does help. This is going to take a while to fix, I think.  Eep.

3s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate. Nice ice and just 3 skaters.  I warmed up with edges.

For today's lesson, we worked exclusively on 3s.  We did a little warmup at the boards, and then worked them (L and R) on the scorekeeper box semicircle.  I am at least attempting to do them, so I guess that's something.  Actually, Danette was able to show me conclusively at least part of why I'm making it harder than it needs to be: during the turn the skating arm (that should be trailing) is coming forward and it just throws me off.  I tried working this a little bit in the scorekeeper doorway, trying the turn without the glass to keep my back arm (skating arm) from coming forward.  Yup!  This makes a lot of sense as to why it's a problem.  I'm not sure how I solve it, but at least I know what's going on.