3s To Center

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice, 12 skaters.  I warmed up with edges and scribed circles.

Today's lesson:

• FO 3s to center -- eeep.  We had not looked at these in a long time. We worked them on the circle and on the boards also.  Chief problems are not rotating into the circle enough, and then the leading hand stays in the circle instead of moving to be forward again.  Also my 'down-up-down' has tended to be more 'down-downier-down'.  Ugh, that just doesn't work.  The L side is MUCH easier than the right.
• FI 3s to center -- we just did the R side, which is of course easier.  It was better than the FOs.

Edges & 8s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate. Nice ice, 11 skaters.  I was running late so I scribed circles but didn't get any warmup done.

Today's lesson

• FO edges -- posture issues, and Danette said it was slow.  So we moved to..
• FO8 -- we worked these a bunch.  Still having issues with posture (not standing up straight).  It took me a while to get on a good edge.  Bleah
• FI edges -- Mostly nice.
• FI8 -- These were actually pretty good, all things considered.  Still need to work on standing up straight immediately after the initial push.
• BO edges -- pretty okay.
• Push posture exercise -- this is the push to a back flat, arms out to each side and look at each hand.  Forward is okay.  Back, I still wind up curving to whatever side I look toward first.  Ack.

B8s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Really nice ice, 10 skaters.  I scribed circles and warmed up all my edges.

Today's lesson:

• BO8 -- Danette decided to hold my hand for these, and gave me a little push when needed so I didn't have to give myself a helper push.  We worked some issues with the initial and subsequent pushes -- they weren't horrible, but they are taking too long.  All in all not bad.
• BI8 -- similarly to BO8.  Posture could still use some improvement, and my tracing is just so-so.  Still, not too bad. 

All in all not horrible, but my flow is still insufficient to get me around the circle.  Bleagh.

F8s, BO8

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice (a bit frosty, though) and 11 skaters.  I warmed up with forward edges and scribed circles.

Today's lesson:

• back edges -- just quickly through these.  BO were okay. BI were pretty nice except the first lobe is still too small.
• FO8 -- on the circles. Flow is a little better though I'm still not making it all the way around.  Posture on the LFO is not bad, it's the RFO that's a problem.
• FI8 -- pretty decent.  Almost making it all the way around (sometimes I do).
• BO8 -- we worked the push for a bit (pushing just to a flat) and then on the circles.  I'm just so inconsistent!  When I do the things I get good results but I have a hard time consistently doing all the things, lol.

3s & Step Forward

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice, 10 skaters.  I scribed circles and warmed up with forward edges.

Today's lesson:

• back edges -- Just once through inside and outside.  They were okay.
• 3s -- we worked on these on the circle and also on the boards. Still pretty wonky.
• Step forward -- main issue is still posture -- I did a little better on standing up straight but still needs work.
• falling practice -- at the end of my lesson, Danette wanted Donna and I to practice falling and getting up, so I did a couple of lunges where I fell down and then got up.  It was pretty funny.

F8s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice, 9 skaters.  I scribed circles and warmed up with forward edges and BO edges.

Today's lesson:

• BI edges -- We spent some more time working on the initial push.  My new technique keeps me from moving my skating foot out too far, but my pushing foot was getting too far out and pulling me off balance.  Uck.  Some improvement.
• exercise -- we went back to the exercise of holding a flat (each foot, forward/back), holding my arms out and looking at each hand in turn.  I was okay going forward, but backward, when I look at my R hand I curve to the left.  I assume it's making me drop my hip or something.  Uck.  We spent some time on it, then moved on.
• FO8 -- a fair amount of time on this.  The push is actually improving (yay!) but still working to improve my posture, especially right after the push.  It appears that I'm taking to long to push and then I get in this position where my pushing foot is too far out (and too high!) and I'm crouched forward.  If I am able to make myself bring the pushing foot in promptly I do a better job of standing straight up, and then my flow is better.  Eeep.
• FI8 -- finished up with just 3-4 minutes on these.  Some of the same corrections as FO8 but they are overall still a lot better.   Hmm.

Freestyle!

 Since I had the day off AND we had ice at CCIC, I got in a lesson with Coach Holly (YAY!) on the 2 p.m. freestyle.

I warmed up with stroking and some edges.

Today's lesson:

• stroking -- not bad, actually.
• FXO -- I had told Holly I was afraid to do these last week in practice, so she held my hand while I did a few, then on my own.  Yay.
• edges -- I had just done that earlier that day in patch skates, so okay.
• BXOs -- in the Bronze move pattern.  Pretty decent although I was a little off pattern.
• waltz jump -- I had not done these in like a year!  Holly held my hand for the first few, then I did them on my own.  Not the best landing but I did stay vertical so that's good.
• spins -- again, not done in a year.  Not great, and had a dumb fall on one (no harm, no foul).  Still it was good to work on them.

Alas, the ice schedule at CCIC precludes me getting to work with Holly on a regular basis but I'm really glad and grateful I had this chance.  Yay!

Edges & FO8

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate. Nice ice and 10 skaters.  I had first lesson, so no warmup, didn't scribe circle.

Today's lesson:

• F edges -- We did FO a couple of times to correct some posture things and lobe size.  FI were pretty good.
• B edges - BO were okay. BI we worked on the push a little bit again but okay.
• posture exercise -- this was Danette's exercise for me where I skate a flat forward or backward, with arms extended straight out to the sides, and look to either hand while I do a slight kneebend.  Eeep.  This got better but on the R side it's hard for me to keep straight without curving -- for some reason I don't have this problem on the L side.
• FO8 -- just a little time on this.  I'm almost making it around on the L side but not the initial R side.  Need a better push, still, and better flow.
• FI8 -- just a minute on these.  Kind of okay.