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.

Freestyle!

 I managed (after trying for weeks) to get to the Wednesday adult skate at Chandler to skate in my freestyle blades.  Nice ice, 8 skaters including John and Brenna working on pair stuff!

As far as I can tell it's been a YEAR since I skated in my freestyle blades, so I took it easy.  I mostly got used to skating faster :-).  I did some back crossovers, and then BXO-BO edges pattern from bronze moves.  I tried some 3s on the crease, they were just as bad as in my patch blades.  I tried to make myself do forward XOs but the Fear Monster was preventing me.  Yuck.

Anyway, just 45 minutes in a busy work day but was glad to get out there.  No jumps or spins this time, but maybe next time.

B Edges, FO8

 My lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Really nice ice (A little foggy though) and 9 skaters.  I warmed up with forward edges and scribed circles.

Today's lesson:

• B edges -- We spent some time on these, especially the BI edge initial push.  More work on trying to perfect the push and initial edge, esp. posture.  Also Danette correct me on looking where I'm going and arm position.  Eeep.
• FO8 -- This is actually somewhat better.  I am making it pretty much all the way around on the LFO, the RFO is a little more than 3/4 when I am able to correct my posture promptly.
• FI8 -- just a minute on these.  Surprisingly good, actually, though certainly not test worthy.

B Push & Posture

 My lesson with Danette on the Chandler Adult skate.  Really nice ice, 5 skaters.  I scribed circles and then warmed up with forward edges.

Today's lesson was spent working on posture in the context of the backward push.  We spent some time just pushing to a B edge (later, on two feet) down the line and working to keep the upper body turned to the side, completely.  Uck.  From there we added in doing a back two-foot turn, which I hadn't done in a lonnnng time.  These were really bad, my timing was just so off and the Fear Monster raised its head as well.  

All in all I felt like this was all remedial skating 101, but I guess I needed it.  Ugh.

BI Push

My lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice, but a bit crowded (13 people).  I scribed circles and warmed up with forward edges.

Today's lesson:

• BO edges -- we did these a couple of times to work through some issues, trying to get a more consistent lobe size and improved posture.
• BI edges -- ran through these a couple of times and they were okay although here also, first lobe too small and working to do a better job of free foot in front and stand up straight.
• BI push -- from there we segued into trying to improve my initial BI push so that it's stronger and I can have both a better push, eliminate the wide step and and try to prevent that initial BO edge that's so often present in the first push.  We wound up hitting on having the R foot inclined up to rest on the (vestigial) toe pick, then turning it and rolling down as the push happens.  This sounds more awkward than it is.  It forces me to not wide-step, to keep the feet close together and then to settle back better as the push continues.  It's still difficult to turn the R foot enough to avoid that initial BO edge, so it will take some work.  I do think it really helped though.  We practiced it a bunch. It doesn't come naturally.
• BI8 -- we just had 3 minutes on these to try to put the new push to work.  It's still too weak to get around the whole circle, but it did result in a much better start on the circle -- circle size was much closer to what it should be.

I am really excited to have made some progress!