10-6-2007

11:54a
In which artistry is great, spins are good, and moonwalking is hard.
First off- the outside of my left leg from about midcalf to ankle is in a TON of pain. It doesn't hurt when I walk, but any pressure on it, either from sitting cross legged or from outside edges in my skates is horrible. I'm worried I have a stress fracture or something. However, I'm choosing to ignore it, until it makes skating impossible rather than just painful.

Let's start with today. "Power"/edge class. Still no emphasis on power. We started holding edge just skating in a circle. Just forward outside edges. My right forward outside isn't very strong at high speeds. That kind of suprises me, but does explain why my right over left crossovers are so much better than my left over right crossovers.

Then we moved to "cinnamon" buns, which is where you start with a deep, but slow edge and gradually swirl out to a fast shallow edge. I think most of the class, myself included, wasn't able to do what we were being asked.

Then we did alternating crossovers, which I think is a Bronze pattern. These are fine, but I need to ask for a private lesson to focus on placement. I never seem to make the entire rink. On backwards crossovers, I'm not sure where exactly on the lobe my feet should cross.

Last we worked on artistry. He had us do arms with out crossovers. I got "10 points" because I followed my arms with my head. So then he had everyone move their head along with their arms. Guess years of dance training is worth something :). We closed the class by practicing presenting ourselves before our program as if we were at the olympics. I got more "bonus points" because I was smiling. Heck, if I'm at the olympics I'm gonna be smiling! (The points thing is funny. He buzzes us if we get something wrong and goes "ding" when we do something right. At the beginning of the class one girl got a "ding" and "10 points". Then later a boy got a "ding" but he didn't give out points. So the boy asked, and of course then got some. Apparently imaginary points are a great motivator.)

Wednesday lesson:
Got complimented on my scratch spin. I'm hoping to have Kevin video it tomorrow, but it is a HUGE difference from the beginning of the year. Crossed and most of the time centered. Then we spent a lot of time working on a loop. Burton wants me to cheat it at the beginning, because right now I'm cheating at the end, and a beginning cheat is easier to fix. I think if I have to work on getting the right CHEAT, I might not be ready for this jump yet :) My lesson also got moved back to freestyle because club ice is crazy crowded lately, and freestyle has been like 4 people. Plus I don't pay for freestyle, so it will be a bonus.

Syncrho-
Really need to work on that backwards lunge. I fell on two of them that I got my foot down, but skating fast and hooked up I can barely even get my foot down. My moonwalking on wednesday was awful, but I was able to do it today after edge class, still doing it at speed I'm worried it won't be recognizable. (Not just me, the team). It's REALLY fast in the routine, and the moonwalk is generally kind of slow. It's really hard, so hopefully the effect is not lost. About half the time I did a toe loop instead of a half flip. I really need to get used to wrong way rotation.