| Time | Event |
| 10:46a | Yes! and No :( Starting with my 9:45 group lesson (it was just me today...) First the HUGE news of the day- I have my scratch spin back! And I can spin like a freaking tornado (well for me). I was jumping up and down on the ice I was so happy, they just were FANTASTIC today, especially since this is the first day they've really happened. Jessie also worked with me on my backspins and I'm overthinking, she says. Since I never really had a good one to begin with, I think I'm back about to the point I was. I was in teaching pants, so I wasn't getting a good cross at all, and caught my blade once. I'm going to have to start changing in the couple seconds between my lesson and teaching- I need to be in tights. (On Tuesday I teach in leggings, but on Saturday I take my morning lesson in a skirt, then change into pants for my "group" lesson). Then we did some spirals- and Jessie assures me I do not look like an airplane. I just don't feel nearly as graceful as I think I should. Okay, moving back to the beginning of the day. First- the compressor broke on Tuesday (huge leak- sounded like a waterfall and required a good quarter of the mall, including the movie theatre to be evacuated). So the ice was rebuilt yesterday and this was the first session on it. Last time we lost our ice it was fantastic the next day, not so much here. First off, apparently our ice was about an inch too thick, but now it just feels so thin you think one good toe jump would break through it. It looks awful, but it skates okay. It doesn't feel bump, and feels brittle, but doesn't crack. It sounds like ice cubes in hot water- crackling with every edge you put into it, but it really allows you to skate in it rather than on it. So it was weird- it seemed like the ice was awful, but other than being a bit slow, you didn't have to fight it like after a public session. Anyhow- my lesson. We upped my lessons to 45 minutes, because 30 never seemed enough to get all the moves in. We started with back crossovers, which I got a "good" on. Yay me. I'm trusting my blades much better. Then we just worked on pushing in the 3 turn to start all the backward crossover moves. It's so hard, even with only one push before it. (I do an entrance where I face the hockey goal, take one push, then a three turn, then two crossovers into the move; not the 4 pushes across the ice into a 3 turn most people do.) Just for balance Courtney had me do it on the other side. I get told "beautiful!". I'd WOW the judges. Sadly, you can't go that way. (Rant: I find that very unfair. These moves do both sides equally regardless of which way you circle the ice. Only lefties have to do the moves on their bad side. Moves like power 3s let you pick which foot to do first, and there is strategy to that, even though it doesn't really matter. I think you should get to pick which way to circle the rink on moves where THAT doesn't really matter. I don't think there are any moves that righties have to enter on their bad side.) So then we run the entire test from start to finish. The good news: I got through it, and wasn't completely exhausted. The bad news. I failed the test- big time. Every move had a mistake. I didn't get any corrections (except look up!) on the forward crossovers, but I held a 2 foot transition a couple times. On the back crossovers I totally screwed up the entrance, and had to skid into a 2 foot turn, but I kept going- that wasn't the biggest problem apparently I'm nearly on a flat on the edge push, rather than an inside, on one of the sides- that is NOT going to work. 3-turns were a disaster. I completely missed one of them and then 2 footed another. My axis was all over the place. Crossovers to back outside edges were not good, but I don't think it was entirely my fault. I had to hold the pattern while dodging a set of cones over the one hole still in the ice and a coach standing and talking to a skater. Mohawks had the same challenge getting the pattern lined up due to the cones, but my main problem there was that I was jumping the right mohawk and not counting to make each part even. We spent the rest of the lesson working on the 3-turns and the 5-step mohawk. I felt like it was an incredibly productive lesson, but man do I have a lot of work ahead of me. I was exhuasted afterwards. Other news: I got a maxi-flex and am challenging myself to use it everyday for 30 days. I'm really sore from stretching yesterday (day 1) but don't hurt while doing the stretch so I don't feel like I'm over stretching. This will help a lot with general flexibilty in my legs and back, but I'm not sure it's really going to help my spirals. It's hard to use stretching backwards, it really helps a lot more going forward and sideways. |
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