Gosh Wednesday is a long skating day. I spent over an hour and forty-five minutes on the ice. I know for many people that's not long, but I like to skate in 45 minute increments because of my knees, and two sessions in one day is a lot for me!
First up- drama. Tuesday at LTS the rink confirmed the hanging schedule was correct. There would be no freestyle/club ice on Wednesday, instead public session would go until 6:00. I left the rink Tuesday pouty that my lesson would be on crappy ice, but hey- at least I finally get a lesson, it's been almost a month. So yesterday, I check the online schedule, it says freestyle/club ice like normal, and call the rink. That is indeed the case. I'm annoyed because I didn't bring my skates to work, and will really have to rush to get to the rink by 4:30. Then I IM my coach, to let her know. She has a skater scheduled for the zamboni break/beginning of club ice (which she can't coach on)- because of how we were told the schedule will be. I offer to give up my 5:00 lesson for this little girl, because I really need to practice stops, and can practice fairly well on my own, and this girl probably needs to consistency a bit more than me. So no lesson :(
I did manage to get to the rink and have my skates (and my newly swarvoski-ed under armour tights!) on by 4:30, so I was there for the whole session. I spent the first 15 minutes working mostly on stops. The one foot hockey stop I think I'm getting pretty good at. Well, except I'm not moving fast, but I'm definitely stopping. The tango/in front T stop is just not happening. I did a few spins, and they are about 50/50 on good and NOT good. I'm also feeling a lot more comfortable with this freestyle session, though I have to admit Tim and Carson still really scare me, but the girls I'm not so intimidated by, even though they probably go just as fast (their jumps just aren't nearly as frightening to be near). Coach gets there at 4:45, so i take a 5 minute break and ask her if she can just do 10 minutes with me, so I did get a bit of a lesson anyway :)
We worked on backspins, change foot spins, and sit spins. My backspins were actually pretty decent. My change foot spins, she wants me to do a really wide entry, and really push into the spin, which means I don't have one anymore. My ISI FS3 change foot consisted of me setting my foot down pretty much where I was, and spinning from there, and I'm being told it's unacceptable. I've also been told if it's not a back scratch spin (foot crossed) I don't get to count it as a backspin. Apparently I'm past the "stork leg" point. Sit spins were okay, and I get a pretty good (for an adult with bad knees) position, but I don't get it right away. So Courtney was trying to get me to go immediately into the lowest position I can get into, and stay there, not bend further as I'm spinning.
Then I did another 20 minutes of practice. (I got off the ice 10 minutes before the session ended to try and save my knees for synchro).
I did some MITF, and that isn't really going well. The 3-turns seem to be regressing. Although I can do all of them, they seem slow, not always centered on the lobe, and not even close to being on pattern. The cross strokes were not very good, no ripping, little confidence in the edges. The spirals I'm embarrassed to do on this session (that left one at least) so I save them for Saturdays. 8-step I only did once or twice. That one is tough to practice because it doesn't move along the ice, and I'm always worried about staying in one area on these fast sessions. The only thing getting better seems to be power pulls, but probably only because they were SO bad to begin with.
To end the session I did some jumps. Impressive, huh. I jumped on my own without anyone telling me to! I really want to get this bronze free test! I did three each waltz jump, toe loop, and salchow. I'm really really toe waltzing, and cannot figure out how to fix that, and my salchow barely travels over the ice at all, plus I'm still kicking my foot behind me. Then I did about 10 "loops" in place. I'm still having a lot of trouble not landing on the flat of my blade. Maybe I need to work on a flip too? I need one more jump, and it doesn't seem like the loop is going to be coming anytime soon.
Went home and cut music for my bronze free test program. I did 5 cuts and will let coach pick, none are great, they all either start or end weird, but honestly, I don't want to pay to have someone do them. I used a medley from the sound of music soundtrack, so all the fading was already done and such. One of the weirdest cuts though is that the last song I use is "Favorite things", and you hear "I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel, so.... fade into other song" and most people will sing along in their head and are expect the "BAD!" so it's an odd cut. One just fades out at the end, so it sounds like I did a bad cut, and another I let fade into the other song, so at least you see why that note is missing, but you don't hear much of that last song either, so it's weird. I might try one more cut tonight, that has more of the last song (something good) and less of the first song (sound of music)- but then both the beginning and the end are going to sound odd, so I was trying to preserve the song's beginning the best I could.
Synchro practice we redid all the formations for Thriller. I got home from practice at about 10:15, dawdled a bit, took a shower, tried to go to bed, and didn't get to sleep until midnight. That is not enough for me, and today I am so tired my eyes are tearing up while I'm trying to work. Is hockey over yet?
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