Saturday Skating...

First, a few blog changes. 
-I updated my comment notification, so I'll get emails about them.  That means i'm going to try to do better about replying to comments! I missed reading a few of them, and feel terrible about it (I'm all caught up now).
-I also made it so that you can comment anonymously AND there is no longer moderation.  Still a captcha to reduce spam (I get a ton) but hopefully the blog will be more comment friendly now.  It makes me so happy when people read the blog!


So Saturday:
Went to freestyle and Carson was skating.  It always makes me nervous because I worry he'll judge my practice habits!  I am usually pretty lazy on Saturday freestyle because, well, I'm barely awake!  Anyhow- after about 30 minutes of skating, he told me to make sure to take it easy, especially if I was doing LTS.  HAHA- the opposite of my worry came true.   Has anyone ever had a coach tell them to NOT practice hard?

I started with 5 minute warm-up and then did a program run through.  The warm up wasn't fantastic, I totally biffed my sit spin (nearly fell over on my head on the entry). The pivots did help the waltz-toe loop though, good addition.  But then my run through was GREAT.  I landed my "loop" on one foot, I hit all my elements.  When I think about my test, I kind of want to throw up, but I think I'm ready.

So the rest of the practice went well.  Nothing remarkable.

LTS was good.  I worked on backspins and had some good ones, some okay ones.  The okay ones still get 3 revolutions though, so I'm happy.  Then we did waltz jump- loop.  I get better spring on this than my regular loop, but my weight is very central, which means I have no chance to land on one foot.  I'm totally two footed.  Still it was okay progress.  Then I went onto normal loops, and they were okay.  I am getting a little better at landing on the front of the blade, rather than the back, but still no toe pick take off or landing.  I've been instructed to just do releves to work on the feeling of going off the toe pick, and I can totally see the problem- the high cut of the back makes it nearly impossible to releve.  I should have got the cut down boots- the Finesse.  (But I bet that would be terrifying landing jumps...)  

After my test, Carson wants me to get used to skating with the top hooks of my skates unlaced.  He thinks it will give me better ankle bend in the sit spins, and fix this problem for the loop.  But it is terrifying, and we aren't changing anything right now.  (There was something else he said we were going to do after the test- I don't remember what it was.  Maybe backspin technique?)


And amazing news- even though no one in the class has a waltz-loop, and the other girls in the class need sit spin and backspin work, Carson is starting Freestyle 5 with us next session!  Thank the lord- I thought I'd be Freestyle 4 forever :)  (Of course, I haven't technically passed it...)  I am so excited to work on new skills.  Unfortunately, one of them is spirals.  Spirals make me sad, because I remember what they were like before I hurt my hip.



Still no schedule for the competition on Saturday.  I'll be there all day volunteering so it doesn't really matter. I just told the club President I needed an hour before my event to get ready.   Test time is 10:20 on Sunday, I am third after an ice scrape.  There are only 6 freeskate tests- the three high level ones are before 8:00, then there are the high/mid level MITF.  Then an ice scrape, then the low level freeskates.  Then lots of low level MITF.  I thought it was weird the high level freeskates got the worst time, but one of the girls in my group is pre-juv contingent, so it makes sense she would have needed to do MITF first. 

After the test session is a basic skills competition that I got asked to judge :)