Congratulations to M! And some stuff about my skating.

First- I hope all the blog readers will join me in GIGANTIC congratulations to regular reader (and my good friend) M.  M won a gold medal at adult sectionals for her brilliant artistic program.

And now, eight thoughts from LTS.

1) I skated without my brace again :) 
2) I didn't have much of it to begin with, but since the fall, I've lost my nerve to skate around others.  Doing alternating crossover laps TERRIFIES me during LTS.  There are just way too many kids, many of whom have no control or predictable patterns.  I want to curl up in a ball and cry.  Luckily, these are just warm ups, so I doing them slow, and then just chicken out and stop.  But even on freestyle ice, I'm scared (not terrified though).  But LTS ice- terrified.

3) the forward outside spiral, 3-turn, crossover, back inside spiral pattern is a killer.  Even on my good side that 3-turn freaks me out.  I can't do it at speed on both sides if I two foot.  There is just something about coming down from a spiral and immediatly 3-turning that is insane.

4) the back outside 3-turn, mohawk, crossovers is even MORE insane.  On my good side, my arms seem to hamper my mohawk- they are twisted in the wrong direction from the turn, and there is no way to get them in the right place for the mohawk.  On my bad side- no way, no how is that foot coming down for the mohawk.

5) I've finally found a jump sequence that I can kinda do after being introduced to it (rather than a 4-year plan...)  Waltz jump- falling leaf- toe loop.  How fun is that?  I need to work on covering ice on my falling leaf, but isn't that true of all my jumps?  Now here is a question for USFS- why is this FS5 but waltz-loop is FS4?  They should be switched.  First- loop is FS4.  How can you be expected to learn a loop and a loop combo in the same level?  Second, this jump teaches you the foot position needed in the landing of waltz-loop without the pressure of pulling into a full rotation jump.  The progression of skills makes no sense.

6)Making progress on change foot spins.

7) Loving my scratch spins without the brace. They weren't that centered this time, but many were they fast.

8) If anyone sees my sit spin, would you send it back to me?