A Case of the Mondays?

Yesterday was Easter so the rinks were closed. To make up for it I went this morning to an 8:00am public session. Something was off today. Maybe it was because it's Monday and I'm feeling blegh or it could be that I spent the entire weekend eating crap (and by "crap" I mean delicious jambalaya, cheesecake, fast food, chocolate chip muffins, bread, etc.). Maybe I was weighed down.

I spent the first half hour working on Moves in the Field (MITF). I ran through the entirety of the Adult Pre-Bronze MITF Test from start to finish minus the spirals because, for some stupid reason, I'm still scared of them.

CW and CCW Forward Perimeter Stroking just felt okay. I know I need more power. My crossovers at the ends don't feel natural, though. I keep thinking about how I need to fit at least three crossovers in there instead of the two that I am used to. I don't have a good side or a bad side with these. Each direction feels the about same. It's those damn crossovers. It's not like I don't know how to do a crossover. I just can't seem to fit three in at the ends without it feeling forced.

Basic Consecutive Edges - These were fine but for some reason (again, I am blaming Monday) I kept putting my foot down on the FI edges. The forward edges are my best ones! How am I putting my foot down? Frustrating! With the backward edges, I'm getting enough flow. I just need to learn how to get that initial push to be stronger.

Forward and Backward Crossovers in a Figure Eight - These felt pretty comfortable so I only did two figure eights and moved on.

Waltz Eight - Pretty good. I'm consistently coming back to the center. Cool. I did three waltz eights and they were good enough to be testable, I think.

Jumps - I practiced the Salchow from a standstill and they seem to be progressing better this way rather than when I approach them from the proper entry. I spent some time making sure Sally the Snake was in the proper position. Toe loops feel small, rushed, and cheated. Stupid toe pick! I worked on the loop entry for a little bit and then ended with some half-flips and waltz jumps to remind myself that, yes, I can actually jump.

Backspins - I spent a good amount of time on these because I know how important they are. I noticed that I am looking down at my feet which causes my body weight to fall slightly forward which leads to me rising up on my toe pick effectively stopping any kind of rotation during the spin (again, stupid toe pick!). When I kept my head up and just focused on proper body alignment over my right foot, I saw some progress. I am proud to say that there were a couple of times I got two whole revolutions! What?! :)

My next practice will not be until Friday afternoon because I'm a grown up with a job and time to go to the rink just doesn't exist in my world sometimes. However, when I do go on Friday, I am going to start working on backward three turns. It's been ten years so I'm not sure how bad they are. Just like the spirals, I have been avoiding these out of fear. Some of my worst falls have been on backward three turns.