Ok, those who know me well, know that I am not a morning person. Like, at all! But I needed to practice and now that I have a big girl 9-5 job, it's difficult to make it to the daytime and evening sessions. My only options are weekend public skates and early morning freestyles. I got dressed, brushed the snow off my car, and made the slow and slippery drive to the Sport Stable.
It was actually pretty nice! $12.00 gets me an hour and a half of ice which I shared with one other figure skater. There was no music so it was nice and quiet and I was able to concentrate on my moves. That was the theme for today's practice, by the way - moves. Since I'm taking the jumps class, I won't have instruction on MITF and edges so it is up to me to fill in those gaps. My goal is to take either the Pre-Preliminary test or the Adult Pre-Bronze test by the end of the year. I haven't decided which one yet so I'm working on both (they are pretty much the same anyway). Here's how practice went today:
Forward Perimeter Stroking - These were my warm up and I only did them CCW because, by the time I was ready to switch, the other skater made her way to the ice and she was also doing laps for a warm up. I didn't want to go against her flow. Now I know for the future to start with CW stroking. The stroking was fine. I felt like I was getting pretty good extension but I feel like I'm not getting enough crossovers at the end of the rink. Right now, I'm doing two forward crossovers but I think I remember reading somewhere that there should be 3-5. I could do smaller, less powerful crossovers to get more in but wouldn't that defeat the point? I thought this move was about power and extension.
Forward and Backward Crossovers - These feel pretty comfortable but I'm having some problems with the transition into the backwards crossovers in the figure eight pattern. I know I'm supposed to do a swing roll with a change of edge into an open mohawk but I'm not really sure where to place it. I'm sure I will eventually get into a groove with this. The good news is that the crossovers are nice. The transition will be easy to add in once I space things out properly.
Waltz Eight - Yaaaayyy, I remember the pattern! It felt swingy and nice but I wasn't coming back to the mid-point to start the other side like I'm supposed to. I kept missing it. So, in essence, I am completing the figure eight pattern but it was lopsided. I'm also not holding that RBI edge long enough coming out of the first 3-turn. Since my goal with this today was just to see if I remembered it, I didn't spend too much time on it. Instead, I thought my time would be better spent working on those edges, especially the BI ones!
Basic Consecutive Edges - My FO and FI edges are just fine. I worked on them on Sunday and today they felt pretty solid. In fact, I don't know, they may even be testable? So I spent a good chunk of time on the backwards edges. I'm not exaggerating when I say that, out of the hour and half that I was at the Stable this morning, an entire hour was dedicated to backward edges. They were pretty awful since I haven't done them in 10 years. The BO edges came together eventually but I am really weak on the first push. They pick up strength as I go down the line but I'm not sure how to get the initial push to be more deliberate. This is why I need a coach! The BI edges were gone completely. I think I stood there for a while just trying to think about what my arms should be doing. Finally, I had the idea of doing another set of BO edges and paying more attention to my arms. Theoretically, it should be the same arm movement for the BI edges. They are! The arm on the free leg side follows the same movement as the free leg. Once I figured this out, I just had to clean them up a bit and they were good. I have the same problem as I do with the BO edges in that I have a weak initial push. Damn.
What I didn't work on today - Spirals. I'm just kind of scared to attempt them if I know I haven't been stretching. I have visions of catching a toe pick and doing a face plant. I need my face, it's my money maker ;)
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