First Private Lesson!!!!

I had my first private lesson with Christopher this morning and I must say, it was really nice to work with him on non-jumpy things. This was also my first contracted freestyle session and boy was that an experience! In a way, it was nice to share the ice with skaters who know what they're doing but, on the other hand, I felt like everyone knew what they were doing and I didn't. I didn't have that sense of...I don't know, capability? Or maybe confidence! Yeah, I didn't have confidence. There were lots of younger skaters who could jump and spin with ease and here I am just trying to get by. I felt like a fish out of water. Thankfully, there was one other adult skater who seemed to be in the Adult Bronze/Silver range so there's that, I guess. I don't feel entirely alone. I do like the fact that it's like a cohort. I'll be seeing these same skaters every time I attend this session. So, eventually, I'll come to know them, if not personally, then I will at least become familiar with their faces and watch them progress alongside me. Neat.

Warm-up - I had 30 minutes before my lesson so I warmed up with stroking, slaloms, and backward perimeter power stroking. Then I moved onto edges, waltz 8, jumps, and spins. Everything felt pretty solid. When I practiced last night at the stable, I felt pretty off on a lot of things. But today I felt like I had more control of my body so I wasn't so...flail-y. 

Lesson Time! Christopher asked me what I wanted to work on so I told him of my goal to test Adult Pre-Bronze in August but I also said that I wanted him to look at my moves and let me know if he thinks I'm ready for August or if I should test later in the year. We started with: 

• Waltz 8 - He had me place it at the hockey circles at the end of the rink. This is a much bigger pattern than I'm used to! He also had me do intro steps and add a count to it to ensure that everything is pretty equal. I have obviously been rushing this during my practices because it felt as though I had to hold every edge for FOREVER! But the judges will be putting a special emphasis on edge quality so I need to make sure I am holding those edges long enough and showing complete control in all my movements. With these fixes in place, I'll need to change the way I practice this but now I at least know what I was doing wrong. And this is why I needed a coach :) 
• Forward Perimeter Stroking - We only did these CCW because of how many skaters were on the ice. First thing he fixed was my intro. I have been starting my intro at the blue goalie area but he backed me up a bit so that I can add more steps. More steps = more power and speed going into the move. With this move, judges will be looking for power and extension. I was ok on the extension, not so much on the power. He also moved me away from the boards a bit on this. I should be going from pepperoni dot to pepperoni dot and at the last pepperoni dot I'll start my crossovers so that I have room to fit 4-5 in at the end. This was something I have been struggling with! I was waiting too long to start the crossovers and was only able to get 2 in at the end of the rink. With Christopher's instruction, I'll be able to fit more in. And this is why I needed a coach :) 
• Spirals *gulp!* - So, you know how I'm terrified of spirals? Yeah, about that. In practices, I've been doing them in isolation and only on one side. I've NEVER practiced the actual full move down the length of the rink. But when Christopher said "let me see your spirals," I was like "sure, no problem!" like I do spirals all the time but in my head I was like Oh my Glob! I'm going to DIE doing this!!!!! So, it was shaky and I put my foot down on the right leg spiral but I did it! I made it the length of the rink switching legs at the red line and, most importantly, I didn't die! He made some suggestions and had me start the intro steps farther back like I did with the stroking. He also told me to remember to stay on my heel so I don't face-plant. And this is why I needed a coach :) 
• Backward Outside Consecutive Edges - We didn't spend too much time on these because time was winding down. He wanted to see where I was at with these. He changed my head position and added a scissoring action with my arms that seemed to make these flow much better. And this is why I needed a coach :) 
• Forward and Backward Crossovers in a Figure Eight - Only five more minutes left. He observed that my CW forward crossovers where weaker than my CCW ones (duh) but he gave me some tips to at least make them look prettier. Transitions were fine except I was doing my swingroll with the wrong leg during the transition into the backward crossovers so he corrected that. And, yes you guessed it, this is why I needed a coach! 

When it was all said and done, I felt pleased that I have some direction now. It was lonely trying to figure this all out on my own. I could do the moves but those little things like the number of intro steps, head position, and arm movements are the things that will really make the difference between just doing the moves and doing them well. I'm super motivated now! Yay!