Wednesday Cram and Thursday Lesson

Wednesday Night Cram - The Wednesday night session at the Stable was only an hour so I had to be strategic with what I practiced. It was also busier than normal. Seems like someone dropped off a gaggle of teenage girls (about 10 of them) and they were in groups of three or four holding hands around the rink effectively ruining any chance I could get to do any field moves. Because of that I was only really able to work on jumps and spins (I can't complain. Those need work too). Although I am getting a better feel for the camel, it is still only getting around 1 revolution. I do find that when I think of keeping my leg above hip height, like I'm doing a spiral, I'm able to find my rocker better. Scratch spins were nice and comfortable. Two foot spins are getting the required three revolutions. Blegh. Have I mentioned that I hate the two-foot spin? No? Well, I do. I hate it hard. Backspins are rotating but they are not pretty. As far as jumps go, I worked on the toe loop mostly just trying to slow it down. I did a bunch of loops, waltz-loops, and one loop-loop (tiny). I did manage to work on CW crossovers with the transition into the backward crossovers. I find that if I tweek my hip a bit, I can make the swingroll/mohawk thing work. 

Thursday Morning Lesson - Typically, we have our Thursday morning Freestyle sessions on the Blue Rink but since the 2017 National Pairs Camp is being held at the Ice Centre this year, everything got moved around. This morning, for the first time EVER, I got to skate on the Red Rink! I know this isn't a big deal to most people, but I've only ever skated on the Blue and the Green Rinks, never the Red. The Red Rink is a bit more closed off so it feels more private and there really isn't a lot of seating in there. Also, the ice is HARD! I did a warm-up waltz jump and there was just no give to the ice. On the other hand, my backspins felt really nice on this ice so, there's that. Since Christopher and I have been working on the MIF for the past few lessons, he wanted to take a look at my Pre-Bronze Freestyle elements. The test asks for two different jumps of either a half or full rotation. I've been having a difficult time deciding what I should do (should I play it safe and do two half jumps or should I go above and beyond and do two fully rotated jumps?). Christopher essentially decided everything for me and I'm okay with that! Waltz jump and Salchow. Bam! Decided! He had me run through the whole test. 

• Waltz Jump - Good. Maybe a little bit more height. 
• Salchow - Good. Maybe slow it down more. 
• Two-foot spin - The required number of rotations are happening. Maybe bend the knees more and bring my arms in slower. 
• One-Foot Upright Spin - I asked him if I should do a scratch spin or if they only want to see the one-foot spin. He looked at the rule book and noticed that for Pre-preliminary, one has the option to have their freeleg however they want it. For the Pre-Bronze, it just says "one-foot spin", no optional freeleg. So I did a proper one-foot spin in the "flamingo" position (that's what I'll call it from now on because I'm from Florida and I need to represent). I got six revolutions out of that before I exited. He was pleased. Moving on. 
• Forward and Backward Crossovers - I asked him if it needs to be in the MIF pattern and he said no. Just do the forward, mohawk, then backward. No need to be redundant and repeat the MIF pattern. 
• Lunge or Spiral - I hate lunges because I feel like they scratch up my boots and, believe, me, they have suffered enough through all of my falls. I was planning on performing a spiral but again, Christopher thought that may be redundant since that is already on the MIF test. Harrumph. Lunge it is. 

So, I'll pass, no problem. It's not the most exciting test in the world but it needs to be done in order to move forward. Speaking of moving forward, he glanced ahead at the Bronze Freestyle test and had me look at some of the requirements for that. Since one of the jumps can be a fully rotated jump of the skaters choice, I suggested the loop. We did a few of those and they feel comfortable (they should, I've been practicing them quite a bit). I need more glide out and he would like to see more cross in my legs mid-air. Something to work on. Then...the FLIP! I admitted to him that I have hit the fear wall with this again and haven't been able to practice it without chickening out. He's seen me land it before. He even passed me on it in our Jumps class together so I think he was a bit baffled about why I can't do it now. We worked on some half flips slowly and then moved on to a half-flip/loop hybrid. Because this is really a mental issue I'm dealing with, he suggested putting me in the harness for our next lesson. I get to go in the harness, ya'll! Another first :) Our lesson next week will also be kind of screwy because he'll be in Colorado Springs for the 2017 Broadmoor Open during our normal Thursday lesson so we switched it to Monday. That means I'll be cramming over the weekend rather than Wednesday night.