Wednesday Night Cram

The Sport Stable changed their schedule around again so I had to find another rink to go to for my Wednesday Night Cram session. I drove to the Apex Arena in Arvada and it was pleasantly uncrowded. In fact, it was so quiet when I got on the ice for my warm-up that I could hear the ice cracking under my skates. I'm not sure if this is normal but I have never heard it before and it was kind of unsettling to be honest. Eventually, a couple of hockey guys joined the session along with a younger girl who looked to be working on Pre-Preliminary (Yay, an equal!).

My goal for this session was to focus first on Pre-Bronze MIF and Freestyle and then with whatever time was left over I was going to dedicate to jumps, spins, and maybe some Bronze MIF. I feel like if I had to give myself a grade for my Pre-Bronze MIF it would be a solid B. I think it's above average but there is definitely some room to grow on these. I'm not worried about passing but I would really like to get these to an A- or a solid A. My forward outside edges felt really good! In fact, this was the first time that I could hear them rip! I was also getting a rip on my return to center on the Waltz 8. This is exciting! This means my edges are getting stronger (well, at least my FO are anyway) :)

Jumps were okay. I think I have been trying so hard lately to slow down my salchow that I might have ruined them? I don't know. They are just all over the place now. I gave up on them after a bit and will just let Christopher deal with it during our lesson tomorrow. Waltz jumps were comfortable. Loops are getting much better now that I'm focusing on my arms and making sure my free leg is crossed in front. When I do a loop as part of a combo, however, I'm still struggling with getting the free leg crossed in front. It's next to my skating leg in a flamingo position, but not crossed. I did some flips. They were not spectacular by any means but I worked on them as promised.

I had a really nasty fall while working on backspins. I'm getting more comfortable getting the rotations in the flamingo position but I know Christopher wants to see me do these with the free leg crossed in front. I tried it, I fell, it hurt. Some of my nastiest falls have been on backspins and back threes. It's just so easy to have your heel slip out from under you and those are the falls that hurt the most. Christopher is just going to have to be patient with me on these. I really need some time to get the hang of this (and maybe get some padded pants!).

I had about 15 minutes left over to work on some upcoming moves. Power Threes on both sides are feeling better although that step forward after the back crossover is a real pain in the ass. I did the Five Step Mohawks on the blue line and my good side feels good and my bad side feels bad. That's to be expected, I guess. Power Stroking felt rushed going forward, nice and easy going backward. I didn't do Circle Eight or Alternating Back Crossovers to BO Edges because I just didn't have it in me at this point. I wanted to go home and eat a cheeseburger, binge some Netflix, and cuddle my cat. I'm an adult and I can do what I want :)