Private ice so nice!

The new Spring contract started this week and I have added a Friday 6:00 - 7:00am time slot onto my contract since I'm not going to APEX as frequently. You know what's nice? Having the entire rink to myself for the whole hour since nobody else is contracted for that time! It was lovely! I could practice sections of my program, work on moves, and make stupid mistakes like falling on lunges without feeling like I'm being judged by upper-level skaters. I got a lot done in one hour.

Movez - After a few warm-up laps, I ran the entirety of my MIF test. Perimeter stroking felt nice and controlled. I'm getting about 4 good long strokes (cue childish laughter here) down the length of the ice and, now that my crossovers are more controlled, I'm getting about four of them in at the ends of the rink. Consecutive edges were slow and controlled just like they should be. I think I like them quite a bit. Of course I wouldn't mind a stronger initial push on those backward edges but it's something I'll continue to work on. Forward and backward crossovers in a figure 8 were next and I paid special attention to making sure they all have the same speed and rhythm. Since nobody was sharing the ice with me, I placed it right in the center of the rink and I made it BIG. My swingroll/mohawk transition feels pretty good now that the fear is gone. I did the Waltz 8 on center ice as well and it feels really nice and swingy. Dare I say waltzy? No more problems with finding my way back to the center now that both ankles feel strong and stable. This is shaping up to be my most comfortable (and enjoyable) element on this test. Finally, the dreaded spirals. I did several passes because these are just that bad. My right spiral is just fine. I feel plenty confident with that one, although more flexibility would be nice. But my left leg spiral...I just still feel so unsure about it. It's absolutely a mental thing. So yeah, the first half of the spirals look dreadful but then the second half is decent. I'm promising myself now that this will get worked on more often, especially now that I'll be by myself and won't feel self-conscious about how bad the left ones look.

Programz (and Jumpz) - I worked on sections of the program as Christopher suggested during our last lesson. I started with just the first 20 seconds or so before I enter the back crossovers into the waltz jump. The problem here is that stupid lunge. I can get down into it just fine but my guiding skate has a tendency to fall onto an inside edge forcing me into a lunge three turn. However, if I focus on staying on a flat, my trailing leg swings wide and I'm thrown off balance. My only falls today were on the lunges. So dumb. Once I was tired of falling I moved on to the next section. This is the CCW back crossovers to the waltz jump-airplane-wavey arms-two foot spin. This section is pretty stable. I just had a bit of difficulty with orientation. I was skating on the blue rink today and it was difficult to get my spin to end facing the right direction since I'm so used to skating on the red rink. I think I got it figured out, though. If I see the Mountain Dew sign to my right, I'm facing the right way. If I see the Pepsi sign on my right, I'm facing the wrong way. If they decide to advertise other carbonated, high calorie, sugary beverages and switch the signs out, I'm screwed. Exiting the two foot spin, I start the "footwork" sequence. I made sure to hold out the landing of that half flip and I got the three turn sequence a little more polished up. What I struggle with here is expanding everything to cover more of the ice surface. Also, my salchow might be over-rotated as my landing just kind of circles in on itself. Finally, the last section. Same problem, I need to use more of the surface of the ice. I think I'm just scared of wasting time by making things bigger and then potentially not finishing on time. Being the only one in this icy ghost town, I had nobody to run my music for me. Alas.

I feel pretty confident that I could pass the Moves test once I get my left spiral under control but I feel like I'm starting all over with the Free Skate now that I'm doing a program. If I were skating the individual elements without music, I feel like I could easily pass. Skating a program is a whole different animal. Don't get me wrong, I love my music, my choreography, and the fact that I get to be artistic on the ice for the first time. I guess I'm just anxious to get Pre-Bronze over and done with.