Thursday, April 5, 2018

Upward Spiral

After my last post I decided that being frustrated and in my head at the rink is not the most conducive to practice. So before I went to the rink for my early morning freestyle I stretched, did some light cardio (running in place because I still can't actually run yet*), and pushed out all the negativity. Today is going to be a good day!

Movez - After some warm-up laps I ran through my entire Pre-Bronze MIF test. Perimeter Stroking felt a little shaky but once I got to the CW side I seemed more stable. Consecutive Edges felt really nice, especially the forward ones. The backward edges felt like they had a better push so that seems like a small improvement over last week. I'll take it! Crossover Pattern felt much speedier! The backward crossovers were especially fast since I tried reaching out to the side more. It was actually kind of frightening. I wasn't sure I could stop! I almost ate it on the final backward outside edge/step forward. That was kind of jarring. I feel like if I'm doing this move slowly, I have better technique. But then I'm supposed to have power too so when I add power, my technique declines. I need to find a balance. Waltz 8 felt pretty smooth. I still need to remember the proper arms on that first three turn. I'm getting it just fine on the CW side but then I forget my arms on the CCW side. So yeah, my feetz know what to do but my armz don't. Alas. Finally, Spirals. You know, today was the best I think I've done them in a while. I actually did them twice because I was surprised at how not scary they were today! Neat! So, I think my moves test is passable. I really just want it to be super polished.

Spinz - I did one really good scratch spin that I felt pretty proud of! I hit the sweet spot right away, I held everything stretched out for a long while before bringing it in, and arms above the head for the finish. If you saw me, you might have thought I knew what I was doing ;)

Programz - After Saturday's disaster of a run-through, I spent about half of my practice working on all or parts of the program. By this time, though, more skaters had gotten on the ice and they were running their programs with their coaches so there were moments where I had to break out of my program to give them the right of way. I think I was able to get one complete run-though in about 30 minutes but I was able to work on some sections that needed polishing. The lunge is still giving me grief. I hate to say it but oh how I wish it were a spiral instead. Next time I practice, I'm just going to have to dedicate more time to the lunge to get it more consistent. I will say that as much as I hated the two foot spin, having one in my program has forced me to practice it so much that it's cake now. It's still not my favorite but I hate it less. I'm determined that this whole thing will be better looking the next time Christopher sees it.

*Seriously, I can't even jog it hurts so much! If the zombie apocalypse hits anytime soon, just save yourself. I won't be able to run or keep up. Don't worry, I've accepted this fate :)

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