What was I thinking adding a Monday morning to my contract? As if mornings themselves weren't bad enough I choose to do them on a Monday as well? Dumb. Anyway, we rescheduled this week's lesson for today because Christopher is performing in a ballet this weekend and will be in rehearsals later in the week.
Warm up: Because I was really sleepy, I didn't have it in me to jump or spin today. Actually, I didn't have it in me to be there at all although I know I need the practice and I knew I had a lesson today. So I worked on stuff that wouldn't make me exert too much energy because, you know, I didn't have any. After warming up, I had about 20 minutes until my lesson and devoted that time to the circle 8. And guess what? As sleepy as I was, I made some progress. My goal with this today was to make it around the LFO circle with no more than one FD (foot down). I was able to accomplish this a few times so I know it wasn't a fluke. I know this doesn't sound like progress but considering I was putting my foot down anywhere from 2-4 times, this is good. The bad news is that, while I didn't put my foot down more than once, I had really misshapen circles that were MUCH larger than they should be. This is because I cannot get on a secure outside edge so I'm drifting out of the circle. Ugh. But, it's a start. I finished up with some jumps: waltz, salchow, and the double half-flips.
Lesson: Since Christopher saw me working on the circle 8, that's what we started with. He had me do the whole thing and the other edges were fine. It's just this one. So, we used the big hockey circle in the middle to see if I could just maintain the edge. He saw that I made progress on not putting my foot down as frequently but he noticed the odd shape of my circle and the fact that I'm using my upper body to steer because "it looks like you don't trust your edge." Yeah, I don't trust my edge! It doesn't exist. After spending entirely too much time on this, we moved on to the power three turns. With these, I'm making my three-turn lobes too big, almost as big as the crossover lobes. He pulled up the pattern from the USFSA rulebook and pointed out how they are not the same size. I also need to hold the edge longer after the turn. So, there's some work to be done here for sure. We did both sides including the end pattern. Next up, jumps. Building on what I was able to accomplish on Thursday with attempting and landing a small loop jump, we worked on getting the technique correct with the freeleg. I'm still not crossing the freeleg in front as I should after the three turn. Keeping the freeleg crossed will allow me to have my weight over my right side to execute the jump better. I know this. I just can't get my brain to talk to my body to make it happen. I think I'll just spend some time working on the entry without doing the jump. So, RFI three turn, keep the leg crossed in front, and ride the edge. Also, backspins will definitely help. We looked at the waltz jump and salchow just to make sure they didn't backslide since the test. They are fine. He just wants me to hold the landing for three seconds and keep my arms up on the landing.
When we were done, he proposed bringing the harness to our next lesson. I'm still battling some fear issues and he thinks that, with the safety net of the harness, I will be able to get a feel for the proper technique of things. He also wants me to start really working on those flips again and thinks this will help build confidence. I admitted that getting into the harness makes me feel a bit like a failure but ultimately, I agreed. I know it's nothing to be embarrassed about. Skaters of all levels get into the harness to learn jumps all the time. I know it will help, I'm just being stubborn. So yeah, next week is harness time.
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