Return of the Geisha

Geez, I fell a lot today. Like stupid falls too! At one point I fell while standing and talking to my coach. My blades just slipped out from under me. What the hell...

Stupid falls aside, I had a pretty good skate today. My biggest accomplishments were in regards to my Circle 8 and my loop jump.

Warm-up: Did some laps, some edges, and moved right into Bronze MIF starting with the Circle 8. Today was a first! I completed the whole pattern without a foot down and with relatively normal looking circles. This is super exciting. I've been working so hard on this and to see noticeable progress feels pretty darn good! I moved on to the Perimeter Power Stroking and that also felt pretty nice. The Alternating XO-BO Edges are getting there. It's just really hard to devote serious time to it in a busy session. I keep having to abandon the pattern to make way for someone. But, it got worked on. I only worked on the Power Three Turns on the blue line today. I feel like I'm just going through the motions with this. I'm missing the "power" part of it. Finally ended with Five Step Mohawks. Those still feel okay so I only did one run of them and moved on to jumps and spins. Backspins are getting more comfortable but I'm still not crossing my leg over yet. I want some more time in the flamingo position until I can consistently find my rocker. I ran through all of my jumps including loops from both entries. No fear anymore on these! That's HUGE! I did not do any Flips, though. I'm still working them on the floor. They should be ready to take to the ice soon.

Lesson: Christopher reminded me of the conversation we had right after my test about entering in some competitions and, sadly, he informed me that Colorado Champs won't be happening this year. He mentioned the Colorado Springs Invitational in September and I was glad to hear we were thinking the same thing. I mentioned that this event was part of the Adult Competition Series and would earn me points that would later be combined with the points I earn at Midwestern Sectionals (which are in Colorado this year!). He seemed okay with this plan so we got right to work on beefing up my Memoirs of a Geisha program. The overall structure of the program will stay the same but we are just reworking the jumps to make them more competitive. So, here is what has changed:

• Single waltz jump is now a waltz-falling leaf-half flip sequence

• Single half flip is now a loop jump from back crossovers

• New choreography coming out of the loop jump to include an extended LFO glide with pretty arms (I love how he knows how much I'm struggling with this so he throws it in as a challenge. Harrumph). 

• Single salchow is now a salchow-toe loop combo (I need to work on not toe-waltzing these). 

• *Update* Single toe-loop added before the final spin. 

So, that's three jump elements and the rule book says max of four so I'm okay there, although I wouldn't mind one more jump to bring it to four. I also meet the combo/sequence requirements that say one combo/sequence can have three jumps and the other can only have two. And, for now, the steps and spins will stay the same. Now starts the task of trying to retrain my body to skate this program differently. Homework. Lots and lots of homework.