Going it Alone

Our summer contract just ended last week and we have two weeks of drop-ins before the fall contract starts. I was supposed to have a lesson this morning but there was some confusion with schedules and that ended up not happening. I had planned on running my Geisha program with Christopher but since he wasn't there, I had to run it ALONE! *insert gasp here* I don't know why I'm so shy about running my program without my coach. I guess it's because I'm skating with people who have been skating their whole life and I'm just this old lady skating to Geisha music and trying to stay upright. At least when my coach is there it feels more...legitimate? Like "It's okay, I know I'm awful, but look..I have a coach so I'm supposed to be here!" But alas, today he was not here and the show must go on, so to speak. I put on the sash and got into position.

It was just okay. I ended right on time and did all of the jumps and spins in time with the music and I didn't fall. However, I just didn't place things exactly where they were supposed to be. I felt like I was a good 8-10 feet off from every mark. I guess what this really means is that I need to run my music more often and stop being such a pansy about it. The competition is in FOUR weeks! Get it together, Mandi!

Aside from the program, I spent a lot of time on spins. I felt very centered today and wanted to take advantage of that as it doesn't happen very often. One-foot and two-foot spins were just fine so I spent the bulk of my spinning on the attitude spin. I was able to do a few proper ones with my leg behind me and got three revolutions but they were super slow. I'm just going to have to keep plugging away at it. It's just so difficult to adjust my center of gravity and find the sweet spot when my leg is somewhere new. It's not impossible though. It's just a matter of doing it over and over again until my body realizes that this is a new normal.

I also ran my compulsory moves program a couple of times and that went well. I fell back into old habits and started toe waltz-ing my toe loops, though, so I'm not so pleased about that. Overall, it's good enough for competition. What I really like about compulsory moves is that, unlike the free skate, I am not skating to music so I feel like I can just concentrate on doing the elements well instead of having to worry about musical cues and all that. I actually feel more confident with my compulsory moves routine that I just learned two weeks ago than I do about my Geisha program that I've been working on since February. C'est la vie!