So, I haven't skated in about a week and a half (since my last lesson, actually) and I'm rusty to say the least. Everything we made progress on in our last lesson was completely forgotten, never to be retrieved again. It's just....gone. Last week was spring break so the rink changed to a week of drop-in sessions (none of which I could could actually go to because the earliest one started at 8:00am and I have to be at work at 9:00am). No lesson, no practice, and sadly, no progress. Sigh. I did, however, manage to get my blades sharpened by someone who actually knows what they are doing. Usually, I just take them to my rink's pro shop to get sharpened because it's convenient. They don't usually do the best job so I never expect much but the last sharpening they did for me was so bad that I couldn't hold an RFO edge for a good 2-3 weeks until the blades wore down a bit. So, because I work every damn day of the week, I sent my husband down to Littleton to get my blades sharpened by someone who came highly recommended by my coach. He did an amazing job (my husband and the sharpener). I can really feel the difference. I am pleased.
Movez - Before I went into bronze moves, I spent some time on forwards and backwards edges just so I could get a good feel for the sharpening. Once I felt comfortable on these, I moved on to the Circle 8. I feel like my initial push at the start of every circle was weak and I was having a hard time maintaining enough momentum to get around all the way. Something to work on. I did some five step mohawks but, since these felt pretty stable, I just did one pattern. Power Perimeter Stroking was the same way. I spent the bulk of my time working on the Power 3 Turns and, once I remembered to add speed and count out the steps, they improved. The BX-BO edges are now a complete mess, though. These used to feel pretty awesome but now I feel like I'm starting from scratch. We made some changes to this during our last lesson (all of which I either forgot or I remember but they no longer make sense) and now I feel like I can't even do this move anymore. So frustrating.
Jumpz and Spinz - I ran through all of my program jumps making sure to not rush things. My loop jump was gross today. Just really sloppy. But everything else felt okay. I even did some really tiny flip jumps (also gross). However, the time off helped my spins! These felt fairly centered and I feel like I even made some slight (keyword slight) progress on my camel once I remembered to arch my back.
Scary Thingz - I've decided that I'm going to dedicate the last 10-15 minutes of my practice to "things that scare me." I tend to avoid the scary stuff in lieu of other things that I feel are more important (even though they are not) but, if I set a chunk of time aside to force myself to work on this stuff, I think I'll start seeing results. So, I started with backward 3 turns. The RBO 3 turn is now consistent and not scary at all. The other ones, not so much. But hey, I at least tried them. I did some backspins and some more flip jumps.
Overall, I thought that taking a week off would either turn me into a disaster on ice or give my brain a chance to reset itself and come back all fresh and courageous. I guess it chose the former rather than the latter.
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