Test Prep

Lesson today and it's also the start of the summer contract. I always get a bit excited every time a new contract starts. It's a bit like the anticipation you feel on the first day of school when you're a kid and you wonder who is going to be in your class. It's always fun to see who is going to be skating on my session for the summer. This excitement wore off quickly, though, when I discovered that I'm sharing my summer ice with a lot of very small children who still need their parents to tie their skates. I have nothing against the children, it's just that very young beginners often lack situational awareness and that kind of ramps up the danger factor. Because they don't watch where they are going, that means I need to focus less on technique, speed, and power and more on dodging little girls. Sigh. By the time Christopher got on the ice for our lesson, I had already been skating (and practicing my duck and weave technique) for about 40 minutes so I was properly warmed up.

Power Perimeter Stroking - We went through the whole test in order. Again, he reminded me to be mindful of the axis although he said it was slightly better than the last time. Also, don't forget to step onto an inside edge after the forward crossovers and really extend the underpush on the backward crossovers.

Power Three Turns - This was tough to get through because of all of the "little people traffic" but I did what I could. I think he understood. I need to work to get my bad side a bit more powerful.

BX-BO Edges - Again, this was tough to get though since I really had no desire to take off anyone's head with my knife shoes but I got through what I could. Same thing as the backward power strokes, exaggerate the underpush and PUSH going into the BO edge.

Circle 8 - I did this really well and nobody got in my way. When I skated back to him he seemed very pleased and didn't have any corrections. Yay!

Five Step Mohawks - We spent a bit of time on this just smoothing out the steps a bit and making sure I don't cheat the lobes.

Overall, he seemed okay with everything. He said that he really liked the Circle 8 and the progress I've made on that. This was such a struggle for me because of my injury but the time I invested in it has paid off and now it's my strongest move. Maybe I should dedicate that kind of time to some of my other really weak elements like the backspin, BO/BI three turns, and flip jump.

I have just a few practices left and one more lesson and then I take my test. I feel pretty confident. I'm definitely feeling more excitement than nervousness or anxiety so that's quite a bit different than last year's Pre-Bronze test. I've come a long way :)