Thursday, July 18, 2019

All aboard the struggle bus!

Ok, this new Bronze Compulsory Moves routine is gorgeous but man, the struggle is real! I feel like once I get everything up to speed and under control, I'll be a force to be reckoned with but, for now, I'm just doing my best to stay upright.

Warm upz - I did my usual laps and edges and then spent some time working on FO-BI 3 turn patterns on both sides so I can practice them safely in the routine later. My good side (LFO-RBI) actually feels pretty good. Dare I say...comfortable. The bad side (RFO-LBI) is still hit or miss. The LBI 3 turn is getting around about 50% of the time so I need to work on more consistency with this. I know I can do the turn but I have moments when, right before the turn, anxiety creeps in. Those are the times when the turn doesn't make it around. When I clear my mind, relax, and remember how all the various parts of my body need to move in harmony with each other to make the turn happen, it goes well.

Jumpz & Spinz - I ran through all of my single jumps in order of difficulty before moving on to jump combos. I'm having a difficult time adding the toe loop into these combos. I'm cheating them every time. I even slowed it way down and they were still meh. I'm stressing out so much about the toe loop that any jump that goes before it goes to hell. The flip-toe combo is now a complete disaster. Both jumps on their own feel fine but put them together and things get messy. I'll have Christopher work with me on these on Tuesday. Outside of the BI 3 turns, the jump combo is the thing I'm worrying about the most in the Compulsory Moves routine. I spent some time on spins, including working on the backspin from a standstill. Little improvement here but things got worked on.

Compulsory Movez - Now that we have the choreography complete, I ran through the whole thing multiple times from start to finish. I didn't worry about fitting everything into the time limit as I just wanted to make sure I got the choreography correct and that I added some of those elegant ballet-like flourishes Christopher showed me. I have two more months to get this up to speed so it's okay to go slowly right now. I really like how this routine makes use of the entire surface (or at least the entire half of the rink since it will be performed on half ice). This is going to be really nice once I get comfortable with it. The elements in order of appearance are:
  • Single Salchow
  • RBI 3 turn
  • LBI 3 turn
  • Spiral sequence (RFO spiral - mohawk - LBI catch foot spiral)
  • Flip-toe combo
  • Sit spin
There are lots of really pretty movements as transitions to each of the above and I'm really glad I decided to start fresh with a new routine. I love this one!

Balletz - I've been practicing my positions and studying up on my french ballet vocabulary so I won't feel as lost when I go in for my next class. Even though I have only had the one ballet class so far, it has already made me more aware of my body as I move around the ice. I'm paying more attention to the littlest things like how my hands and head are positioned and whether or not my hips are turned out. I can definitely see how all of this will improve my skating down the road!

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