Bronze Compulsories

Full disclosure: I have not practiced since my lesson last week. It's been really hard to get practices in with the holidays and drop-ins. So, needless to say, I was rusty today and it showed. I warmed up with my usual laps, edges, and turns and then got right to work on jumps and spins since I knew we would be starting choreography for Bronze Compulsories today.

Jumpz & Spinz - I ran through all of my jumps except the flip. I realized that the waltz-toe-toe combo that we decided to put in the free skate won't work because that's one too many toe loops in my program so I started playing around with alternatives. I tried a salchow-toe loop-loop and fell on the loop. In fact, anytime I try to attach a loop to another jump it gets wonky. Something to work on. I dabbled in some sit spins for a bit before working on BI 3 turns. Basically, I was trying to cram a week's worth of practice into 30 minutes in a desperate attempt to not look too awful for my lesson.

Lessonz - He asked me if I wanted to reformat my pre-bronze compulsories to meet the requirements of Bronze or just start fresh with a new program. I opted for the most difficult route (typical) and said I wanted a brand new routine. Cool. We got about 75% of it choreographed today and holy smokes, it's challenging! Doing the BI3 turns choreographed with more speed than I'm used to was crazy. It's totally different from doing them in the Moves pattern! I'm really going to have to work hard at getting this whole routine smooth. Right now, I'm bumbling about on the ice and it's not pretty. I took some video of Christopher performing it so I can study arms and stuff but, man, there is a lot of work to be done and we still need to put in the jump combo and final spin! I'm thinking it will be a waltz-toe loop-loop and scratch spin. Ugh, I have so much to work on and no idea how it's all going to get done in time for August.

Balletz - Christopher has mentioned in the past how he thinks it would be a good idea to incorporate some ballet into my skate training and I found a place in Littleton that seems promising (and adult friendly). When I asked him what he thought, he couldn't recommend it highly enough! He actually performed with the Littleton Ballet Academy in the past and so he's familiar with the people who run the place and says it's a lovely place to go for ballet. I reached out to them and asked if I could attend a session as a trial before I commit and they got back to me right away with all the information I needed to get started. I might go on Monday evening to give it a go. I think this will really help with musicality and softer, more graceful lines and it will certainly work my ankles a whole lot. I'm nervous but excited. Just what I need, right? More stuff on my already full plate? Neat.