Moves Lesson

Today was my first lesson with Christopher since the competition and we got right to work on Silver Moves per my request. We didn't have time for all of them but we looked at the first three moves.

8 Step Mohawk - I've just been practicing this on the hockey circle and haven't yet done it in the full proper pattern so today we did just that and holy cow, it's so different! I didn't realize how big this thing actually is. I mean, it pretty much takes up most of the rink. Geez. So I did better going clockwise than the other way and there were a few missteps especially in regards to that outside mohawk. I'll keep practicing it in the full pattern slowly and work my way up to full speed. It will be a challenge to get all the steps even.

Forward and Backward Cross Strokes - Some corrections on this but it's still the best of all of the Silver moves. He wants me to emphasize the underpush going forward and watch that I get on an edge and not on the toepick going backwards. Later in my practice after the lesson I felt like I was getting a better hang of this.

FO-BI Three Turns - My LBI is still pretty weak and he pointed out that I'm rushing it in an attempt to just get it over with. Yes, that's a true statement! So we worked a bit on making sure I'm turning my torso and head along with the turn instead of forcing it.

Flip Jump - At the tail end of our lesson he wanted to see some jumps so I suggested the flip jump since that has been put on the back burner lately. We worked a bit on getting that pick in and draw so I'm not two-footing the takeoff. This needs so much more work.

Today was one of the better lessons I've had lately! I told him that next week I really want to work on the power pulls since I've been struggling so much with the forward ones. My new boots/blades should be arriving on Monday and on Saturday I'll go in to try them on and get the blades temporarily mounted. Good stuff!