Movin'

Today was the first practice in a long time where I had absolutely no pressure to work on stuff. I have no competitions coming up, I'm done testing for a while, and now I can just plug away at things and relax. I did jumps and spins toward the end of my practice and I ran my compulsory moves once but I mostly spent the hour working on Silver Moves.

Eight Step Mohawk - Since it's been a while, I just stuck to one of the hockey circles and did these slowly in both directions. Man, that outside mohawk is terrifying. It feels unnatural. Oddly, the CW side was more smooth and I was able to even out the steps enough to have a nice cadence going on. The CCW side, however, is very choppy and uneven. This will take some work. Once I get the steps solid and evened out a bit, I will do the full pattern out in center ice as it should be.

Forward & Backward Cross Strokes - This is the only move that I can do from beginning to end. I mean, it still needs work for it to look proper but I can at least get through the whole thing from start to finish. My backward cross strokes are feeling better but I know they aren't perfect yet. I've made progress in the sense that I'm at least stepping on to an edge rather than stepping back onto my toepick.

FO-BI 3 Turns - I did all of the 3 turn patterns on the blue line rather than down the length of the rink because I want to make sure I'm placing the turns at the top of each lobe and it's just easier to see that on a line. These were okay since I've been working on them all summer but it's still pretty evident which side is my strong side.

FI-BO 3 Turns - These were kind of a mess because I spent the summer only working on the FO-BI 3 turns because I needed the BI 3 turns for compulsory moves. So, really, today was the first time I've touched these since July and it showed. They were really sloppy especially on my bad side. I'm still struggling with the LBO turns. Sigh. I'll need to dedicate more time to these.

Consecutive Outside & Inside Spirals - I've been neglecting these as well. They felt very unstable.

Forward & Backward Power Pulls - Ugh, I hate these! Remember how much I hated the Forward Circle 8 when I first started working on it for Bronze Moves? It's just like that all over again. The backward pulls aren't so bad and I know they will get better the more I work on them but those forward power pulls seem impossible to me right now. But so did the Circle 8 and it ended up being the highest scored element on my Bronze test. I can only hope that I have the same outcome with these. I know bending my knees will help and I know that there is a certain rhythm you should have with the down-up-down movement but my body won't cooperate at all. Fingers crossed it gets better.

Overall, it was a productive practice and it was the most relaxed I've been on the ice in a long time. It was refreshing. When I was at the competition this past weekend, I told Christopher that I was thinking of not doing the Aspen Invitational in December and instead just competing at Sectionals in March. I think that would give me a nice break from the pressure I've been feeling lately. The summer just kind of burnt me out a bit. I had my Bronze Moves test in June, the Free Skate test in August, and then I was trying to train for CSI in September while also recovering from hand surgery. It was a lot to work on and work through and I'm looking forward to a couple of months of just practicing for fun :)