Old Dog, New Tricks

So I've been playing the Skate Forever Strong Bingo and I needed the square for "learn a New Skating Skill." Christopher was happy to oblige with...Choctaws!!?? *Gulp* Admittedly, these are really pretty and I would love to be able to do them but damn, I'm not that coordinated. He makes them look really easy, though! And if I ever decide to do ice dance someday I know I'll need to know them. Luckily for me, we worked on the back sit spin so I'm counting that one as the new skill considering I did better on those (even though the back sits were still pretty stinky). Oh well, I did the thing and I'm now one box closer to a Bingo!

But let's rewind a bit! As I was warming up, I saw my doppelgänger having her lesson with Christopher and I swear to god I laughed out loud because we were dressed the same! Like, it's not even creepy anymore, it's just like "I NEED TO MEET THIS OTHER MANDI!" So when Christopher was done with his lesson with her, he called me over so he could introduce us (I swear he's in my head sometimes). So now the doppelgänger has a name and her and I can be friends now instead of her getting weirded out by my incessant staring. Yay! A new skating buddy! Or "struggle twin" :)

Christopher asked about Sectionals because the deadline to register is looming and I realized I forgot to tell him I wasn't planning on competing any more this season. I told him I wanted to work on a new program without the worry of a competition coming up soon. If we start choreography on the Devil Program now (that's the only hint you're getting about the new program until later in the future), I will have months and months and months to get it to a comfortable place. I'm excited about it, though! New music and a fresh new perspective! He's going to start cutting the music right away and hopefully we can get started on it next week.

We didn't actually do much today for the lesson but we revisited the Ina Bauer! This time, he wanted to me to do both directions and since I've only ever done it with my right leg leading, I was a bit nervous about how this would go. I didn't fall on my face so yay but I need to work on both sides equally from now on. I have a sneaking suspicion he had me do that because he has ideas for the new program. This is right around the time that we started working on the sit spin (forward and back). Again, I need to incorporate this into my future practices. Since my forward sits can only go so low due to my metal leg (lol) I think he wants to start exploring the back sit as an alternative. I can get low on that if only I can spin on it first. But, my backspins are slowly getting better so maybe in time I can do a forward upright to a back sit? Finally, he wanted to see jumps. We only looked at the loop jump which was lovely on its own but when he asked me to put it in combo with another loop, chaos ensued. Another thing I need to work on.

SO much to work on!