Quiet and Sombre Test Day

It was Test Day at the rink this morning so it was quiet and sombre. I could feel the anxiety in the air as skaters put in some last minute practice time before getting on Test Ice. Test Day stresses me out even when I'm not the one testing. I wish they would at least play some music during the test warm-ups. I feel like that would help people relax. The quiet just makes things worse.

Since I wasn't testing today (thankfully), I could ease into my Friday morning practice and get right to work. I spent the first 30 minutes on Silver Moves and the last 15 minutes on Freestyle elements.

Eight Step Mohawks - Okay, these are improving especially on my bad side. I was able to do 2-3 full patterns and, although my steps were at an even cadence, my feet were sloppy. But, I was able to come back to center each time so that's good. I would still like to clean this up quite a bit but I'm happy that I'm at the point where I can practice this move in its entirety without stopping.

Forward and Backward Cross Strokes - I feel like I'm really getting into the groove with the forward strokes but I'm disappointed at how my backward strokes have lost their flow. I was doing well on them in previous practices but now they are slowing down as I go down the line. I'm not sure what I'm doing differently to make that happen. I'll have to remind myself to have Christopher take a gander at them the next time we work together.

FO-BI 3 Turns - Good side was good and the bad side could have been better. I was putting my foot down a lot on the bad side 3 turns. Ugh.

FI-BO 3 Turns - Good side was good but I would like to have better control with my arms after the RBO turn. I didn't do the bad side in the pattern but I did work on just the LBO on the hockey circle. They are getting around but I'm putting a foot down right after. This will take some time. These 3 turn patterns are KILLING ME!

Spirals - The FO spirals are pretty good and I think I'm getting to hip height on the LFO spirals. I think they are passable. The FI spirals need a lot of work on both legs. I need to work on controlling the edge more.

Power Pulls - I'm still working on the forward pulls to get them more comfortable. I'm doing them on both legs now but one can easily tell that the left leg is the weaker side. Going backwards feels great on my right leg but I start to go diagonal when I switch to the left. It's like the outside edge is considerably stronger than the inside edge so I start to veer toward the boards. But hey, considering a month ago I wasn't able to do them at all on my left leg, I'll take it.

Spins - I worked on forward spins a bit and they were ewww. The backspins weren't much better. Today was a bad spin day for sure.

Jumps - I ran through my entire repertoire of jumps including flips. Usually my loop jumps are my strongest jump but today, I just couldn't get any height on them. Toe loops felt better and my sals felt more controlled. Flips were gross. I'm not launching them like I should.