Program Ingredients

 Before today's lesson, I've been doing a lot of thinking about which new elements to include in next season's Freeskate. I know I want to push myself a bit to include some trickier elements. For my two spins I was thinking a camel-sit and a layback (overly ambitious thinking on that one!). For jumps, I'm pretty limited because I don't have a lutz yet but I was hoping to include a Flip-toe loop-loop, a salchow-loop, and two other singles (probably another flip and something else). I know the flip-toe loop-loop is also a bit ambitious but I think I might be able to make it happen. I can do a flip-toe loop and I can do a toe loop-loop so why not string them all together? I just have to check to see if this fits the rules. 

Lesson - We started with the discussion about program ingredients and I told him about wanting to include the camel-sit so we spent the majority of the lesson on this. I think I had one good one that had 3 revs in each position but the majority of them were really icky. I have to get used to keeping my core strong as I change positions so I don't fall out of anything. However, there are hints that this is in the realm of my capabilities so I think he'll let me keep it. Next up, we worked on the layback. I haven't even thought of this spin in like two years when we first started working on it. This one is going to need a lot more work than the camel-sit! For now, he wants me to just enter an upright spin and hold the free leg and arms out for as long as I can before bringing arms into first position and curling the free leg around and behind with hips out. Once I get that down consistently, I can start leaning back. I think this might be the hardest part. I'm not used to watching the ceiling spin. Finally, we dabbled in some choreographic step sequence elements. More Ina Bauers, spread eagles, twizzles, and a split jump (yikes). The split jumps have me especially anxious. I can do a split on the floor but jumping into one on slippery ice wearing knife shoes is a whole different story. I at least attempted some today but they were super itty bitty as I wasn't able to kick my front leg out at all for the spilt. 

I love that he is allowing me to do these more advanced elements. I think that might mean he thinks I'm actually capable of doing them. I know I have improved quite a bit this past year so I'm okay pushing myself. I just really hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew