I skated at Apex this morning and it was just alright. Nothing spectacular.
Moves - I worked on everything except the one thing I really should be working on, the 8 Step. But, I promise to do double tomorrow at the Y where I have a little more room. What felt really good today were the Power Pulls. When I actually do what my coach says and cross my free leg in front for the forward pulls, things look and feel really nice. I did a few passes of just the forward pulls to lock in the muscle memory. I worked a bit on the backward cross strokes as well. Christopher would really like to see my feet get closer together on the stroke so I worked on keeping my feet neat. Oh, I guess I didn't work on spirals either but that's my best move so I suppose it's okay to skip it.
The 27 Program Challenge (10/27) - I did it twice but I only skated the beginning half of one and the end half of the other. So I'm counting it as just one run through. This was not intentional. I just royally messed up the first run through to the point that I knew I wouldn't be able to catch up. It started well enough but I ended my first spin facing the wrong way and I took a couple of backward crossovers to get into the step sequence. Huge mistake because those 2 seconds I took with those crossovers put me so far behind that I started thinking of what to cut to get back on track. So instead, I just stopped after the step sequence so I could run the whole thing again. I should have just kept going but I was just so damn frustrated that I got myself so off track over a couple of crossovers. I think if this were to happen again, it would be better to step forward into a quick 3 turn to face the right way. That would have taken less time. So, I waited for my music to loop back around to the beginning and I started again. This time, however, I royally messed up the beginning half! After my first jump combo, I do a crossover, step forward, cross behind step and on that cross behind, I was too far back on the end of my blade and I came down hard on my tailbone. There are some falls that take the wind out of you and then there are others that take your spirit. This fall drained my spirit. I just kind of sat there in defeat. I was going to get up and stop the music but instead I got ready to pick it back up at the step sequence (which is where I stopped on the first run through). So, yeah. I did two halves of my program and all of it sucked.
Dance - I ran through DW and CT without the music (I played the music in my head so that counts, right?). Canasta was great (in fact...it was better?). The Waltz was good too but I'm having the same problem I had ages ago when I was learning this. I run out of room. I make my swing rolls too big and that throws the whole pattern off. I'll have Christopher take a look. These are the two adult solo pattern dances for the 2021-2022 season so I'm brushing up on them now since I haven't really focused on them since March. Have I mentioned that I hate the Dutch Waltz? Well, I do. With a passion.
Mental State - I think once every year for a brief spell, I go through a phase where my mind just isn't syncing up to my body. This generally results in mental defeat. It usually goes away in time so I'm not terribly worried about it but I feel like I'm in one of those periods now. I totally get what Simone Biles is going through right now. The body and the mind need to work together and when they don't, it can get messy...and dangerous. I've been trying really hard lately to relax and that works but not all of the time. I wouldn't be so concerned about it if I didn't have a bunch of important things coming up soon (tests and competitions). Ugh.
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