Just like the Russians!

 Lesson today and I told Christopher about how the Jumps Clinic went. He told me that Christy Krall actually used to be his coach! I guess that makes sense. My husband and I often joke that we know who Christopher's skaters are because they have such pretty arms. Christy just so happened to make arm magic happen as well so now I know where "Christopher Arms" come from. They were originally "Christy Arms!"

Of course, the first thing he wants to see is the flip jump with arms overhead and the first one I did was nice! So we continued to work on it but I got more and more sloppy as we went on. Sigh. We did some lutz jumps with arms and those were slightly improved but still not where they need to be. Basically, jumping with arms overhead works for me and he's okay with me doing it on all of my jumps ("just like the Russians," he said!). The judges will appreciate the added difficulty and when I skate Silver next season with IJS, my scores will thank me. 

On to dances. Besides today, I have one more lesson with him before test day. I've been practicing my trouble spots and have made some improvements. He took video of me running the Cha Cha on my own and the little chasse I've been putting in after the slalom is gone! Yaasssss! We ran it together and it felt pretty good except I need to make the end pattern lobe a bit deeper on the edges. Next up was Fiesta. Although I've been able to improve the timing of the end pattern, it could still use some work. I think the problem now is not so much the last step as it is my arms not moving along with the last step. I need to get the top half of me and the bottom half of me in sync. Finally, we ran the Swing Dance and it was nice. He reminded me to smile, though. I said "fine, I'll remember to smile on test day" and he responded with "you gotta practice it with the smiles." So we ran it again with more smiling action and I almost cracked up laughing halfway through because I felt silly. Ugh...so awkward. But that's what the judges want so I guess that's what I gotta do. 

Next week is the dress rehearsal so I have to remember to look all kinds of fancy with my dance dress. Eventually, I think I'll need to invest in another dance dress. I have the pretty grey one and I have the black and red one but I've been wearing them for lots of things. I probably need another to spice things up. I have ideas about what I want :)