Final Touches before Funtastics

I skipped my morning practice and my Pilates class today and only went to the rink for my lesson. I had a good excuse, though. I had a really soft cat snuggling with me under blankets and it was too sweet of a moment to disturb. Besides, I've been running my Free Skate for about a year now and I doubt missing a practice would ruin me too much. 

I was first for a lesson today so Christopher had me do the same 5 minute warmup that I would do on competition day. He only stopped me twice for corrections. After that, we got started on all the things. 

Free Skate - I did a run through for Christopher and it went mostly well. I didn't get to do the loop jump because there was a young skater in my way (even though I was wearing the sash, ugh). He made an adjustment on my camel spin to make it look slightly more advanced. I was doing the camel to forward upright to backward upright. He wants me to do a scratch spin instead of the forward upright. It looks better. Overall for this event, I think he wants me to have more expression and confidence. 

Compulsory Moves - I ran this a few times for him on both ends of the rink. He timed me on one of them and I clocked in at 1:17 which is great. He wants more speed going into the salchow-loop combo and a stronger push on the camel. Since I'm under the time limit, I can really spend some time on the final spin and draw it out a bit more. He gave me a nice compliment on my spiral - beautiful extension and arch in my back :) 

Swing Dance - Just some minor corrections on this. Mostly, he would like a ton more expression. Also, he corrected some of the places where I was wide stepping (mostly on the back chasses). He also spent some time with me on pushing the pattern out to the edges of the rink and getting that mohawk to be a bit more smooth. He asked me what my plans were for exit choreography and I'm glad I had a plan because he asked to see it. I think this is in good enough shape to compete with this Sunday. 

At the end of the lesson, he asked me what my goals are for this competition and I told him 1). strong camel spins 2). Lutz-Toe combo looks deliberate, and 3). EXPRESSION! All very obtainable goals. He mentioned how much I've improved from two years ago when I skated my Star Wars program. I really needed to hear that. I know I've made progress but sometimes I get mentally stuck on obsessing over the things I'm still struggling with that I forget how my overall skating has matured over time. It's a refreshing reminder going into my final competition of the season.