I did my lesson on Monday with the old skates because I didn't want to waste our entire 40 minute lesson with me just trying to stay upright. I practiced this morning in the new ones and that was an adventure. Oof.
Monday Lesson - We started with Moves. I was able to make it around on all four circles of the Backward Circle 8! Except, as Christopher pointed out, it was hella cheated. The RBI lobe was more oblong than round and the LBI barely made it around. There are two issues. Issue #1 is that my pushes are weak and issue #2 is that my arms are moving around a lot. Both of these things are happening on my back inside circles and that's why they are such a mess. However, progress is being made. It's small progress but it's progress nonetheless. Next up were the Double 3 turns. He had me do an exercise where I do four consecutive 3 turns on one foot in each direction. I was able to do it (which was neat!) but they are slow and sloppy. This is now homework to be worked on every time I practice. We looked at Brackets for a bit too. FI brackets are happening but he would like for me to bring my free foot closer before, during, and after the turn. The RBO brackets happened too but I could only do them while holding his hands. We looked at twizzles for a bit and he had me experimenting with other entries. When I tried the LFO twizzle, they were near perfect! In fact, it's better the the RFI twizzle I've been skating for the last 2 years. Who knew! We finished up with the Willow Waltz and that's looking better. We just mostly worked on the partnering aspect of it. At the end of my lesson, I unlaced my skates for the last time. It was a bit emotional. I said a silent "Thank you" for keeping me safe and allowing me to skate great the last 2.5 years. Sigh :(
Tuesday Practice - First time out in the new skates! Here we go! First of all, I opened my skate bag and the weed smell hit me. Ugh. Not what I want to smell first thing in the morning. Time to invest in some deodorizers. The other thing I noticed was that these are just really difficult to lace tightly. They have these lace loops that go all the way up the center of the tongue and while I understand the point of them, I just kinda hate them. I wasn't able to pull my laces enough to get the tightness in the top part of my skate like I'm used to. Later this evening, I'll re-lace them. The third thing I noticed was that the guards I've been using on my old skates are too big for these. They were so loose I couldn't walk in them so I walked on my toepicks from the bench to the ice. Once I was on the ice, the adventure continued. I did a lot of swizzles and forward/backward edges. The difference in rocker size wasn't as pronounced as I thought it would be but I could very much notice that these blades are different. In some ways, the difference is lovely. For instance, my forward 3 turns were butter and the five step mohawk pattern I did was so silent! No toe scratching at all! On the downside, my spins are gone. It's going to take me a while to find the sweet spot on these blades. Until then, lots of traveling spins. At the end of the session, I was brave enough to do a tiny waltz jump and a tiny salchow. Neither were fantastic but I did them anyway. So, I'll need to buy new guards, change up the lacing, and get two new Bunga pads for my ankles. I was using a Bunga pad for my right ankle in the old skates and now with these new ones, I'll need one for each ankle since it was a little pinchy there. Overall, these are great skates and I'm not regretting my choice to switch so dramatically.
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