Loopy

Practice this week went very well. I worked on all of the new things Christopher gave me during our last lesson and I dedicated a lot of time to Double 3s. 

Gold Moves - Forward and Backward Power Circles are finally starting to take shape (literally). I'm starting to get the hang of gaining speed while increasing the size of the circle. It's trickier than it seems, ya'll. All of the time I have been putting in with these has the added benefit of making my crossovers stronger overall so that's neat. Yay! Forward Double 3s are coming along too. I'm able to do the full pattern with minimal disruption but I'm still having random "foot down" moments. I skipped Backward Double 3s and went right into Backward Circle 8, which I only did twice. I still need a stronger push at the start of each circle but I'm getting around nearly every time now. Finally, Brackets. FI brackets are nice and controlled, FO brackets struggle but still happen, and backward brackets are just non-existent. Sigh. I feel like once I figure out the backward brackets, I can really start seriously drilling these Gold Moves in preparation for testing. Right now, I feel about 50% capable overall on this test. It sounds like a long time away when I say that I might be ready to test these in a year or two but I think I really need that time. But man, those backwards brackets are the things that are really holding me back right now, otherwise, I think I would be ready next summer if I put in the work. 

Loops - Christopher taught me BI Loops during our previous lesson and I think there's been some improvement this week. The RBI is still a big circle but I had some legit loops with my LBI. I did a few to make sure it wasn't a fluke but how cool to see that kind of progress!

Silver Free Skate - I've been struggling with the Flip jump combos lately in my program because of the new entry and also the new feel to my recently fixed Flip jumps. However, I ran my program at the Y on Sunday and everything worked! I think I'm finally getting used to my new and improved Flip jump. I've come a long way with these. Years ago, I was struggling with the fear of attempting them at all, then I started getting them done but with poor technique, and now I feel like I finally have a legit Flip jump that might at least not get negative GOE! It's been a journey!