Turns and Choreography

There was no practice ice to be had on Sunday due to a hockey tournament that was happening at nearly all of the rinks around the Denver Metro area. I had a choice to not skate at all on Sunday or to slum it at a public session at the Sport Stable. I decided not to skate. No way I'm going to risk broken bones or getting run into by unruly pubic session people (both of which have happened to me at the Sport Stable). I decided on an early morning Monday session at Apex instead. 

Monday Morning Practice - This was a mostly quiet session. There were only four of us on the ice. All older teens and adults. I dedicated 45 minutes of my one hour session to Gold Moves and you would think I made some progress. I did not. My Backward Circle 8 and the Power Circles feel okay but everything else is still just so sloppy. I was pleased that my FO Brackets seem to be better but disappointed that the more time I spent on the Double 3s, the worse they became. My final 15 minutes were spent on spot checking my Free Skate and my Free Dance. My Flip jumps felt awesome today! I'm so pleased at how these have evolved. I used to be so scared of them, then I got over the fear but did them with poor technique for years. Now, I happily do them! Once I got a feel for the proper technique of them, I love working on them! I feel like my skills have a tendency to suck pretty hard for a few years and then I have an "aha!" moment and they are all of a sudden good. I wish my Gold Moves would follow that trend. It's been a solid two years with very little progress. I want my Gold Medalist jacket, dammit!

Monday Afternoon Lesson - Today was all about the choreographic step sequence in my Free Dance. That is the final element we need completed and then some kind of end pose and then I have a completed Free Dance! So far in my sequence I have a twizzle, chasse, progressive, swing roll, rocker, chasse, swing roll, outside mohawk, twizzle, knee slide, and ballet jump. Because it's a circular step sequence, I think he's probably going to add a few more steps to make it completely around to where I started. The thing I struggled with the most was the knee slide. I wore a knee pad for nearly two months and we didn't work on knee slides and the one day I decide not to wear it...we work on knee slides. My right knee is so bruised and sore right now. Ouch! We worked a bit on getting the correct edge on the Rocker before finishing up the lesson with Double 3s (which were predictably awful). I requested that next week we take a look at Brackets because those need some serious help too. Ugh, I have a lot of homework to do!