Just pushing along

I had a break from the ice (for a whole six days - when did less than a week start to qualify as a big break!) and went to patch this evening. I would have gone to the quiet session at the Littlest Rink last night, but suddenly realised that it was the school holidays and had the potential to be packed.

Patch was quite busy too, I guess for the same reason, but quietened off about 8.00pm.

As I had no particular thing to practice, no test to panic about, I just enjoyed "pottering about" and covered a few things.

Forward Outside 3-turns - I never thought that it would happen, but now I have passed this hurdle test-wise, these are now a pleasure to practice! They are not brilliant, but they improve every time I practice them. One thing I think I need to watch though is that I tend to come out of the 3-turn on a really sharp backwards inside edge, so I need to practice it with shallower edges. I am also going into these with a little more speed now as well.
Forward Inside 3-turns - thought I would give these a bash again. Not happening at all - it doesn't make sense to my feet! However, I have already picked up one mistake - my hips as well as my top half were turning in before the turn, so I am concentrating on keeping my hips "tight", rotating from the waist and keeping my hips in line with my legs. I think they will come.
Continuous Curves Inside & Outside Edges - Love 'em. And they are getting more controlled and with more powerful pushes each session I practice them. I presume these are practice for cross-rolls amongst other things?
Backward Crossovers - I spent a lot of time today practicing these near the barrier. I really worked on sitting back into the skating leg when pushing back. This in turn makes the actual crossover a hell of a lot easier. If I don't think about that, my weight is too far forward and I grind onto my toepicks. I was also really forcing the weight onto the crossover leg and trying to lift the underneath leg without any toepicky sound by pigeontoeing my free foot in. And they were fairly silent! I almost feel confident enough now to try these in succession on a hockey circle!
Forward Crossovers - getting stronger all the time. CCW that is! I really need to practice these more CW as I think this will also help with my backwards crossovers.

And I have to admit, for some of the session, I was just enjoying watching the more advanced skaters. Especially the skaters doing dance, both solo and pairs - it looks like so much fun!