BXO's still eluding me

Well, after an absolutely swelteringly hot day (that's the problem with all the rain, it doesn't give you a chance to acclimatise to the hot weather!), it was a positive relief to walk into the icy coolness of the LIttlest Rink.

Generally I had a good skate today. My "bashed on the bus" feeling has more or less gone now apart from one or two bruises, so didn't feel delicate today. My mojo was back, but thinking now that as it has lasted for over a week, it wasn't my "skating mojo" as such, but more one of those upward bits, if your progress was plotted on a chart.

First focus today was on 3-turns. My RFI3's are happening to some extent about 75% of the time now, and I think that I did just one LFI3, so hopefully they will start kicking into shape now. None of them are brilliant, but the important thing is that they are happening. I also did a few FO3's today as well, just to keep them in shape (sadly unpractised of late, but trying to rectify this).

Usual power stroking, forward crossovers, continuous edges, etc went well. I did a few changes of edge (outside to inside) - this weekened I have been reading The Complete Book of Figure Skating by Carol Schulman and the description there helped my change of edge a little - not "swimming" quite so much now! I now don't change my arms at all, so a CoE starting on a LO edge has the left arm forward and it stays there.

Cross-rolls are getting faster now - I am now trying to focus on getting more of a curve on my FO edge as they were a bit straight, but I think they are improving.

And of course, let us not forget those backward crossovers. Sigh . . . Stacey was a star again, and was the obligatory BXO crutch. The first time round, I was just about to take my hand away, and then heard the dreaded click of death. No fall, just the horrible sound. The second time round, I did actually take my hand right away for one . . . . and nearly fell over. My balance went completely. That was right at the end of the session, and as we got off, Stacey said very sternly to me "That's your fear, not your skating doing that."

However, on further reading today of Ms Schulman's book, on backward crossovers she suggests doing them at a very slow speed to start with. I wonder if this is where I have been going wrong, as I do them fairly fast. I think I will try them next time very slow (barely moving alright?!), as it does feel like the speed that my brain doesn't like. She then says that once your technique is right and you are comfortable with them, you can start building up your speed gradually.

Something to discuss with D on my first private lesson on Tuesday! Very excited, but a little nervous as well for some reason. I am sure I will soon get over that though.

The last thing I tried, again after reading about them in meh book, was bunnyhops! And now - they almost make sense. And I did a couple away from the barrier which I was dead impressed with! Hardly an axel, but my first jump of sorts!!!