Yay - back to Lessons!

It was lovely to see my coach again on Wednesday evening - had to restrain myself from picking her up and hugging her!

Of course, after 3 weeks, it felt like a great lesson. We didn't really do any Level 1 Field Moves as D is "bored of those now", so warmed up with Level 2 Field Moves.

Forward and Backward Crossrolls: Forward were not bad, but need to pigeon toe my feet a little more. Worked on this afterwards and am beginning to step more onto the outside edge. Backward are still a bit hairy, but improving much to my astonishment, especially as I haven't done them for a while. I still use her for support, but much less and as long as I remember to step onto a flat blade, they don't feel too bad. Of course, instead of the required 6, I am doing about 20 up one length but getting slightly bigger!
Backward Edges: A little better but still too small. Worked on the push as I keep cheating it slightly, and did that a lot in practice too, so getting there. My leg movements passing through are quite good I think, and getting my arms and head to look pretty at least!
60 second drill: My monthly timed exercise - bombing up and down the rink to a further line each time, aiming to get it at 60 seconds or less. Looking back in my blog, the first time I did it was in about a minute and a half (this is about 8 weeks ago). This time, it was in a minute and 12 seconds, which is a huuuuuge improvement! Reckon I could have done it a bit faster, if it wasn't such a busy patch :)
Forward and Backward Crossovers in a Figure 8: Getting faster, and I have been working on my BXO's a fair bit recently, trying to get more speed without speeding up movements, ie. more powerful crosses. That turn from front to back still scuppers me though - getting worried that I won't master it in time for my test! I'm kind of getting there to do a mohawk at speed (grrrr), flunking it and then doing a dodgy two foot turn to try and not lose speed.
Canasta Tango: Spent a lot of time on this pulling it to bits. D is waiting to hear back from an IJS judge friend about what the CD's are likely to be for next season and she is hoping that this is one of the ones, as she thinks I will do it well. I was quite surprised about that, as its never been one of my favourites, but then I realised just how much it has improved recently. We took the entire pattern to bits and worked the little details of getting progressives, chasses, slip chasses and crossrolls on the right bit, at the right time and with the right posture and technique. Even to music it feels quite good now - I always used to feel like I was struggling to keep up with it, but did 2 sequences without worrying about it too much. I am hoping that the CD's are this and the Dutch Waltz . . . .

So yes, lovely to be back in lessons again and as I have just been promoted at work, hopefully I will be upping my lesson time as well soon.

I went to morning patch yesterday morning which was okay but my brain wasn't really in gear. However, I did some very slow runthroughs of the Canasta Tango to reinforce what we did the night before, and to work on technique rather than speed. And I have to say, I thought my pattern was pretty spot on, on the long axis at least!

Just had a little delivery from America and am now the proud owner of the biggest, fluffiest, purpliest soakers you ever did see, stuffed with foam and possibly bigger even than my skates (I may have to post a photo of them). A 13 year old girl at Ally Pally has them and I wanted a pair . . . . Well, I want to protect my new Coronation Dance blades on my new skates when I get them next month!!!! I keep seeing people with big padded knitted pairs with their names on as well - I think I am right in saying they are the fab work of a certain Mrs Redboots . . . ?