Another marathon lesson

My darling coach got rather carried away again on Wednesday. These hour and a half lessons are exhausting! But Oh So Good at the same time :)

Lots and lots of stuff . . . where do I begin . . .
Level 1 Field Moves: Spirals are now passable (my timing on them is sorted out), and forward and backward figure of 8 XO's are getting faster - the whole exercise is now down to one minutes and a second. Especially with my caffeine enhanced coach coming behind me going "Shifty bum, shifty bum!"
Forward and Backward Russian Stroking: My forward ones were a bit big which is unlike me - I normally fit in four, and only did 3. Backward were not bad - getting faster, and my head is moving more with my arms, rather than just my eyeballs!
One foot slaloming: Forward, I think they have improved. Certainly on my right leg (my weaker side) they feel better, and trusting more that down-up-down movement. Backward - D was saying "You don't need to hold onto me!", but they feel all wibbliwobbly! I guess I'll get the hang of them - just a strange feeling.
Level 2 open mohawk exercise: I think maybe there is just a little improvement. Right to left are feeling ten times stronger, and although I'm wobbly on the left to right, they happen more often than not. D told me that I need to relax more into them, which makes sense as the weaker side does make me tense up somewhat.
"An exercise you'll love!": I've learnt not to trust those words :) "You just do a forward inside curve, and then at the end of the curve you place your free foot directly behind your skating foot, turned out, and push off into a backward outside curve". . . . "By the way, that's a Blues Choctaw". Managed one very fumbly one on my own, but quite impressed! I have to learn not to fall onto the back foot on the change of edge, but its quite a strange feeling stepping onto an backward outside edge.
Twizzles: Beginning to add arms now which is quite nice. They actually feel quite stable, my weight is much more over my skating leg, and they feel much smoother. I haven't managed a single double (if you know what I mean!) yet, but if my single ones keep getting stronger, hopefully it is just a matter of time. D is adamant that I don't do it as consecutive 3-turns, as she says its technically wrong, and just to keep practicing it as I am.
Spirals: I have my personal spiral which will go into my program, and which she was pleased with. I was somewhat upright (still trying to do them like a ballerina!), so on the second one for the first time, really tried to get my upper body to go lower (which feels very alien to me). Apparently my free leg went up six inches, just like that!
Backward Spirals: Well, these were a first. I KNOW that these are meant to be easier and safer than forward ones, but my knee was shaking a bit! Also tried a backward catch-foot spiral, but haven't quite sorted out the coordination in my head of exactly where my blade is when I am trying to find it! I'm not too worried about these feeling shaky now at my first attempt - I am guessing that this is one of those things of just getting used to the sensation. After all, forward spirals felt slightly wobbly the first time I did those too, and I LOVE them now!
Spins: Haven't been having a good time with these, so had taken them back in practice to two-foot spins but with my weight over my normal spinning leg. My skating leg always seems to yank too far back underneath me as I hook it, and I end up on my toepick. D didn't seem too surprised and said it is another thing that relates back to ballet - I can't yet spin on a flat foot. But sometimes now on the two-foot one (and another entry she showed me to practice the one foot one), I can feel where it should be. I will carry on doing this a lot, as I really want to be able to spin well.
Step Sequence: I have been practicing this broken down into segments as didn't want to do it down the centre of the rink in patch yet (I'm such a coward!), but actually, it wasn't too bad. We have added arm bits and I even just about managed to do my turning toesteps!! Needs speeding up a hell of a lot, but that will come over the next six months I'm sure! She was muttering about putting a choctaw in it somewhere as well, but we haven't done that . . . . yet. Currently its a mixture of 3-turns, inside mohawks, cross-behinds and fronts, toesteps, backward chasses, some floaty leg arm-y thing and ending with twizzles.
Golden Skaters Waltz: She was "impressed"!! Obviously its far from perfect, but she was pleased. Things I need to remember is to not take the first slip chasse too near the barrier, so it curves more back to the centre of the rink before the widestep, not to "jump" the chasse at the corner, and emphasizing the cross on the cross roll on the short axis. Did it to music for the first time, and suddenly realised its somewhat faster than the Dutch Waltz, but just about managed to keep up!
Rhythm Blues: We did this to music straight away, and apparently I am still a bat out of hell on the opening steps! She did say that this may have been as I went from doing the Waltz into this and we will practice going from one to the other. We added arms today which of course made me forget everything else, but it doesn't take me long to sort it out in my head thankfully. Picking up choreography quickly when dancing was always one of my strong points!

So was somewhat knackered after that lot, but a good lesson. I don't know if I'll get to skate this weekend, as I have to go out of London on Saturday, but apparently there is an extra patch on Monday cos of the school holidays, so might try that one out. I'm only skating 3 times a week at the moment (it did go up to four) but with my extra long exhausting lessons on a Wednesday, I can't fact a 5.45am alarm the next morning!

Mind you - in a couple of weeks, the ice rink is hosting a "hockey school" so no evening patches for an entire week. D said "Well, we'll see if we can sort out a 06:00 lesson!" - eekily eek!