Great Lesson

First things first - I don't think I'll be doing Oxford this year. D is a bit concerned that the class I'd be doing if I entered is too big a range of abilities. Ie. the class is Level 4 and below - she says I skate them very well for my experience and level, but not against skaters that are Level 4. She has mentioned Dunkerque in December though, so we shall see . . .

Anyway - onto normal stuff, and a FABULOUS (and yes, another super-long) lesson today :)

Covered today:
Level 1 Field Moves: Did the whole lot today and pretty good on the whole I think. Little things here and there - starting spirals early enough so they are long enough, checking my free hip and shoulder on the landing position etc.
Forward Crossovers: Picked up in the field moves, we worked on the crossing over action. Last week, she instructed me to bring the leg through in a straight line, instead of some weird in and out action. That's done wonders for my progressives, but it led this week to not crossing over properly for XO's! So did some strange exercises bringing the free leg round high and level to get used to the hip action and altering my weight as I do it and then making the circle smaller and smaller until getting the right XO action, which really helped.
Step Sequence: Quote after we finished working on it "Actually, that's really not looking too bad!". We changed a few bits - the cross in front into a barrel roll was looking awkward, so taken out the cross. And instead of straight backward toesteps, followed by turning toesteps, its just the straight back toesteps followed by a step to forward, straight into a lunge. Then back up and twizzle left, twizzle right. The bit I'm struggling most with now is the LFO3 stepping straight forward into a RFO3 - can't do the turnout yet to step straight into it.
Spirals: To be more precise, the spirals that will be in my free program. The sequence has been elongated now, so it goes straight into forward chasse (with the prayerful arms!), then crossroll, crossroll with a lilt into a forward run. With various arms floating about as I do it.
Golden Skaters Waltz: Had to work on the chasse at the end of the long axis - I was tending to jump it a bit. So have to slow it down, and really feel the inside edge on the chasse and using it to get round the bend. A male coach was doing it behind me when the music was on, so D asked him if he would dance it with me. Yep - my first dance with a partner! He asked if she wanted us to do it in open hold, but D said "Nah, go straight for Kilian!". It was great - I so need to find a man to dance with! He was very nice as well - told me that a lot of the time that it is often a struggle dancing with someone not used to it, but he didn't feel like I was a struggle to skate with. I'm glad he told me when he was about to step over my leg though (we did it in Reverse Kilian hold so I didn't have to do the steppy bit) - I've only focussed on the pattern solo!!

Doesn't look like we did as much as previous weeks, but we did! Lots of time on program bits, and a fair bit on the Waltz. I stayed on the ice for about another 30 minutes as well, practicing that chasse at the end of the long axis, to get it right.

My coach is potentially going to be away for four weeks when she has finished her PhD thesis, for the whole of September. Aaargh - what am I going to do! Looks like I may either have a temporary coach at Ally Pally, or D's coach at Queens. We'll talk about it in a couple of weeks anyway. And no lesson next week either - flippin' Hockey Camp at Ally Pally. Grrrrrr. . . . .