Getting back to normal

It's been rather a hazy couple of weeks, with travelling, funerals and being snow-bound for a day! However, I have racked up an average of 5 days on the ice each week for the last few weeks - it really has been therapeutic from that angle.

Still, back to lessons last night, and I asked "Can we keep it simple today?". Simplish - level 1 Field Moves, Level 2 Field Moves (not so simple!) and a Dutch Waltz.

Level 1 Field Moves - overall good. More power needed on my forward crossovers, and my backward stepping to forward needs to be tidier.

Level 2 Field Moves:
Backward Inside & Outside Edges: Did them with some support. Beginning to feel better, but need to be careful of my hip alignment on the inside edges.
Forward and Backward Cross-rolls: Forward need to be speedier, with regards to not holding the edge so long. Backward I still hate - I catch the toepick far too much, but I have an exercise to practice over the next week which should help.
FO3's / FI3's around a circle: A little better, I dare hope. Certainly FI3's are much better, as in they are happening now with the extended leg, even if still tentative and slow. The shoulder checking correction really helped a couple of weeks ago! Much like Level 1 - the main thing to work on is the backward stepping to forward, and opening my shoulders to let it happen. Trying to remember everything on these exercises at the moment does feel a bit like patting my head and rubbing my tummy though!
Mohawk sequence: A little better - I am not bottling my LFI mohawks any more (my weaker side) but that is because I am not doing the exercise fast. But I feel like I have something to start building on now with this, and will focus now on doing this exercise a lot, and moving away from doing mohawks in isolation.

Dutch Waltz: Was picked to bits, and then my coach said "It's only because you have got it up to this level that I can do these corrections!" which was a nice thing to say :) Timing felt good on the whole, although I had to avoid people quite a few times who were intent on ignoring everything around them. I know I'm a lot thinner than I was, but I don't think I'm invisible yet!

We also went over the part of my programme that has a Blues Choctaw in it. Which didn't happen, so she gave me a few tips . . . and I did my first wobbly, but most definitely a Choctaw!! Woohoo!

I am on a rising peak (as opposed to a plateau!) with my skating at the moment. It might be from all the hours I have put in recently, but my confidence does feel increased, and I am feeling like I have become a stronger skater lately. Long may this feeling last!

Even so much that I made myself try and do big backward outside edges up the long axis in my practice afterwards, à la the Level 2 exercise - and I did it! Without a coaches paw to lean on! Okay, they are not as big as they should be yet, and my push into them isn't that powerful so on my left ones, I tend to nearly run out of steam, but I fit in six up the long axis and was really chuffed!