Skating Technique: Figures

I decided to add "figures" to my skating practice. I feel practicing them brings awareness on the body alignment for good edges, and also create body memory of that alignment. Mostly I feel they are easier on the body then the rest of the skating. I'm trying to skate 5 times a week Monday to Friday, but I know my body cannot take intense skating every day, so I can practice figures when I feel tired or when I want to preserve energy for the next day.

So I've spent a private lesson, with my regular coach that luckily teaches everything, on figures. He brought a scribe (like a big compass) to make a perfect circle mark on ice. Interestingly, when testing figures, you cannot use marks, not even the hockey marks and line that are on ice, lower levels can mark the center, that's it. But for practice, having a perfect circle drawn (scratched really), gives you the opportunity to start learning correctly. There are many rules for figures, but the lesson was 30 minutes, I don't think that would be enough to talk trough all the rules... So we jumped right into the forward circle eight, outside and inside edges. Besides, the rules are online, here: https://www.usfigureskating.org/sites/default/files/media-files/Compulsory%20Figures%20Rules.pdf

 What I've learned in the lesson:
- 2 circles were drawn, tangent to each other, with a radius of 94 inches. In my calculations I would need 98, to follow the rule, that is that "the diameter of each circle should be approximately three times the height of the skater"
- The start push is very specific, very exact: from a perfect T position, with the ball of the skating foot exactly on the starting line. AND all the subsequent  pushes are like that... Plus they have to be on top of each other...
- You have to repeat a figure 3 times, and the tracing should be on top of each other (I know there is a few inches allowance, but I don't remember it now).
- On this first lesson I wasn't taught specifics about how I should hold my body. I'm already able to do the forward circle eight well, so we built into that. One correction I was given was to bring the free foot near the ankle of the skating foot as  soon as possible, so I'll have the hip position locked. Then I would change the upper body at the middle of the circle, and lift on the skating leg, leaning into the circle, to finish the circle.
- The forward eight outside and inside circles were not bad, the worst part was the push.
- I've also tried the waltz eight circles and that was quite bad. I couldn't keep the 3-turn on the circle, I went out of the circle. I'm sure I will need to work on the 3-turn too, I feel is more "delicately" done then the one in MITF.
- I've also tried the back circles and while I do them MITF style successfully, I was very off the circle, like a foot or two....