Lesson

I haven't have lessons in couple of years now,  from when my boots trouble began. Now that I'm settling in/ with my boots, I thought a lesson would help. 

One of my goals was to see if some particular hesitations are because of technique or because of blade alignment. I asked my coach to tell me if he sees anything wrong with the blade, but it was unrealistic to expect him to look at all my body to give technique corrections and to look at the blade at the same time. He didn't tell me anything about the blade. I have though some technique corrections (body alignment) consistent with what I feel was wrong with my balance/alignment on the blade, so I may have I've got my answer. Correct the technique first!

The second goal was to get corrections, not so much for the sake of improving immediately, but more to help me see where I'm at and where I could go. I need to set some goals, because lately I've felt I was skating aimlessly.

Corrections:

• Forward slalom- put the weigh back on the blade and actually push into the knees and draw to the boards
• Backward slalom- I was forward on my blade, shoulders back, that would put the weight where it should be, at the back of the foot ball
• F xovers on the line with FI extension- when pushing from the axis push perpendicularly away, to the boards
• B xovers with BO extension- I was scratchy and extension was tense and not high, push shoulder back! This as on the B slalom took me off the toe pick , but also helped the extension. I think this will help the B extension in many places. When trying to improve B extension myself I was pushing the hips forward (that was an old correction I've got)
• F and B power xovers in spiral pattern- for this I needed help in setting the pattern, and that is 2-3-5-7 per semicircle and that made sense on ice but as I am looking at the drawn diagram, there are actually just 11 and the instruction says there should be no more than 15 xovers total 
• FO 3s- on exit edge, body weight should be on the lower back  of skating leg side, I was allowing the shoulders to go ahead by pitching forward, basically not checking correctly and the 3s whipped
• B3s both O and I- on entry edge shoulders back over the circles, and on knees together on exit edge
• dance F progressives- push perpendicularly away from the axis, into the boards
• dance B progressives- same, also, don't hook after push and shoulders back
• TenFox - same, especially the 3 turn
• FO Brackets- shoulders over circles, not just arms, don't rebend before the turn (made me overturn), FOL don't drop shoulder
• FI edge that I complained I had problems with possible because of the blade... the lean doesn't come from the ankle and knee actually the foot should be aligned over the blade (even slightly towards outside), the FI edge needs only a slight lean from the body. And yeap, it makes sense, when I've leaned the boot, I've pulled the body too much towards inside and basically lost control and in order to balance I've ended up leaning my body towards outside

As I've expected this month seems that I'm able to skate just twice a week. That is not enough for the body to remember the alignment between sessions. But it also means that I can reset the body and start fresh. I'm exited to get back to work on these correction!