1st week of June

On Wednesday I'll have a business meeting North side.  That is where my boot fitter is and there is where my old coach is. I've decided to drive up and have a lesson on Tuesday and drop the boots, and pick them up when I get off my business meeting on Wednesday/

Monday. In preparation for my lesson with old coach, I practiced the double 3 turns. They were very rusty but got acceptable during the practice. The only negative was that I took a pretty heavy fall and my muscles tensed up and hurt. But luckily I haven't injured anything. 

Tuesday. The drive there was 1 hour 15 minutes, but back was an hour and a half... so, yeah, it not doable to see my old coach too often. As I work on dance with the new coach, I though to have this lesson toward moves in the field. I requested a full hour lesson. 

- The warmup was edges (correction: look where I'm going - I was flicking my head towards forward, and don't  twist, meaning stay square and encourage the edge by leaning). For the FI edges, tailbone under and more ankle bend. More ankle bend (push into the tongue of the boot, knees have to surpass the toes) I continued to hear during the whole lesson. On B edges more ankle bend and arched back, forming a Z.

- The coach wanted to start with simple 3-turns.  LFO3, surprisingly, the correction for the (the one that troubled me as I couldn't control the exit) was that I didn't turn it on the ball of the foot, I was towards the middle of the blade. I was also not completely aligned over the hip, the correction that worked was to lift the ribs over the hip. Then, a strong check is needed. RBI needed better alignment (lift over the hip and the free shoulder should pass the skating heel, so I should lean into the circle way more) and have the free leg thigh/ knee press into the skating leg. RBO same correction for the free shoulder. Also turn on the back of the blade, on the last 2 screws...

- For the double 3s is very important to check the 1st 3, use the top of the lobe carefully to change the upper body and extend the free foot (for the B 3s)

- Power 3s, after Mo, a push into B3 is acceptable, then the power comes from a lift like for a Loop jump. Strong check and repeat 

Wednesday, after I picked up the boots, I stopped by the rink on my way home. It was a bit of bad lack that the session I used to go to, was now an hour later. I decided to enter the session that was on right then, but I had just 15 minutes of skating. They had then, a 30 minutes break... so I didn't stay for the next session. With that little time I decided to not go through the 3-turns correction. I decided to work on the TenFox 3-turn. Yeap still scrapping...

Thursday. After 2 days away from home and work, I had so much to do. There were 2 skating sessions that day, morning at 9, and mid day 1.30. I decided to go to the 9 am one, because from my previous experience, when I get too much work to do I get caught up or exhausted  and I don't go skating anymore. While driving I though on how to organize the skating sessions and I couldn't really. My mind kept slipping back to work. So, I skated in default mode, and that took my again into the TenFox... mostly the 3-turn. I skated only TenFox related exercises and I skated hard so I felt tired after 35 minutes. Maybe it was ok for that day, as I had lots of work waiting. But,  this is exactly what I don't want to do... I want to balance each skating sessions (to work on more things) and the skating journey in general. My goal from this month, is to find ways to do that.

Anyway... the TenFox 3-turn. 

- I figured I was pressing towards the ball of the foot to accentuate the FO entry edge while rising, so at the point of the turn there was no more space to rock forward.  So I have to stay on the back of the blade. Probably a stronger core and posture, with the tailbone underneath, or hips forward, would help

- While twisting (and turning) I have to bring the hip forward (the free ribs and hip feel stacked over the skating side). And of course, the feet together (correction from my new coach). Then, I figured maybe I should think ate pigeon toe instead of feet together, that may bring the hip forward too.

Friday I went skating with the thought of finding balance in my skating. 

- I warmed up as I always do - fast

- I added some alignment awareness warm up exercises (like slower edges) - slow

- Chasses and SwRolls - fast

- Those seamed to help the entry into the TenFox 3-turn - slow

- TenFox - fast

- regular 3-turns with emphasis again, on alignment. I insisted on the LFO 3-turn and the circles (edges) F and B - slow

-TenFox - fast 

- exercise for TenFox of RFO double bend into the 3 turn. I think I finally figured out how to fix it. I was rising at the end of the 4 count double bend. The new coach suggested to stay low, but you have to rise to push into the 3-turn. I watched some videos of the dance and it looks that both the rise in the middle of the 4 count, and at the end of 4 count are very quick, not a full beat, so the rise is AFTER the 4 count double bend edge, and it IS the push into the 3 turn. With this approach the 3-turn seems to be on time. I think I was adding almost 2 beats there... one to finish the 4 count lobe and one to push into the 3-turn. If this is figured out, fingers crossed, I still need to make everything a little quicker to match the required tempo. 

 -Twizzles - I didn't work on them in a while and they weren't stable - slow

- the B power 3-turns, but slow, working at the form 

-F  Stroking and Xstrokes - they were slow, a sign that I was tired

- Winding down 

This took 45 minutes, I was happy at the end. Of course I could have felt happy because I felt progress on TenFox. But maybe I made this progress because I tried a different approach. Also, a shout out to the alignment exercises, they seam to help and I can do them slow, when I'm tired. I should continue to incorporate them into most of the session. And I looks that I intuitively worked on some fast things, then some slow things.