three turns & more three turns

Ms. Hu was there again this morning. Just the two of us on the ice. But today, I decided not to let her get to me. And I succeeded. That or she really wasn't feeling her session. She did about 4 jumps and a couple spins...in an hour. Otherwise, she just skated around, stood around, played on her phone.

I abandoned that line by the hockey goal. It's not ideal. I only use it when I'm trying to stay out of the way. I used the lines more in the middle of the rink. My alternating 3's are quite good now, if I do say so myself. For the outsides, I almost never struggle with the choctaw step, controlling the back inside edge nicely. My inside 3's could use a bit more speed but are otherwise satisfactory.

Then I worked on the FIBO 3-turn pattern. This is tough. But I remember when forward alternating 3's were tough. Just a few short months ago. I'm scraping a bit more than I should on the back 3. This also slows down my forward edge. I corrected it on my good side, using my hips to turn rather than relying on my arms. But understanding the concept and applying it to my bad side are two different things right now.

I worked on my spins. The first one...man, I wish I had filmed it. I held the extended position until I thought I found my center. I couldn't even hear my toe pick scraping, so I pulled in. My toe pick started scraping just a bit, but it was much quieter than usual. Spin was fast and centered, and I even checked out. I wish I took a picture of the ice. Then I tried about 5 more and could not do them. I decided to try one more before moving on, and while it wasn't as good as the first, it was close. Minimal sound of my toe pick scraping. I traveled a bit, but the whole spin felt secure. yay!

And then onto back spins. These were just not happening. At all. I'm still entering this from a back pivot. My coach tells me to keep my toe pick lower, so I don't have to bring my skate down so far to spin. I thought I was doing this every time, but I guess it's low when I start, but once I pivot around, my heel comes up when I bend my knee. I don't know how to pivot on the bottom part of my toe pick.

By this time, there was 15 minutes left. I needed to work on the progressives and swing rolls for the Dutch Waltz for next week's dance class. Coming along, I guess. Still not great. I tried the full pattern. My goodness, I don't have enough power or speed. Those swing rolls in 6 counts cover a lot of ice. If I try to cover that much ice, it's more like 10 counts. But if I keep it to 6, I'll need to do like 4 swing rolls instead of 2 to cover the necessary ice before the next progressive step. Whoever said ice dancing isn't hard needs to be smacked. Not sure if anybody ever said that, but I'm sure there are some skaters out there who've thought it.