Grins:

I guess the six-month long break really did me some good. And scheduling my lessons further apart also gave me more "breathing" space to comprehend and practice what I was doing. Ever since we began refocusing a month ago on posture, I feel so much more confident.

I've become more patient during my break and I think it shows through my skating. I've stopped rushing through all the elements as fast as I can and I'm really trying to truly master them all despite how long it will take me.

Back 3s are getting beautiful! My LBO one, the one I never mastered, is so smooth... even better than my RBO.

Forward cratch spins!! WOOOO!! I've never experienced the feeling and control that I got today! They still aren't centered very well.... but it's a start!

Footwork is getting a lot better

I got in a few nice flips too, seemed to have fixed loop timing problems.

Frowns:

It seems that my backspins have degraded over time... have extreme difficulty finding the rocker again.

Sit spins were poo today.

I was only able to squeeze in one lutz... I'm still trying to avoid working on the axel like the plague... I hate it SO MUCH.

RBO was pretty dull, so I tried not to work on jumps and freestyle elements too much.

grins: my coach wanted me to work on my height of jumps so we would doo backspin for 5 rotations then jump up into a double loop sooo funnn and i kept tring to get higher which was great then we did this thing where i did as many single axels in a row as i possible could getting them higher each time i could do seven which was fun

frowns:my coach wanted me to work on my flying spins but for sum reason i couldn't get past 5 rotaions on my backspin and rite after 5 i would fall...l i hate falling on spins.
then i went to ice dance later on and worked on my ravensburger waltz ugh me and my partner r completely lost throughout the whole thing soo we have to wait till next week before my coach is back from cancun grrr ohwelll

Grins--
Last Saturday I got some good tips on the salchow and really improved it; also worked on waltz-toe.

Went to edge class Sunday with flo and had a lesson with my MIF coach after. My FI alternating 3s felt a little better (but alas I haven't been able to do them as well since). After lesson, I was practicing my backspin and had one nice CCW one where I sailed around for a few revs on the proper edge.

Today practiced FO alternating 3s and I had one run that was really really nice with each turn at the exact top of the lobe and the lobes exactly even. (Where's a camera when I need it--I would have liked to take a photo of the tracing! )
The rest weren't as good, but I felt a lot more control and flow.

Frowns--
CW backspin-grrr. I must make myself practice this every time I'm on the ice.

LBI3s. I feel like I grind to a halt after the turn and don't really feel the action of the blade during the 3 like I do on RBI3s and BO3s.

Have been practicing a very tentative sit spin (probably have to call it a half-sit as it's not very low yet). I stopped when I noticed it was making my pelvis sore--I wonder if it was the centrifugal force...

*Grins*
Worked on toe loops, waltz/toe, and toe/toe. My coach was impressed with how easy they were for me so she had me work on salchows. I haven't been practicing sals for a while and it wasn't a strong jump for me before, but I got it on first try! It just clicked!(and no scratchy 3 turns today!) So then my coach was like alright! Try a sal/toe, so I was like ok... And I did it! It was easy Hopefully we'll start on loops next week, I felt like I could do a lutz! We did some spirals at the end of the lesson and my coach told me my spiral was picture perfect. She was like how do you get your body to do that?! All the stretching off ice has payed off

*Frown*
Warming up forward crossovers is never fun. I always feel insecure and it makes me think I totally forgot everything. I'm always afraid my coach is gonna think my cross overs suck and make me work on them for the whole lesson (yea basics are important, I know, but they can get soo zzz) I also got off balance on a spiral and totally wiped out flat on my stomach! It didn't hurt but I got all wet. Finally, waltz jumps felt a bit better today, but still not my favorite thing to do. It's probably my least favorite move right now....

Grins: had two really nice practices. the first one i skated with an ex student of mine. she is sucha sweet heart, i had her doing dance it was relaly too cute. she told me that she enjoyed it and then afterwards told her mom that she owuld skate with my brother if my mom could promise her that he would wash his hand before they skated(my brother wants to dance). so yep my 8 yr old brother had a dance partner before me lol oh well.i had a good off ice lesson i was so happy to be able to have one.

Frowns: during off ice i had a really bad migrane and felt like i was going to throw up. and the second session of ice was way crowded so i ended up getting off like 10 minutes early blah.

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Waffles & Vodka

Breakfast of Champions

GRINS Passed free skate 1!!! I thought I was going to be there forever. Just couldn't bring my leg over on that stinkin' scratch spin. It's good enough but still needs work.

FROWNS Back edges ugggg! Never felt so uncoordinated in my life, especially when starting them from standing still.

Well done! Now, onwards and upwards.....

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Woo hoo, Tessie! Congrats and good luck on the next one!