Back to school

Yipee! It's back to school time!

Not for me of course. As a grad student, I don't really have much of a summer in the first place, so there's no difference whether or not it's back to school time for me. What's making me happy is that the kids have gone back to school!

I arrived at my 8:30 am freestyle/private lesson yesterday to find the rink oh so empty. Coach J said it's because a lot of the kids started school yesterday. Some of them are still on summer vacation, but within a few weeks, they'd all be gone. Then the only people left on the ice will be the adults, and including me, that's basically only three people!! So happy : )


So we've finally moved on to trying the consecutive back inside edges (not that the back outside edges are anywhere near good enough yet). They're so difficult! I want to say that the back edges are the hardest part of the pre-bronze MITF, but I haven't even started the waltz-8 yet, so that might be worse. I can't wait till the rink gets really empty and I can practice the consecutive edges on the middle hockey lines. I've been working at the end lines, but it's hilly region over there, and I have to push uphill at one side of the line, and slide down hill on the other side. Coach J says I'll find it easy when I get somewhere flat. Hopefully.

I'm already falling behind on the "schedule" that coach J had proposed when I said I want to do tests and eventually competitions. The goal then was to have the pre-bronze stuff good before September, and then take the test whenever we get a test session next. Doesn't look like that's going to be happening! The edges are harder than I expected. That's what you get for not having your basics good in the first place. Good news is the next session that I can make is probably going to be end of November, so that should be plenty of time (fingers crossed).


Videoed myself practicing jumps (along with slow motion)

Waltz jumps - working on getting them higher and prettier. The timing for swinging both arms back still seem a tad too slow (because of the volleyball jump confusion).
Salchow - working on starting from backwards crossovers, into a LFO 3-turn entry, into the jump. Where is my left arm during the 3-turn?!
Loop - higher! Checkout needs to be faster and stronger.
All - keep left arm more in front in checkout position. Body swings open right now.

Toe loop jumps used to be my best and is still the only one that I can do at speed. However, when watched in slow motion, it looks bad, like a toe-waltz. Coach J say it's totally fine for a single jump. I dunno, it doesn't look very good to me, to the extent that I don't want to put it up. Wonder what will become of that jump.


Spins - trying to do a scratch spin but not really. Managed to get a few revolutions (+centered!) before falling out.

And here's my sad attempt at a sit spin.

So much to practice!