I (barely) drug myself out of bed this morning to go to the rink. I much prefer skating at night, because I am ungodly stiff and tired in the morning. Unfortunately, since our attendance at night freestyle was so low last semester, they sold our ice, and mornings were all we could get. I guess it's better than nothing. This morning, my spins were good and that made me happy. THey weren't perfect, but by my standards, they were pretty darn ok. I did as my coach tells me, "do 5 good ones and move on." I have a tendancy to get obsessed over one move, and I get in this "I just need to do one more good one" mode. THis only results in subsequent crappier moves (usually spins) and an hour of wasted practice. So I also worked on back inside three turns, waltz jumps, and salchows. And I spent a ton of time on toe loop preparations, as I still can't seem to jump consistantly off the correct foot.
I really need to practice my routine, in the worst way. The McFarland competition is on Saturday, and I haven't practiced my routine with the music since badger state games. I am pretty excited for the competition since there are 4 other people in my class. If I don't start practing, however, I will surely be angry at myself on saturday.
Since it�s been quite a while since I wrote any of my skating progress down, I ought to bring things up to date. After spending 6 months struggling with spins, I had a breakthrough right before badger state games. I managed to do an actual scratch spin. My free leg wasn�t high and the spin was rather slow, but it was a huge improvement. Since then, my spins have come and gone, although I have to admit that I am improving. 3 months ago, i could not spin PERIOD. Now, the decent spins far outnumber the crappy ones. The best spins I have ever done were about a month ago when Jason was with me at open skate. Typically, my spins center until I cross and push down with my free leg�then I get out of balance and they travel. But that day, I did two spins that were perfectly balanced, and they were fast! When I looked back at my tracings, they were one on top of the other. I was so happy! So even though my spins haven�t been that good since, at least I know I have it in me.
My salchows are good, provided I�ve been practicing. Same with waltz jumps. Toe loops, however, are another story. Since I purchased a hard earned video camera prior to badger state games, I was able to confirm that my toe loops do indeed suck. :p I have been working on slowing the jump down and jumping off the correct foot (not my picking foot) so hopefully practice and time will solve that problem.
I spent about 45 minutes at the rink today. There was a hockey game going on afterwards, so I couldn�t stay for open skate. It took me a while to get used to the fact that there was two women�s hockey teams standing around watching 5 of us skate, but once I did get over that, I could relax a bit. My spins were better than last time, but still not great. My position was improved, I didn�t feel so out of balance this time. I even had a few spins where my free leg felt high, and I still wasn�t out of balance. Unfortunately, my spins traveled a ton. I had one that centered nicely for about 2.5 revolutions, but then went out of whack. I noticed that when I make a more conscious effort to make a tighter circle with my spinning foot during the set-up, it helps the spin center better. When I do this though, I have a tendancy to lean forward, so I have to constantly remember to keep my body in line. I must be doing something funky when I bring by freeleg across during the spin, because everytime I do that, my spin travels.
Aside from spinning, I did a little jumping. My salchow jumps were lousy today, except for one or two that were mediocre. Toe loops were a little better. I did one that felt big and powerful (for my standards anyways.) I just need to remember to stretch my arms and lets when I jump, because bending my picking leg makes for a crappy wimpy jump (and it probly looks lousy too!) I should be able to skate on tues, weds, and thurs, if I can make time this week with finals and all! You can see where my priorities are!