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I’ve had a sporadic summer of skating — I’ve been going, but not as often as I’d like, and my practices have been a little unfocused. I’m actually in between coaches at the moment, and when I don’t have weekly lessons and a game plan, I find my practices can get a little random. I don’t mind, necessarily, since it’s nice to be able to relax and practice at my own pace, but I do feel like I work best in the long run when I have more of a set goal and direction. That’s next on my agenda!

But for now, I’m working on the same ol’ spins and jumps as ever, trying to make them better and more consistent. Here’s what some of them look like at the moment:

Notes to self:

  • Sit spin is looking okay – can get lower, but almost there. Back sit is coming along, thankfully! I haven’t been able to get more than 1-2 revolutions on that until this summer, so that’s a new development.
  • Camel is always a struggle. All my forward entry spins have been giving me trouble lately, and the problem seems to be in the entry hook. My most common error on the camel spin is that I don’t rise up smoothly and hook the spin into a nice centered circle, but rather the entry looks like a big 3-turn (hence the falling out early).
  • Layback still looks crooked and ugly, but I think I can see what’s going wrong now. I’ve thought all this time that my problem was one thing, but looking at the video I see that it’s actually something else altogether! I’ve been trying to lift the free leg because it feels like I collapse on that side, but the free leg is actually high enough. In trying to lift it, I’m not tucking my hips under me properly, which results in that peeing-dog position I hate. I don’t think I’ve recorded my layback on video enough, and doing it sooner would have helped.
  • Back camel is clearly falling on a very large outside edge/circle. It’s a miracle that upright backspin pulled up instead of falling out!