First of all, Xīn Nián Kuài Lè and Happy New Year of the Rat! I was born in the Year of the Rat, so I’m looking forward to some good luck and financial gain in the months to come.

I hope that luck and money will mean that I also have another good skating year. In the past few months, I feel like I’ve finally turned a corner in terms of actually improving the quality of my body alignment. While I know I still have quite a ways to go (as my lessons this week showed), I feel like I’m closer than I’ve ever been to keeping my edges real (rather than faking edges).

Our semester has started up, and this past week was a bit touch and go. But I did manage to get some quality practice as well as a few lessons in. It was super fun to run into my friend Jeff, who I haven’t seen in a while. And while not all of my plans came to fruition, I did make some excellent cheesy biscuits (rats like cheese!) and found this incredibly catchy piece of music.

Lesson notes:

• Push on forward progressives and back chassés: engage hip muscles for stability and proper (easy) “grip” on the inside edge.
• Swing rolls with methodical arm positions, make sure your hip is under you.
• One basic principle: your skating hip should always be slightly towards the inside of the circle you are making (not stuck out either way).
• Back inside three, inside choctaw (forward inside to back outside), back cross, front in front to inside, repeat on other side. Start this pattern with a back crossover to a back inside edge.
• Inside rocker, back inside, step forward onto forward outside edge, repeat on other side.
• Mini swing roll, outside rocker, two back cross strokes, step forward and repeat on other side.
• Practice back outside edges, checking posture in boards: use “flat front of hip” and correct pelvic tilt on skating side in order to stay over the correct part of blade.