30 minutes of annoying jump exercises

So I've been on a bit of a cloud with all the excitement and positive vibes in the last week. This morning my coach burst my bubble a bit by reminding me that my jumps are still crummy and put me through 30 minutes of those dreaded jump exercises. I hate to get all negative but I really despise doing annoying jump exercises. No matter how many times I do slo-mo jumps at the boards, I just can't translate them into the nanosecond movements that need to be made in the actual jump. Maybe you just can't teach an old dog new tricks? We didn't even get to my new Lutz in 30 minutes which was a bit of a drag. After that I didn't even feel like practicing any more jumps on my own. >:(

Once my lesson was over I cleared my head a bit with some skills practice. My 3-turns are really skidding a lot lately which doesn't bother me anymore because I'm getting used to it but I should probably try to fix that for my test which includes copious amounts of 3-turns. Two of my skills patterns are fine. The third one (Power Circles) is still a dog's breakfast so I made sure to practice it several times this morning. I figured out how hard I have to push on the first circle to make it all the way around the required 2 times. Then I figured out that after that I hardly need to push at all. Furthermore, I learned that the worst part now is the single count back crossovers. They build speed ridiculously quickly, and it's spooky when you come close to the boards. It doesn't help that I get more into my toes when I get spooked, then the crossovers get even scratchier and it will drive the judge crazy for sure. The tempo is so quick there isn't really time to fully extend each one and point the toe. That would drive my group enhancement coach crazy too! Despite these problems, I feel much more confident in the pattern and have the hang of how hard to push, the freaky swing Choctaw at top speed, and the light-speed tango stop. I figured out that I have to stay into my knees and get my weight balanced properly as soon as possible at the start of each new circle. Now I just need more confidence on those back crossovers and I'll be ready to conquer this test and move on to some delicious bracket turns.

Next I worked on my spins and spirals, focusing on more 'attack' in the spins. I'm definitely attacking more and occasionally it's rewarding; I get a really fast (for me) spin out of it. However I noticed today that my centring really goes to hell when I do this, and it had been getting better so I don't want to undo everything I've achieved in that department. So I need to remember that 'attack' doesn't mean 'rush'. IT'S NEVER OK TO RUSH. Right? Then I attacked the crap out of a backsit and fell down hard. Oops! I think that I didn't get enough 'snap and square' on that one, my right arm was still out in la-la land and it threw off my balance. Well it was good to have a fall, it means that I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone and I haven't had that many falls lately doing freestyle elements. They've all been from dumb stuff like trying to show off doing a tango stop from top speed.