Fear and Awe

So the other day I was skating at the rink, minding my own business, when Emanuel Sandhu decided to drop by and practice some footwork and jumps. Uh, yikes! He was pretty good about not disrupting us; he mostly stayed at one end of the rink and only did some enormous jump when there was a clear path. I imagine that this is how I looked while trying to stay out of his way:


Looking him up just now, I discovered that we were born in the same month. But, even had I know that at the time, I don't think it would have been good enough to convince him to help me with my bracket turns. I'm dying to know why he was practicing, as far as I can tell he isn't competing anymore. Maybe he is still in the elite training program trying to break back in to the National crowd. Or maybe he just wants to maintain some of the skills that he worked so hard to attain. As far as I can tell his jumps need a lot of work before he could compete nationally again, but he still jumps high and has the carriage and grace of a champion.

In other news, my bracket turns still suck but slightly less now; my back camel is an ugly duckling but I can get in a couple of revolutions; I still jump about one millimeter off the ice; I feel more confidence in sit spins; I feel less confidence in forward camels; and my coach thinks my layback spin has improved a billion percent. She actually said today that my leg position is stunning. This is a great compliment considering that when I first started on layback spins, she immediately went to work on my leg position. Now that part is fine, and it's the whole rest of it. Oh we also had a neat breakthrough with my upright backspin. Coach recommended keeping the skating knee bent when I hook the spin, and gradually straightening it over some revolutions. This made a huge difference, the spin feels faster and I don't feel so wobbly either. Now I need to make sure I practice it again before I forget how to do it!