OCD much?

Every once in a while, I get completely laser-beam focused on one thing that's pissing me off - and I don't practice anything else.  By Friday, I figure that out when Will asks me "what did I work on this week" and I only have one thing in the list....  Complete OCD moment.

This week is was those freakin' mohawk turns.  A few weeks back, Will threw the first of the next "set" of dances at me - Swing Dance - and it's the first one where I have to change direction in the middle of a dance (from skating forward to skating backward).  Hence the freakin' mohawk.  Now keep in mind - this is the most rudimentary turn there is - I see 8 year olds doing this every morning.  It shouldn't be any big deal.  But it is, damnit.

First I could only do it on the left side, and the dance needs it on the right.  So I started ONLY practicing it on the right.  Then, I couldn't get the stupid thing to be stable after the foot switch and spend all of this week doing it over and over and over and over and over...  You get the picture.

Will and Anna both tell me that I'm too hard on myself.  While that might be true, I live in constant terror that I'm going to be just another lame adult skater.  I've talked about that in previous posts.  Most of the videos I see on YouTube are lame lame lame lame (to borrow a line from "The Incredibles").  I refuse to end up being lame.  Maybe that makes me obsess a bit... ok a lot... alright a whole lot.

Of course, it only took Will 5 minutes to see what I was doing wrong (and practicing wrong, of course) all week.  We went on to other stuff, which I promptly obsessed over as well.  It was just one of those weeks.

Funny thing - Will (and Anna both, really) are always harping on me to bend my knees more.  While working on forward crossovers this morning, I finally just got completely passive-aggressive pissy and decided to bend my knees so much that my ass was dragging the ice.  Childish - but remember, I was in an OCD space this morning already.  Will's reaction?  THAT'S IT!!!!!!

Damn.  :)

Anna did give me some more opportunties to work on partnering this morning, and I think (*think*) I made some progress.  It's really tricky, and it pisses me off that it's not just coming to me naturally.  For god's sake, I spent most of my dance career partnering - I should be able to just DO this.  (OCD much?).  We did decide that I probably need to get partnering coaching independently from my normal lesson - so I will probably start doing 30 minutes with Anna on Wednesdays.  She has this uncanny ability to tell what I'm doing wrong just by what she can feel through our hands.  That's cool - creepy as all hell, but cool.

Sigh.  18 months and I'm still lame lame lame lame.  This is gonna freakin' drive me crazy.