Had a great lesson today, my form is coming together really well, Coach is very pleased with my hard work and with my progress.
Not that there aren't things to tweak. Now that I've learned the basics of the form, we start each lesson with a form checkup. This time the two things that need shoring up are the position of my bow arm, which is still too high, and second, I'm still leaning/tilting back at the waist when pulling through the clicker.
The funny thing is, even though these corrections are absolutely essential, and I even look forward to them, because it (temporarily) calms the anxiety I have that I'm losing elements of the form without realizing, it, still, each time I have a moment of irritation. What do you mean my bow arm's not low enough? I actually feel affronted. Driving back from the lesson I realized this was a familiar experience, and after a moment of thought, I realized what it reminded me of: in the academic world, when I give a practice talk and people give me feedback, or when I have someone review a manuscript and they write comments/corrections, I'm always like, What do you mean it's not perfect? Even though I know it *can't possibly* be perfect and that's exactly why I need feedback.
The other dashed expectation had to do with the pyramid exercise we did for the first time four weeks ago. Since then I've been working on the endurance exercises, and today we did a totally different new exercise, and at the end of the lesson I said, We're not going to do the pyramid exercise? He said No. Then I jokingly explained to Coach how the lesson was *supposed* to go: He was supposed to have me do the pyramid exercise, I stand there holding and holding and holding with no sign of strain, maybe even humming to myself, and then he says, "Wow, Margrit! Look at you! What on earth did you do?" and then I explain all about the endurance exercise, etc. Coach was totally cracking up during this description. Alas, it was not to be! But I actually didn't mind in the least because it was really my most enjoyable and rewarding lesson yet. More tomorrow.
