A month ago I wanted a formal breakup with forward crossovers. I hated them with passion. Every time I got on the ice I would have to warm up for an hour before even attempting my good side of crossovers. My bad side? I’d do two to three around the circle with pushes in between and then I’d hit my toe pick and get frustrated. I was introduced to crossovers in the very last lesson of my first learn to skate session over four months ago. They’ve definitely improved, I now have more power and speed, but I have to learn to hold the cross longer and make them less choppy.
In these last few weeks I’ve worked on crossovers over and over again because they make up a third of my program (I have to do a figure 8 forward and backward). Today, I was having a difficult time with a move and decided I needed to rest my skills practice. After 2.5 hours on the ice I was close to a breaking point. Now in the past, I would spend this time doing slaloms or half-pump swizzles (alternating) down the rink, but today I naturally moved into my crossover pattern down the rink with more crossovers on the ends.
It occurred to me about halfway through my second pattern that my “rest” involved crossovers! The skill I ultimately thought would keep me from progressing in this sport. I’ve learned many new skills in these last few months, normally my coach introduces me to something and it looks awful the first time around. I work on it either on my own or with her for the next few weeks and in time it looks better and becomes easier to do.
I used to have to work my way up to crossovers and waltz jumps, even slaloms and now I just do them. When my coach introduces me to a difficult skill I don’t react like I used to, with fear and whining, I just do what she tells me (even if it looks and feels terrible) and I take her advice. Sure it seems impossible, but having done the “impossible” over and over again, there just isn’t a good reason not to do what she says.
“You want me to pick up one skate and glide with the other?? This is the first day of class, how?”
- Said while learning one foot glides
“You want me to pick up my foot and cross it over my other one without dying, how?”
- Said while learning crossovers the first time
“You want me to pick up one skate and put it behind the other skate without tripping on my toe pick? Haha”
- Said while learning cross behind step
“You want me to pick up my body and rotate in the air, muhahaha, so not happening”
- Said while learning waltz jump
As you can see, I complain a lot on the ice, but I am working on it! Whenever my coach shows me something new I make an honest attempt not to joke or whine about it. Yesterday I did crossovers for fun, to relax. Maybe in the future I’ll start doing jumps like the toe-loop or Salchow in my warm up!
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