Hello there Sal!

I can’t believe that I worked on the Salchow today! I briefly mentioned to my coach that I had given it a try at practice on Monday and she was shocked, “Gina, you were so scared to jump at first, I’m so proud of you for trying.” I showed her what I had tried on the ground before getting my skates on and she said it was pretty close.

We started the private lesson with some stroking and forward crossovers on the ends and worked our way through the pre-bronze test. Coach says I am ready to test this summer so I am really excited about that. Every one of my practice sessions now starts with the test as my warm up.

Next she asked to see my waltz jump from backwards crossovers, she said it looked good (if you skate you know these comments are far and few in between so I was pleased with myself). Then we worked on the toe loop, which Coach T also said looked better after a few tries. And finally she asked me to see Mr. Sal. As I briefly stated before I had given this a try on my own during practice so I wasn’t exactly nervous to jump, more so just nervous to show my coach. I asked her to show it to me first, but she wouldn’t do it, she said she wanted to see what I thought it looked like first. So I gave it my best shot and looked up at her with a question mark on my face, was that it? “Sort of, not bad for doing it on your own.”

I was smiling my way throughout the entire session. When coach said we would be working on jumps I was so relieved. After working on my program for the last month I felt excited to finally be working on something new. My Salchow isn’t nearly a Salchow, it’s more like a half-Salchow, too bad that jump doesn’t exist. Nevertheless, it’s going to look much better by the end of the summer.

After my private lesson, I headed over to adult public skate. I skated my heart out, beginning with the pre-bronze test and on to jumps and swing rolls (forward and  backward). An hour later the session ended and I got off to give my feet a break before getting on the second session of open skate. I had an incredible skating morning thus far, why I couldn’t just head home after? I don’t know, but I was about to pay the price for my obsession. Just 10 minutes after being on the ice I fell on my left knee and could barely get up. After my friend begged me to get off the ice I got off and began to ice it thinking that I could just get back on after icing it for a bit. Twenty minutes later I could barely bend my leg, I knew then that it was time to head home.

After icing in 20 minute segments this entire afternoon and evening I feel much better. Hopefully by tomorrow morning I will feel even better. I am excited for skating this summer, though I know there will be more falls I also know I’ll just have to learn to get through it as I have in the past. I felt like the fall today almost broke me. For a half second, I actually second guessed continuing on with this sport. But it brings me too much joy to just quit because of a careless fall. A summer at the rink is so close I can taste it, just 10 more days!