Last Learn to Skate Class (of session 1) & An Incredible New Skill

Wow, today was the last day of learn to skate. I feel like it was definitely worth the money I paid for it. Today as soon as we got to practice there was no “warm up time” we went straight to the circle and began with challenging moves, half-pump swizzle (right and left legs), then one foot glides, and finally crossovers. Coach T came over to help me with those, what a relief! Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. She let me do them on my own….and I took a great big fall. Flat on my face. It didn’t hurt that much, until I got home and saw the bruise, but at this point falling is a learning opportunity for me. I’ve learned how to fall and not completely hurt myself and I’ve learned how to pick myself up and continue doing what I was doing. Now as soon as I did so, my favorite hockey coach told me that the “toe pick” got me. No shiz bro? I know that...thanks for letting everyone else know too.

After our circle exercises we moved on to the normal layout of exercises moving from one end of the rink to the other. We did swizzles, half pump swizzles, one foot glides, and then the awful half pump backwards swizzles. Dun Dun Dunnnn. I am not about that life. So...I moved over to where Coach T was, working with the really beginner group again. It was near the end of class so I asked to work on my spins, thankfully another woman in class was thinking the same thing and came over with me. We attempted on working the spins again, but didn’t get much farther. I understood what I needed to do, but had a difficult time actually doing it. So….Coach T decided it was time to move on….to JUMPING!!! I’m sorry? What’s that you say? Jumping in the first learn to skate session? I didn’t think so either. But apparently we were going to jump! ARGGGHHHH!! Excitement through the roof!

[So, here’s the thing. I’ve been going through this process and it’s been really exciting, motivational, and challenging in so many different capacities. I never thought I’d be doing any jumps in the first year of this, yet alone the first two months! I was shocked, excited, and very nervous!]

Coach T grabbed my hands, explained what I was going to do (very quickly I might add) and had me do exactly what she described. I basically had no time to think. I took a leap of faith (literally) and landed. Sure, most of my success was dependent on the fact that she was basically holding me, but I landed my first jump! After doing it with her, she did the same with the older woman that came with me to practice spins. The best part: there was still a few minutes left of class. So, she showed us how to practice on the wall!

This first jump is called the waltz jump, fairly simple to explain and incredibly difficult for a first time adult skater! You essentially swing your foot back, then swing forward, jump up (turn 180) and land on the opposite foot.

At the end of class I thanked Coach T for everything and asked if she taught private lessons. I’ve considered this a little over the last few weeks, but I thought I would ask just to get it out of the way since I am no longer taking Saturday classes. She said she was fully booked for the upcoming session, perfect for me since I wasn’t going to do it until the following session! Get excited folks, this is getting serious!

Open Skate:

I went to open skate today and spent every minute on the ice working on my spin and the waltz jump by the wall. I was annoyed because I had to keep moving away from the wall for first time skaters, but I had to keep myself grounded. I was a first time skater not too long ago (literally 2 months) so I should give them the space that I also needed at the time.

Saturday’s: My New Practice Sessions

Today’s class was pretty good, not as great as Wednesday’s session but I don’t think they can be compared at this point. I am basically considering my Saturday class a practice session from now on and my Wednesday's will become my learning classes. I’m pretty good with that setup, plus it means two days on the ice. Perfection. I was on the “advanced” side of class again today which meant...hockey teachers. Although there were several people missing from class today so it wasn’t as bad. Plus Coach T (the one that referred me) came over to help me start doing crossovers. I swear every time my foot crossed over the other, my heart dropped. It was a very uncomfortable experience, but for the first couple rounds most of my weight was on Coach T. Unfortunately she had to leave and I didn’t feel like I could do it on my own so I began doing one foot glides, which I thought would be somewhat helpful because when I am doing crossovers I have to be comfortable with the idea of just one foot being on the ice at a time.

In the last five minutes of class I ditched Mr. Hockey coach and headed back to Coach T. I wanted to learn how to do a proper spin! I asked and she showed me how. I’m pretty sure I fell three times in the 5 minutes. I wasn’t really sure how it worked, she kept showing me but I wasn’t exactly getting it. Ultimately my feet were moving before my upper half. Class ended before I knew it, but I was definitely going to work on it during free skate after class.

I cannot wait to be on the ice again this Wednesday with the other coaches. I might actually learn the proper way to do a spin!

Learn To Skate Day 2

Today is day two of learn to skate and I am really eager to get back on the ice, I haven’t skated since last Saturday but I’ve literally been thinking about it all week. I am excited to see what we will learn today but I am also really worked up about skating backwards. This is my first learn to skate session, I don’t understand how they expect us to be skating backwards! It’s probably because I ended up on the advanced side of the class - I am not an advanced skater! Today we worked on one foot glides and continued working on stroking, we also started doing this thing where we are doing half-swizzle pumps (is that what they are called?). About halfway through class our coaches asked us to do the half-swizzle pumps backwards...at this point in time I didn’t even have regular swizzles down so I was basically like, hell to the no.

To this point, I had signed up for this class because the girl I’d met at the rink last month said she was teaching it (Coach T). Now, unfortunately for me, because I got put in a separate group I got stuck with the hockey player teachers. I think I maybe forming a little dislike towards them, maybe it’s just because I don’t feel like they are genuine/I just don’t feel comfortable learning to skate from someone who skates on different skates. Stupid, I know. Whatever, they honestly just seem like jerks. I moved over to Coach T once they started working on those pesky backwards half-pump swizzles. I asked her to help me figure out the backward half pump swizzles, but because I didn't have the forward half pump swizzles down we worked on that. By the time we were done class was over, thank God. I didn’t want to go back to the other guys (darn hockey players).

First Class!

Today was my first learn to skate session! I literally can’t believe that I did some of the things that my coaches asked me to do today. In addition to forward stroking and swizzles, they had us jump on the ice and begin backwards swizzles I did the jump, but there was no way I was going backwards on day one. Sure enough, after what seemed like an entire 5 minutes I was able to “walk” myself backwards across the ice. It was painful and with every step I felt like I was going to fall, but I knew that in the end it would be worth it. Somehow throughout the class I ended up on the advanced side, little did I know at the time but everyone on that side had already taken the class. Argh, I was behind for what seemed like the entire class. It took me longer to make my way from one end of the rink to the other. I felt embarrassed at times, but I was giving it my all and that’s worth something right?

Learn to Skate

Today I called the Onyx and registered for my very first learn to skate session. I am very excited to start on Saturday, but I haven’t been on the ice since mid last week. Since I have jobs set every day this week I probably won’t be back on the ice until the morning of practice. Sounds to me like I need to start off ice training.