Skating Weekend

What an incredible skating weekend! It was rough at first, but I ended on a high note and that’s what makes this experience worth it. On Wednesday, I attended my group class and it was awful with the new skates and I began to lose faith in my ability to continue with this sport. The pain was unbearable.

On Friday, I went to the rink and practically begged the director to let me skate on learn to skate “practice ice” and he said yes, thank God. I got on and skated for a while and again, it was unbearable. The whole losing faith thing, totally applicable here.

On Saturday I woke up with a renewed passion after waking up from a dream of me skating (this happens often now that it’s taken over my life). I texted my coach to see if she had time to do a lesson with me and she did, woot woot. I just needed a quick pick me up to get me used to the new blades.

We spent a half hour together on the ice (less than what we usually have unfortunately, but I couldn’t afford to do longer on a lesson like this). The entire time was “breaking in skates time” we did knee bend exercises the entire time. I took one really bad fall while doing my crossovers and fell on the same exact spot that I fell on last week, that was miserable. I’m so glad that I’m seeing my doctor tomorrow to check out my knee. After a few minutes of relaxation after that horrible fall, I got back on the ice and managed to get a little more breaking in done.

After my lesson Coach T came off the ice and requested to “play” with my shiny new skates. She then began to bend them in a few different ways. This made a world of difference for me as I got on the ice today to skate. There was still a little pain at times, but it was such a great practice session because I felt like I was getting my moves back. I worked on my  3 turns, consecutive edges, mohawks (I think I got them down!), lunges (nailed the new technique a couple times), stroking, slaloms (wide strides and short fast ones), 2 foot turns, waltz jump, and spins. I didn’t have any “bad” falls and my feet weren’t killing me by the end of it, so I’d say my practice was quite successful! 

I am pleased with the progress I’ve made in these new blades and I am very excited to start jumping and working on some more complicated moves in the field. Who knows, I might be testing a little earlier than I expected.

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.