Skating lesson 3

After a two week break in skating lessons (the first one due to snow and me being too chicken to venture outside my apartment and the second one due to school holidays closing down the ice rink as it's part of a high school) I finally had my thrid lesson on Thursday.

I had had a full two weeks time to practice braking and the two footed turn and doing half swizzles on the hockey circles. I am astounded at myself and at the discipline I seem to have when it comes to skating. I go regularly, without fail. Even when I know it will be busy on a weekend, and I won't be able to practice as freely as I'd like, I still go.
Through pure and stupid repetition I eventually managed to brake with my left foot. Not coming from high speed, but still, I'd managed to brake. I was also disciplined enough to not only concentrate on the side that feels easier. I wanted to make sure that I practice braking with my other, weaker foot as well. So I continued the repetition until I finally managed to kinda brake with my right foot too. I'm still miles from being able to use it as I do my other foot though.
Same happened with my two foot turn. I swear, it looks so damn easy but it's so hard. Again... repetition did the trick. And a bit of faith in myself. I was initially taught to try it without moving/gliding first. The two foot turn is a move where you glide forward on both feet, then stretch your arms out front and back, bend your knees slightly, move your weight to the front of the blade, push yourself off just a little, swing your hips into one direction and move your body with your hips so that you end up gliding backwards. Or if you're doing it the other way, you obviously start gliding backwards, then turn on both feet and end up gliding forward. So anyway... I was taught to just hang on to the boards with both my arms outstretched and then swivel my hips left to right, right to left until I got a good feeling for what the move meant. I got that but obviously finding the faith to let go off the boards was a whole different story.
With persistence, I eventually tried it. Over and over and over again. I never even managed to turn halfway! Very frustrating. What helped was above mentioned faith in myself during practice. I figured maybe the actual motion of gliding would help me out. So I started very slowly skating near the boards and trying the move whilst moving. I struggled to overcome the fear of falling but eventually got it! I can't tell you how triumphant I felt! Not to mention the fact that I had proved to myself that practice makes all the difference! Excited about my success I went further and tried to turn into a different direction from the one that felt more comfortable. By the time I showed Christina my results on Thursday she was well impressed.
So what new things did I learn on Thursday. We did more of the skating on one foot and she again noticed how much better and more confident I had gotten at it. She even cracked a joke that next year I'd go to the adult sectionals!!!! NO THANKS!!!!!! Or do you picture me in that flimsy, sparkly dress they have to wear? I don't think so!

Anyway... we took the one foot glide a bit further this time and she asked me to go around in a circle on one foot. An outside circle. My mental block kicked in immediately. Outside circles means using your outside edge. And without a doubt, it's the one thing I fear most about skating. I don't trust my outside edge because I don't really know if I have "found" it yet. I keep asking Christina if I'm using it and it seems that I'm getting closer and closer but obviously, I'm still extremely cautious. I managed to let go of some of my fear and ended up skating on my outside edge on my right foot for a brief period. So that was a success. Needless to say, I knew this is all just preparation for the crossovers which are the most beautiful thing in skating to me, and at the same time I dread them the most. But for now that's still in the future.
She also started teaching me hoe to spin. Again, it looks so damn easy when she does it!!! In reality, it's ridiculously hard. You'd think being on ICE where you just need to move in one direction without intending to you'd be spinning involuntarily. Well... that's not the case at all. So trying to make a simple double footed spin just didn't work for me at all. You start off putting your weight on say the right foot. With the left foot you draw a circle around the right foot. As the motion becomes faster, you bring in the left foot into a kinda V shape to the right foot, and at the same time, you pull in the arms to help with the rotation. Well, I get the putting my weight onto one foot, making the circle with the other but when it comes to bringing in the circling foot, I'm lost. I sometimes manage to do it but by the time I've put all my effort into that, I have stopped spinning altogether. So, I foresee a LOT of practice to get this down. But it should be fun.
I can't even say how lucky I am to have the Burlington Ice Rink so close to work for my lunchtime skating. It's a crappy rink, with a broken Zamboni that makes the ice all wavy and uneven (kinda like skating on a pond!) but at least there's never more than 6 or 7 people on it and I get to skate all I want without crossing too many people's paths.
Not like the Conway Arena in Nashua where public skating at the weekend is pure suicide. Yet I braved it today and was only angry for 95% of the time. I swear kids should not be allowed on the ice. Not at the same time as adults are on there. In general, kids should not exist as far as I'm concerned at the moment. No kiding, they go out there on the ice with their stupid little plastic crates in front of them and don't care about a goddamn thing in the world. I blame the parents, of course. Can't you control your child? Can't you tell your child to stop looking right and left and look forward for other people? Can't you teach your child to be CONSIDERATE? Of course not... why should you? It's a lot more work, you can't really be bothered. Not to mention the skate guards who should really enforce the well known "skating etiquette". People who can't skate, stick to the sides. Those who wanna practice their figure skating, stay in the middle. Those who wanna skate fast have the rest of the space. But they don't seem to have that here at all which is very frustrating. Obviously, you can see the dedication in me if I subject myself to the 95% of anger. See how long it lasts!

More skating practice tomorrow and Tuesday and skating lesson 4 on Thursday! YEY! Can't wait!