Guts Day

Well, last night I finally managed to get some guts and skate in the centre area of the rink so I could practise my woeful clockwise crossovers. It wasn't as difficult as I thought to get in there; you just had to be sure that a space was not being used for a lesson and then just try to use as small an area as possible. This was easy considering I was just skating in small circles trying to get the feel of my edges as I did these pitiful excuses for crossovers.

Most of the gang were there -- Georgina was there dulling her skates as usual. The left skate seems to be okay now, but the right skate is still so sharp that it makes a lot of noise travelling over the ice. She was practising hockey stops (two-foot skids) with just one skate, as the sharp one refused to skid! Her skating has come along well though, and her gliding is looking nice and controlled. I think once she gets someone who actually knows what they are doing to sharpen her skates, she'll be in business. It's frustrating that something like that can hinder your progress when it's hard enough to learn skating as it is.

Anna was there too -- she was working on a maneouvre that looked a bit like "shooting the duck", but everytime she did it she would gracefully slide back off her skate onto her butt. She laughed about it though, and told me later that it didn't hurt -- it was just a bit wet after a while! Still, you have to admire her persistence... she practised that move all night!

Michelle was the last of the 'gang' present. I've said before that I love the way Michelle skates. She may not be doing jumps or fast spins, but her control and elegance is really inspiring. I was watching her do backward crossovers last night and I swear her balance was so perfect that the back of her blade stayed exactly the same height above the ice the whole time. When I go backwards I rock back and forth on the blade trying to stay balanced -- not so for her! I told her this and she was surprised and pleased. While I definitely want to be able to do big jumps and fast spins in skating, my goal is to have as much control over the rest of my skating as Michelle does. She is also an incredibly sweet person.

I worked on spins a little too. At some stages I thought I was improving. Then I would regress to a terrible spin. It's so hard to tell -- skating is slow progress most of the time. Still, it was fun. The only issue was I was only doing around 3 or 4 revolutions and yet was getting incredibly dizzy. I would have to stand still for about 10 to 15 seconds after each spin attempt to regain my head. Anna says that this will go away in time. I wish it would go away now!

Got a nice compliment from Georgina tonight... she said "your crossovers are beautiful". I got this after doing some pretty decent forward crossovers in my preferred counter-clockwise direction around the rink. The thing is, that's my best crossover... she would retract that statement immediately if she saw my other feeble attempts. Still, it felt good.

The movement of my left blade seemed to help my balance a bit. Or perhaps it's just that I'm getting better. Hard to tell really. Either way, it definitely did not make my balance worse, so it's staying. I also laced my boots up to the very top last night -- something I've not done before (I usually leave the top loop open). It felt very constrictive, and much more difficult to bend my knees. Still, it's what the pros do, so I've got to get used to it. By the end of the night it felt okay.

Next scheduled skate is Saturday morning for my group lesson. Can't wait!

Scott: "I can't wait to have figure skating dreams."
Michelle: "Oh I have those. They are wonderful. You'll get them."