King of Wishful Rinking

A great weekend of skating!

Saturday morning's lesson was with Lee, and we covered the basics again: forward and backward crossovers, one foot glides, t-stops, backward wiggles and finishing up with spins. I was having a good day and was skating quite well.

I then really enjoyed the two hour general session following the lesson, and skated with Linda and Georgina a bit. Linda was trying her new (but second-hand) skates, and was unaccustomed to the toe-pick. Naturally, she went over badly and sustained a nasty injury. He right forearm had a massive purple and black bruise on it which swelled up very quickly. They put some ice on it to stop the swelling. She was a bit reticent to continue skating after that, but I skated as her escort for a few laps with arms linked, and she seemed to feel better.

Georgina's skates are finally getting duller. Her right skate is still very sharp, and makes a horrible scratching noise as it traverses the ice, but at least her left skate isn't gripping like a crocodile in a death roll anymore. As such, she is able to do some hockey stops, if only using one skate. You could see the frustration written across her face about her sharpening; who needs that kind of hindrance when you are trying to learn to skate? I feel for her.

After skating I enjoyed a hot chocolate with Anna and Pat. Anna entertained us with some skating jumps in the parking lot, and then told us the incredibly complicated story about her on-again off-again boyfriend. One of the old guys at the rink, Jim, told us that if he won the lottery he would set up an ice rink in Darwin. Darwin of all places!

On Saturday afternoon I went to Borders on Chapel Street to look for books on skating. I bought "Conditioning for Figure Skating" which outlines strength, flexibility and fitness training specific to skating. It was an interesting read, and I plan to incorporate some of the training into my daily routine. Specifically the stretching; I am very inflexible, which is something I need to change if I ever want to have a decent spiral or camel.

Sunday morning was lesson time again, and this time (using the knowledge from the book) I did a good 10 minute warm up and 5 minutes of stretching before I laced up my skates at the rink. This helped a great deal on the ice, as my body and muscles were already warm by the time they let us on the ice. As a result, I felt more competent in my lesson. I will always warm up from now on.

The lesson was with Trevor, and he's a great teacher. He skates so neatly and with so much control. We worked on forward and backward crossovers, t-stops, hockey stops, and the spread eagle. He said that my backward crossovers had improved. Unfortunately, they are improving noticeably in one direction -- counter-clockwise, as this is the direction we usually skate around the rink. I still have difficulty in finding a gap in the centre section to work on my opposite direction crossovers.

Georgina and Linda were missing on Sunday, which was unusual. I don't have Georgina's number so I couldn't sms her and find out what was going on. I guess I'll find out next week. Anna and Pat were there but Anna was tired from Saturday, and didn't skate her best.

Late in the session Anna, Pat and I were goofing around pretending to do programmes, by moving our arms with a flourish and skating in a very balletic way. I was really enjoying this until my toepick caught the ice and I somersaulted onto the ice! I hit more body parts then I knew I owned. Ow! That'll teach me for being an idiot!

I had a chat with Tanya who has the cutest daughter called Casey... she is just gorgeous! Tiny thing - about 4 years old I think. Anyway, it got me thinking about how cool it would be to have a little ice princess for a daughter. Ahhh, one day!

Late on Sunday I really wanted to skate again, but couldn't as there weren't any more public sessions available. That's when I thought how wonderful it would be to have my own rink, so I could skate whenever the desire struck me, instead of only when a session is scheduled. A lovely dream, but ultimately impossible to achieve without millions and millions of dollars. Until then, I'm stuck with making sure I utilise all available sessions at the rink, because I can't just skate when I feel like it.

Progress wise, I'm getting a lot more confident on my skates. While my forwards and backwards crossovers in a clockwise direction are still remedial, my backwards skating speed has improved, and my mohawk is getting better. I see no reason why I will not be able to do big jumps and fast spins one day. I think the natural talent is there ready to be exploited! Just need to keep practising!