Foot-In-Skate Disease

I finally got my snowplow stop figured out and last week it was crossed off which means I move up to Beta level now! All it took was a bit of individual help because I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing wrong. Then the coach spent a bit of time with me individually and I finally worked out what it was I was doing wrong and I can now stop, albeit slowly. It really is preferable to running headfirst into the side barrier. Or skidding on my knees in a 'snowplow position' which I did suggest I do instead when I didn't think I would ever master it. He he he...

I find I'm becoming more fearless the last few weeks and I'm worried that my increasing confidence and bravado will cause me to fall over more often. I am less scared of moves I'm not yet ready for but I'm too scared to do a backward crossover, moving anti-clockwise. I am not afraid of lunging or dipping or trying to spin or jumping up and down but I feel very unstable doing some basics like crossovers. I think the skates I had today have a loose blade - I had them last week and felt the same thing. It has a small wobble in the centre and it doesn't feel stable. The ones I had yesterday weren't as bad as this.

I don't think this was helping at all when I started to feel pain yesterday in the arch of my foot. I have had this pain for a while now, pre-skating, due to hurting my feet while in Europe last year. I think the combination of wearing extremely bad, unsupportive shoes, marching on cobblestones and the sheer amount of walking I did in that month contributed to damage done to my feet. Every since, I have felt agonising pain in the arches of my feet most of the time I walk but particularly when they are on a slight angle (i.e. walking up or down a hill, standing on tippy-toes, skating around a circle when the blade is on one of the edges, rather than the flat). Even now, as I sit here, I can feel them aching a little in the non-walking shoes that I have on.

As a result, skating has become unbearably painful and the last two days, I have only lasted just over an hour on the ice before having to come off (although it doesn't help that the hire skates I have are so worn on the inside, it's like wearing plastic buckets on your feet!). Even today, I pretty much just wasted my money going to the rink this morning because I had to keep coming off the ice every ten minutes and only lasted just over an hour in total. I want to be able to do this well - I really enjoy it and I have the motivation to learn - but if my feet continue to hurt, it's either buy new skates (which I REALLY can't afford, although I tried some the other day) so I can try and get them to support the arch more, or quit entirely.

I'd prefer the former.

The endless hurdles of a new skill

My patience, or lack thereof, has been the downfall of me this week.

Second week back for term and we were being assessed today on the things that we have learned last term. We put our names down last week to start being assessed for the different levels by the teacher and today was the day of reckoning. There are five levels to get through before the Freestyle classes (the ones on the large ice). These levels are named after the Greek alphabet (although one smart alec skater newbie pointed out the irony of the snow-less Greece.... he he) - Pre-Alpha, Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. We were being assessed on our Pre-Alpha and Alpha elements:

a) Two foot glide b) One foot glide on right and left feet c) Forward and backward swizzles d) Backward wiggle e) Forward crossovers - clockwise, anticlockwise f) Snowplow stops

First eight elements seemed to run rather smoothly - I felt comfortable with most of the tasks he asked for, even though the concept of clockwise crossovers was a daunting one and since my fall, I have lost confidence with this move.

I am getting faster at the swizzles (I can move a longer distance than my height in only two swizzle moves which is good now, as opposed to 10 weeks ago where it would take me eight goes to move a foot) and I am now pretty confident with both one foot glides - although the potholes in the ice do nothing for your balance, believe me! I did my clockwise crossovers continuously for the first time without faceplanting - still not sure the technique is particularly accurate but at least it was something.

Then came the one foot snowplow stop. *insert ominous "fail" sound effect here* I just don't get it. I try and do exactly what the teacher says but it just doesn't work. I am discovering now that I hate hate hate not being able to do things quickly and expect success within a couple of tries. I am an instant-results kind of girl and to struggle with what seems like a basic move has frustrated me no end, especially when others around me don't seem to have a problem with it. To add insult to injury, I had hurt my back earlier in the session doing what could only be termed as 'windmill arms' to stop falling backwards and as a result, the pain was beginning to make me irritable and emotional and so this only compounded how I felt about practicing a stop I couldn't do. By couldn't, I mean, the so-called 'stop' failed to stop me moving! As a result, that element was never ticked off and so I went home feeling like I had failed, all because of a single element. I know this is an overreaction but I really hate not being able to do this perfectly. Bit ridiculous really - I wouldn't expect perfection if I did the pole vault or tried to run the four-minute mile or weightlifted, so I don't know why this is any different. Perhaps I've been an armchair figure skater for too long!

Three week hiatus

I haven't been to skating for three weeks. I'm afraid I'm going to fall on my butt when I next step on the ice! We did go to the rink for a friend's birthday last week but the rink was like skating on tram tracks during the public sessions. You'd catch a groove and travel in that direction! I found my muscles were so much more sore trying to skate on that surface as it was twice as much work getting out of potholes and over bumps and piles of ice shavings.

I tried to practice basics there though and I think I'm getting better at my crossovers - when I say, getting better, I mean, I don't trip on the toe pick and break my fall with my face anymore! There are a few kids at the rink though that had been skating for a while, evidently, and played hockey who were particularly aggressive on the ice and almost caused accidents to themselves and to others. They even went as far as to yell out at you and disorientate skaters just because they could. Once again, why is it that the SOS staff don't care about these things?! You'd think for business reasons that they would make it the safest, most pleasant atmosphere possible to get people to continue to come along. Instead, they don't stop these people from speed skating, skating clockwise and acting like idiots and they swept the ice once in the whole time we were there. And even that time, before we were allowed on, they let speed skaters and sled racing go first so by the time we were allowed on for a general skate, the ice was corrugated again! I really wish we could skate on a clean surface. I think if i practiced on a smoother surface, I would get the hang of this set of motor functions much quicker!

On a lighter note, I had the most gorgeous blue bruise, about 2 inches long and 1.5inches wide on my arm near my elbow, arising from jamming it between the sled and the rink barrier at top speed! It was hilarious (especially since we were coming last at the time and skidding all over the place) but geez, it hurt. It's still there, a bit faint. I might start posting pictures of my bruises here soon!

Until next time!