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!