Moving on...

I haven't blogged in a while about skating so a lot has happened in 6 months.

I have still been going to the evening Adult Learn to Skate classes which have served to keep me practicing more than anything else. When I got my new skates and started going again, we discovered that the number of people in the classes had pretty much tripled so it was harder to get individual attention from the poor coach who has her hands full with too many different levels. We are probably more advanced than the others in the class so we have been finding that the class in the evenings is a bit of a waste of time as we don't usually get to the stuff we've been doing until it's already time for us to leave. We passed our Gamma test back in 3rd term which meant that we were on to the Delta requirements: LFI and RFI 3 turns, FI and FO edges, lunges, shoot-the-ducks and bunny hops. However, we haven't worked a lot on them (with the exception of outside edges which are nearly impossible to practice with 20 people in the class all getting in your way!). There is also a bit of an issue with a group of hockey guys who are already in the Hockey Academy but come to Monday skate classes to practice (or should I say, stuff around!). They are quite disruptive and rude, skating fast around beginner skaters, practicing their fast stops until they cut up the ice into corrugated patches and they torment this one young girl and her mum who has been trying to practice and don't have the confidence to cope with these guys. I have many a time almost lost it with them but lately, a hockey player has been coming in to keep them in line and take them off our coach's hands, which has been much better.

I have also had the issue of my other skates (the ones that have caused me nothing but heartache!) being pretty much stolen. A girl in the class (when I started back up again) expressed an interest in buying them so to be nice, I let her take them home to try them and she got the blades sharpened etc so she could try skating in them first. I was being nice to her by letting her only pay $100 for them (when to buy them in the Adelaide pro shop would cost $595!) even though this was not in my best interests. She took them to try them and has NOT COME BACK to lessons for 2 terms! I don't even know her last name, let alone how to get hold of her because I stupidly didn't get her phone number. So if I do track her down, I am going to demand the full $595 and even if she returns them, she will be charged $100 for them regardless since there is probably now significant wear and tear on them. The mother I mentioned earlier has a way of contacting her, I believe, so I will probably have to call on her to help if I don't get them back at the start of the term. I can't believe it though - talk about taking advantage of someone's kindness! It's so unfair.

As a result, I have made a concerted effort to go to Tuesday morning sessions to practice and I have found that joining in on the classes there has really helped me polish some things with two lessons on similar things. I think my edges are getting better, although I still struggle with insides due to the opposite arm position. I am hopeless at shoot-the-ducks - I can't even balance on one foot, let alone lift my leg to parallel. Luckily, to pass Delta, I can choose either shoot-the-duck or lunges and my lunge isn't too bad (if I concentrate on pulling the leg back behind me). I can do a decent bunny hop and my RFI 3 turn is pretty good. LFI leaves a lot to be desired though!
In any case, we have probably become too advanced for the Learn-To-Skate classes now, so we just need to test the Delta stuff and then we're probably going to go over to the freestyle classes which are on different nights and double the cost. Gulp! The way Freestyle classes work is that you pay on a 5 or 10 week basis (so $125 or $250) for each class and there are at least two for each level (Spins and Jumps or Elements etc) so I'm looking at $250 a term! That's a lot for me to fork out each term so I will need to really look at getting as much work as possible this year to afford this new vice!
We have already pretty much learned how to do half of the Freestyle 1 manoeuvres (not polished, mind you!) as we have been paying for private lessons with the Monday coach over the school holiday break which has been fantastic! Not stopping the lessons has meant I have made considerable progress in the last 3 weeks. The coach has been working on waltz jumps and half-flips with us which is fun and scary at the same time. I am a little afraid of launching into the air too high so I have to build confidence for this. We have also learned 2 foot spins (with RO edge exit), forward inside pivots (which, anti-clockwise, I can do quite well) and last week, we began spirals (ouch, my back!) which I think, once I do some flexibility exercises, should be okay on both legs. I can get the leg high enough but keeping it up and turned out on the move and locking the knee is something that I'll have to work on.
I'm excited about moving on but at the same time, a bit sad to change coaches now, since we've now built a rapport with her. Oh well, onwards and upwards...