April 26, 2006

7:33p	I CAN DO A THREE TURN! http://skittl1321.livejournal.com/1213986.html?mode=reply (Link goes to this voice post: “I just wanted to let everybody know that I can do a three turn. I did like 8 of them during class, all the successful ones were on my right foot but all I have to do is get the left foot down now and I know how to do it and I can do it and I can do a three turn I'm just so excited At the end of our class today our instructor handed out progress reports for the moves that we still needed work on and I did not get one. He said that anyone who did not get one has passed Basic 3 and 4. So I assume that if I just don't fall on my ass for the next 2 classes then I pass Basic 3 and 4 which is just really exciting. And I can do a three turn!”
7:56p	Skating Lesson Update Hey- an update on the day of the lesson, rather than the next day. That's because I am so freaking busy at work. The lesson went like all the other ones. We started off by stroking a few laps around our portion of the rink, doing crossovers at the corners. Then we moved onto the circle to do forward swizzles and edges. I held my edges fine, my RFI and LFO are very strong, my RFO and LFI not as much but not bad. I kept slipping off my edges today though. Even during swizzles my blades were slipping. It was quite annoying. Then we moved two footed turns on a circle. My CW ones are great and I keep moving with about the same speed as the entry on the exit. My CCW ones suck, but they happen. After that was crossovers. My right over left crossovers are becoming cleaner- my foot is pointed, the crossover is deep and the edges are there. My left over right ones are more hesitant. The crossover is sometimes not a full crossover so the edges aren't very good. After that was backward swizzles on a circle. With the exception of the slipping edge problem those were fine. My main problem is speed. I go too fast and have to keep stopping to make sure I don't hit the people I share the circle with. But I don't feel like I'm going fast until I'm almost at them. Across the rink skills we worked on backward snowplow stops, backward stroking and backwards glides. All of these things are getting better. I GET the snowplow stop now. Before I was actually picking up my leg in a faux T-stop/snowplow style and really wrenching my knee. Now that I am "flexing" my foot to the side, the stop actually works. It's weaker on my left side, but so is everything else. My backwards stroking exists now. I get what I'm supposed to be doing and I'm able to do it okay. I haven't thought much about my extension while doing it, so I suppose that is the next step. My backwards glides sucked today. Definetly not my best. My right ones were not as long as they can be, and my left ones are curving again. I'm getting onto my inside blade. Urgh. We didn't work on 2-footed spins but moved straight to three turns. I kept trying to do inside ones. That's my main problem now- figuring out which way I'm going. I can now say I have my RFO 3-turn. I did a good 10 of them, and only messed up a few, because I was actually doing an RFI but trying to turn the wrong way because I thought I was doing an RFO. I'm still setting my foot down on the LFO, but not as much. I am very excited. At the end of the lesson she handed out Basic 3 and Basic 4 progress reports. I didn't get either one. If we didn't get one she said we are checked off on all the skills and passed :) YAY! (1 Comment | Comment on this)
10:34p	no cheap used skates for me. Well, it appears that the skates that Celeste was going to sell me probably are not going to work. They are 121 Reidells, which according to the recommended chart on their webpage is a beginner skate good through about Basic 4 or 5. I've been told their recommendations are generally more for kids, than for adults (the difference being the extra weight) so that appears to be too little boot for me. Sarah is doing her axel, so I really expected it to be too much boot for me. Celeste said the club had a professional fitter come in to fit all the girls, and I have to wonder what someone doing an axel is doing in such a low level boot. The boot is the blue ribbon- http://www.riedellskates.com/fit/boots.html I was looking at the bronze or gold medallion. I hope I can fit into some of the skirts/dresses. It would be nice to be able to pick up something. I think it sucks that I can't get the skates, and feel badly because I was enthusatic about trying them on- but rather than saying the skates suck, I can just say they don't fit- which still could be true.