October 21, 2006

5:03p Worst Lesson Yet
I had my make up lesson today. It started bad, even before the boots were on. I had forgotten my knee highs. (Well, I had 1.) So I had to wear socks, which were luckily in my bag, since I went to the mall barefoot. So the result was I lost feeling in my feet after 15 minutes instead of 30. I need to call a shoe repair place and see if they can stretch them. I've gotten a bit lazy about calling though since it used to be no feeling after 2 minutes, and now I'm up to 30.

So, today the regular teacher (who is different from my tuesday teacher) wasn't there and we got a sub. It ended up being Brianna, which was great. She has a very analytical approach and I like that. The problem is, I'm not entirely sure if she's done USFSA because she seemed a little unsure of how to specifically teach the skills. She skipped one, but the rest she taught, and taught well, just very differently from the three different USFSA rinks I've been at- which were all suprisingly the same.

We worked on our back landing position, mohawks- which we much easier because instead of back of blade to back of blade we did them at the middle of the foot, then we did ballet jump and that's where it really went downhill.

I had a panic attack. After trying about 4 on the ice, I told her I was going to go be friends with the wall. By the time I got to the wall my legs were shaking so bad, and my body was so hot, I wasn't sure if I'd even be able to do them there. The wall didn't really help at all, and I still couldn't really do them. I was just so scared.

And that's what I don't understand. I like bunny hops. On both feet. I've done a piddly, covers 2 inches, less than 1 inch high, but still off the ice, rotated waltz jump. I've done the equivalent of this "ballet jump" in ballet- and on pointe shoes. It should be much scarier on pointe shoes! But landing back on my toe pick, or really even jumping off of it when not moving, was the most frightening thing I could think of at the moment.

Then we moved to one footed spins from a T-position. My spins suck. I wanted to be a good spinner. I've always been a good turner- even when I was an okay dancer, that was what I was good at. I don't ever imagine I will be a good jumper. I sucked jumping in dance, and pretty much expect the same here. But I wanted to be able to spin. If I can't do either- why bother skate?

I also naturally have a "stronger" (meaning 3/4 rotation instead of 1/4 rotation) backspin than regular spin. Honestly if my core would hold I think I could actually get a whole rotation. I certainly get on my "sweet spot" better on that foot.

We also worked on outside edge pivots- the kind the man does going into a death spiral. Man it's weird to pivot that way. Kind of a fun thing to have in the repetoire though. I'll have to work on that one.

I guess the only good thing is that Brianna says she has time for a once a month private lesson. I really want my basic skills to be good. I almost feel I've moved up too quickly. And she's pretty inexpensive as skating lessons go.