January 21, 2007

9:17a
I always forget to post about my lessons
Last Tuesday was my second day of teaching learn to skate. I'm helping with 2 snowplow sam classes and teaching adult 1. I had thought I'd be "helping" with adult 1, but it went the other way. It's only one woman and she has enough control that she can stand on her own, so I'm okay with it- I can't support an adults weight though. Sue said she is confident enough in my skating that she wants me teaching it though- I guess that's a compliment, but it's kind of scary to be teaching it after only 10 months of skating. B. told me that since she didn't immediatly complain about an inexperienced teacher- it's probably inspirational to the adult skater that I've gotten this far, and a teacher needs more than the ability to pull of impressive tricks.

So anyhow- my lesson. Since I was so exhausted last week, I skated for only 1 hour of the 2 hour public session and took a 30 minute break before my lesson. I was still totally exhausted at the end of my lesson. B. put all the Freestyle 1 elements into a half rink, mini-program, so I can get used to connecting things, and so he can check my progress on each element in under 2 minutes (yeah- I skate slow... he said it should get to under 1 minute for this).

So we worked about 10 minutes on the "program" and I found that I still have the "picking up choreography" skills- so it wasn't tough to remember. What was tough were the backward 3 turns, which we didn't focus on- I think that's for this week, and the half flip I've never done. So I learned a half flip.

Then we did combination jumps where I'd do something and he'd just yell the next part and so on. I fell really badly on a ballet jump after doing a bunny hop, waltz jump, toe loop, side toe hop, salchow, toe loop, ballet jump. B. apologized saying he just strung too many elements together, but the actual problem was brittle ice- my pick just completely shattered it, and when I came back down there was a hole instead of ice to land on. I like the long jumping strings, but my jumps are so pitiful I'm kind of scared of what they look like.

We also did an exercise of 3-turn, side toe hop (repeat 3 times) into a half flip, that was a lot of fun.

Then we worked on spirals, the ones on my right leg (left leg up) got hearty approval, and my left leg DID NOT. Those really need work. I had a mini panic attack because he was stretching me at the wall, on the ice, and I just had visions of me landing on my head! Not a fun part.

Then we did lunges and he said they weren't good, but not as bad as I thought they were, and we worked on shoot the ducks- which he said were pretty typical for adult ladies. He told me girls, men, and boys don't usually have a problem with these but older ladies just starting always do. Must be them birthin' hips- and the big butt that goes with them.

Anyway, the journal keeps getting left behind because I'm so exhausted I can't remember what I did! I guess the good thing is that when I'm back on the ice I remember the corrections.
(Comment on this)
4:01p
Want to hear about skating today?
Well, I drove to the rink to get there at 11:45, so I have time to stretch to step on the ice at exactly 12. They still have hockey on the ice, which is weird because it takes 15 minutes to resurface. Then I walk to the counter and the sign says the public session starts at 1:00 today. URGH. Not happy.

I met a friend for lunch at 1:15, and we ate watching the ice skaters. I would have been skating, but already made those plans. Well they didn't resurface the ice at all after hockey. So I decided at 2:00 that since the ice hadn't been done since 10:00 there was just no point in trying to skate on a public session. My friend and I went shopping. As we were leaving the mall at 3ish, they still hadn't done any surfacing.

I kind of felt lousy all weekend, so I guess it's okay I didn't get a practice in. That means Tuesday will have to be my official practice!