Third Lesson

For my third lesson I had the beautiful Dawn back. She is a good instructor (Jennifer from last week was good too) and is very encouraging. I think she understands where I am coming from now and so she explains things to me in terms of what's happening, which is helpful since I'm always analyzing things. Unfortunately, she told me she is going home to California for the summer so my lesson next week will be my last with her -- then presumably I'll have Jennifer for June. Dawn will be back in August (she's a student) so by that time presumably she'll see me skating much, much better. I got a chance to ask her advice on buying skates and some other things.

For today's lesson we reviewed what I had already learned. Dawn was very impressed with my progress (practice helps!). She taught me three new moves -- the snowplow stop, the push-off, and the backward wiggle. We worked on the snowplow for probably ten minutes or so, then the push-off for 5 or 8, and just a couple of quick minutes on the backward wiggle. The snowplow is coming slowly -- my lack of coordination shows in that I tend to push out one side or the other but not both together. Not good! My push-off is coming along although I tend to favor pushing off with the right foot much more than the left. I'll have to work on that. The backward wiggle will need more instruction and work, I didn't really get it.

After my half hour lesson I stayed until about 9:05, so I skated for about a full 2 hours with just a couple of short breaks (including a Zamboni break around 8 or so, yay! fresh ice!). I was pretty tuckered out by 8 though (not much sleep last night) but I stayed 'til 9 because I didn't want to waste the available ice time. For my practice time I mostly worked on my glide and swizzle and a lot of pushing off. I did a few snowplow stops but I need to do more, and I didn't practice the wiggle at all. I should be able to go skating Friday and Monday though, so that will be good.

I got a chance to talk with some of the denizens of the rink after I was done. There's Danni, who is a skater-mom. She has a son who plays hockey and her daughter Heather who is almost 6 and seems to be the rink's little star. She's very cute and skates very well. There was also Cass, mother of Tate. Tate is a young boy who's actually learning to figure skate (not hockey!) so yea Tate! And there's Nikki, who is an older (i.e not 18, she looks young 30s to me) woman who skates very beautifully. I spoke with her briefly and complimented her on her skating. She said she's only been skating for 6 months! Wow, I'd have thought it was years. Anyway she gave me some encouraging words and told me the only barrier was fear (I'm hearing that a lot). She seems really nice. Danni said she is at the rink a lot, which explains how she has learned so much in only 6 months. All in all they all seem really nice, it's kind of nice to feel like I'll be around nice people when I go skate.

I figured out why my shoulders are so tired, DUH! It's from holding my arms out from my sides for most of the night. I should have figured that out before. Anyway I am quite tired, and not nearly as elated as Monday -- I didn't have any big breakthroughs and I felt like I would have done better if I were not so tired. I probably shouldn't have stayed so long; it's going to take a while for me to get used to this level of exertion. I also keep forgetting to bring any water, which I really should. I get thirsty and it's bothersome to trudge over to the drinking fountain in my skates.

I really, really need to get some skates. Unfortunately, in checking my calendar, I don't have a free Saturday (I'm assuming it would need to be Saturday) to go up to Phoenix until June 21! Well, technically I could go June 7th after I sing for the ordination; except I believe I have to be back for a potluck at 6. Hmmph!