Fifth Lesson

Tonight's lesson was disappointing in most respects. I expected to have Linda as my instructor, taking over for Dawn who's gone for the summer. Instead, Linda was not there and no one seemed to have a clue what was going on, so they sent out one of the front desk people to "instruct" me. She was nice and all, but she's a hockey player and hasn't even WORN figure skates. This is so wrong. Anyway, I decided to try to make the best of it and we futzed around with various things I'd been introduced to last week or previously until 28 minutes were up and she zipped off, much relieved.

After she left, and the obligatory Zamboni break, I started working on my rocking horse (the backward/forward swizzle combination). After much messing around I finally got the hang of it and practiced it for a while. I was really pleased to have accomplished something. I spent the rest of my practice time working on various things, including trying to go a bit faster and feeling more comfortable with speed. I also worked on my forward swizzles and those are good. I tried a couple of one-foot glides but didn't make any real progress on that. I stayed 'til about 8:30, so about an hour's worth of skating after my lesson. My rental skates today were... not the worst I've had, but not good either. I'll be so glad when I get my own skates! As it was I couldn't really work my snowplow stops, they were so miserable.

I was talking with some of the skater moms during the Z-break. They said that Gateway is apparently changing the free-skate policy, although no one mentioned it to me. In the past (not that I have much of a past, here, but I digress) you got a free public session for each lesson, which you could use at any of the public sessions; this is in addition to getting to stay and skate after your lesson. I've been using this for my practice sessions as has everyone else. They are saying now that they will make you use that free session on the same day as your lesson, which makes it pointless. If this is true it's really going to burn me up, it is stupid and pointless.

The problem/point is, Gateway is THE ONLY RINK IN TUCSON. That means that they can do what they want. One would think they would value their steady customers, i.e. people in skate school etc. Instead, it appears that they want to milk the "steady" revenue, figuring we have no place else to go. Well, that's true, but for some people this is an instant extra $20 ($28 in my case) a month, which might just be too much for many. It's too bad. It's possible I'm wrong, I'll have to check on it tomorrow.

The public session was pretty crowded tonight. There was one older figure skater working on a program, it seemed. I couldn't really tell how old she was, she could be 22 or 32 for all I can see. I felt sorry for her, it was too crowded for her to really accomplish much. At one point she was at center ice trying to work on some spins and turns but the hockey boys (Lord, how I loathe them!) kept zipping close by her at high speed, effectively preventing her from working much. Yes, I know they paid just as much as she did, but it wouldn't have been a big sacrifice for them to give her some space. It's too bad.

I had another fall tonight, again one that didn't hurt -- well, not much. I was working on going a little faster and at some point I lost my balance and fell forward (hurray, forward!) on my hands and knees. Since I was going a bit faster than the last forward fall I had, I went zipping across the ice (f=ma and all that, thank you Mr. Newton) and I subtracted a little skin from the palms of my hands. Not enough to bleed, just enough to hurt a little. Note to Self: There's a reason those figger skaters be wearin' gloves. It's not just to keep their hands warm (my hands don't get cold), it's because they expect to fall! I need to go get some gloves.