Seventh Lesson

For tonight's lesson I had Jennifer again, instead of Rachel from last week. At this point I form no firm conclusions as to who I get, I'm just glad to get a lesson. In this case I had not seen Jennifer since my second lesson so she was pleased with my progress. Tonight was a little distracting because besides the two of us in the adult basic class she also had to simultaneously teach José, who is taking adult freestyle. José is pretty amazing -- he's only been skating for a year and a half, he's 28, and he skates like a dream. He's jumping already. The whole thing gives me hope even though I am 11 years older than he. I don't really care if I never jump (okay, I care a little) if I could just do turns and spins and maybe a spiral. Heck, I'll be happy just to skate backwards and do crossovers.

So tonight I talked with Jennifer about my backward swizzles and the problems I'm experiencing and she gave me some insights. She confirmed that my left toepick crunch on the backward swizzle is because I'm favoring my left foot -- too much of my weight on my left foot, and my weight too far forward. She told me not to worry too much about not being really flat on my glides, she said it's pretty common, plus the fact that my blades are pretty sharp right now makes it more noticeable. I'm pretty much going to keep working on the same stuff. She also talked to me about my one foot glides and told me I need to watch my posture more -- "like a tree" she said, "but with a bent knee!"

After the lesson there was no Z-break, for some reason. The ice was pretty beat up already and it just got worse. That, and there was an area at one end that was coned off due to soft ice (apparently because it's been so blazingly hot this week). All in all pretty bad ice and not very confidence-inspiring.

I stayed 'til about 8:30 (1.5 hours of skating) and worked up a good sweat. My skates are starting to feel more comfortable and I'm getting better with them. I worked a lot on my backward swizzle. Jennifer pointed out that I need to make them bigger and they'll flow better. I found that if I didn't overthink them I could actually do several in a row and do them reasonably well. I'll keep working on it. I have to go to Phoenix for work tomorrow so I'm hoping that I can stop at Polar Ice in Chandler on the way back and try the ice out there for an hour or so before I have to head back.

It's been six weeks since I first set foot on the ice. All in all I'm really amazed at how far I've come in that time, and how much I've accomplished. I know some people learn much faster than I, and I wish I could relax and let go a bit more and just let things flow. Still, all in all I am really pleased with my progress and I really think that by Christmas or so I'll look back at this time with a certain nostalgia.