Right Foot Glide!

I went to the public session tonight. I had a sinus headache that came on just before the start of the session and stayed with me all night; also I was quite tired. Nevertheless I had a pretty productive session, and skated a full two hours.

It was not crowded at all so I spent some time working on backward swizzles as well as the back 1/2 swizzle pumps on a circle. These are still pretty rough. I also worked on my turn and made some improvements. One key seems to be to overcompensate slightly to ensure that I don't lean forward. That helped a lot. I also worked a little on the grapevine and doing the step over (introductory crossover) while moving forward. I did several of them and they are stiff but okay.

I spent the lion's share of time working on my right-foot glide. Finally about 9 p.m. or so I started getting some good glides on my right-foot -- straight and with my placement pretty much correct. They are still not nearly as solid as my left foot, and in particular I can't seem to get on the outside edge yet... but it's solid progress. I'm really pleased, and glad I'll have this to show at my lesson Wednesday.

It's occurred to me that this time in my "skating life" is pretty special -- I'm learning a lot of fundamentals, and I think I'm learning them at a good pace; not as fast as some, certainly, but not so slowly either. Before all that much time has really passed (perhaps a year or two), while there will still be plenty to learn (I'm confident of that) I suspect the rate at which I make progress will not be as rapid, and I'll have to fight more for every bit of progress. At least, that's my impression. It makes me want to cherish this time of learning and discovery. I'm very grateful to be able to do this, and very blessed.