Mohawk Madness

I went to coffee club today. As usual I spent some time warming up, working on various things etc. and just enjoying the ice.

When it came time for the lesson, there were four of us (a bit more than usual). She asked me what I'd been learning in my lessons and I said 3-turns and mohawks. I then took a moment to ask why I was being taught these things when I couldn't even do a back edge yet. Of course after I asked it and saw her reaction, I realized I'd committed a faux pas. Coaches aren't supposed to criticize other coaches, so all she could say (and did say) was something along the lines of that must be his approach or his decision or some such. I apologized for putting her in an awkward position.

So we spent our lesson working on mohawks, which proved to be quite helpful. For a practice technique she asked me to just skate the inside edge, rotate the upper body, and place the free foot against the skating foot but not actually do the turn. We started skating on the right foot, and it was hard for me to turn (my RF edges are a bit weak still). I could either turn, or place the foot, but not (seemingly) both. We tried it on the left and it was much better. It took a while to get the feel of turning out the free foot far enough, it certainly doesn't come naturally. Still, I made some progress and I know what I need to work on.

After the lesson she mentioned to us that the USFSA testing session was next Sunday (Oct. 5) on Rink 2, from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and that we were welcome to come watch. I'm going to try to make it, I'm sure it will be quite instructive and educational for me. Maybe I can drag some of my classmates along too.