Whee, Sharp Blades!

I picked up my skates this morning, and actually managed to get to coffee club for an hour in spite of a really crazy work day. The Sharpener said he was pleased how they came out, and warned me to work with them as it would be very different and I'd need to adjust. Wow, was he right! I got on the ice and it was like... wow, I'm gripping the ice. Really gripping the ice. Death-gripping the ice! So I skated around a bit and worked on snowplow-stopping in these things and finally started to get used to it.

Cecilia was the instructor for the lesson today; there were only two of us, myself and an older guy named Joe. She asked us what we wanted to work on, and I said that while I'd like to work on forward crossovers, what I really need to work on is backward stuff. Joe agreed. So we worked on (in my case) backward glides. Cecilia emphasized that I need to have a good backward two-foot glide (feet together!) and then lift up one foot and put it in front of the other in the air; arms in the usual position, not back. She went ahead and skated with me and held my hands a few times so I could try it on each foot. That helped a lot as far as at least getting an idea of what it should feel like. She said that the balance for a backward glide is different than forward glides; for a forward glide it should be just behind the ball of the foot, and for a backward glide it should be just forward of the ball of the foot. I think my balance is often too far back, and sometimes too far forward. Still, I can feel when it's right on the forward glide, and at least I've experienced where it is on the backward glide, so that's something I can work on. From there we went on to look briefly at the backward 1/2 swizzle pumps on a circle. I'm still experiencing the problem that I can't get my weight onto the inside leg, it's still in-between. The correct position should have the weight on the inside leg and the swizzling leg has almost no weight at all. I'll keep working it. Finally we looked a little at stuff I'll need for crossovers, namely, being able to put my free foot directly in front of my skating foot. This is similar to the grapevines that Glenn had me working on before (which I've not done for a week or two). I can do them at the boards but it's a different matter when I'm moving! Another thing to practice. All in all it was a good lesson, I got more out of it than most of the coffee club lessons I've had.

Cecilia mentioned in passing that she thought my boots were too big. I don't know what to do with this as a) I already have them, and b) they seem fine to me. I suppose I'll just live with them for now; when I buy new boots (whenever that is) I am going to be getting something much more expensive and better, and I'll probably have to go someplace else to make sure they are the right size etc.