Saturday Zoo

I attended the public session today. I got there early (12:30) and managed to talk to both Melinda and Linda, the two coaches I wanted to have trial lessons with. I talked with Melinda first, and she said that she usually teaches on Tuesdays and Thursdays and suggested we try to schedule a trial lesson after the 15th -- apparently she too is going to UA and will have more time then. I will have to give her a call in a week or so and set something up.

I then talked with Linda and had quite a good (though brief) conversation. We set up a trial lesson for Monday 12/8 at 12:45 p.m. (during coffee club). She asked me what my goals were: just becoming a better skater, testing, or competing? I told her at least the first two, and I'd have to see about the latter. Then she asked me what my interests were... moves in the field, freestyle, dance? I told her I wasn't interested in dance for now (though perhaps in the future), just MITF and freestyle. I then told her part of my rant about wanting to skate well before having lots of "moves" and I think that struck a chord with her. She also suggested I should have trial lessons with the other coaches as well (!). All in all I was very impressed by her professionalism and approach.

After that I took time to eat some lunch and then skated. My Girls (Heaven, Veronica and Mariah) were there along with their older sister Kira who I'd not seen in a while, and Alicia, an adult skater I know and of course the ubiquitous young Tate. I had a nice time skating but I have to say I was more social than usual and didn't really accomplish a lot. I worked on my forward crossovers a bit, and a bit on my backward skating (although it was too crowded to do much backward stuff) and all the usual stuff. I did do one lunge (since the Girls were trying 'em too) and it was good, which surprised me since I thought for sure I'd fall. All in all while it was a good (and long) skate I didn't accomplish a lot in the way of new stuff.

I'm a little concerned at this point. I feel like I'm a little stuck, and it's partly due to the state of my lesson and partly... I dunno. I obviously need to be a bit more disciplined in my practicing. I should probably have worked on turns more, especially the RFO 3-turn which I didn't try at all. Indeed my turns all need more work. Still, I know everyone gets stuck from time to time so I'm trying not to be discouraged.