Perseverance & Progress

I went to the adult session (coffee club, but they don't call it that any more) today, and skated for about 75 minutes or so. It was a really nice session -- the ice was beautiful, and it was not crowded (7 people or so).

I worked on stroking, 3-turns, a few spins. I spent some concerted effort on the RFI Mohawk --> LBI Mohawk combo on the circle. After a few repetitions I finally "got" the LBI Mohawk in a way I'd never done before, so that it stopped being something like a spread eagle and turned into something much more like the LBO Mohawk. It's that whole "turning on the heel" feeling I'd never been able to get before; I think it was just finally really looking where I was going and just relaxing and doing it.

Since that went well I decided to see if I could stretch the LBI Mohawk around a little more and make it a Choctaw. Sure enough, I managed to do a couple of them. It's not much of an FO edge (just barely an edge, quite flat) but it is one. So I was happy to have made that progress.

I was talking with Lisa H (we have a lot of Lisas at our rink!) and we were talking about motivation and such. She gave me a look and said something like, "Well, clearly you are still in the 'addiction' phase!". I had to smile. I suppose I am, but it's the healthiest addiction I've ever had (also probably the only one).

Addendum: I forgot to mention that I spent a little time on the "perimeter power stroking" a.k.a. "Russian Stroking" drill. While there's precious little "power" involved at this point, I was pleasantly surprised by how well I'm doing at getting the basic steps in. I should probably try using this for a warmup since it challenges me to really get my edges -- of course, it's hard to do on a crowded session.