Week 5 open skate

So today I'm still technically sick but I felt well enough to go to the open skate.

I headed out and did my thing. Skating, working on the elusive crossover, sticky skate.

It felt weird as usual. I haven't put as many hours in this week and I'm starting to make the sad realization about my progress.

You see when you first start skating all you want to do is get to the part where you're no longer freaked out on skates. Then you just want to be able to skate.

Well I can skate now. Not well, but I can and now begins the real work. This is the part of skating where my improvement will likely not be measured in days but in weeks and months.

I'll keep updating often, but if I miss a day or two, it's because progress slows down at this point. Even if I learn a new skill, it will be the beginning of the skill and I will have weeks and months of work before I can say I do it well.

But that's ok. I expect and look forward to the work. I have a new activity now. I'm in it now and I can just enjoy the ride.

Today's skills included sticky skate, better shifting of my weight, balancing on one leg and crossovers. I usually start off skating with the one leg push and glide. This gets me to remember how to skate for the next half hour. Then as I get warmed up, I include trying to do crossovers on the turns and sticky skate when I get tired of those.

I'm definitely improved on one foot balancing. I still need a ton of work, but I don't feel completely out of control, just off balance. I'm working on it at home. Granted I do it off skates, but every bit helps.

Then the whole crossover thing confuses me so I'm breaking it into two parts. Practicing bringing my leg around in front of my other foot and pushing. Then I practice pushing straight back with my inside leg. The goal is to push away from the turn, behind my outside leg, but it feels weird so I'm working my way towards the right direction.

Then I'm working on alternating sticky skate. I keep watching all the skaters and they do these smooth flawless movements where their feet never leave the ground. How do they do that? I still look like a Parkinson patient.

Oh well. Hopefully in a week I'll see some improvement.