I signed up for another 8-weeks, of course!  They revised the format this time around.  Class used to be 45 minutes long, with 15 minutes to practice what you’ve learned on your own.  This time, they made the class ½ hour long, with another ½ to practice.  I think they had to do this because some of the students were progressing a lot more, so it’s like the divided us into beginning and advanced.  Nick and I stayed back in the beginning class, from 10:00 to 10:30, while Miguel and Lori went on to the next level.  The two Alexes are not here this session.  I didn’t mind staying back in beginning at all.  I want to take it very slow!

This session, Tabitha incorporated some new moves for me.  In addition to practicing what I already know, she added two transitional moves, to get from forward to backward skating.  One is a two-foot turn, and one is called a Mohawk turn.  The two-foot turn is fairly simple, but my biggest problem is keeping my feet close together while turning.  I can’t help it, my thighs keep my feet from getting too near each other!  I remember once Tabitha told me to concentrate on keeping my legs very close together when doing certain moves, so close that there is no gap between my thighs.  I just stared at her and said, “uhhh Tabitha…have you SEEN my thighs??  There is no way there will be a gap in between them, even when I’m just standing here!”  Being the polite, sweet, girl that she is, she just laughed and said, “Oh, Rene, you’re so funny!”  Funny maybe…but TRUE!!

The Mohawk turn is complicated.  The first time she showed me, I could not wrap my head around what she was doing with her feet at all.  You skate forward on one foot, let’s say your right foot (although it works both ways).  You bring your free left foot in towards your right skating foot, turning out the left foot into a T-position.  Then (when you feel confident enough!) you shift your weight over to the left foot, which is now facing the opposite direction your right foot was just facing!  You’ll find yourself moving backwards on your left foot.  Tabitha demonstrated several times but it was right at the end of class and I just didn’t understand the move.

I looked up the move on YouTube (I love YouTube!) and found a video of a young girl doing the Mohawk turn very very very slowly, and using the low wall at the rink for support.  Only by watching that video many times did I finally understand what my feet should be doing.  So on my next public skate session, I practiced only that Mohawk move for about 40 minutes.  I used the wall like the girl did in the video, which helped tremendously, as I was afraid to do the move and fall in the middle of the rink.  I got to the point where I could move forward, bring my leg in, and shift weight to my other foot comfortably, but still off-balance quite a bit.  But at least my feet were correctly doing what they were supposed to be doing!  At the next lesson I showed Tabitha what I’d practiced, and she said I’m doing great.  She agreed with using the low wall for balance.

I went to one more public skate and decided to move away from the low wall, but still stayed near the higher wall.  I only used my hand on the wall after the turn, heading backward on one foot.  That is such a strange feeling, to skate backwards, and I’m not used to it.  So it throws me off balance.  My body wants to compensate and lean forward, which just makes me way off balance.  It’s hard to change direction and still keep your body in good skating posture.  At the next lesson, I showed Tabitha again, this time using the wall, but after a few tries, she suggested NOT using the wall as a crutch anymore (wah!).  She said it was OK to help get my feet doing the right thing, but now that I fully understand the move, I should really do it without the wall, because she’s noticing me automatically reach for the wall and getting off balance because of it.  She has full confidence that I can do a Mohawk turn, all on my own, in the middle of the rink, without falling.  We shall see.  I have yet to accomplish that one. 

The other thing we worked on were forward crossovers.  I finally can do them!  Hooray!  Well, I can do them counter-clockwise.  It’s amazing how scary these simple moves can be.  It takes a bit of bravery to lift one foot off the ice and cross it in front of your other skate which is gliding along.  It feels like your feet are going to get tangled.  And they can, if you’re not careful!  I had a problem with my toe pick catching on the ice, which made me off balance and afraid of falling.  Tabitha helped me learn to pick up my foot more to avoid that, but after a while, she said I was picking it up TOO far.  Ugh.  But, the good news is that I can DO them.  This was a big accomplishment for me.  Unfortunately, my clockwise ones aren’t coming along as well.  I can lift my free foot up off the ice and skate around the circle on one skate…no problem.  But I’m just not comfortable with crossing it over and shifting my weight.  All in good time, but that’s on my “to do” list, along with Mohawk turns. 

Also on my “to-do” list is backward gliding.  It’s still an awkward feeling for me to be gliding backward on just one skate.  It’s very hard to keep your balance that way.  My backward pumps in the circle are coming along much better now, though, I can build up speed now.  Tabitha says I just need to put even more of my weight on my skating leg though…and I know this is in anticipation for backward crossovers.

So, to sum up, here’s my current “to-do” list:

• Two-foot turn (work on keeping feet closer together)
• Mohawk turn (work on doing it on my own, away from the wall)
• Clockwise forward crossovers (be brave!  Put that foot across!)
• Backward gliding (work on balance, shifting full weight over with each push)