Sore Ankles!

Today was lesson 3 up at the large rink, and we seem to be progressing at a fair rate, although the coach does go back over previous things which is good.

New things we covered today were:

One Foot Glide on a Curve (Outside Edge): Quite scary really. It definitely feels a lot more insecure doing these on the outside edge, that on the inside. Mostly because, depending what arm you have up in front, you either have to be leaning quite far forward, or quite far back. It didn't help that all the things we did on one of the big hockey circles today, was on the side of the rink with the subsidence, so it all felt a bit hilly! These one foot glides on curves were also what contributed to the title of today's blog - my ankles are feeling rather stiff and achey at the moment, but surely that can only be a good thing!

Two Foot Spin: Again, quite scary stuff for a beginner! We were shown three ways of getting into this - firstly, using your toepick to launch yourself. Not attractive. Secondly, doing a kind of spiral dippy thing to get your momentum going - I liked the look of this one, but tricky to do. The third option was the one favoured by the majority of us - kind of stepping round on the spot, building up speed until you could pull your arms in and (theoretically at least) start spinning round. At the moment, I have a problem with the spinning thing. My 11 years of dancing is telling me to "spot" (as I would have done with all pirouettes, fouettes etc). It seems on the ice, your head doesn't move. I felt quite sick once we stopped this!

Continuous Chasses on a Curve: I liked these! All the time I have spent trying to get good forward stroking felt like it helped with these - as if forward stroking with one leg, but instead of doing the same with the other leg, lifting the free foot to your ankle instead of extending it behind you. And then pushing off on the first foot again. It feels like you could get a nice rhythm going with these.

So that was about it for new things. This week, I need to focus on practicing my one foot glides on curves (both inside and outside edge), so I can try to hold them both for three seconds. The dreaded T word was mentioned as well - TEST! He mentioned testing us up to Level 3, and then seeing how we go after that. I think this will be on the last week of the seven week period, so at least it won't be for another four weeks.

On another note, but still skating related, today I booked our team at work (5 of us) in to skate at Somerset House Ice Rink on our Christmas "do" (followed by a meal in Covent Garden). It should be beautiful, with the floodlighting, Christmas tree and architecture surrounding the courtyard. We are going on the 14th December on an evening session. I just have to ensure that nobody tries to ingest copious amounts of alcohol beforehand! The Somerset House website does state that "Alcohol and skating are not a good combination" . . . . .

Somerset House Ice Rink at night