Happiness is . . . .

. . . skating with a friend! Stacey (who started with me way back in September, but wasn't really enjoying the Skate UK course at the time) ventured back onto the ice today, so I could give her a 'lesson' of sorts. Not that I profess to be a coach by any means!

So off we went to the Littlest Rink - I haven't been down there for months, doing all my skating up at Ally Pally now, and it wasn't as bad as I remembered. The ice was relatively smooth as long as you stayed about a foot away from the edge, but there was the usual melted trough down the middle of the rink. Oh well, can't have everything!

I seriously enjoyed myself - I didn't do anything difficult today, just skated around helping Stacey. It was immensely satisfying, being able to help someone skate better, as well as being hugely useful to me. When you assist someone (I don't want to use the word 'teach' - that would be highly arrogant of me), you have to really analyse what you do yourself before you pass that on to someone else. I also remembered what coaches have told me in the past, and it really made me think about whether I was still doing things in the correct way.

So yes, a really interesting, useful and above all fun session this evening. As I said - nothing complicated. Lots of forward stroking, some snowplough stops, sculling and slaloming. I did a couple of extra bits on my own - just some edge work, forward crossovers, continuous forward curves and a few FO3's. One of those sessions where you just . . . skate. Cos it's fun!

Did come across a couple of rude people today. One little boy fell over and was sobbing really loudly on the ice, so I rushed over to help him up. Then the skate marshall turned up and skated him off without even acknowledging me. Then another little 'un fell over and I bent over to see if he needed help. Then I heard his mother snap "Don't help him!". I wouldn't have minded if she had said "Thank you, but I want him to practice standing up on his own". Honestly, I despair . . .