Mostly peaceful skate
Stacey and I headed down to the Littlest Rink this evening, for a fairly blissfully quiet skate, where there was only two lads on the ice apart from us. I ignored the fact that they were gouging great lumps out of the ice and then throwing cones about in the middle . . .
Stacey is now getting used to her new blades and is now attempting forward crossovers. Her backward skating is getting better all the time as well - I think it is only the apprehension stopping her from putting more power into it, but that comes in time. She is still having some problem with her new boots and the discomfort though, poor girl, with her arches getting crampy. I have checked her laces and they are not too tight over the tops of her feet - I think it is just the normal achiness you get in your feet when you start learning.
I mostly concentrated on FI3's today - I started introducing the down-up-down motion and am actually getting it now, in the right rhythm. I also found that now I have that motion, the free leg is coming closer in to my skating leg now. I am getting a turn about 50% of the time, but not getting the backward edge out of it yet. But I remember the exact same pattern happening with my FO3's and it no longer feels like an impossible task.
Stacey also helped me with my backward crossovers today. I did two full circles in a CW direction - the first circle with my fingers lightly resting on her hand, and the second circle with JUST ONE FINGER! I finally feel like I am getting there - they feel fairly stable and smooth and I know in my head that in all probability Stacey couldn't stop me falling so I must be doing them on my own.
The Littlest Rink is closed for two weeks now, for maintenance, and I have no lesson at Ally Pally on Wednesday (cancelled as the managers want to have lunch on the ice, or something daft, so have cancelled absolutely EVERYTHING for the day), so Stacey and I are going to go and try out Queens Ice & Bowl on Queensway. It is expensive at £9.00 but it will be nice to skate somewhere different. And I have sworn that I will do a couple of circles maybe with one finger on her hand, and then do at least one circle with NO FINGERS!
Tomorrow is my last day off, so will be heading off to the rink as usual. And it will be FI3's over, and over, and over, and over . . . . .
6 comments:
You know the 'crampy arches' thing with RF4s sounds familiar. As you know I am not a great fan of them. I came to the conclusion in my case that the boots were a bit too big and that my arch wasn't being supported by the boot in the right place. This was another of the reasons I got rid of them apart from all the blisters (again maybe they were too big and causing slobbing). I found I also had a bit of tendonitis at the back of my heel with them which I particularly felt went I got out of bed in the middle of the night. Has Stacey had any problems like that at all?
Hi Jane!
I have been keeping a very close eye on Stacey's skates since she got them, and in three sessions they have gone from hurting various parts of her feet, to now just having the achey arches.
I had the arch pain when I started and went through various things to see if it helped. To be honest, I think mine just improved with lots of skating to strengthen up the muscles in my feet. I still occasionally get a little crampy, but it tends to soon pass. Lacing is a big thing as well.
She did have a little heel pain to start with, but that has gone now. And no blisters, luckily!!!
Hi,
Thanks for the tips via Email Amanda. I have figured out how to post a comment! I'm not very computer literate.
My boots are something called Stiefeld Lustra and think they are Italian. Only got them because they were ordered by someone and they were the wrong colour tan plus very small size (size 4 1/2_ so I got them with a discount. I read somewhere about putting on a pair of wet socks and walking atound the house and doing squats to soften up the fronts. It seemed to work as they have never given me blisters although for the first few weeks I did get that achey feeling a bit like you are wearing two house bricks!
Gill
Hi Gill! I hope the tips work
:-D
I'm not familiar with your skates? Are they leather figure skates, or the recreational type?
I have read mixed things about the wearing of wet socks in them - but glad it worked for you!
Tip on the comments thing - if you choose the "Other" option, you can put your name at the top rather than Anonymous
:-D
Hi,
Yes my skates are leather with padding on the tongue and soft, I think its Nubuck leather on the inside. I think they were probably meant to be a lot more money than I paid for them they cost me £105 but they were worth every penny.
Had a nice fall last night actually trying to help my daughter do something from her Silver level. I think it probably did me a lot of good though as I am not so scared now as it didn't hurt anywhere near as much as I would have thought!
No, it generally doesn't. There will always be a couple of ouchie ones, but on the whole they don't hurt. It's the shock of it more than anything I think!
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