Thursday, September 9, 2010

Skating with Sushi OR Man my legs hurt!

This week I was able to meet with the lovely Sushi who has offered to help me learn the necessary skills I have to have to pass tryouts.
Sushi is the awesomeness!
We met at the rink, and put on our skates. She had me deliberately take a knee, to prove I trusted my gear. This was hard for me. I have been a bit of a chicken since that first fall, since I managed to completely avoid my $200 protective gear and bascially sprain my butt. Eventually, I was able to take a knee on purpose.
We also worked on posture. I have been bending wrong. Gotta strengthen those thighs, beacuse MAN, correct posture is harder than I thought. I did manage to get in a few laps in the correct posture, with a proper stride.
We worked on stops. More specifically, I was informed that I can't just hit things to stop anymore. (I actually knew that, but have been scared to try real stops). I have the general idea on toe stops, and get the theory on T-stops. Plow stops I had already more or less figured out, but just need the strength to actually DO them.
She gave me a few exercises to work on to strengthen my legs and help me get up faster when I DO take a knee, or two, or faceplant. I have been working on some of these and boy are my thighs burning. I didn't realize how lame and weak I had let myself become.
I haven't even put my skates back on this week, due to an insanely busy work week, but I plan to work those stops when next I skate. I also have yet to even contemplate trying a crossover. *shudder* No. I can do it!
Faith and fear. I still trust that I can learn these skills and make the league in October, but I still have that little jerk of a voice trying to tell me I'll never learn it all in time. I just stuff that little bitch back down and skate a little harder.
I can't express how much I appreciate Sushi's help, there is absolutely NO WAY I would be able to teach myself all of this in time. She is an awesome friend and I hope I can live up to her expectations and example.

6 comments:

  1. You said you haven't put your skates back on, but have you been doing the leg exercises?

    I'm so excited for you!!!

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  2. Some of them. I haven't done the fall/rise thing with my pads on, but I have been doing serious squats and lunges. I plan to skate sometime this weekend, I just have to make the time.

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  3. you're so lucky that you someone to work with you! and you're doing much more than I am as far as off skates training... I very much need to work on that!

    pads are awesome... fall forward, trust your pads.

    xx

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  4. I heart Sushi. She is awesome. I have a lot to learn. SHe will skate next to me and nip at my heels like a friggin' chihuahua. "Get lower!." "Quit skating with your tits!" " Faster!"

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  5. What are some of the exercises she gave you to strengthen your legs? I actually have a post about that coming up!

    ANd don't be nervous about crossovers... one thing that helped me "learn" was just by _watching_ other people do it. Notice how they move their legs, and where on the track (just before the turn usually) they start their crossovers.

    I like your blog! I was in your position exactly one year ago, and our experiences seem familiar.

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  6. thanks for the compliment Short! I love yours too! As for leg excercises, she has be working on wall squats, planks, and lunges. I am supposed to be practicing getting up from one-knee falls, and grapevines on skates (to help with the unreasonable fear of crossover). I think my biggest challenge right now is fear and I am working on getting over it. If I can get past that, I could be one hell of a powerful blocker, and imposing too, because I am amazonian in proportion (read: huge)

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