My Skating Journal!

Well, I must say, this time was much better than the last. For all of those who just tuned in, my last time was full of self-doubt and anger. There were girls at my rink that could bust out huge jumps and super fast scratch spins, and then there's me, just bairly moving forward. My mom says I skate pretty well for never having lessons. I give that credit to the good state of Minnesota, the coldest state in the US! Ice is a part of daily life about 80% of the year! LMAO! But this time, I was having a lot of firsts! I figured out how to skate forward without taking my feet off the ice....I'm not sure if that's an accomplishment, but to me it was! I learned how to do cross overs going around corners and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. I've been trying hockey stops and finally I got one! It must have been pure luck, cuz I couldn't seem to bring myself to do that again! LOL! Also, I did a thing I like to call an "aerobesque" lol, yeah right! I balanced on my right foot and brought my left off the ice at least 6 inches! YIPPIE! This next time, I have a lot of plans. One: to stretch better. This time hurt my ankles and shins a lot. So stretching is a priority. Second: I will try A LOT more things. I will practice stroking and more cross overs, going backwards and maybe even stroking backwards. I am also planning on trying a 3-turn. I am prepared to fall numerous times, but all the bruises will be worth it! Yeah! I am so brave as to try all these things cuz I got this wonderful book by Kristi Yamaguchi about how to skate and the her secrets to successful practices, etc. It is a God send, finally these things I've been trying are clicking in my brain in such a way that I think I will be able to do it now! We'll see when I get back from skating this Thursday if it really does help! My ultimate dream is to be on the Senior Team at my local skating club. My realistic dream is to be on the Junior Team at my club. My "way-out-there" dream is to one day skate at a show, maybe like those ones in Connecticut last December, where celeb skaters and some "unknowns" skate together. Like with Alexei Yagudin. To one day skate with the likes of him or Kurt Browning or Kristi Yamaguchi are things I dream about every night. But one day, if I try hard enough and have the same fire and determination I have right now, it could come true, right? ~Yerishka~

June 14, 2001

Today, I rocked my own world skating. I didn't get my new skates yet, but my old (and faithful) skates did the trick to help me learn some major stuff. I got there, with all the tricks of the trade in my brain from readin my Kristi book, and sat and put my skates on. I hit the ice and stroked around the rink a couple times, and noticed I was a little wobbley. So, I got off the ice and quickly tightened up my skates and went back out. I was still a little wobbley and right then I realized that the zamboni had never come out after the hockey practice that was held before hand! There were huge ruts in the ice, big scratches...like big old speed bumps. So, I inspected the ice and found a nice patch at the end of the rink that wasn't too horrible and claimed it as my own. I practiced stroking and cross-overs (both of which are hard to do with bumps and ditches in the ice, LOL). I wanted to then start my struggle with the stops, but decided to just throw out the "hockey stop" until a later date, I think that move might be a little too advanced for me right now. So, instead, I tried to do the "snow-plow" stop, where you put your feet in a "v" formation. I tried it and SUCEEDED!!! I had to make sure it wasn't just pure luck again or a fluke, so I tried it again. And I SUCEEDED AGAIN. And AGAIN. And Again!! I smiled *so* largely. Then, in good spirits, I thought I'd try my hand at going backwards again. I skated over to the boards (and stopped without running into them, LMAO) and took in a deep breath. 'I can do this. I can do this.' I slowly did the "swizzle" method, which when done properly makes tracings in the ice that resemble a coke bottle. At first I went a couple feet back, then couldn't figure out how to keep going. So I kept trying and trying...getting very hot in the process. I had to take off my gloves AND my sweater. The finally, as if from high, I "swizzled" backwards...and kept going. The boards redeeding in the distance, I skid to a stop and jumped up and down in joy, digging my toe picks into the ice so I wouldn't fall. I had to restrain myself from yelping in pure satifaction as I sprinted over to the door, jumped out to solid ground, grabbed my mother (she comes with to support me, she knows I have problems feeling confident) and showed it to her. "Look Mom, I can go BACKWARD!!" Wow, it was an amazing day. As I was taking off my skates, I thought to myself, 'If I can accomplish such things with only 4 sessions under my belt, just imagine what kind of stuff I can do when I start taking lessons and have a real person there to guide me!!!!!!' Today was my first real realization that I can be a good skater. It was my first step in my skating career and now I feel as if there is NOTHING I can't learn. YIPPIE!!! ~Yerishka~