Another public skate report. I would call it a success, although not an overwhelming one.
The main goal today was to work on the two things we learned in class: Forwards crossovers and backwards swizzles. And obviously keep practicing everything else, I haven't mastered anything.
With no classes to take up one-third of the rink, I was hoping for the ice to be nice and empty. I've been spoiled by the Monday/Tuesday early shifts where the skaters numbered in the single digits. I'd say there was maybe 30-40 there today. An Olympic sized sheet of ice can easily accommodate that, but I only like to try the trickier stuff if I can see that there is no one near me that I might take out if I blow it, and that wasn't always easy to find. Plus, the ice was pretty rotten by the end of the session.
The best part was that twice during the session, a veteran skater approached me and asked if I wanted any advice. I said absolutely, I'm new and I want everything I can get. The first one gave me a brief pointer, the second actually skated a couple laps with me and talked about it in detail. They both had the same basic message though: Bend your knees better and stand up straighter. Like so many new skaters, I struggle with leaning forward trying to get low rather than squatting down.
The second gentleman really explained it to me well. He said that he could see that I knew the footwork I was trying to do, but it wasn't working for me because I wasn't balanced on my skates right, and I wasn't balanced on my skates right because my posture wasn't right.
From there on out, I tried to focus much more on posture. I certainly didn't get it right every time. But before that, I wasn't even close to doing successful crossovers. Once I started thinking more about staying low and straight up, I started to occasionally succeed. If I kept my balance properly, the foot movement was a lot easier and more natural. By the end, I was successfully getting my foot across and getting some sort of meaningful push on maybe 1 out of 4 or 5 attempts. It was quite an exhilarating feeling to actually accelerate through a turn. I would have liked a chance to try left-footed crossovers in turns more, but there wasn't really a good chance to take over a circle in the middle of the ice. I did work on them in the straightaways in an S pattern when I could, but it will take a lot more work.
I also fell three times. I was taking pride in not falling the first few times out on the ice, but now that I'm trying harder stuff and safely protected (well, wearing hockey gloves anyway), I figured if I'm not falling at least sometimes, I'm not pushing myself hard enough. All were on turns where my feet slid out from under me. As long as I have a gloved hand to hit the ice with instead of bare, and I slide with it, it wasn't too bad. The only fall I'm really scared of is the "feet forward/straight backwards/head hit the ice" fall, and that should be pretty avoidable.
OK, backwards swizzles. This was another thing I'd hoped to work on more, but it was tough to find a safe chunk of open ice. I definitely made a little practice. I could barely get *any* backwards movement in class, but today I was getting some movement at least half the time.
At least some of the problem is my hips. I was born with a congenital defect in that my hips weren't fully in the sockets. My parents still have the baby shoes connected by a stiff metal brace. It fixed itself before I was a year old (somewhat improbably), but not completely perfectly. I have a slight natural tendency for my feet to point outward. The technique the instructor wants us to use for the backwards swizzle involves twisting your hips so far that your toes point inward and actually touch, and I just can't get them that far in.
But a lot of the problem is good ol' posture and balance. Just have to keep focusing on getting my hockey stance right and holding my balance properly. I also thought that it didn't help that most of my practice on this particular move was in the second half of the session,
For both techniques, I can see the progress. I am going to *try* to make it to two more public skates next week before class, hopefully Monday and Tuesday or Monday and Wednesday. If I keep progressing at this pace, I won't completely embarrass myself in class. I'm a little worried that I'm going to be in trouble if we keep adding new techniques at this pace, but I will just have to suck it up and deal with it.
So my big exercise plan for the next week (and beyond) is to *really* work on my hockey stance. I suspect wall sits might be in order.
Previous stuff? Still feeling pretty good about it. For some reason I completely biff the first one-foot snowplow stop I try on every session. After that, I got them all just fine. I'm working on stopping faster by digging into the ice harder and letting my skate twist even further to parallel. My crossover starts are getting to be downright adequate (at least relative to my level). My one-foot glides are getting better, I made it blue line to red line a few times on one foot, though usually not quite that far. I could make it blue line to blue line with two foot changes every time.
Oh, one more thing I wanted to work on: Turning properly. The turn I was doing wasn't using my edges much at all, it was basically a slow leaning glide. I tried to get more onto my edges and turn properly, and I could mostly do it without too much effort. I just need to get comfortable on my edges. I did a lot of twisting C-cuts in the straightaways, going back and forth on my edges in an S pattern. It was fun, although certainly not flawless technique.
Two more random thoughts:
1) Improving my physical fitness will probably help a lot. I'm lift enough to stay strong (including plenty of leg work) and my cardio is above-average, but I'm still carrying 25 pounds of extra fat squarely in the belly, and that can't be helping my flexibility and balance. I don't know if I can lose all 25 by March, but I'd like to drop a big chunk of that.
2) I learned last night something that had escaped my notice in 25 years of following hockey: The way I learned to hold a stick isn't necessarily wrong, but it's uniquely "American" and most Canadians and Europeans do it differently. When I was a kid playing street hockey, I bought a right-handed stick because I'm right handed, put my dominant hand on the bottom and went to town. It never occurred to me there was another way. But hockey players from everywhere else learn the opposite: Righties get left-handed sticks and put their right hand at the top, using the left hand down the shaft.
From a right-handed player's perspective, right-hand-down gains more power on your shot, but right-hand-up is better for stickhandling and poke-checking. Most Americans just assume you'd hold a hockey stick the same way you'd hold a baseball bat. I'm wondering if I should learn to try the other way. Better stickhandling sounds sweet, as does being able to play left wing easily when most of my American counterparts can't. And it seems that lefty sticks go on clearance more often because they are harder sells. But even though my muscle memory is more than 20 years old, it still bristles at the thought of trying to shoot "backwards." I think I should probably just buy a cheap street-hockey stick and see if I can get used to the idea.
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