Sunday practices are outdoors on a concrete rink. This was my first time skating outdoors and I was absolutely terrified. I don't know if it's because I was using indoor wheels (96a GT Swirls that came with my skates) or what, but I was terrible. Grapevines were soooo hard. I just kept skating forward unless I turned my wheels extremely inside and bent my knees. I feel like it's the pressure of my knees pushed together that kept me from moving forward. The thing is - I just did grapevines on skates on Thursday to try to prep for crossovers and I didn't have as many problems. When I get paid on Friday, I HAVE to go back to the skate shop and get some outdoor wheels. At least then I'll know if I suck it's because I suck and not because my wheels blow.
My falls are definitely improving. I felt like I had a hang of the one knee slides and double knee falls but I still need a little work on baseball slides and superman falls. Baseball slides are the reason for the graphic at the top - I have a bit of a rash on my calf from the combination of shorts/short socks and baseball slides on concrete (yeah, I really didn't plan my outfit well.)
I still suck at sticky skating though. I think I just need to improve my thigh muscles. I'm ridiculously slower than anyone else though, even the other new skaters. I'm going to try to do a little more exercising off-skates this week to work on that until I can get some outdoor wheels or find a way to get the money for more skate sessions. The sticky skating and grapevines were pretty demoralizing though. I was just absolutely horrible on them. I even thought at one point "What am I doing? Why am I here? I can't do this!" as everyone skated by/around me.
I'll be happy when all of this practice finally kicks in and I don't suck.
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