Recruitment Night

Thursday was recruitment night for our local league. Itzel and I sort of clung together and made jokes to get through the nervousness, which seemed helped us a lot. They had us fill out some basic paperwork and then went over the basics about playing in the league. I won't lie - the minimum skills test seems daunting right now, and the idea of attempting it in a month is more than a little terrifying. We have an attempt in one month, and then the real deal in two months. After that point, we skate with the league for two months before being assigned to a team.

Everyone was super nice though. They finished the informational night by doing a free skate and a bunch of people kept slowing down to check on us, offer pointers, etc. I didn't skate my best that night, but it was great to get out there and meet everyone. I can't wait to actually start training! (Even if I'll get my ass kicked.)

This past Saturday we had a new teacher for skate class. She's new to me, but not new to teaching skate classes. She's been doing it for 20 years, and I must admit that it's the best skate class I've had so far. She taught a lot of stuff that the other teachers haven't yet (basic stuff like bending your knees for stability) and taught us how to do some moves in different ways that helped me out a LOT. She got me to backwards skate for the first time! She also called me out on not taking as many risks as I should out of fear of falling, which I really needed. I don't realize how obvious it is, so it was nice that she pointed me out for it and gave me a goal to work on when I skate. We're going to an adult skate session tonight so I'll be making that something to work on tonight.

Crossovers!

Skate class yesterday was fantastic. I mean, I sucked at everything we did, but we had a different teacher this time around and she not only pushed us, but she made sure she took time with everyone to try to help us with what we're doing wrong. My stance is entirely wrong on backwards skating so I have to spend the week trying to practice standing with my toes in and my knees super bent. My knees are actually a huge part of my skating problem. Apparently I need to bend them a lot more than I have been, but it just doesn't feel natural to me. I see other people skating and it always looks like they're all standing up. On the other hand, I bend to the point they keep telling me to and it feels like I'm hovering over a public toilet.

We started crossovers though. I've never actually seen a Level 2 class do crossovers. In fact, I watched the Level 3s learn how to do them and how to backwards skate, so I was never expecting Level 2s to do either. I suck at them, but I was able to do them enough that I felt what people were talking about with the sudden burst of speed when you do crossovers. I actually let myself glide a few times around corners instead of crossing over because the speed was a bit overwhelming for me.

Yes, I realize I totally fail as a skater. It had me doubting whether or not I want to do derby. I've always been fairly decent at sports, so it's a bit demoralizing to find myself sucking so much at this. Blech.