New Skills and an Achievement

This weekend was great! I got to spend all of Saturday and Sunday in Orlando and picked up a few skills as well as gained an achievement. As I said in my last post I wanted to get 5 days straight on my Zumba game. I got that on Saturday so now I'm hopefully going to have ten days in a row by next Thursday.

Now to the important skating bits! The Saturday morning class at Universal Skating Center was led by someone else this time, and it was pretty great. She did a lot of the basic stuff we've already been doing, but with a little extra instruction. She explained how we should be feeling the push when we T-Start and when we're just regular skating. Just feeling that push helped a lot. Anything that makes me more aware of how to move is a good thing, and I think it will help me with my speed. Even though I'm not even close to recruitment, I have a horrible fear that I will fail the 25 laps in 5 minutes because I've seen the same thing happen on various other derby blogs.

So the Saturday morning class was pretty good, but I think the best thing was the adult skate at Semoran Skateway. I will proudly admit that I spent almost the entire time in the beginner's area (there were several large groups of shuffle/jam skaters and they were SCARY). It was awesome though, because Laura, who skates (or skated, I think she's taking time off but I'm not sure) with Thunder City, was able to give us a few pointers and an amazing lesson in how to do T-stops!!

Yes, T-stops, one thing that I've seen as impossible and difficult! After lots and lots of practice I'm feeling semi-confident in my ability to do a T-stop. It's definitely not perfect or pretty, but I'm going to get to a point where I can stop faster. For now, it takes a little bit more time than I'd like, but I know if I keep working at it my stops will be better. In the Saturday morning skate class, they teach us to do a Toe Stop (which is a big Derby no-no). Hopefully I can go to class next week and still be able to do a good T-stop and not have to worry about my horribly performed Toe Stops.

Another thing I worked on was skating backwards! I'm still kind crummy at it (unless no one is watching, then I can backward skate like a mofo), but at least I'm moving and going backwards at the same time! I thought it would be an impossible skill, but in working in the Beginner's Rink I was able to take time to keep trying again and again.

So this weekend was a roaring success as far as I'm concerned. I'm kind of getting worried though. Last Thursday two of my friends went to recruitment with the league they're going to join and now I'm worried that once they start regular practices I'll be the person left behind. I know my chance at recruitment will come and I know for a fact that I'm still not physically fit enough to go through recruitment, but a huge part of me wishes that I lived closer and that driving there twice a week was possible. Oh well, time to stop being a whiner and start celebrating the fact that I can do t-stops!!