From day one coach has had the idea in his head that I wanted to learn back cross rolls, and that I wanted to learn them the 'ice dance way' (the hard way) by stepping straight to the edge rather than rolling back from the toepick. His method to teach me was to have me do the back cross rolls while 'lightly' (his words) resting my hands on his, while he skated forward. (It began with a death grip on my part, but we got to lightly). Anyway, you should have this mental picture: I'm skating backwards with my free foot stuck forward pointing my toe with all the mighty power of my Tinkerbelle sized foot, Dance Coach is facing me and skating forward, we're about 18 inches apart. My hands are
lightly resting on his. He's skating in that negligent, easygoing way people who've been skating since they were 6 do, legs apart and just gliding along because I'm so slow.
Now, watchers of Three Stooges shorts, bad TV comedies, and America's Funniest Home Videos should know what happens next.
The blade of my skating foot hit a rut and I started falling backwards.
The natural reaction to this is my free foot kicked upwards.
Yes, I toepicked my coach in the crotch.
But, on the good side, it slowed down my fall.
My face went white. He was getting married in 6 weeks. "Oh my god," I cried, "I kicked you in the nuts!"
Coach started laughing, "No, no, you just got my leg." As if that wasn't bad enough.
I was trembling in horror and I didn't want to do another crossroll, but he made me do them down the rink again.
The first time I tried to learn back cross rolls I was BAFFLED. Then I tried again a few years later and they clicked and I love them. Back cross rolls are my favorite of silver moves.
ReplyDeleteBoth my freestyle coaches insist on no toe picks. It isn't just a dance thing, though the dance coach at our rink says the.same.
Glad to hear your toe pick incident didn't wreck the honeymoon!
Omg that gave me a good laugh and cringe at the same time. Was working on back strokes recently too and part of to much toe pick came from stepping too wide. So coach made me feel the skating foot first before stepping and pushing, definitely scary but helps.
ReplyDelete@Jessim -- Strangely enough at my rink freestyle skaters (and coaches) all do back cross rolls with the toepick first method. One coach commented "Oh, straight to the edge, that's really hard." So true.
ReplyDelete@jjane45 -- My back strokes are inconsistent. I share your pain.