A Danger to Life and Limb

Apparently my accidental  kicking of Dance Coach's boot out from under him has become rink legend. I am now "The one who caused Dance Coach to tell all his skaters 'Don't kill your coach.'" So, of course, I nearly 'killed' him again in a lesson.

Twice.

The lesson started normally; forward stroking followed by the usual routine of chasse' and swingrolls alone and in hold. We're really zipping along now, and while my posture may not be of Olympic caliber,  it's awfully good. I occasionally get glimpses of us in hold in the glass, and while I still look like an elderly lady skating with her grandson, my dance posture is good.

Extension..meh..I look like an elderly lady.

See this? The only way that level of extension will happen for me is with a full body replacement--or a personalized time machine.

Hope Schroeder SFFSC

But Dance Coach and I got through all the exercises in hold, covering the ice in four strokes a side, with nice edges and deep knees. The first thirty minutes are filled with ups and downs of the rink, insides and outsides. This thing and that thing without cease or desist. Finally we get to the Canasta Tango.

Since the Tango is not fun to do on public ice, we're fortunate this is a light session. We start. My power isn't enough to get us into the corners, but it's not awful either. When I do the crossroll on the end pattern, Dance Coach actually makes happy noises. Then during the presentation glide I see my posture in the glass. If I drop 40 lb, I'll look mighty fine.

When we finish our second run through, Dance Coach tilts his head to point down the rink. Two little girls are trying to ice dance together. Apparently, he has fans.

It's in stroking in waltz hold where I get into trouble. As usual, we start with me stroking forward, with him stroking backwards. This goes okay, and we turn so I'm stroking backwards. Only now, I don't really do a good job of turning on the curve. I can feel Dance Coach's hand pushing on my back to get that curve.  Once, twice down the rink. We're 30 minutes into the lesson and after 30 minutes of non-stop fast skating, I'm out of breath. It's been months since this has happened, so I take this as a sign I'm being pushed harder than ever.

I bend over to grip my knees, heaving the air in, while Dance Coach puts on his 'mean Russian coach' comedy act. It goes something like this, "Zo, leetle skater iz out ov zee breeth. Leetle skater need to work harder like zee ryusshan ize danzer. Ryusshan ize danzer feel no pain," I'm still heaving. Dance Coach goes back to his normal voice, "Okay?" I flap a hand around. He makes a few more of his normal voice comments, yakking about my edges and whatever other things seem handy to talk about. I honestly can't remember what he said after we stopped.  I feel like I've run a mile, hard.

Finally, I stand up. "Again?" I say.

We start with the waltz hold stroking with me going backwards for the fourth time. Thinking it might help with the 'not having enough curve' I really get extra deep in the knee for that first stroke, and as we hit the glide I start to roll backwards just as Dance Coach strokes forward....I don't know what happened. I know I caught him off guard and did the unforgivable, I gripped his shoulder and took him with me. We both start to go down. I know he dug in his skates and we didn't hit the ice.

Save me Dance Coach!

Geeze louise, did I get a lecture I deserved. Then we start the exercise again. And it happens again. Only now he was ready for it.

I didn't get a second lecture. For the first time since I started to skate, a coach tells me, "Don't go so deep in the knee."

That seemed to work, I'm still not getting the curve, but I was able to stroke backwards in hold without any problems.

But...

          there's always....

                                    next lesson.