You know that moment when you're tired, and old, and fat, and just want to grab the boards to pull yourself up? I had one of those.
I started pulling myself to the boards,....
When suddenly, Miss Bianca whipped demonically fast between me and the boards, spread her arms and blocked my way...
Really? I'm going to have to put my hand on my knee and push myself upright and everything?
OH. The backwards falls. I feel your pain - when it happens to me, because I truly AM old and fat, anyone feeling a shred of adult responsibility races over to help me. However, since my other biggest fear is that I'd pull them down on top of me (see old and fat), I always say, 'no, no, I'm ok; let me get up by myself', which seems to release everyone from trying to help and I can humiliate myself with just my coach to watch. However, having said that, I had a great skate last night - it was the last open skate at the truly crappy local rink (as close to doing pond skating as I've ever experienced), not well promoted and cheap at the price. we started out with 10 people on the ice; within 30 min. the parents had dragged der kinder off to bed, so there were only 5 of us, and everyone else was practicing toe loops and other stuff at the other end of the ice. So, I practiced my backward twizzles and backward (both directions) half pumps on a circle and my inside and outside edges and my backward slalom. And guess what - I didn't fall. I now have a theory, which I feel pretty solid about: The ONLY difference between this and other times I've practiced those things and I've had falls is this: I wasn't worried about crashing into anyone. I wasn't worried about anyone crashing into me. I wasn't stressed about 'taking attendance' on the other coaches and their little darlings learning axles and other airborne items and skating all over all the real estate (for some reason, we have some coaches who don't respect the issue of 'Hey, we're doing a lesson over here, ok?"). So - my problem is NOT fear of falling (which is what I've been clinging to for a while); it's fear of traffic.
ReplyDeleteDer kinder, as you cleverly call them, can whizz by each other and land jumps at each other's elbows and not bat an eyelash. As an adult of a certain age, if I don't have at least to the next hockey line of clear ice around me (except for Coach, who is welcome in my personal rink space) I get quite uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteI've a few of those:
ReplyDeleteGo on without me; I'll just slow you down. It's too late for me but you can still save yourself. Just leave me for the Zamboni...
*dies*
I'm sorry I missed this post when it was active earlier this week as I think skating in traffic is one of the hardest things for adult learners. I have a theory there are four reasons:
ReplyDelete1. We are not fast and agile enough to take evasive
action at the last moment like youngsters do
2. We have difficulty processing lots of movement when we have to focus so hard on our own skating
3. It's "their" ice and we old giants are interlopers
4. We don't like to hurt kids, it's bad form
Babette mentioned some time ago she no longer flinches in traffic. It would be interesting to share ideas on how to overcome this problem.
John, Australia