Back 8's

"Let's start with back 8s," my Coach says cheerfully.

I've been reading a lot of skills building books lately--listening to them when I drive--and one recommended that for skills building that it's helpful to 'talk' your way through the skills as you practice. That is you say a cue word out loud as you're stepping through a skill in the beginning, then as you get experience doing the skill, you drop the verbalization.

I've messed around with this lately. It has promise so I used it in the back 8.

Here are the steps of the back 8...You start facing in the circle
Push off.
Balance forward towards the toe
Free foot is forward
Switch foot to back at the half way point
Switch arms at the 3/4 point so you're now facing out of the circle.
Look over you leading shoulder  and guide yourself back to the starting point.
This is the first half of the 8. This all I'll talk about.

What it sounds like is...
"push... OFF!.......TOE TOE TOE....switch LEG.........switch ARM....LOOK OVER LOOK OVER LOOK OVER...!!!"

I skate without my glasses on and I cannot see that damn center dot to save my life.

At some point during the beginning of this strongly enunciated skill building, the music in public goes off and all you can hear is .....

I got a couple of strange looks.... but it did work.  So, whatever.

I do what I need for my skating