Small gain, big frustration

Well, today wasn't as bad as the last practice session - and that's about all I can say about it. I'm really struggling with being frustrated over my seeming lack of progress. It might be that my expectations are way out of line, but my dancer-brain is going crazy because it's been two months and I'm still doing fundamentals. It's tremendously aggravating to be on the ice with 20 other people (most more than half my age), skating beautifully, working to music (albeit it's pretty cheesy sometimes) and there's me still trying to get control of the damn blades and feeling like I'm getting in everyone's way. In my head, I'm already dancing, damnit.

Sigh. This is WAY harder than I expected it was going to be.

The small bright spot today is that I think I've figured out how to glide backward on one foot and not lose my balance. That's one of the things that Will threw at me during my last lesson. Turns out, you have to commit to sort of just "sitting" on the blade and fight against wanting to come up on your toes to get your balance. That's dancer-brain again. I think I've realized that the solution to losing your balance is to actually sink deeper into the standing leg - Will says that the back part of the skate is less curved than the front, so if you go flat-foot on the ice or sit back a bit, you actually have more blade on contact with the ice and will be more stable. So in other words, my reflex to rock forward to gain balance is working against me in a big way. More differences from dance to skating.

I worked on progressives today as well - I think I'm getting the hang of how the footwork has to go, and it feels a lot more stable than it's been. Also worked on the new positioning for forward stroking - without mirrors I can't tell if I'm still in drunk duck mode or starting to look right. I wonder if more frequent coaching would help - maybe I need to go to two lessons a week for a while.

I'm going to have to talk to Will next time about my progress. He tells me that I'm learning way faster than a normal adult student, and I can't help but worry that he's just blowing smoke to build up my confidence... What I do know is that I've got to get past these blasted fundamentals pretty darn soon or I'm going to have serious attitude issues.

Oh, hold it - already there and bought the t-shirt :)