On balance, this wasn't a bad practice session today. A few weeks back, I approached Will about adding a second "touchbase" coaching session on Wednesday mornings - sort of a mid-week check-in on what I'm working on, mostly to make sure I've not started a bad habit before I've practiced it too much. Today was the first of those check-ins, and it had the intended effect.
Of course, before working with Will, I spend more time on backwards stuff.... It's kind of there, but not really - and when Will and I went through it again, I saw immediately what I was doing wrong. I can't actually do it correctly yet, but at least I know what NOT to do. :) At any rate, it kept me from practicing things too wrongly for the rest of the week, so I count that as time (and money) well spent.
At the end of the session, Will surprised me again and added a new skill (like I can even do the stuff he's already thrown at me!). To practice skating backwards, I've been turning around the way I've always done it on rollerblades. Not graceful, but it gets the job done in that my ass is now leading instead of my nose.... He decided it was time to start cleaning that up, so today he showed me how to do a proper "mohawk", which is one of the really basic ways of switching from forward to backward. I've seen other skaters doing this, of course, and it looks like one of those things you just do without thinking....
Of course, "not thinking" is pretty much always a bad idea for me, and since this involves going from one foot going FORWARD to the other foot going BACKWARD, this is a prescription for a wipeout. Needless to say, I hugged the wall while trying to figure out how to do it without getting my legs tangled up in the process.
The good news is that I "get it", although I can't really do it yet without a walker, a cane, or better yet a Hoverround....
Will is really starting to pile on the new skills these days. Either I'm getting this better than I think I am, or he's getting collassally bored with me doing the same crap over and over again and is showing me new stuff so that HE doesn't get bored.... :)
Oh, my coach and his partner were featured in a really good story for the local newspaper, with great pictures! Pictures and Story
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