Back in the saddle

Well, it's been a really hard road, but my coach tells me I'm officially back to where I was before the accident, and making progress again! Whew. That took longer than I thought it would.

The bright spot is that I've managed to significantly improve my posture on the ice while I couldn't do anything complicated - and I think that's really going to be a benefit.

Will and I had an interesting conversation at my lesson last Friday. I had told him about all of the YouTube surfing I've been doing to find video of other adult skaters - mostly so I could see people doing the first three dances I have to test and the first round of fundamentals. I told him that all the adults looked - well - LAME. No energy, no "spark". I told him that if that's as good as I can aspire to, I wasn't going to bother. The last thing I want is to work my way UP to "lame". The good news is that a) he agreed with me and b) I'm in no danger of that - but I have work to do to make sure I don't lapse into lameness land.

Turns out, Will says the reason so many adult skaters come across so "lame" on the ice is that they don't put out that extra bit of energy and commitment that takes just "going through the motions" into something truly interesting to watch. They are playing it safe. This made sense to me, because I've seen the same thing in dancers. There's a real difference between someone who can do the physical moves, and someone who "dances". Same thing is true for skating.

So from now on, every time I'm on the ice practicing, it's full-out, committed movement. No holding back, no "going through the motions". My nightmare would be to be "just another lame skater" at the end of this journey. Will agrees, and actually wants me to eventually start taking the "normal" tests (the harder ones the kids do). It's a high bar for an adult skater, but if I can't be that good, I don't want to do this.

Arrogance, anyone? :)