Third Weeks a Charm

Friday: Yay me! I made it through another practice almost without falling! All of the "fresh-meat" had skates today so we got to do a new "four corners drill". Squats, Duck-walks, Planks, Leg-lifts, Duck-walks, One-legged squats, more duck-walks, toe-hops, more duck-walks. These things may sound easy and simple to you compared to our other work outs but remember that we are all on skates now. I don't know about the other girls, they seemed slightly sturdy on their skates but for me, standing straight without rolling proves difficult, let alone squatting on one skate without flapping my arms and falling on my tush. I feel better when it's time to move, I'm getting the hang of crossovers and I'm feeling more comfortable having the other girls around...but standing without rolling? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I may have deemed it impossible. Stopping after going a considerable speed without smashing into a wall is also a complicated procedure. So many different kinds of stops: T-stop, Hockey-stop, toe-stop. Apparently smashing into a wall isn't actually a technical or acceptable stopping procedure (though it is the only one I have mastered.)

Sunday: I really feel good after today's practice. Had one of the veterans check out my skates, turns out my stopper was up to high and my trucks were too tight. It now feels like I am riding completely new skates. I was just getting a little less wobbly on my tight trucks and high stopper. We tried a little nudging and pushing and I DIDN'T FALL!! WEEEE!!! Then we practiced falling, I fell, and not the way we were supposed to. Need to quit protecting my gear. Gear protects me, gear protects me... I may have bruised my hand pretty bad.

Tuesday: Dom's Day, he came to practice Saturday so he could see what we do and figure out which exercises would work best for us. I'm still having trouble with my abs from last Tuesday but I'm gonna check out what he has in store for us. Best and probably funniest work-out ever (for those watching me.) In fact we actually had a group of people watching us, and had one lady laughing out loud. We worked on our core balance, on the half-balance balls. For those of you who have read any of my previous blogs you know I have no balance on land, let alone on a half-ball. We did squats on the half-balls, we did boat pose on the half-balls, we did push-ups on the half-balls. The only thing didn't have us do on the half-balls was to run the stairs three times, while the others did squats on the half-balls. (Again ladies I would like to apologies for my time on the stairs = an absurd amount of squats for you.) Have you ever seen football players do the fast feet run through tires? That was our next exercise, only slowly and steadily on the half-balls, bouncing from ball to ball holding the skater pose. Sounds graceful doesn't it? I think that's where I got the most laughs. We then had to stand on the half- balls and try to knock our neighbors off the balls, and those who fell off had to do push-ups. Needless to say my arms are spaghetti today, however not nearly as bad as my first week of push-ups and I've never laughed so hard while working out. Oh my gosh, am I getting the hang of this?