Day 23 – Toe Manuals!
I only had 30 min to practice on Day 23 (Saturday, June 4, 2022), so I mostly just focused on toe manuals. Very hard to maintain control when balancing on the front wheels! Leigh (@leigh.skates) mentioned a tip to think about leaning into the ball of the foot–not toes, and that has helped as well as keeping knees bent and looking ahead.
Day 24 – Dips, Transitions, Toe Manuals
On Day 24, I had a little more time, but even with that, I could only muster 50 min, and within 30 min, my legs were already so tired. I made my way to the rec room downstairs (subject to commentary from the building doormen).
Dips
I practiced dips, using @rocs_world’s tutorial. Prior to this day, I was mostly going off of Dirty Deb’s tutorials on backwards edging and dips, but as usual having a fresh perspective helps, and what I got out of @rocs_world was the focus on rotating the front wheels of the back foot 90 degrees and maintaing the weight over the toes of my front foot. That being said, I’ve got a long ways to go on dips. I don’t know what to do with my upper body, specifically arms and hands! I also need to think a little more about what to do after dipping. I just sort of swerve around. I’m better at dipping with my left foot (lunging over my right foot), so I’ll have to drill the other side to get more up to speed as well.
Transitions
I think these are getting smoother and smoother! I’ve been scrutinizing @skatewithleyla’s video on forward transitions (will have to study her backward transitions videos too as I progress further).
Toe Manuals
Far from perfect, continuing to try and do drills with no hands. Incremental progress!