This last stretch, I feel like I have been in the neverending plateau. The improvements seem so miniscule and non-existent that it’s easy to nitpick my skating and bemoan why I am not progressing as much as I would like.
But I have been sloooooowly unlocking skills. Here are some accomplishments:
- I am able to do grapevine in both directions
- I can do toe spins!
- I can dribble into toe spins!
- I am slowly smoothing out the banana move, or the baby compass spins.
- I’ve been able to do some one foot pivots and 3 turns
- I’ve been picking up new skills with Skaterobics, learning how to dance skate on beat
- I can strut in place faster!
- I can ride my outside edge on a curve!
One move that I feel like I really haven’t made much progress on is the heel-toe spin. I went for a couple weeks without really recording and analyzing my spins, and when I recorded them a few days ago, I was shocked to see how far I lean in the direction I am spinning. I’ve been more conscientiously focused on fixing this, but man, what a battle!
Across the spectrum, I really need to work on my form. Make my moves sharp and tight. Sometimes I wish I were a teenager that could spend hours at a skate park, but at age 40, after an hour, my legs can’t really do much more and I start to look silly.