Alicia
01-20-2006, 08:11 AM
My 6-year old daughter is a good skater (better than me) but she was lacking speed. I thought it was because she has a narrow stance that makes it difficult to use her edges (uses toe picks more than edges to move).
Well, this X'mas we went on holidays to her grandparents who live by a lake. I mentioned when we arrived that sometimes when the ice first freezes, the lake becomes a 5-mile long skating rink. However, this only last until the first snow fall. Apparently, the lake had frozen long ago and was covered in snow when we arrived.
Abnormally warm weather on X'mas eve and X'mas of +8C and heavy downpours of rain really ruined our hopes of going downhill skiing. However, boxing day night the temperature dropped to -10C and we woke up to 0C weather in the morning. The lake was a sheat of glass-like ice.
The whole family skated the whole day (~7 hours) going around every inch of shoreline. This included jumping twigs. The temperature went to +5C and you could see beavers under the 18" of glass-like ice. You could follow them by skating on top of the ice while they swam under the ice and once in awhile the would rest at air pockets under the ice. The beavers escaped from being followed by going under docks or into their dens. The ice was soft and it seemed that you could glide forever on one kick.
That day my daughter's pace really picked up (probably from trying to keep up with beavers). Now, when she wants to skate fast, her stance widens to dig those edges in!!
What a fantastic way to teach skating, eh?
Well, this X'mas we went on holidays to her grandparents who live by a lake. I mentioned when we arrived that sometimes when the ice first freezes, the lake becomes a 5-mile long skating rink. However, this only last until the first snow fall. Apparently, the lake had frozen long ago and was covered in snow when we arrived.
Abnormally warm weather on X'mas eve and X'mas of +8C and heavy downpours of rain really ruined our hopes of going downhill skiing. However, boxing day night the temperature dropped to -10C and we woke up to 0C weather in the morning. The lake was a sheat of glass-like ice.
The whole family skated the whole day (~7 hours) going around every inch of shoreline. This included jumping twigs. The temperature went to +5C and you could see beavers under the 18" of glass-like ice. You could follow them by skating on top of the ice while they swam under the ice and once in awhile the would rest at air pockets under the ice. The beavers escaped from being followed by going under docks or into their dens. The ice was soft and it seemed that you could glide forever on one kick.
That day my daughter's pace really picked up (probably from trying to keep up with beavers). Now, when she wants to skate fast, her stance widens to dig those edges in!!
What a fantastic way to teach skating, eh?