sk8pics
08-22-2007, 04:35 PM
So, my ankle is good, I'm feeling stronger, my stamina is improving, so I thought it was time to try skating. A couple of weeks ago, I tried on my left skate and it fit! I arranged with my coach to skate with him this first time on the ice. I didn't want to risk breaking something else by myself! So we met at the actual rink where I broke my ankle. 8O It looked just the same, and was just as cold! I was nervous but excited to try.
My coach held my hand as I stepped onto the ice, and he held it while we made one very slow lap. It was very strange and scary at first! I wobbled a bit, but he had a good grip on me. Then we did another slow lap, and my balance slowly improved. For the first time ever, he told me, "Don't push too hard!" meaning, don't try to go too fast. Not a problem, I figured my body was going to remember how to push before it remembered how to balance, and I didn't want to go splat right away. For the first time ever, he also told me I didn't have to extend my free leg. Hah, we'll see how long that lasts.
Anyway, after those two laps, I tried a few steps on my own, then a few more, and pretty soon, I went around the rink myself. :mrgreen: Then did some swizzles. Then I was able to do one-foot-glides on each foot. Then we went on a circle and did edges on each foot, so I followed the curve of the circle. He was holding onto me for this! But yes, I hit an outside edge and an inside edge on each foot. Then, he had me stroking down the rink and doing alternating one-foot-glides and then stopping. Yes, I can still stop, hooray! :D
Then I skated backwards with him just holding my hands lightly. That was much, much easier! Kind of a relief, in a way, that skating backwards was easier before I broke my ankle and it's still easier after! Skating backwards, though, was the only thing that hurt my ankle, because of the deeper knee bend and the boot pushing on one of the scars. But there's nothing wrong with the ankle, it will just take some time to work through this.
Then I did some one foot swizzles, alternating down the ice. It felt really quite comfortable.
And that was that! So, we'll take it slow. I'll be skating public sessions for a while, getting my balance back. My coach will teach me once a week, or once every other week, something like that. And we'll see how it goes. I will be very patient, but really the progress I made in 40 minutes was amazing.
I have really not stopped smiling since I got off the ice! It was really a wonderful thing to be able to skate again.
My coach held my hand as I stepped onto the ice, and he held it while we made one very slow lap. It was very strange and scary at first! I wobbled a bit, but he had a good grip on me. Then we did another slow lap, and my balance slowly improved. For the first time ever, he told me, "Don't push too hard!" meaning, don't try to go too fast. Not a problem, I figured my body was going to remember how to push before it remembered how to balance, and I didn't want to go splat right away. For the first time ever, he also told me I didn't have to extend my free leg. Hah, we'll see how long that lasts.
Anyway, after those two laps, I tried a few steps on my own, then a few more, and pretty soon, I went around the rink myself. :mrgreen: Then did some swizzles. Then I was able to do one-foot-glides on each foot. Then we went on a circle and did edges on each foot, so I followed the curve of the circle. He was holding onto me for this! But yes, I hit an outside edge and an inside edge on each foot. Then, he had me stroking down the rink and doing alternating one-foot-glides and then stopping. Yes, I can still stop, hooray! :D
Then I skated backwards with him just holding my hands lightly. That was much, much easier! Kind of a relief, in a way, that skating backwards was easier before I broke my ankle and it's still easier after! Skating backwards, though, was the only thing that hurt my ankle, because of the deeper knee bend and the boot pushing on one of the scars. But there's nothing wrong with the ankle, it will just take some time to work through this.
Then I did some one foot swizzles, alternating down the ice. It felt really quite comfortable.
And that was that! So, we'll take it slow. I'll be skating public sessions for a while, getting my balance back. My coach will teach me once a week, or once every other week, something like that. And we'll see how it goes. I will be very patient, but really the progress I made in 40 minutes was amazing.
I have really not stopped smiling since I got off the ice! It was really a wonderful thing to be able to skate again.