Great Skate!

I wanted to jot this down before I ran off the game and potentially came off my high...

Awesome skating lesson today. I still can't do swizzles but after reading some of my Power Skating book and then talking to Coach Stalin, I think I'm not using my edges right when I do them. I started to feel right after we discussed how you're on the flats when you're heels or toes are pointed together, but on the inside edge at the widest part of the curve.

But we got distracted and worked on stopping most of the time, so by the time I got back to swizzles, I couldn't control my edges at all and it was just not happening. Tired legs.

However, the stopping lesson was great. I'm looking forward to practicing more. We went all the way down the ice just making little snow piles to get some muscle memory around that motion, which I find terribly awkward in the hip area. But I feel like it's just a matter of practice now and I'll get it. Coach also tells me I'm getting much faster (which is what led to the discussion of, perhaps it would be best for the safety of all involved to be able to stop). :)

Anyway, it was an awesome session and I didn't have to take my skates off or rest off-ice even once (though I admit to leaning on the boards to pick a foot up and wiggle my toes and also doubling over at one point to stretch my back out). It was just awesome (and very cool to skate on the Aeros practice rink!)

I find myself so much more comfortable skating in a hockey rink versus, say, the Galleria, mainly because of the crease. Everytime I skate through the crease (and I ALWAYS skate through the crease) I remember why I'm doing this. I love to just crouch down in my goalie stance and look out over the rink and dare someone to get a puck past me. :)

Off to pre-game dinner shortly. Thank goodness, because I skated up a real hunger. Plus they have good margaritas. :)