TrishOnSkates Blog

I am thankful for:

My faith

My family and friends who are both honest and loving thus insuring I can fix what is wrong, learn to be better and strive for my best

My abilities, those things I do well

My mistakes which allow me to be humble and to see the challenges in others

Being entrusted with Skate IA so that I could contribute to the skating community, the larger skating community

Knowing who I am, including the down side. It’s good to know who you are because then you can work with it

Knowing immediately when I’ve made a mistake.  At 50 I am quicker to acknowledge it and apologize. I really like that. Someday soon I won’t make the mistake….

Having everything I need and most of the time knowing it. Which sometimes requires understanding the difference between need and want.

The clarity that it is about spending time in the company of others, like skating at a public rink session and not knowing anyone, that matters. It’s the company we keep.

We need more skaters to skate with, what can you do?

Sooner or later, no matter what you are doing fear will do it’s best to stop you. I call it the wall of water like those of a waterfall. You can almost see through it but not quite. If you can push through it you will see that there is nothing on the other side except a place to sit and watch the water cascade.

Whether it’s a skating move, a public speech or taking a test, fear will meet you and you will need to decide what to do.

“What would you do if you could not fail?” R. Schuller

I learned that what brings me joy in life is pushing my barriers, trying things that scare me and looking at those things in life I have not been doing well and trying to improve them.  I feel happier than at any other time in my life and I believe it is for a variety of reasons, the main one being that I am up against my fears in a number of areas.

“Do one thing every day that scares you?” E. Roosevelt

Regularly spins will make my heart beat faster and I’ll get anxious and wondering if I can just walk away from it. Since my self esteem will take a nose dive if I stop and the opposite will happen if I try it, no matter the result, I’ll will tried it.

If you are up against fear in your skating then maybe think about these ideas:

• Start by doing/returning to the  basics. For spins it might be just trying to turn 90 degrees. It might be just practicing to keep your head up and arms steady and only going 90 degrees. For stopping fully it might be just working on proper form for “Boom” and “Scissor”
• Practice it on the carpet on skates, or in shoes.  Jeremy LaCivita has been working for months on a rear wheel one skate glide and whenever we are off the rink he is standing on just the heel of his shoe, practicing. BTW, Jeremy has achieved his one-foot-heel-glide.
• Tell people you are going to do it, or that you are practicing it. Nothing like a ‘promise’ to others to make you internalize that it will happen.
• Visualize it. If you watch ice skaters practicing jumps, you will notice they ‘walk’ themselves through it in their skates, on the ice, from the take-off through to the end.
• Talk to your instructors. Ask them for feedback, ask them if they think you can do it. Let them lend you faith. So often as instructors we can see that someone can easily accomplish the move, but THEY think they cannot do it.
• Set a goal. If it’s a glide, put out cones on the ground, in a line, about 6 inches apart and just try to get your glide just for six inches, then for 12 inches, etc.
• Trust yourself. If you are reading this email then you have taken classes from Skate Journeys and as such, you know what you are doing, you have the basics, the good posture and so many tools at your disposal. Trust yourself, acknowledge the fear and know that we believe in you. And so should you. Just do it, simply do it. Anything after the word ‘just’ or ‘simply’  is difficult and we know it.
• We all want each other to be successful. We are a non-competitive school and you won’t find anyone in your class that doesn’t want you to succeed. When you succeed it’s like we all succeed.

When you are ready we are all right there with you. And remember to go weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee because it allows you to not think about the fear but to feel the fun. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee  just say it now, you can’t help but smile.  Joy is found just beyond the wall of water. You’ll love your life when you push your boundaries. And you know, We are all right there with you.

If you want to skate well, learn the duck walk.  Even if you are an advanced skater. If you don’t want to learn it, don’t.  It’s just that it’s all that matters in skating and here is why:

Its what the racers do off the line in both indoor and outdoor skating. It’s what the ice skaters do around the rink in the Olympics. It’s the first time you learn how to balance on one foot.  It’s the only way to learn how to do the basic stride I, II and Skaters’ Stride. It is so versatile that when you reverse the pattern from a ‘duck’ pattern to a ‘pizza slice,’ you can learn to skate backwards.

It’s the basis for striding: keeping your feet at a 45 degree angle; bringing your feet together after each push. Do it right and you are on your way to becoming a speed skater. You see it is the essence of all further moves: keeping your feet together, power push from the heel wheels, knees moving throughout the move, balancing on one leg than the other, proper form of head up, shoulders back, ‘intentional arms’ and abs engaged. It has it all until you get to rotation that is. But you can’t learn to turn until you can learn to walk.

For teachers it’s easy to move on, too quickly. Don’t. If the student can’t duck walk they can’t stop and they can’t turn. Keep them duck walking but make it fun, stepping over stuff, following the pattern you have chalked on the ground, allowing them to quack or change it to a penguin walk and have them sing something from Happy Feet.

Whether it’s for you or the student learn to duck walk slow and deliberate, then pick up the pace with elegance, knees bending constantly throughout the movement until you can do it perfectly.

Learn to walk before you run. Everything comes down to the duck walk. I’ll tell even more about it later. For now, consider the possibilities.

I spent the past weekend in New York City with the most amazing group of skaters. They all are a part of the larger group of the Central Park Skate Patrol.  This NSP chapter has a skate school connected to it and they receive their students through their website and from the local retail store BLADES.  With only a few teachers to run the classes the Director of the school, Bill Harley, (see above in photo, in chair) who was my first Skate IA certified instructor after the company changed hands from Janet to myself, encouraged patrol members to get certified.

At the first meeting with the six candidates this weekend I asked them why they decided to take the certification. For many it was because they wanted to help out and teach at the NSP school. What their post-cert surveys stated were that they were surprised and delighted to leave with even more: The tools to truly teach and what corrections to make; the connection with each other (although they knew each other casually); their skating skills had improved exponentially (edging and mohawks were the most improved); a more thorough understand of the basic/foundation skills of skating and how they apply to all aspects of the various disciplines.

Mike G, Kevin, SB, Bill H (already certified),Paul Rankin (already certified),
John W, Dustin C and Bobby M.

While I have found the above list to be a fairly common occurrence even when I took my certification in 1996 and 1998 what was interesting to me was the toasts which occured afterwards.  I spoke to the group about the value a skate school (a teacher) can bring to the greater skating community. Their skate school is small but now that they have another 6 instructors (oh, all did pass) they can take it up to at least the next level. What is that?

As most of you know I am the director of Skate Journeys Skate School and I created the school because I wanted skaters to skate with and I love to learn as well as teach so it was a natural to me. What I’ve learned is that it’s not about the money, it’s about the impact you can have on people’s lives.  I can tell you a dozen stories of people who have told me that the school, the lessons, the staff or some other aspect really changed their lives. Really. Some just show up for a lesson and they receive value for their money and that is great, but some people want more and see what the school can truly offer.

When our students are invited to take the apprentice class we offer which is a prep course for the certification, I always ask them why they do it. There are always a number of reasons but at Skate Journeys the  number one reason is because they want to give back. They know all the teachers and staff are volunteers. They learned from the other teacher volunteers and they want to give back.  But I always tell them: be careful, you might get more than you give. And it’s true.

So here we have 6 new instructors from NYC, 7 from Washington DC, 7 more from Seattle and 2 from Miami and what we have is amazing. The 2010 graduating class is our new face. They are excited, delighted and motivated to build community.  By giving they will change their own lives.  By teaching they will build the greater skating community. By showing up they will be building the NSP.  Hmmm, whoever thought that my taking over SKATE IA was about running a skate company hasn’t been paying attention.

I’m telling you, they weren’t this close when we started!

The toast to the certification process which was made by my host (and  new instructor) Michael Tillman: Here’s to a life changing event. Everyone hollered Here! Here!

We change lives here folks. Do you?