TrishOnSkates Blog

I have the amazing fortune to teach up to four times every weekend. My set schedule is to teach an Adult Level 6 class (our top level) on Saturday the first hour and then some random class as needed the second hour. On Sundays it is an Adult Level 5 class the first hour and then I float and teach whatever class is needed the second hour. Lately the second hour classes have been kids Level 2 classes so I get the chance to teach to the widest age group of students and nearly the widest level of students.

Be courageous? Be daring?  At the end of the classes on Sunday I came away gave the same words of advice, ‘…at some point you will simply need to be courageous, be daring and just push beyond the fear you have.’

It does make sense to be giving that advice to the 40, 50 and 60 year olds in the class. Afterall, I’m still sporting my elbow brace and Doug J has his broken ankle propped up on the wall for everyone to see (the unfortunate fall after a LFI three turn on ice, or as he calls it, the dark side).

I was giving a lecture on the importance of a bent knee, a REALLY bent knee, so I wasn’t asking for some unattainable move, just the lowering of the body closer to the ground.

In the kids class in the second hour, it seemed odd to be telling them the same thing, to be daring and go deeper into the knee bend. We usually think of kids as willing to take more chances, we think they are less worried about a fall, after all they are closer to the ground, but I still can see the fear, the lack of willingness to push beyond their comfortable limits, if only by omission.

Why do you skate? What does it give you? Why does it matter to you?

I think it is the chance to glide like an angel, to feel that freedom of movement. But in order to get there you must be willing to be daring. And there is no way around it.  Whether you are 5 or 65, at some point your mind meets the place where fear resides.  When that happens you have a decision to make.

So, because sometimes you need your instructor to say it:  be daring, in small steps or great bounds.  Be who you want you to be.