We went back to the rink today, trying to get our feet under us: again, pretty good: my sense of balance isn’t shot, but it’s kinda wobbly—instinct recovers when I let a foot drift ahead, and the leg strength is there, to yank that straying foot back under me. But the really weird thing: I’m intellectualizing stuff. Normally, on ice, I’m able to slop about and settle my weight here and there with the knowledge I can pull myself off a too-far-rear or too-far-forward weight-centering on my standing blade (singular: definitely—if you get off center on two blades at once you’re toast, and can fall from a dead standstill)—but I’ve had good coaching (thank you, Joan) and when things get iffy, I remember that.

So I’ve been doing what I ought; deep Z kneebend, if the left top of the Z is your hipjoint and the bottom is your foot, which locks you into balance. Check. Move forward by shoving sideways with your edge, more toward the heel than the toe of the foot you’re not standing on, simultaneously shifting weight onto the standing-foot. Check. Good steady stroke, better than usual (I tend to be a toeward pusher, which is not good). I’m doing better than usual in that.

And then we get to the fancy stuff. I try some 3-turns. Great. My knee is bent and staying bent because I’m scared of falling, and bent is your way to avoid that. You exit a 3-turn going backward, and the run-out is steady. Not bad. Center of gravity needs to be a little more forward—but then I realize that I’m doing one side “outside 3-turn” starting on the outside edge just behind your little toe; and my left foot is doing ‘inside 3-turn,’  starting just behind your big toe, which, oddly enough, I can’t do. I’ve been practicing it, but when I left the ice in June, I still hadn’t been able to get it to work. La! funny thing: I’d been too far forward, and straightening my knee to boot (usually lethal to any move, including simple skating)—

Well, in my terrified-of-falling mode, I’d gotten that deep, intellectually-driven Z position, which set my weight where it needs to be, and that turn and runout became just model-perfect. Rock your foot over like that with your weight all on that foot, with your hands/arms in proper position to check your momentum—because you’ll turn, and if you don’t ‘check’ it with an arm-rotation, you’ll spin. Ta-da! I spent the rest of the while on the ice doing inside 3’s, still on the wall on the inside ones, but increasingly not, and off the wall on the outside ones (this means not touching the wall for balance during the move).  There is hope! I may get this move yet! I had been doing it with my weight-center about an inch farther forward than ought to have been, and now that I’m mentally checking every position with Joan’s template, I’m actually skating in better technical form than I had been when I had no fear of falling.

Hank’s back; so were Larry and Tracy and Colleen. So good to see old friends.

Comcast has given us a new sports network, US, that is carrying the Trophee Eric Bompard and Cup of Russia. Japan is next. If you’ve got Comcast, check it out. They carry gymnastics, cycling, swimming, skiing, speed skating, and a lot of other sports that are not baseball, football, and auto races. Among recent listings, the speed-skating world finals and the badminton championships from Hyderabad, India. If you like sports and want some variety, take a look!