Historical Perspective (HP) #1 - First ever group lesson

Please note, this is a historical perspective (HP) post. I will be relaying my memory of the moment as I remember it and recounting it partly in the past tense but partly in the manner of a story. I found reading posts about people's early lessons really helpful for me to relate to back when I started learning so I hope this is as useful for others in turn. If you follow the numbers on these then you can get the highlights of my skating history up until I catch up with the present day and the blog transitions into those.

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I'd made it. Two hours on the coach and one trip to Costa for a pre-skating hot chocolate and toastie later and I was arriving at the rink for my first ever group lesson. I'd brought gloves and a jacket with me, expecting it to be cold, but I was surprised how fast I warmed up on the ice. The public session started at 10:00am and the lesson was at 10:30 so I picked up some hire skates and got on the ice (with surprising ease) intending to warm up. No barrier crawling for me, I got to stroking circuits round the rink reasonably confidently for someone who's only ever skated two or three times before in their life. I was also pleased to discover I could skate on one foot relatively comfortably for short periods.

The session was really quiet and I eyed the few other skaters curiously. Given that this session is 10am every Tuesday then it's easy to see how it's not a popular option.

Getting started

I nervously glanced up at the rink clock as 10:30 approached and I looked furtively round the rink for the lesson coach. Was it a man or woman? I had no idea. I tried to see if there were any adults gathering somewhere. Fortunately, I saw a man in a large jacket putting out a series of cones across one end of the rink and two women were gathering near him so I sped over towards them.

This man was Ashley, an energetic and carefree instructor with (I believe) a Blackburn accent who didn't even give me a chance to learn the ladies' names before he had us straight off into the lesson. We started with simple forward stroking across the width of the rink. Everything fine so far as, essentially, I'd been doing this before the lesson, but I did get some pointers on how to improve my form. Ashley seemed pleased so we moved straight on to forward lemons, or swizzles.

Lemons?

To swizzle, you arrange your feet in a V shape pointing away from you and bend your knees, which pushes your feet outwards. As you move out, you should press on the instep of the boot to bring them back together again so that you've traced a rough lemon shape. I had no idea what the function of this exercise was, i.e. what skill this was developing, but I was being told to do it so like an obedient student I got on with it. Unfortunately, I could get my feet out but then had no idea how to get them back together again.

"My feet are stuck really far out! HELP!" I cried. Ashley laughed at my outstretched legs, slowly pulling me into a split as I tried to stay upright. He jovially pointed out that I didn't need to let my legs get so far out before bringing them back together. Also, more knee bend was required: "bend, bend, bend!" he insisted.

While Ashley watched one of the women, the other woman sidled over to me.

"You're doing really well you know, much better than when I started," she said.

"I'm sure that's not true, you're bossing these exercises right now," I replied modestly.

"Well you didn't have to stand by the rink gate and wait for the coach to come over and help you onto the ice in your first lesson." We laughed and I admitted I did feel quite comfortable with the basics.

So you think you've got the hang of this, huh?

"RIGHT, time for some two foot turns I think" announced Ashley, with rather more relish than I thought could be mustered for teaching a beginner class. Two-footed turns?! My mind raced. This seemed a little exotic for lesson one, but I wasn't just going to sit out, so I accepted my fate. Nothing fancy involved, simple two-foot glide forwards to start, then twist the top half of the body and try to keep your weight towards the ball of your foot before quickly bring your lower half around to match your top.

Honestly, anyone could do these but it turned out we were all quite shabby at them, owing to the fact that we all seemed to get the turn itself after a few tries, but we all panicked when we realised post-turn that we were now facing backwards and had no idea what to do. Ashley assured us not to worry about it for now and suggested we could try a backward lemon if we felt comfortable, but I just stuck to practising the turn.

Before I knew it, the whole lesson was over. It was amazing! I'd enjoyed every second of it. Ashley had been really enthusiastic and friendly. We all had another hour on the ice for the session so after the lesson I milled around with the two ladies from my lesson. I came to learn they both had kids that were into skating and they wanted to join them on the ice and learn something that didn't involve being sat at home. Fair enough!

I spent the rest of the session lemoning, stroking and two-foot turning my way round the ice. It was exhilarating; I knew so little yet had still loved every second of the lesson; I craved more so I practised it all zealously in the time I had left. The Skate UK levels 5-8 group class happened directly after the one I'd been in (1-4), so I watched longingly as they practised more complex moves and even spins! I wondered how long it would be until I could join their vaunted ranks.

Another whole week before I'd get to go again! The agony! Maybe I'd have to see about going on the weekend...