HP #14 - "Does she know how OLD we are?!"
Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See my first HP post for the full notes on these.
Background: I'm about a month into the 5-8 group in this moment.
Background: I'm about a month into the 5-8 group in this moment.
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Head Coach Jane was in charge of us this week as David was off sick. Some of us had enjoyed Jane's last foray into our lessons so having her again was met with an undercurrent of excitement by those of us from before, and the usual wariness of a new coach from the others that hadn't had her. One of the things that I like about Jane is her willingness to push the limits of skaters' comfort zones with new material. Adult classes can be a little wary of anything that sounds too insane but Jane doesn't shy away from pushing people as she knows that everyone is capable of doing what she suggests and there are always ways of simplifying anything that seems too difficult at first.
We worked through a variety of exercises from basic stroking to warm up (everyone can continue to improve it!) through to our recent lesson material (inside 3 turns). Ten minutes before the end of the lesson, Jane brightly piped up:
"How about we do some small jumps?"
The colour drained from the faces of most of the class. I shot one woman a look and her face was stricken at the thought of jumping; another grinned manically so it was clearly a divisive suggestion. Personally, I'd been very keen to start jumps so this suggestion certainly stoked my fire, but the rest of the group had a more conservative attitude towards leaving the ice (perhaps sensibly so). Sensing the panic, Jane moderated:
"Nothing big, we're just going to do some simple exercises." She got us to put our hands on our knees and we practised rocking our weight on our blades until we could feel where the toe pick started. She then got us to repeat the rocking but with a small two foot jump directly up (no forward movement) when we reached the pick. So far so good. We moved on to an exercise where we would slowly two-foot glide across the rink and do small, two-footed jumps with a half rotation in the air to finish facing backwards.
The group obliged but the discontent started to show as some of the group approached the exercise very tentatively. Conversely, some of the group (myself included) loved it. Jane announced that that was where we'd be finishing up the jumping for now and a wave of relief passed through the class. But then...
"Have you done any drags yet?" Jane asked. We exchanged confused looks. "Very simple," she continued and she took few strokes as a run up before she lunged down dramatically on one leg, the other trailing flat against the ice. The class' horror immediately returned. As Jane demonstrated once more, one of other class members turned to me aghast and whispered:
"Does she know how OLD we are?!"
I immediately cracked up with laughter. The abject fear in the face of an exercise we could likely all do off-ice was just too much. The drag actually looked like fun and we all had a bash; practising by the barrier relieved most of the nerves and everyone wound up enjoying the exercise by the end.
The moral of the story is to have a go!
Head Coach Jane was in charge of us this week as David was off sick. Some of us had enjoyed Jane's last foray into our lessons so having her again was met with an undercurrent of excitement by those of us from before, and the usual wariness of a new coach from the others that hadn't had her. One of the things that I like about Jane is her willingness to push the limits of skaters' comfort zones with new material. Adult classes can be a little wary of anything that sounds too insane but Jane doesn't shy away from pushing people as she knows that everyone is capable of doing what she suggests and there are always ways of simplifying anything that seems too difficult at first.
We worked through a variety of exercises from basic stroking to warm up (everyone can continue to improve it!) through to our recent lesson material (inside 3 turns). Ten minutes before the end of the lesson, Jane brightly piped up:
"How about we do some small jumps?"
The colour drained from the faces of most of the class. I shot one woman a look and her face was stricken at the thought of jumping; another grinned manically so it was clearly a divisive suggestion. Personally, I'd been very keen to start jumps so this suggestion certainly stoked my fire, but the rest of the group had a more conservative attitude towards leaving the ice (perhaps sensibly so). Sensing the panic, Jane moderated:
"Nothing big, we're just going to do some simple exercises." She got us to put our hands on our knees and we practised rocking our weight on our blades until we could feel where the toe pick started. She then got us to repeat the rocking but with a small two foot jump directly up (no forward movement) when we reached the pick. So far so good. We moved on to an exercise where we would slowly two-foot glide across the rink and do small, two-footed jumps with a half rotation in the air to finish facing backwards.
The group obliged but the discontent started to show as some of the group approached the exercise very tentatively. Conversely, some of the group (myself included) loved it. Jane announced that that was where we'd be finishing up the jumping for now and a wave of relief passed through the class. But then...
"Have you done any drags yet?" Jane asked. We exchanged confused looks. "Very simple," she continued and she took few strokes as a run up before she lunged down dramatically on one leg, the other trailing flat against the ice. The class' horror immediately returned. As Jane demonstrated once more, one of other class members turned to me aghast and whispered:
"Does she know how OLD we are?!"
I immediately cracked up with laughter. The abject fear in the face of an exercise we could likely all do off-ice was just too much. The drag actually looked like fun and we all had a bash; practising by the barrier relieved most of the nerves and everyone wound up enjoying the exercise by the end.
The moral of the story is to have a go!
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