HP #28 - It was a dark time for the Rebellio... Skater?
Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See my first HP post for the full notes on these.
Background: The Tammasaurus and I had been working together for about 3 months now and I'd been having some troubles over the preceding few weeks. Things aren't always peachy in the skating world (as in life)!
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"Can we stop a sec?" I wheezed in the middle of another intense lesson with the Tammasaurus.
"Sure," she waited for me to catch my breath.
"I think I'm okay now," I said after a few seconds.
"Okay, let's try for some nice big 3 jumps."
I took two strokes to get going.
"Nope, no good, I feel sick. Can we get off the rink for a second?"
Lessons with the Tammasaurus were always vigorous, no doubt about it, and I liked it that way. They were very productive and counted as some actual exercise in my otherwise slothlike existence, but for the last few weeks I just hadn't been able to hack them and I had no idea what'd changed. I would just start feeling sick part way through the session and we'd had to call the lesson off once or twice so that I could sit down off the ice and recover. It was embarrassing and I felt awful, what was the point of having a great coach like the Tammasaurus if I was just spending my time sitting on the side?
I had other things on my mind too. I hadn't really got any better at anything in particular for a while (at least it hadn't felt like it), which was an obvious result of my inability to get through my lessons (also it was hard for me to get practise time outside of my lessons). I knew I wasn't being measured against the standards of the Tammasaurus' young, elite skaters, but I still wanted to aspire to their hard work ethic as best I could. However, at that point, the best emulation I was doing was that of a sickly pet.
Furthermore, I was irked about the fact that my new skates were still causing my heels and right big toe to numb up. I had visited a touring skate fitter/sharpener that drops by my rink every so often in the hope he could punch some of the boot out or something. In no uncertain terms, he had broken the terrible truth that my skates were a half size too small and that there wasn't really anything that could be done other than selling them on to recoup some of the cost. My gamble on the skate size hadn't paid off and I'd had so much hassle getting them that I didn't want to sell them on and order another pair. Things weren't all bad though, the numbing sensation was taking longer to set in with each session, and I maintained some optimism that, with enough time, the boot could still break down such that the fit would be better. But the irritation was still there on top of my other feelings.
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How would this all get fixed? Was our hero doomed? Things are all a bit bleak in this HP post, but it was a part of my learning I remember well. When I first started writing this post then I wanted to have some levity at the end to indicate that things weren't all The Empire Strikes Back. On that thought though, I couldn't get away from the Star Wars theme with the post title so I had a mad idea: what if I was to take a picture of Darth Vader and use good ol' Paint to draw the Tammasaurus' clothes onto him?
What purpose would this serve? Who knows, I desperately wanted a Star Wars joke but I couldn't think of anything clever and appropriate enough off the top of my head, but I really wanted to do the picture... Having experimented with the picture then I was like "how can I not use this?"
So, in short, skating not so great, BUT PICTURE OF DARTH VADER IN THE TAMMASAURUS' CLOTHING!? Or is it the Tammasaurus in Darth Vader's clothing...?
Background: The Tammasaurus and I had been working together for about 3 months now and I'd been having some troubles over the preceding few weeks. Things aren't always peachy in the skating world (as in life)!
-------------------------
"Can we stop a sec?" I wheezed in the middle of another intense lesson with the Tammasaurus.
"Sure," she waited for me to catch my breath.
"I think I'm okay now," I said after a few seconds.
"Okay, let's try for some nice big 3 jumps."
I took two strokes to get going.
"Nope, no good, I feel sick. Can we get off the rink for a second?"
Lessons with the Tammasaurus were always vigorous, no doubt about it, and I liked it that way. They were very productive and counted as some actual exercise in my otherwise slothlike existence, but for the last few weeks I just hadn't been able to hack them and I had no idea what'd changed. I would just start feeling sick part way through the session and we'd had to call the lesson off once or twice so that I could sit down off the ice and recover. It was embarrassing and I felt awful, what was the point of having a great coach like the Tammasaurus if I was just spending my time sitting on the side?
I had other things on my mind too. I hadn't really got any better at anything in particular for a while (at least it hadn't felt like it), which was an obvious result of my inability to get through my lessons (also it was hard for me to get practise time outside of my lessons). I knew I wasn't being measured against the standards of the Tammasaurus' young, elite skaters, but I still wanted to aspire to their hard work ethic as best I could. However, at that point, the best emulation I was doing was that of a sickly pet.
Furthermore, I was irked about the fact that my new skates were still causing my heels and right big toe to numb up. I had visited a touring skate fitter/sharpener that drops by my rink every so often in the hope he could punch some of the boot out or something. In no uncertain terms, he had broken the terrible truth that my skates were a half size too small and that there wasn't really anything that could be done other than selling them on to recoup some of the cost. My gamble on the skate size hadn't paid off and I'd had so much hassle getting them that I didn't want to sell them on and order another pair. Things weren't all bad though, the numbing sensation was taking longer to set in with each session, and I maintained some optimism that, with enough time, the boot could still break down such that the fit would be better. But the irritation was still there on top of my other feelings.
-------------------------
How would this all get fixed? Was our hero doomed? Things are all a bit bleak in this HP post, but it was a part of my learning I remember well. When I first started writing this post then I wanted to have some levity at the end to indicate that things weren't all The Empire Strikes Back. On that thought though, I couldn't get away from the Star Wars theme with the post title so I had a mad idea: what if I was to take a picture of Darth Vader and use good ol' Paint to draw the Tammasaurus' clothes onto him?
What purpose would this serve? Who knows, I desperately wanted a Star Wars joke but I couldn't think of anything clever and appropriate enough off the top of my head, but I really wanted to do the picture... Having experimented with the picture then I was like "how can I not use this?"
So, in short, skating not so great, BUT PICTURE OF DARTH VADER IN THE TAMMASAURUS' CLOTHING!? Or is it the Tammasaurus in Darth Vader's clothing...?
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| I really want to suggest to the Tammasaurus that she add a cape to her coaching outfit... |
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