We Don't Just Excel, We Axel

It was a school break this week in the UK, so the rink was overflowing with parents and their kids looking for something to distract them. I've had this post about exactly those kind of times in draft for a while and I think now is the time to deploy... Are you able to tell a Red Zoner from a White Zoner? Welcome to my lecture on public session skater taxonomy, which is an optional module you can take for 15 credits. There will be an assignment to collect samples of taxonomic specimens and a written exam on the tendencies of the various zones. You can buy my recommended text for the course (my own book of course!),  Rink Etiquette 101 ,   from any good academic book store. If the people at the back of the class are done yawning... yes , I'm talking about you guys... then I'll begin. Public sessions are the destruction derby of ice rinks. Actually, that's ice hockey, but if you don't want to strap on more armour than a medieval knight and smash a tiny piece of ru...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background:  Part 4 of my ongoing quest to find new skates. ------------------------- At last, my trip to Nottingham had been fruitful and I had a pair of skates on the way ! Giddy with excitement, I went nuts and splurged on accessories. I ordered some Chloe Noel husky soakers (you are never too old for animal soakers, seriously, see below on this) and also some Rockerz skate guards in purple and blue (I know they're expensive but I'd already spent so much on the skates and blades I figured why not go all out?) Pretty hard to resist. Side note - Those soakers are one of the best purchases I've ever made, firstly because they look so much fun and secondly because everyone at the rink is insanely jealous of them;  own this look I tell you! Own your child-marketed, ice skating paraphernalia and it will reward you tenfold in envious glances...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background:  Part 3 of my ongoing quest to find new skates. Following on from my last post , I was in the middle of planning a trip up to Nottingham when I had another lesson with the Tammasaurus and she threw a spanner in the works: ------------------------- "Have you looked at getting those Edea Chorus' yet?" "Oh, the Chorus? Uhh, I'm working on it, I have a trip planned." The Chorus? That was the boot level above what she'd previously prescribed and that I'd been considering so far (the Overture). Maybe she'd just got confused with the names? I went back to Edea's website and looked up the Chorus, which are for double jumps and I definitely wasn't at that point yet. But, the greed demon inside of me looked at the shiny 4 gold stars on the boot (for non-skaters: men get printed on stars, women get little atta...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background:  Part 2 of my ongoing quest to find new skates. ------------------------- I once wrote a post, not so long ago in fact, about my first mission to buy new skates . Past Me resolved at that moment in time that the issue of properly researching how to buy skates would be tackled by Future Me. After all, Past Me assumed that Future Me would know much more about this sport and would just be generally better at everything in life ever. Unfortunately, Future Me was now Present Me, a mere six months ahead of Past Me, and Present Me was absolutely no better off than before. I took to the internet to begin my search and started with all the classic internet search terms "buying new ice skates, buying advice, how to choose ice skates, what brand should I use" and was soon swamped with a mash up of articles, forum posts and informational sites that al...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. ------------------------- There was some stuff I didn't seem to be learning in my skating lessons. Some really fundamental stuff. Like, how to stop. In fact, I'd become notorious in my class for having plenty of speed and a decent handling of most of the skills we were learning, but my kryptonite was a complete lack of stopping ability. I actually felt kinda embarrassed about the whole thing in lessons. Any time we finished up an exercise with any speed involved (e.g. crossovers) then I was just left spiralling round and around Ashley as my momentum slowly died out while he explained the next exercise. How tragic I must've looked to him: poor Owen can't stop. But, thinking about it, Ashley honestly never really seemed that bothered about it, in fact he simply accepted my poor snowplow attempts without comment at our progression ticking-off session...

I'm a self-professed falling zealot. At my rink, you'll know if I'm falling as it's almost always accompanied by a shrill cry as I topple to the floor and slide across the ice. A sudden "WOOOAAAHH!" has everyone's heads snapping round at the outburst and they go "Oh god, Owen's at it again!" I think I give more people heart attacks from my screeches than any damage I do to myself from falling. The thing is though, I've definitely come to believe that falling is learning. Ice skating is a lot about balance (of course!), understanding where the balance ends and the falling starts really helps guide our body's internal gyros as to what you can and can't get away with when you're trying things on the ice. You can train yourself to push those limits as you get more confident as a skater and you'll become stronger at holding your edges or positions longer. It's pretty much the definition of practice that you do things wr...

For any future posts that reference my own skating progress within the UK's learning system(s) then this post is going to cover the UK's learning structure for overseas readers. You can find a summary of the structure at the bottom of this post and it's all correct as far as I know. I've read quite a bit about the American learning structure from the American skating bloggers so I hope this is useful info even if only as a reference tool. As with most ice skating education, you can learn in groups (particularly the early stuff) or hire a coach for private lessons. Who runs this show? At the highest level, ice skating teaching, testing and national/international competition arrangements is handled by the National Ice Skating Association (NISA). They seem an okay bunch but, at this stage in my skating career, I've not really had much to do with them and the learning course they designed seems fine to me but what do I know? Other people, like coaches and professio...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background:  This snapshot of the past comes about four or five weeks into my skating career. ------------------------- "Those blades sound blunt," Ashley stated as I shuffled around on my rental skates. "Well, they're from the rink's hire bunch, not much I can do," I said defensively. "Well... Don't get those ones again," he replied. I interpreted this as a sign that I should probably just get my own skates. I didn't want to be accused of blunt blades anymore even if it wasn't my fault. "I've been thinking about getting my own..." I began. I was really hoping that Ashley would shower me with wisdom and offer some suggestions on what to get because the world of ice skate purchasing seemed big and scary. He cautioned against spending too much at first, because you could learn a lot just us...