Cross-cuts

During today’s skating lesson I excelled at cross-cuts, which is the term my instructor uses however all the literature I have found calls this technique “crossovers”. We learned how to do cross-cuts last year but I wasn’t very good at them. I have been practising these drills ever since my lessons began in September. As I was practising both before and after the lesson I sped around the rink, feeling like Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics. No longer do I fear losing my balance as I place one foot over the other. I have always enjoyed balancing games, both in balancing objects as well as balancing one’s own body. The lessons we have had on balancing on one skate as we glide down the rink I found particularly enjoyable. One has to balance on the flat side of the blade and not on the edge, otherwise you will be sent going around in circles and thrown off balance. This morning I imagined myself as a cyclist as I rounded each turn, hugging the inside while bending both knees and crossing my right foot over the left. When I came out of the turn and whipped myself along the length of the rink, I tried to stay balanced on my left foot as I kept my right cross-cutting foot aloft. 

Mark and I went skating on Sunday at a rink near him. We always go on Sundays, just before his hockey game in order to give him a bit of a warmup and to give me some needed skating practice. The skaters were all going in a clockwise rotation, and I could not do cross-cuts very well in that direction. My instructor, as well as Mark, say that this is normal, and one usually prefers to do cross-cuts in a counterclockwise direction. I practised clockwise cross-cuts each time I made a turn. I am hoping that the next time we go skating together at his neighbourhood rink, the direction of skating is counterclockwise. Mark amazes me with his skating ability. He has never had a lesson in his life and is a pro on ice. I aspire to skate as well as he does. Before I even think of taking beginner’s hockey lessons, I have to take at least one more skating class, which will be from January to March neist year.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Archives