On her own

Sweet-Pea is doing so much better with her skating lessons! This past week she was finally able to skate without needing to hold onto her coach the whole time. She hasn't been leaning on her, but that feeling of security that she felt she needed (the coaches hand under her arm) is now not something she depends on. Yahoo! That's a huge improvement for her!!



She is good at doing her swizzles (see the video below), and she's a lot more confident while on the ice. Of course she has a LONG way to go, but this is only after 7 lessons...not too bad considering that equals only 3 1/2 hours on the ice! She is getting a lot of stickers in her US Figure Skating book too which is a great incentive for her.



Last week we even got Daddy to come to her lesson and try a bit of skating himself. He did great considering it's been almost 30 years since he's been on skates!!! Wow! (Those green skates were rentals from the rink. They're so ugly aren't they?) Lionel is doing much better too, but he is still a bit nervous about falling down, so he's taking things slowly. The best part about having Sweet-Pea's lesson on a weekday morning, is that there is usually no one in the rink but us! There may be a couple other older adults now and then but that's it! It's pretty awesome. Because of that, I even put my new skates on and venture out onto the ice - sorry no photos! I refuse to post photos of me on skates...it just wouldn't be fair to my viewers! hee hee



Here are a few interesting facts about figure skating for you:

• The Flying Camel is a particular spin, requiring the skater to jump into it.
• There are different blade designs for different types of skating.
• The first skates were made from the leg bones of large animals.
• The toe pick or rake was added to the front of skates in the 1870's.
• Toe jumps include: Toe loops, Flips, and Lutzes
• Edge jumps include: Salchow, Loops, and Axels
• There are 3 basic types of spins: Sit, Camel and Upright
• Ballet is important to a figure skater for adding beauty to the skater's movement.
• The Axel is a jump named after its inventor, the Norwegian Axel Paulsen. It is the only jump in figure skating that uses a forward take-off and a backward landing.
• If you spin on the ball of your foot, your spin will be much better and will last longer.

Here's a link to the US Figure Skating Association...check it out just for fun.