Baby Steps

My first time on skates was when I was about 9 years old. I think. I can't actually be sure as my memories are sometimes sketchy. Besides, I doubt it really counts as being on skates as I believe I spent most of the time on them on the grass or on my butt. Balance and I have never really been good friends. My Gramps use to tell me how he believed people had a sliding gene which allowed you to be able to glide along. If you didn't have it, you spent most of your time falling. Gramps also believed that I didn't really have a sliding gene as I spent most of my time falling when attempting to ski. Side note: Gramps was a skier and ski instructor for years and years so I'm sure he had some idea what he's talking about and getting up onto skates has been a challenge. This has me rather nervous about skating but hey, it looked easy. How hard could it really be?

On Valentine's day, N, my friend who is also an aspiring derby girl, called me up to see if I was interested in going skating. As I had no other plans, I agreed. We met up at Cheap Skate in Coon Rapids. I brought in the set of skates that had been loaned to me. I didn't realize how hard it was going to be but I quickly found out. Standing up was nearly impossible. N, while trying to not laugh, went and got me rental skates. My loaner skates were so good that I couldn't stand! Well a half hour later, I was wiped out. I managed to make it around the rink 3 times though it was hard. Falling happened a lot though I was determined to learn.

This first attempt at skating taught me quite a few things. First of all, I was way too tense on skates but I think this mostly comes from liking to be in control (I am a stage manager/lighting designer in my day job). Second, I don't like bending my knees. I blame this on drum corps. Third, I apparently have enough muscle memory from my few times skiing that my attempts to go forward led me to turn my toes towards each other which resulted in me falling. Most importantly was the fact that no one was laughing at me, well besides myself and N. Complete strangers were stopping and giving me advice and encouraging me. I've found that this is the most amazing thing about skating in general. Part of me expected to be looked down on and even mocked for my lack of talent on skates but I haven't been. I think this is largely due to the fact that skating isn't as easy as it looks and that it's all about baby steps.

It's remarkable how upset I get when I'm not as good as everyone else. I've found that I'm much easier on myself with skating than I have been with other things. This is probably in large part to being surrounded by encouragement. Random strangers at the roller rinks are becoming friends who get excited to see me get a little better every day.

Two days later found the two of us and another friend at the Roller Garden in St. Louis Park. This is a much larger rink. I didn't even bother with my loaner skates but donned a pair of rentals. This rink has a small practice area to one side. Thankfully my friends were willing to help me figure some things out. The first and most important thing was balance. I didn't want to lift my left leg and placed most of my weight on it, using my right leg to push me forward. After much encouragement and urging of my friends, I was able to stand on each foot while lifting the opposite. Balance was hard and I fell but I fell less than the time before. It was a huge improvement but it was a little scary.

At this point, I wasn't addicted yet. I was okay with missing a week of skating as it was fun but it was a lot of work. My two friends and I went to the Roller Garden again but this time on a Friday night. There were larger crowds and the disco ball was in full swing (it was disco night after all), which made it much harder for me but somehow I managed to have not forgotten everything. I was able to shift my weight a little but from the giggles of my friends, I knew I still looked the silly. The next morning N and I went to the skating lessons that they have there. This was the first break through! I finally understood how I was suppose to be pushing off and moving forward.

Shortly afterwards, I realized that I was starting to get hooked. N and I would go skating before our D&D group. I started thinking about where I could skate when I wasn't at a rink. I had my first dream about skating.

St. Patrick's Day led to my next break through as I went to yet another roller rink. This time I was the youngest person by far on the floor and I was trying out my loaner skates. It had been a month on skates in general and I wanted to have something consistent on my feet. Rental skates are a complete crap shoot. I went to Saints North in Maplewood. It was hard to be an anonymous person falling down since there were so few people. It was intimidating as I'm actually rather shy (no really, I am!) and don't tend to like talking to strangers. However, these strangers insisted on talking to me (and feeding me ice cream and cake too). One of them, the staff person on for the night, had been skating for longer than he could remember and he was concerned that I wasn't having any fun (I was having a blast) because I looked so tense. He recommended a few things (to any and all aspiring skaters: BEND YOUR KNEES) and said something that made everything click. Apparently I just needed bending my knees to be compared to a car for me to get it... So I went back out on the floor and suddenly things just clicked again! In fact, the next time I fell it was because I was thinking about how awesome I was doing!

Now I know I'm addicted. And I know it's all about baby steps. There's a lot of stuff I can't do yet but there's a whole lot more that I can that was way out of my league back in February. My mom is thrilled that I'm skating because it's getting me to exercise. My boyfriend is worried that I'm going to hurt myself even more than I currently do. My co-workers and friends can't wait to see me on a team so they can come cheer me on. Me? I can't wait until I figure out how to do cross-overs and can get back on skates again. It's been almost a week now and it's mostly due to being sick and giving my body a rest after pushing so hard for the last few weeks. But the desire is there. Everything is about skating now. Well, almost everything.