New skates, new challenges!

So this happened...

This week, my new skates arrived!  They are Sure-Grip Rebels, good for wider feet like mine.  I got them second-hand from the Recyclables Facebook page, and they came almost totally unused with snouts and gumball toestops included!  I'm so excited they're finally here (and that they're purple. I secretly wanted purple ones but didn't want to be superficial about it).  

Today was my first go on them.  So how were they?

Weird...

But I was expecting weird.  I've been on borrowed skates until now, a pair of entry level Riedells that were perfectly decent, although they did give me blisters.  Last week I had three separate people mention to me that at this point in training those skates were probably holding me back.  As soon as I got my Rebels on I could see what they meant.  In comparison the old ones were incredibly stiff and rigid, and the new ones were a lot more flexible, rocking with my movements.  If I leaned to one side, I could feel the plate tipping and the wheels moving through the boot.  Clearly this was going to take some getting used to.

At first it seemed a bit like standing on a ship at sea.  I'd rock when I didn't mean to, or turn accidentally when I pushed off.  If both feet were on the floor I might find my feet doing different things where I was distributing my weight weirdly.  Suddenly I had edges to work with, and all eight wheels weren't always going in the same direction.  If anything my transitions this week were a little worse than last week, because I'd wobble sideways on my landings.  I fell over so much doing them (although I did manage a proto-derby stop, which was encouraging).  Also plough-stops are suddenly impossible.  In the old skates as soon as I turned my feet the wheels were dragging sideways on the floor.  In the new ones turning my feet in by that same amount just makes the trucks rotate and the wheels keep rolling!  I've basically regressed by a fortnight.  This is clearly going to need some further work.

And then we did laps.  

This week I'd decided to not worry about fast laps but instead start focussing on doing crossovers on the corners and start building up speed on those.  At first, as before, it was all just a bit weird and unsteady.  And then something clicked.  My challenge with crossovers is to make myself do that initial lean to the left, which I have to make before I can step one skate over the other.  In the old skates, it was a matter of willpower only, but in the new ones I could really feel when I'd got it right.  When my weight was to the left, my trucks moved and I could feel the wheels directly under me holding my weight - I knew it was time to step.  It was still a little Bambi-ish in places, and of course everyone else wiped the floor with me, but I only lost 3 laps off my personal best which really surprised me.  Since speed wasn't my focus I'd only been going at 75% max and wasn't even particularly out of breath at the end, but the extra push and better use of energy crossovers gives you must have cancelled out the loss of speed I usually encounter when I coast round the corners.  There's hope!

And THEN we did a freeskate.  And OH MY GOODNESS!

Since about Week 2 of training, the bane of my life has been glides.  I hate to harp boringly on about the gimpy foot saga but it's causing me real trouble because the basis of most skating moves requires the ability to stand securely on one foot while moving, and I just could not do it.  Standing on my right foot sent me into a swallow curve to the left, and I could stand on my left foot for no more than a second or two without falling off balance and putting my foot down.  I wanted to practise them some more.

On the first few goes the results were the same, but something felt different.  I felt abnormally stable on one leg.  I was still swallow-curving, but I was coasting on that curve for a long long way.  And even on my weak left leg I was managing most of the straight.  After a few more goes I twigged what the difference was.  The rocking motion of the skates was actually helping me.

When you stand on one leg, you're rarely completely still.  Your foot, leg, and bum are all making constant tiny adjustments to help you keep your balance, and I can stand on one leg while still fairly well.  In the rigid old skates this translation of motion from foot to floor wasn't happening.  I could lean all I wanted in my boot, but it made very little difference to the direction my skates moved across the floor.  Not so with the Rebels!  In the flexible new skates that picked up my movements more, my skate was re-balancing against the floor as my foot did.  I quickly worked out that that meant I could steer by leaning.   AND THAT means... wait for it... my feet may still be gimpy, but I CAN NOW FIGHT BACK!  

Foot trying to take me the wrong way?  I SHALL OUT-LEAN YOU, FOOT! 

With some serious effort I began straightening out my swallow-curve by leaning to the right.  It's hard work but totally possible.  After half a dozen tries I was able to follow our coach in a glide that went all the way down the straight (in a slant, but still!) and most of the way round the corner - almost the minimum requirement for gliding!  On my weak and wimpy left leg, that I could barely hold my weight on before, I sat down on as if my leg was a chair, and rode my skate down the straight like a little boat!   The corner was less secure, but in total I went almost as far on my left leg as the right one!  I am DELIGHTED!!  Again, it needs some more work, but it opens up so many possibilities.  I was even entertaining the idea of gliding on one foot, going into a slow motion tomahawk, putting the new foot down and then gliding backwards on that one.  Because I can glide now.

I can GLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE!!!

And also, no blisters at all.

Oh Rebels, I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship :)