So Tired
I have been having SO MUCH trouble with the chocktaws on the Junior skating skills test (and yes, I realize that this has been renamed as Pre-Gold, but the name remains as “Junior” since I am testing these on the Adult track. The reason for this is because I’ve already passed the Adult Gold skating skills test, but I digress). My hips are naturally closed, so executing chocktaws, or S-steps, is really, really difficult for me.
My coach tried just about everything to trick my body into doing these correctly. We tried jumping them, starting them with different into steps, and others. Finally, she pulled one final trick out of her bag: a tire.
The reasoning is that the tire would weigh down my back arm and help me stay on the back of my blade more. It would also keep me aligned over my blades correctly instead of tilting forward.
It worked! I have been practicing with the tire (my new best friend, as I like to joke), and it’s made these so much better! I’m not saying that these are correct, but they are more correct than they used to be. Once I get used to my body alignment, then we start slowly start taking away the tire to see if I can do them on my own.
Hooray for progress!