Long Time No Write

Well, it's been a long time since I've written and not because nothing has been going on. Grace skated a lot this summer. In fact, she probably skated too much which is to say that I signed her up for too much skating. Before and after our vacation in Minnesota (which was great by the way), Grace skated four days a week for a minimum of an hour and a half and most often two hours with an hour of off-ice class following.

Did she improve? You bet. In fact, at the end of the spring, she moved into Freeskate 1 and two weeks ago she passed Freeskate 3. She skated in a recent Kansas City competition, completing four events (compulsories, freeskate, spins, and jumps) and placed in all events with two seconds and two thirds. But by the end of the summer, she was tired rather than energized and I think it's my fault.

To her credit, Grace has decided that until Winterfest, her next big competition, she really wants to focus on skills development and testing. She wants to focus on spins and jumps and less on programs. I like that she's clear about it. And I feel more clear about making way for Grace to lead the way in her skating.

You might be amused to know that I, Zamboni Mama, am signed up for the fall Learn to Skate program. Partly, I'm thinking about it as good exercise. Partly, I'm thinking that Grace and I need some gentle separation and being on the ice will make it harder for her to continually check with me about her own skating and harder for me to watch her obsessively. And mostly, I'm thinking about how beautiful skating is, how much I have always wanted to learn, and how absolutely fascinated I am by the ways coaches work with skaters. I have this feeling that there's something lovely and composing about learning to skate...something that might translate from the rink to the college classroom.

More on that as time goes by. I'm off to center down before teaching my first class of the semester. I always read from a book of Quaker writings before class. When I forget, I'm not as good a teacher. Here's a snippet from a few days ago: "Blessed are the confused, for they may see the light. And beware of those who know all the answers, for they are wrong." -Reginald Reynolds