To The Ice Rink!

The school holidays rolled around and Y called for a date at the ice-skating rink. It wasn't just the Missy who wanted to skate. Y was determined to do a little bit of proper skating too. Oookies. Off we went early in the morning. I wondered about the wisdom of wearing leggings to the skating rink. They won't split, but I could fall and rip them apart. Shrugged and wore them anyway. Rental skates = horrible blunt blade that I could do nothing with. Hence likelihood of falling is super low. Ha! I was rusty, of course. I don't skate nowadays. But my feet won't forget how to move. So it's not difficult to simply glide along, stop, and make it look effortless, as long as I'm not doing fancy stuff that require inner and outer edges of the blade.

Missy doesn't skate often, and could only go to the ice rink during her school holidays, which is like four times a year. Unfortunately, ice skating is one of those things that need constant practice. After warming-up a few rounds with the bar, I made Missy ditch it. Y too, after seeing her go round twice at the railing, I made her come out further. All they needed to do was to keep the ankles turned out and to 'feel the ice'. They did it! When you're at home on the ice, you would be able to conquer that fear of falling. And honestly, you gotta fall a few times in order to know that it's okay to do so.

Missy could glide along feet parallel fine and with good form. But she would need to learn how to push off with her non-master foot. Progress is slow only because she hasn't been doing consecutive lessons. Children likely only need five lessons (likely two to three weeks) to get the hang of gliding evenly on both feet with proper form, and another five to learn how to stop on ice and utilize their inside and outside edges of a pair of figure skates. Missy will have to decide if she wants to once and for all learn to skate decently. She is very occupied by ballet training, which is an equally beautiful movement. If she's ballet-trained, then she could afford to pick up figure-skating a little later and still nail her spins and jumps.