Hey Laura, welcome to the conversation.
Did you skate at Swindon, or elsewhere?
Seems like a good time for an update too, so here goes.
Since last weeks hockey session, I've had a bit of a wobbly week. Seems really odd, but the skates just haven't felt right. As Leif has mentioned, I did wonder about the sharpening, but the problem seems to come and go a bit, and I think I have it tied down a little, though whether I am on the right track, only a seasoned professional would probably know.
Laces and lacing. I'm pretty sure of it. I have tried experimenting a bit, and I seem to have somehow introduced a bit of variability in my skate laces. I either have them comfortable, but loose, with no real control, or tight, with great support, and a very painful vice-like grip on my feet that makes it unbearable to skate. So I have been trying to find a happy medium, and seem to be getting there slowly....or was...until the 4th eyelet down on the inside of my right skate decided to form an intimate relationship with my ankle. I have tried plasters, have tried shifting the tongue of the skate around a little, felt pads, all sorts, but after a few minutes of skating I am pretty much hobbled. Looks like something has changed, either in the skate, or my physiology. If I can address this issue, I think I can nail the fit, and hence the control issues. I'm going to have a re-bake after my skate tomorrow lunchtime, and see if I can punch out the affected area a little.
Saturdays LTS lesson went ok-ish. I'm now working through LTS level 5, and have got to backwards glides. Not happening. At all. Oh, forgot to mention....one footed backwards glides, inside and outside edges. So I have approached this by focusing on my clockwise crossovers (to get them out of the way so I can focus on the trickier stuff). I can now do passable crossovers in both directions, and know that they will improve with practice, so I can work on my backwards abilities. I can zip backwards with 'c' cuts pretty rapidly (with a very slow and cautious reverse snowplough to stop), but gliding backwards on one foot is just not ready to happen. My reasoning is that if I can get more proficient on two feet going backwards, it stands to reason that one footed glides will follow naturally. And as for those 3-turns......shyeah right!
My confidence has returned a little since my tumble last week, and so I've decided on the following training schedule, given that I have worked on crossovers a lot, and my right footed glide has improved vastly since concentrating on it.
1. Lots of backwards skating, just to build up the confidence, control, and muscle co-ordination.
2. Work on backwards one foot glides as a progression from this.
3. Work up to backwards crossovers on the circles.
4. Once I can skate backwards more effectively, I'll look at transitions. Reason being, no point in being able to change orientation, and then not be able to skate.
5. Work on my hockey stops.
After I have achieved all of this (may take a few months), then the basics are pretty much there, and I should be more effective on the hockey sessions. Other skills (explosive starts etc) can then be built upon from there.
I am looking forward to trying out the powerfeet. I'm certain that a lot of the pain I am enduring is down to a tendency to scrunch my toes up and tense up when trying new things, so having my toes forced onto the footbed may help.
And that's pretty much it for now. Still seeing improvements (slowly but surely) which is the main thing.
Until next time :-)