stops, hits, misses

I've only been to one practice this week. On Easter, we were late returning from out of town so I missed practice. And on Thursday I had plans after work which ran later than expected.

On Monday's practice, we practiced stopping and hitting. I am able to stop doing the plow stop, but not within the WFTDA minimum skills of 10ft. (unless I go slower than I should) but I do know how to stop that way so at least I can continue to improve.  T-stops are another story. It took me a long time to just get my foot behind my other foot, but the dragging it is not easy at all. I've managed to get it so-so, but a lot of times I was dragging only on 1 or 2 wheels, when I really need to get all 4 wheels on the ground to get the maximum amount of friction to stop.

I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I've noticed when I am trying to get my feet to move a certain way, I hold my arms the way I want my feet to go. Like when we do the duck walk (feet turned with toes pointing outwards) I turn my arms so my fingers point the way I want my feet to point. I do the same thing with the T stop, pointing my fingers the way I want my toes to go. Is this weird? Why do we do that?

For hitting, we started off hitting each other as we skated around, but then our coach grabbed a large blue pad for us to hit while she held it. We did shoulder hits and hip hits. I've never been fabulous with the hand eye coordination, let alone when you add motion to the mix, so aiming a hit while I'm moving is very awkward for me. I did ok I guess. On the couple of hits I did manage to land solidly, I ended up falling, and I still have the instinct to flail and grab onto something to prevent me from falling so I ended up grabbing the shirt of the person holding the hitting pad.

I feel like it is going to be forever before I am ready to bout. The girls make it look so easy, but all the little pieces of each skill are going to be a lot to learn and remember. I feel a bit overwhelmed at times.

This week will be a quieter week. The rink we practice at is being resurfaced on Sunday and Monday, so practice is cancelled. On Thursday's practice I will be wearing rental skates (most likely) as I am sending my skate to Minnesota tomorrow for the broken toe stop to be fixed. They said they'll send it back the same day, so hopefully it won't take too long and I will only have to be on rentals again for one practice.

One thing I am looking forward to is getting my hair done on Monday night. The following week we are having team photos and headshots done, so I am getting my hair cut (and highlighted!) in preparation for that. I will definitely post before and after photos.