Charlie Brown On Skates

After missing two weeks worth of practice I finally got back to a coached session yesterday (Sunday). I’m still skating in borrowed skates that are both too big and too narrow, but I have no choice right now. That is partly why I have not skated much, plus I was giving my sore left ankle time to heal.

It went better than I expected, the ankle is feeling a fair amount better (and possibly the balance board exercises are helping). While I am not comfortable in the boots, they work well enough to participate. We did the usual dryland warm up stuff and then the lead the pack for a couple laps, cones, lap the pack, other position drills, etc.

The two I had not done yet were figure eights and sprints. I had never really sprinted in my inlines other than in hockey games - and anything in hockey skating is different than speedskating. Certainly sprinting with much longer frames is a challenge, but I seemed to do okay, considering the skates. We’ll see how it goes when I’m wearing a pair that fits.

These kids sprint better than me…

The figure eight drill was good for control, and of course you do both right and left crossovers. With my hockey background, I actually have decent right crossovers so while some people struggled with that, I had no problem.

My customs are scheduled to be done on Dec. 12th, and they are overnighting them to me - with any luck by next practice I will be in my very own skates.