Motor coordination is not my strength. My limbs are always out of control as evident in the crazy poses I strike in photos or the number of times I've fallen or broken things whilst just walking or holding something. It's bizarre. My colleagues at my last job unanimously voted me as the "clumsy one". I was like the real-life version of Betty - breaking, spilling, dropping, tearing, bumping, falling, walking into things etc etc...much to everyone's entertainment.
Therefore I try to avoid anything that requires super coordinated body movements - dancing, yoga, martial arts, surfing, wake boarding, skating etc. I've tried all of these at some point or another but none ended in much success. That doesn't stop me from trying though..if it works, I can rejoice, if it doesn't I have a funny anecdote for FAIL blog.
Ice skating is something I've always wanted to try. In spite of being self-aware of my lack of balance and having a strong disdain for snow/ice, I've always wanted to ice skate. For some reason, I totally missed out on this quintessential childhood experience whilst I was growing up and we never managed to find an ice rink in Prague, where my room mate, a national level synchronized skater, could have taught me to glide gracefully. I did slide and slip several times in the snow in Prague but never ended up ice skating.
Last week while we were on our group-walking mission, we decided to break the ice between the rink and me and finally experience what it feels like to glide on ice. I was fairly confident at first, since I had attempted roller blading as a child, but man was that misleading! Balancing on those ice skates was nothing like my trainer wheels on the roller skates! I was so nervous before we left, I even googled "how to ice skate" so I didn't make a complete idiot of myself on ice.
It took me a while to just stand in those skates. A friend suggested treating them like very uncomfortable heels...I'm the kind of person who is always uncomfortable heels, even if there are just an inch long, I couldn't even fathom what very uncomfortable heels were like. Anyways I somehow gathered the courage to get on the ice rink, holding on to the side of the rink like Kate Winslett to the wooden buoy in Titanic and tried walking slowly. My friends were uber supportive and tried to coach and guide me as much as they could and I tried to observe and copy all the others on the rink, NOBODY was a learner! Everyone looked like they had appeared out of a Swedish synchronized skating team or the Canucks! Maybe I was exaggerating but I was the only one freaking out on the side of the ice skating rink! Well every great learning experience starts with the first step so I took that step.
At first I just walked around like a pregnant duck, holding the side of the rink and going at the pace of hair growth per day but I was making a progress. We realised this was going to be harder than expected so we asked one of the other girls if we could borrow her frame for a couple of minutes, she saw my damsel in distress condition and offered me the frame for as long as I wanted! That did the trick, with that frame, I felt a lot more confident. I couldn't fall! The things you can do when you know you can't fall/fail! So with the frame, I continued to walk and "skate" slowly but surely. I'm pretty sure I looked like a pregnant duck and was far from being elegant and graceful like those synchronized skaters! My friends shared all their tricks, one very important piece of advice from my friend Susan was, " you are too upright, you need to stick your booty out", that did the trick! As soon as I stuck my booty out, my feet miraculously began to glide...still not as gracefully as a synchronized skater but a bit better than my previous waddling pregnant duck moves.
It was all good as long as I had the frame but then the girl who lent me hers needed it back and I HAD to try skating without any support. I panicked again but I figured you only learn to swim if you are thrown in the deep end, the same law might apply to skating! So I tried to skate, without the frame, knowing I was 100% susceptible to falling but I tried it anyways...I was very close to the side...just in case but YES I did skate..for 2 whole minutes without holding the side bit! That was a start and my 2 minutes of supportless gliding kept improving. By the time we left, I was fairly confident in skating without support although I did stay as close as I could to the railing on the side. I did not excel but I tried and I survived! Huzzah!
I'm glad I finally broke the ice with the ice skating rink without breaking any body parts or property! Day 12: Miraculously survived!
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