The diamond

Near the end of practice last night, the whole league was to do a drill together. This was for girls who could do cross overs and the training committee showed us the significance in skating in a diamond... I have heard this discussion previously, but at the time I didn't even know how to stand up in skates, let alone cross over and skate effectively in the diamond.

Now, I may not be able to explain it right, but I think in skating the diamond you are skating the least amount of space effectively and you are crossing over the whole time... Since the beginning of practice was freshmeat off in the corrall (or as I heard Rush call it The Shallow End), this drill was our first opportunity of the night to practice with the whole league. I jumped at the chance to practice my crossovers as it appears to be the one thing that is keeping me from being a level one.

With so many people on our league now, we attempted to do a pace line first with fresh meat at the front but we were supposed to remain an arm's length away from the person in front of us and that wasn't working. So, half of the league went to the middle of the of the track and did calisthenics while the other half skated the diamond. I was in the group that went in the center of the track first and did a squat for 1 minute. When the time was up, I exited the center of the track and started the diamond. It made sense and I was crossing over the whole time and then all I could hear was smack, smack, smack... I could hear each step I was making and I thought this isn't right, this isn't a graceful glide. A few people commented saying, "Good job D.K.B."! But as soon as that minute was up, I skated over to the freshmeat area and went up to Bettie. I told her how I did the diamond but previous to that drill, people were telling me that I should just practice doing a couple crossovers at a time... Bettie advised me it will come. I was just so mad at myself because I thought, once again, I am not getting my cross overs.

After practice Kenya and Lix asked me what happened in the drill. I told them that I pulled myself from the drill (beating myself up)and explained how I felt like I was slamming and not even doing a cross over and both of them told me that I was doing crossovers right and will never get noticed for trying by pulling myself from a drill. So, not only am I bummed that I didn't think I was doing my cross overs right, but Lix and Harmony were right... I never will pass if I pull myself from drills... It just seems like I can't win!!!

Hopefully I will have another chance to practice crossovers on Thursday.

I will say, excitingly, in practicing BASEBALL SLIDES (my favorite thing ever) I got my FIRST rink rash/fish net burn. Although it stings, it makes me feel a little more like an official Derby Girl.