Getting closer ... maybe ...

Last night's practice was interesting. It was a really good practice, but my performance in it was mixed.

We skated a lot of laps. At the end, we did "however many laps you can get" in 10 minutes. I got 52, which is *awesome*. The standard for minimum skills is 25 in 5 minutes; in the first 5 minutes, I got 27. And then I maintained my pace for 10 minutes. It's really great to know I can do that.

The floor was pretty slick for some reason. It wasn't wet. I don't know what the heck was up with it. I think part of it may be that my beloved yellow Fugitive Mids are getting worn out (I have skated on them a LOT) and are not grippy anymore. I felt like I was fighting slippage as I skated, and I'm sure that didn't help my speed.

We also did some really great booty-blocking exercises. My results on that were mixed ... when I was paired with someone at my level, I could generally block them. When I was with someone from the bout pool, unless they dumbed it down a bit for me, I was just not fast enough. :-( It isn't a matter of skating fast; it's a matter of thinking fast and making fast lateral movements.

Then we did the same thing in two-blocker teams. Again, I had trouble with most of the jammers ... by the time I figured out what to do, they were already past me. Sigh. I think at all-intermediate practice (this was a mixed practice, so it was practice for the bout pool girls too), we will be able to take it down a few notches, get an understanding of the movement, and then ramp up the difficulty. I think that will really help me.

The bottom line is, I will never pass minimum skills if I can't booty block. And if I never pass minimum skills ... well, really, I don't even want to finish that sentence. It's just too icky to even think about.