Fresh Meat: Week Eight

This week's Fresh Meat post is a little late...sorry about that.  I haven't been a very motivated blogger this past week, hence the late Sunday evening catching up.  Anyhoo, this week we got our first taste of what skating in Durban's hot and steamy summer is going to be like.  There was a major cold front making it's way towards us so Thursday was exceptionally warm.  Needless to say, things were very sweaty...ugh.   I am going to have to invest in some comfy shorts in the next few weeks to ensure I don't pass out from heat exhaustion!

On to the skills!  We started off with warm up laps as per usual.  I am slowly starting to get the hang of skating in the opposite direction although I did find myself going right off the track a few times.  I am still battling with the crossovers but after practicing crossing over our feet while standing I almost nailed it on our next set of laps.  Definitely feeling like I need to be putting extra practice time in just wish I had more time to do it!!

Tonight was the first time we learnt how to do pushes and whips.  The push is pretty self explanatory.  You skate up behind your teammate and give them an extra boost by pushing them.  A whip is what the movie Whip It takes its name from and it involves transfering your speed to your teammate through a series of different movements.  Here are some examples:

Obviously it's really important to warn the person that you are going to push them or use a whip because otherwise there is a chance you'll both go flying and not in the way you intended!  I need to learn to lean forward more in this case because I nearly feel on my ass twice!!  I think they'll be a lot of fun once I get more used to the sudden burst of speed.

We finished off the night with a pace line.  I like these a lot.  It's fun to be able to practice weaving in and out of other people and to learn to regulate your speed when there is more at stake (aka crashing into the person in front of you and thereby setting off the domino effect).

I am looking forward to next week a lot.  We have our normal Thursday practice and a special Bootcamp on Friday night!! Yay!!