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Week 5 of Trang's Skating Diary
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Week 5: Skating at Big Bear Lake
May 22 - 31, 2004
May 22:
It is beautiful on Sartuday morning. I have a class with Nat at
El Segundo. This is just a general class to learn basic skills.
Nat had 4 students with different levels at the same time.
He devided us into two groups. I was in the second group all by myself).
He gave me assignment to pratice on my A frame turns. Then, he added upper
body movement to make the turn more efficient. I cruised around the playground and made perfect turns from both side. Nat moved to the next one - parallel turn. I was so used to the A frame turn. It took a while to get used to the new technique. I fell a couple times but I was able to make the turns at the end of the sessions.
Nat is a great instructor. He is very flexible and creative
with his teaching style. First, he starts with a simple moves
in steps. Then little by little, he added extra techniques
to help me in Balance, Edging, Rotary motions and Pressure which
he calls 'BERP'. You will not waste your time when you take a
lesson with Nat. He keeps giving you new things to learn as soon
as you able to do the last one.
Oh, do you remember that I replaced my wheels on my first week
on skates. I thought that I was so cool to do it for the first
time and have no problem..... well, Nat looked my skate this
morning and asked ...' Did you rotate the wheels all by yourself?'
oh oh... I know there is something wrong .... I did not install
the bearings probably. Nat has to do it all over again and here
is the tips: The arrows on the shield that cover the bearings
should point down which I had them pointed everywhere .... :-)
May 24:
I want to be master on the parallel turns that I learned on
Saturday. I went to Lincohn school playground for practice.
I can do the right turn easily but it took a while to do the
left one. I practiced for an hour. Finally, I got my feet flex
and turn. I really want to write a description about the turns
but I found this useful article on the internet. Check this out
if you want:
GetRolling.com - Parallel Turns.
One thing I noticed when I start rolling is that I used to hold my breath and tense up. To overcome that I pay close attention to my actions and frequently reminding myself to relax and enjoy the ride.
May 30:
I went to Big Bear Lake, CA on memorial weekend with friends
and family. I was so excited and planed to skate on Alpine
Pedal Path (2.5 miles) that wanders a long the north shore
of Big Bear Lake. The overview on Hiking and Biking guide
rates this trail as "very easy" for skater, biker and even
strollers... I started skating while the rest of the gangs
biking. Well, the trail is not "SKATER FRIENDLY". It has a
lot of hills and quick turns. The hills are one after another.
There are many stops on the trails that allows cars to get in
and out the parking lots. During my first five minutes on skate,
I hit a long downhill slope which has a stop site after a quick
turn. I went so fast and got scare to crash into cars; so I
skated into the sand slope to save myself. My husband helped
me by biking real slow so I can hold on to him. I quit after
skating for 20 minutes or more but I still want to check out
the trail. I biked with my baby on the bike seat at the back.
It was a beautiful trail. You can see the lake, forrest and
even the ski slopes. It wasn't a good skating day, but I
did learned to use heel brake to kill some speed when skating downhill.
<--
Week 4
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Week 6
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Related Links
Meet Trang at a Marathon Clinic
Trang's First Article About Skating
Skating for Beginners
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