Curse the Outside Edge

Just over a month after I first starting skating for real (not counting once or twice a year with rented skated), I notice a big difference in what skating feels like.  The ice doesn't feel slippery, I can still skate fast on chopped up ice, I can do more than just skate in a circle kind of fast, and I know the feeling of the outside and inside edge. 

I can do more than just skate in a circle kind of fast:

• I can do foward and backwards swizzles as well as skate foawrd and backwards.  
• I can also do a hockey stop.  
• I can make sharper and faster turns
• I've pretty much got a crossover down (going to the right is harder)

Doing a crossover on a right turn is hard for me just as turning to the right is more difficult.  I read something in a hockey book that made sense: Almost all skating rinks have a counter clockwise skating pattern.  So if, like me, you were not fortunate enough to be put in skates when you were young, you sarted off skating at open skates.   Even now, in order to practice I have to go to open skate.  My muscles are therefore used to left turns.

I know the feeling of the outside and inside edge.  And I hate the outside edge.  Okay, I don't hate you, you're just scary.  Aside form pure balance, the outside edge takes trust.  You have to trust that your ankle isn't going to fail you.  You have to trust that even though you are leaning (not sure if that's the right word) towards the ice, you will not fall.  One of the guys and I were doing figure eights to practice crossovers on Monday.  We both bit it into the ice quite a few times.  At least he has some pads on.  The inside edge is all fun in games but that outside edge is no joke.  After skating yesterday, I'm getting a much better feel for it now.

Before I can switch to the intermediate class, I think I only need to master a few more things:

• Switching between forward and backward skating (that's tricky for me)
• Backwards crossover (haven't tried yet)
  

I think that's all of the basic stuff,  yes?  I couldn't even stop a month ago so I'm happy with my progress.  Too bad I didn't start skating when I was little.  Neither of my parents can skate, though, so that's probably why.  I guess they aren't Swedish enough.  Maybe I inherited all the Swedish genes- especially the ones from my great-grandma.  She came to America on a boat by herself.  That's what we call an 1800s badass.