Recently my friend Kenny* asked me, “Why do you skate?”

My response: “Because it scares the shit out of me.”

Skating has never come easy to me. I suspect it never will.

During my last assessment (at the end of the 16 weeks I spent in the Minnows program) Blondie and Anya told me that I had improved but that I am doing things way too slowly. What things?  All of them.

So, I had to readjust my brain & ask myself again what’s the worst that can happen?  Then I had to remind myself that falling isn’t that big of a deal.  I seem to have to make this readjustment every once in a while, the further I get with my skating.

Anyway, I made a point to go to open skate & skate as fast as I could.  To not slow down before crossing over on the corners.  Once I knew I could do it, that was all it took.  At the next Minnows class we did our initial time trial for the next round of Minnows.  Knowing I could do it + having the physical endurance  (been working on that too) + not giving up (Anya kept yelling encouragement  from the sidelines & it really, really helped keep my ass going as fast as I could) led to me doing 25 laps in 5 minutes, 13 seconds, beating my last time by nearly 45 seconds. (To pass my skating test I will need to do 25 in less than 5 minutes – most people do it faster.)

Now, I need to learn to kick my own ass.  Harder.  No, it doesn’t come easily but I’m working on it every day.

 

*Kenny is a Life & Business Coach to CEO’s and Professional Athletes so he’s someone really great to know as I’m learning a sport & learning how to be part of a sport – I have never been on any sort of sports team in my life.