The Beginning

Dear Reader,
I'm Catherine, a senior at IHS taking WISE for my senior year English class. I want to learn the basic skills of figure skating. By the end of the sixteen weeks I’ll be spending on this project I want to learn the “six basic jumps” The Waltz Jump, The Salchow, The Toe Loop, The Loop, The Flip and The Lutz.  This is going to take a lot of patience for me, which is something I need to work on in my life in general. 

MY learning to figure skate has been a big shock to many people. I'm a hockey player and I've been a hockey player for the past 12 years of my life. A lot of the time my teammates and I would make fun of figure skaters and now I want to skate in their boots for a change..who knows..maybe i'll be a natural!
What I'm most excited for is tryong something new, when I was younger, even though I made fun of figure skating, I always thought it was such a beautiful sport. I admired the skaters and wished I could do what they did. While I'm excited, I'm also scared, it's hard to start a sport at such a late age, aprtically because people tend to be more afraid of falling at this point and also because there's a sense of pride. I will probably be practicing with younger kids, I'm most likely going to fall, and knowing me, get hurt. While I'm afraid of being injured or looking ridiculous out there amongst the younger kids, I'm also phyched that I can start now and I'm proud and confident that I will suceed as long as I try my best.

My first two weeks:

First I will research.

I will learn about the different types of figure skating.

The second week will depend on whether or not my hockey team makes it to final four. If we do I cannot physically start skating, if we don't I will start lessons as soon as my coach says it's okay.

During my first two weeks I will also begin my strengthening, starting with every other day ab workouts because balance is a key aspect of figure skating.
I'm ready to begin!