Ice Skating - Alpha Class

I started my first Alpha ice skating class last night. I have a new instructor, and the class is sort of a conglomeration of different level classes in one. One lady from my last class progressed forward with me into the alpha class, so that was good to have a familiar face with me. There were also 2 other new alpha level people. We were broken off into our own section to practice skills. There were about 6 other people who were higher level. They were in our class, but they were broken out into the "Beta" and "Gamma" levels. A lot of these people were the ones who convinced me to take ice hockey lessons. So, we're all lumped together with the same instructor, but it's like she's teaching several different classes in one.

This is good in some ways and bad in others. It's good because it looks like we're going to progress pretty fast in this class. It's bad because her attention is more divided. The lady who was with me in the last class said it best "it's like we're little fish in a big pond now".

So, we started out with forward stroking. That's one of the major skills in the alpha level. You push off with one foot and then extend it behind you after the push and glide on the other foot. Then, repeat with the other foot. This was the first time we've really done this before in a class setting. It was a bit awkward at first, but I soon got the hang of it. By the time we were finished practicing, the instructor said that we were all doing it at a passing level for alpha (and this was just on the first day!). She said that we would probably be up to beta level in a couple of weeks, learning beta skills.

After the forward stroking, we practiced our 1 foot glides, which I really love. Then, we practiced our 1 foot glides going around in the circle. We did that a long time (while she was teaching the other level group). Then, we went on to Crossovers. We tried them first on the wall, and then we moved into doing them on the circle. I was doing pretty well with them. This is where you cross one foot over the other - you can build up speed with it during turns. I was also impressed that I was able to do them while going in the reverse direction as well.

At the end of our class, we got our punch cards so that we can come skate on Saturdays for the free skate. Overall, it was a good class. It's a very different feel from the Basic 1 class. But, I think it's going to be good, and I think I'm going to learn a lot in these next 7 weeks.