Not beating yourself up

[cbskater]

The curse of this sport is that you never truly master anything!  I've been taking lessons for 18 years now, and I still consciously work on my crossovers every single time I skate.  The sooner you embrace the sport of figure skating as a *process you love* instead of *results that you hope for*, the more you'll get out of it and the less you'll get in your own way!  Meanwhile, you will have good days and bad days, gain skills and then suddenly lose them for no reason.  So just take inventory once a year and ask yourself if there's anything you're able to do this year that you weren't able to do last year--or that you do better than last year.  If there is, you're making progress!  And on the days when you can't seem to do anything well, just remember, even bad skating is good exercise.

Love this post! I'm printing it & posting it in my skating book for when I need a reminder!

Feebee, it did take me ages to learn back crossovers! I don't know if I ever would have got them in the CCW direction if it wasn't for a friend that would hold my hand while I practiced them in public skate. Now that is my better direction. I am comfortable going either way but they're not technically correct CW.

OMG! I tried to type Feebee & spellcheck changed it to feeble. Glad I caught that as soon as I posted!