*Back to normality - ish*

This week, I read a news story about a student who was left paralysed after being stung by a sea urchin while on holiday in Greece. He developed an incredibly rare infection of the spine. Bad enough in itself, but the 20-year-old had been a trainee PE teacher and a sports enthusiast.

But check out his attitude: "I realised that there are two things you can do. You can be depressed and you don’t get anywhere, or you can be focused and get on and do it."

How awesome is that?

He's now determined that if he never walks again, he'll compete in the paralympics instead. What a guy.

After being told by a consultant to "get used to the fact that you'll probably never use that hand properly again", it's reading stories like this that have helped me keep things in perspective, as well as some situations more personal to my own life.

A couple of times I've found myself getting very down - especially the day I was told that - when thinking about all the things I'll never do again if that's really the case. I also can't help but wonder how, if/when my husband and I decide to start a family, I'd be able to even hold a baby, when I can't turn my hand palm up.

But as I say, there ARE people worse off, and while it doesn't help in those moments when I'm dwelling on things like that, in the grand scheme of things it does make you realise you have choices, and those are to get on with it or wallow in it. And what would be the point in wallowing in it? It's not going to change anything.

So in the spirit of getting on with it, I've been trying to skate pretty much as if nothing's changed, and feeling ok about it too, most of the time, at least. There's still that small element of holding back, trying to be careful not to cause more damage. The frustrating thing is, I KNOW I could do a lot better if I would just relax and really go for it.

But I am pretty much back at the stage I was before my accident, in terms of what I can do - except I seem to have developed a mortal terror of
the right outside three turn (must find a way to get over that!!) - and have actually moved onto some new things now too.

This past week, my lesson was pretty much all new stuff. We did mohawk crosses, barrel rolls and teapots, all of which I'd never done before. Well, I've played silly teapots with friends but never actually been taught it.

Cue a funny conversation with my coach which made me smile. He's Russian, you see, and hasn't quite got his head around the way UK skating levels work yet - still learning.

Me: "Ok, well, I've never actually been taught a teapot, so tell me how to do it as if I've never tried it, save me doing it all wrong."
Coach: "No way! You must have been taught. Don't you need it for the Skate UK levels?"
Me: "No, it's on silver, so I haven't got there yet."
Coach: "Silver?? No way!"
Me: "Way."

Anyway, turns out the way my coach teaches it, you're not allowed any holding of the leg/boot/blade at all, so that's me having to start learning it from scratch then, since I always grabbed my blade. What a fail that was.
Lines of the week:
Must work on my leg strength
Must work on my leg strength
Must work on my leg strength

In other news, I don't know how long it took other people to get to grips with barrel rolls or mohawk crosses, but the way I feel at the moment, I feel I could be drawing my pension before I manage them. I feel like my feet are tripping all over themselves and I'm just falling from one foot to the next constantly. I suspect what will help is if I work on the mohawks themselves, since they're pretty appalling for the most part - I find it VERY difficult to keep my foot off the ice after the swap. Apparently my hip is closing....???

Speaking of things I can't get my head around, I'm also supposed to be working on spinning, but it's been commented on a few times that I'm spinning "backwards". As in, (doing it from a hockey glide) the glide into it is "beautiful" but then something is going wrong between that and the actual spin which means I'm spinning backwards instead of forwards. What does this even mean??? If anyone can shed any light....The way my head sees it, you're spinning "around" not forwards or backwards - what am I doing differently to someone who's spinning "forwards"? Maybe I need to try to get a video of that at some point and gather views.