Whoa, those skates are sharp! I waited just a little too long this time around.

No need to think about how to get on an edge today; those sharp blades just take off. This gave me the opportunity to practice something Laurie and I have talked about a number of times: allowing my core to rotate naturally. This is particularly challenging on the left side, where I have been focusing all my attention on the three “S’s” of hip recovery: strong, straight, and square. Okay for getting the ol’ hip back in alignment, but not so good for improving the quality of my skating movement, which has taken a turn (groan!) towards those other “S” words: stiff, straitlaced, and scared silly.

What’s been happening is that I am not allowing the rotation to happen, and this constant checking amounts to fighting the edge and blocking myself. This is especially true of left back outside threes and left forward inside threes. On both of those, I have what feels like an inordinate amount of trouble allowing my body to rotate clockwise (hence my trouble turning my head to the right).

In the movie Zoolander, Derek Zoolander, played by Ben Stiller, has trouble turning to the left. That could indeed be me: I’m not an ambi-turner either!

But today I worked on lots of back swing rolls, practicing that good initial head position and constant state of rotation. And those creeping threes, of course.

Let the rotation happen. Let the games begin.

Okay, time for a song:

Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get brighter

Speaking of the world being much brighter, Laurie sent me some great pictures of my skating friend Harriet (giver of rhubarb cuttings and good cheer). To quote Stevie Wonder, isn’t she lovely?