My previous post never got around to talking about the inside open mohawks that we worked on during my most-excellent lesson. Laurie pointed out that I was simply stepping from one edge to another, rather than actively engaging my glute, core, and leg muscles to pull the new leg and foot (and ankle!) into position.

I make this mistake on three turns as well. I focus only on my positions and balancing over my skate. This means that as I change position in the turn, I have to re-stack my body as best I can over the edge coming out of the turn. My active entry edge turns into a slow and precarious exit edge.

No, no!

Laurie gave me the image of a vacuum cleaner powerfully sucking the new edge into place. This helped tremendously, probably because I immediately thought of the character of Noo Noo (pronounced “Nu Nu”) on Teletubbies. For those of you who don’t know the show, Noo Noo is the vacuum who cleans up all everything in sight, like leftover Tubby toast, blankets, snow, or toys.

I have fond memories of Noo Noo not just because my kids watched the show when they were little, but also because as a baby my younger son couldn’t pronounce his older brother’s name and wound up calling him “Noo Noo.”

So this week I’m off to practice  vacuum-cleaner turns. I will turn “no, no!” into

Noo Noo!