Maura has now been on summer vacation for a week. It hasn’t been the most exciting week for her. I’ve been busy and we haven’t got the money for long adventures. She has many plans for the summer but had nothing for the first week except the beginning of her summer skating.
Ice skating isn’t a traditional summer activity but skating will be a big part of Maura’s summer this year. She started on Thursday with her very first private skating lesson with Jenny, one of her favorite instructors. Maura began learning the program she’ll skate in her first competition, the Halloween Classic at the Rockland Rink (where she takes her lessons). She has until October to get ready.
The competition program is something entirely new for Maura. Until now she’s been focused on learning new things on the ice. Now she has to perfect what she already knows. She will be skating at the lowest, pre-Alpha level initially so her program has to demonstrate the most basic strokes and moves in skating. To do well she’ll not only have to do them correctly, but do them with style. Maura seemed to understand what was required when I watched her taking her lesson. I’ve rarely seen her concentrating so hard. Often the details seem to escape Maura but last Thursday she was clearly thinking about even the fine points of her form. Even to my unpracticed eye it was clear she has some work to do but she has plenty of time. I’m looking forward to the first time she gets to skate to her music. It will be fun to see what she does with rhythm.
Maura needs to skate more than just on her lesson days if she is going to do her best. I plan on taking her to the rink every chance I get. The Rockland Rink has open skating on Tuesdays so I took her to the rink to practice her program and cool off on a warm day. Even I didn’t mind being in the cool rink. Usually I shiver and endure it for Maura. It’s much more pleasant there in the summer.