The Floor Tax
I remember when we were first taught to fall safely. Our instructor said, "Everyone pays the floor tax." It made us all give a nervous chuckle. You KNOW I'd considered myself very lucky over NOT falling during my first few weeks of lessons, but I knew it was inevitable. And it finally happened. I decided to be brave and use our longer, less-structured lesson to practice stopping (something I still haven't mastered, and this was weeks ago). I fell, but almost in slow motion, squatting down and putting my hands out in front of me. It was a gentle, baby fall. I was okay. During the free skate that follows all lessons, my friends were trying to do crossovers. This is a basic-looking skating technique. You see people zoom ahead of you and cross one skate seamlessly in front of the other, easy like Sunday morning. I had read not to try it until you're comfortable, and that it's not as easy as it looks. Before the fall I gained ...