There comes a point in every skater’s journey that no matter how hard you try to explain, your non-skating friends can no longer understand your frustration. I arrived at that point regrettably early. In our learn to race group, those who were athletically inclined distinguished themselves quickly like cream rising to the top. After merely two months of training at TISC, Sarah already graduated to train with the real speed skaters. With his excellent fitness, my training partner Jacky absorbed every bit of technique teachings and turned them to speed. None of us could believe he only laced up a pair of skates for the first time that summer. Sarah’s friend Rachel had a natural timing to her strides while most of us struggled with two-footing for months or years to come. With peers came comparison. In those early days of skating, my good friend Alan heard his share of my laments.
Alan and I go way back and he taught me how to snowboard. He transformed me from a complete klutz to confidently navigating most trails on ski hills. It was no surprise that he went on to become a snowboard instructor after successfully coaching one with so little balance, spatial awareness, and coordination. For someone who understood my limitations in physical activities, I had many frustrating conversations with him about my skating endeavours that went nowhere. Here is an example of a typical exchange between us circa 2006:
Alan: How is skating coming along?
Me: I’m still the slowest skater at the entire club.
Alan: Everyone progresses at different rate.
Me: I still hold the title even with new skaters joining us. Complete beginners are overtaking me in a matter of a few practices.
Alan: You need bigger wheels. A pair of speed skates.
Despite inline speed skaters’ general obsessions with their gears, I learned early on that speed cannot be bought. Some of us may be blessed with natural talents but we all must earn our speed by mastering good technique and diligent training. Neither of them came easily to me unfortunately. I clearly remember the embarrassment I felt at one particular TISC practice. Coach Eric divided our group for different programs. There was one group of complete beginners to work on basic introduction to speed skating strides. The second group was skaters who trained at least two hours since the previous practice. Everyone else was in the third group to skate steady pace around the track because we did not log enough miles on our own. With flushed cheeks, I meekly shuffled over to the third group. There were barely anyone else in the same situation. For all my talks about becoming a better skater, I totally humiliated myself by not putting in the necessary hard work. I vowed to never let that happen again. Alan was wrong. It was never about the skates.
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