It was a busy Sunday for Zaky. We went to church, he has Chinese makeup class in the pm and TKD class in the evening. Luckily Daddy Lim had an off day and could help to ferry us around. Lil Shauna only has Sunday school and I thought that we could go to the rink for some extra practices in the late afternoon since she has no lesson this week; the rink was closed for speed skating competition.
I didn't tell the girl until after church only to meet her huge protests. She said that she didn't want to go bcos mummy always pushes her so hard. Win already. Daddy Lim stepped in and asked if she is really still interested in ice skating, which comes with hard work and practices or she should just quit. She mumbled about still being interested and left it at that. After a while, she said that maybe she wanted to quit. It was my turn to go silent after reminding her of the friends that she had made, the good times that she had. My heart ached. Maybe it is really time.
Soon after, she changed her mind again and I am so glad that she is fickle-minded this time. All in the span of 10 mins, she went from not wanting to go for practice to wanting to quit and then back to wanting to go for practice. She said that she thought about her ice skating friends. Awwwww….
So we went. The rink was opened to public only at 3pm and it was freaky, crazily crowded. We lingered and did some window shopping, aiming for the 5.15pm session. Though late, it was better than a crowded rink. She went onto the ice for her warm up at about 4.45pm and I was constantly worried that some crazy fast amateur skaters in hockey boots would crash into her.
The rink was still crowded when the 5.15pm session started. I told Lil Shauna that she can practice whatever that she wanted on her own. I promised to not “push” her but she can look to me at the spectators stand to check if her positioning was correct.
I had this thing about her acting as if she is not listening and not trying hard enough. I could repeat 100 times for her to correct some actions but she will repeat the same mistake 200 times. It is equally frustrating for both of us. This time, she showed that she heard what I said during the last practice and concentrated on her one-foot spin; something that she needed to conquer before she can move on to her sit spin, even though Teacher Raymond had introduced her to that.
It was really between the spin and her. I told her that I can’t help her and she has to figure out what would help her to spin better and adapt accordingly. The 1st few spins didn't turn out well. I was prepared that she would run back soon and complained that she wanted to go home. Amazingly, that didn't happen and she kept spinning and spinning, working hard even when she didn't get success.
She did figure out that it helps if she does certain things; still things didn't go as well. I gave her some pointers from what I observed and she went back to spinning. She spun so much; I would have puked if I was her. I saw her paused many times, as if to mentally prepare herself for the next spin.
Then Jasper and Ruby came for practice and they were very aggressive, going really fast and pushing themselves very hard. Their sit spins were great! There were some other very good figure skaters on the ice. I saw Lil Shauna observing them and had a mini breakthrough. She managed to do somewhat of a scratch spin (oh, it is a scratch spin and not stretch spin). I was so 感动! Jumping up and down in joy on her behalf. She continued to drive herself hard and spent almost 2 hours practicing in the rink. I was so mega proud of her. She didn't totally get her scratch spin but made good progress and corrected an ill positioning that is equivalent to like months of work. I am only hoping that she remembered what she had done yday and the hard work she had put in.
After the practice, she even complained that she was perspiring, which is like super rare bcos she usually takes it easy. She said that her friends’ presence helped to motivate her to try harder; that she could conquer the spin like them. She also said that she prayed for courage and strength and that explained the pauses. Of course she is super proud of herself. I reminded her of the sweetness of success from her hard work and that she should have this kind of push, which will help her to improve tremendously.
I couldn't stop smiling and couldn't stop telling her how proud I am.
Mummy Lim
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