So we turned up this Monday night and… I can’t wait, I’m too excited – I finally got 27 laps! It genuinely felt as though I had won gold at the Olympics (and I wasn’t even the fastest on the track). I crossed the marker on my 27th lap with people shouting “You go Glen Coco!”, I think I nearly cried.

Anyway, Monday night was excellent as always. We had a lovely gentle warm up this week led by Jessica Mennis, the typical stretches and fast laps. When we were all nice and warm we split into our groups, every week new people join the advanced group, so our group was the biggest in the room (which is mint! [And not just because we got to use the entire track])

In the advanced group we were being taught by Mama Firefly who is a blocker for the Travel Team. We had asked her if we could focus on laterals, and not blocking because we were all beaten up from the week before (see picture).

We did a few drills to practice our laterals. We all skated one way round the track like a giant conga line and leaned one way to go round the corner, we then did the same the other way. We weaved round cones in an S shape, and then in a circle, which felt like we were trying to make doughnuts on the floor. All of our laterals greatly improved and we all had a laugh at people getting confused about trying to move in a figure of 8 shape around cones.

Mama then showed us how to properly do crossovers (which I have always missed due to injuries/holidays). So thank you, because I think that’s how I was able to get my laps with a tiny bit of time to spare.

Then we went onto our laps. I love watching the newer people do laps and counting for them, because you can see how much better they get every week! When the advanced group did our laps I concentrated on trying to do crossovers all the way round the track, I was successful a few times.

I crossed the pivot line for the 26th time and I knew I had enough time to get round again, I stumbled a little bit because I was a bit too excited, but I did it.

Now I just need to do it again!

If you’d like to join our New Skater nights, we hold them every Monday night at our home The Thunderdome. Each session costs £6 and we provide the skates and kit!