When teammates help the most

A week from the opening meet of my second season, the discouragement is palpable. It is so incredibly frustrating to feel that skills are no better, and some worse than at the end of last year, and to see the performance gap increasing. At one practice, Tina said "you're so tense...there is no smile and you don't look like you're enjoying it." The inner demons are at work: fear of speed, fear of falling, fear of embarassment. Still, my team mates keep encouraging me on: an idea to exaggerate the kick, to make more of a pendulum and to glide better... a suggestion to go back to one of Jim Cornell's dryland drills to finally get a crossover... a "thataway" from inside the circle at a practice... an invitation to stay on ice and help with the youngest kids....the invitation to sit with "Coach Sam Adams" after practice...I have been part of a lot of groups and organizations over a lifetime, but the men and women and girls and boys of the Rochester Speed Skating Team are the greatest. They meant it when they called it a team and not a club.
If I ever develop any real skills in this sport, it will be as much because of the support and the patience of my team, as it will be of effort on my part. But I will keep plugging until then...see the post from August 18th on the "late bloomer" at the Summer Olympics.