Who needs to stop anyway?

So this lovely illustration to the left here is how to perform what is known as a "hockey stop" when you're on ice skates. The idea is the same as if you were stopping while on skis, which oddly enough, I can do. So, you'd think I'd be able to do it on ice skates, too, right? WRONG. And this is very important, since I am going to be a volunteer coach for my son's hockey league (that's a story for another blog). I can skate well enough, but forget about stopping. I have been skating for 7 years now, and I still have not been able to master doing a quick stop (which I predict might be necessary when working with kids). So I had a lesson yesterday, working on the stopping. I was doing so well with stopping when I was going at a relatively slow speed that I got bold and tried to do a hockey stop at full speed. Um, not a good idea. If I had simply gone down, it might not have been so bad. But I twisted my right knee outward (imaging bending it the opposite way you would if you were sitting Indian style) and that was what I did - right down onto the ice. Now, those of you who know me know I have two bad knees from prior injuries, so this was not the best thing to do to myself. Oddly enough, the pain passed, and I skated for another 30 minutes. But now, I can barely walk. I can't bend it, can't move it, can't do anything without it hurting in ways I didn't know were possible. I've done heat and ice, put on my trusty knee brace for support and have taken more Advil than I probably should have in one 8 hour period. Hopefully this heals up quickly. But I think it's safe to say it'll be a loooooooooooong time before I try hockey stops again.