day 5 mr phil skates again (mic’ed up)

Day 5 was a day of several key moments of leveling up. Turn your sound on to listen to my narration as I’m wearing my mic during this skate.

During day 4, after a hockey 1 on 1 with her coach a kiddo on the rink fell and truly got banged up. Thankfully her helmet saved her from serious injury. I was already in the lobby when I heard her hit the ice. I immediately knew that sound of helmet striking ice followed by the resulting cries of terror and pain.

This moment inpired me to immediately order a player’s helmet to wear during all my subsequent on-ice training sessions until I begin wearing full gear and goalie mask. Currently, skating without my body armor and mask is more comfortable while I relearn what to do with my hips and feet.

Day 5 leg changes included small but impactful adjustments to the prosthesis. I lowered the standing height by fractions of an inch to give my right foot more grip on the ice. I adducted the right knee to bring the knee center more under my right hip.

These tiny changes had profound influence on my stability, strength, power delivery, and overall mobility. This was the final day of skating on my older prosthesis as July 31 would be the first on-ice test session of the new hockey specific leg. Until then…here is Day 5