Ask any question - skater's version

I want to land an axel or a double loop.

Back in reality I would like to get a better camel position and keep working on back camel.

Do you love that feeling of gliding across the ice as the air rushes over you?

Absolutely. Its the best feeling ever!!!

What originally inspired you to skate?

I saw it on tv and wanted to do it. After I actually got onto the ice, I suddenly didn't want to anymore. As you can tell, I stuck with it.

Do any of your non-skating friends ever come and watch you skate?

A few of my friends have and when my ex and I were going out he would come.

Have you ever introduced a friend to skating and theyve stuck with it?

I started lessons with my friend Tricia and since we started at the same time, I really didn't "introduce" her to skating, but I pushed her to do it with me, and although she's not as into it as I am, I think she's gonna stick with it.

What is your earliest memory of skating? Or describe your first experience.

My first really strong memory was of my first ice show. It was a group number skating to "A Spoonful of Sugar" and we had homemade purple dresses with sparkly spoons sewn on (hey - this was low-budget 70's stuff!). I must have been about 7.

Why did you choose the brand of skates you use? My coach recommended Klingbeils and I love them.

I just bought new skates last week and I chose Sp-Teri's because that's what I used to skate in when I was a kid. I went into the purchase with a totally open mind. The bootfitter questioned me thoroughly, had me try on a ton of stock boots, measured my feet, watched me walk, talked about my goals, asked how much I practice, asked my weight, etc. etc. When all was said and done, he said, "I just have to recommend Sp-Teri's to you because I think they are the best for your needs. The only real choice you might want to make is whether you want the Super Teris or the Deluxe and after we talked for some time, we decided on the Supers. At his suggestion, I switched from the MKGold to MKPhantom blades.

Q: Skater 1964's response made me wonder, do you have a favorite skating costume? [I have two--I still have one of my first costumes, which was a Sugarplum Fairy, complete with yellow satin bodice, yellow crinoline and purple petals around the waist. But my favorite was my first "grown up" solo costume (I probably was 10), which was a satiny white with a chiffon skirt and I remember feeling so elegant in it.]

I liked your blue dress but my fav was the greenish dance dress one the first page at the bottom. They showed a back view. Now that is simply breathtaking.

BTW-if you have not already indulged in the dress you want by all means if the funds allow than order it. Think of how you would feel wearing it while you are skating. It might even help you to skate better because you will feel so wonderful gliding about the ice wearing it.

Hi just wanted to introduce myself - i am an adult skater and just was curious how many adult skaters are there in this forum?

Mistyeyed - thanks for the encouragement on the dress. I'm going to pop over to the site and see the green one you're talking about. If it's the one I think ... yes, drool drool!

bladesnsk8s - I'm newer to this forum, so I'm not sure of the exact answer, but I can say that quote a lot of the people posting here are adult skaters (meaning like over 25), and a few more are in late teens and early 20s. Everyone here is really nice, so welcome and we look forward to getting to know you. Be sure to start another thread and introduce yourself, because this particular thread is supposed to be where you answer the last question and then post one of your own (skating related) so that someone else can answer. So, since I've answered your question, here's mine:

Q: What is your worst skating habit that you are trying to break? (I think mine is the fact that I'm a little sloppy and often don't extend and point my toes, especially when practicing other things.)

The worst skating habit that i am trying to break - well lets see - there are quite a few! Well i don't extend my leg back far enough on the take off for the flip. But the worst would probably be my entrance to the camel spin. I kind of twist my upper body a bit rather than bend and then come up. Every once in a while i can do it and then i nail the spin - but most of the time i fall right back into the habit of just twisting into it.

How long have you been skating?

I have been skating for 7 years at least. Used to compete in Adult competitions but now its getting harder since i not only work but decided to finish my BA! So little time to do everything!

As an adult, a year and 1/2. As a kid (back in the dark ages), about 9 years.

What's the scariest fall you've had? (Yesterday I had a doozy - slammed into the boards falling on a backwards power circle. Hip and back hurt a bit today, but besides that I'm ok.)

Scariest fall was during my beginning synchro stages...my whole line tripped over like dominoes and then a girl from another line skated through us and almost sliced open my wrist. She didn't however, I had a big fluffy jacket that took the blade instead, and my wrist had only a scratch on it.
RIP jacket.

What's your favourite time of day to skate? Me, I'm a late nighter, around 10pm onwards I love, though I hardly get the chance.

Scariest fall was when i was doing alternating back crossovers (something that i am so comfortable doing). Anyway i was going fast, the ice had some ruts in it, i hit a rut and fell really hard. Didn't slide (i guess the ice was not freshly resurfaced) but just went down hard, so hard that my stomack just went numb and i couldn't breathe. I blame the scariness of the fall on the fact that i didn't slide at all on the ice. If i had, the fall would have been nothing.

Favorite time to skate is in the evenings or at night - i am so not a morning person!

Hey did anyone ever have an embarrasing rip in their pants after falling? And if so did someone on the rink tell them about it? I did a few months back - how embarrasing and on my rear! Fortunately someone told me about 2 minutes later. And she felt that she would embarrass me - please you only saved me from more embarrassment!

Scariest fall was gliding into an "ice mine", falling to knees hard (they were padded thankfully) and sliding into the boards head first. Luckily, I have a hard head!!! It came back to me last night--my male cat is very smart, but a bit clumsy. He decided to try and jump in my lap when my lap was partially under my desk, and he THWACKED his poor little head on the bottom of the desk as he jumped up. Poor little kitty, he probably saw STARS!!! (But he got into my lap and was OK--you should have seen me, the people doctor palpating poor kitty's head for any lumps!!!)

It there is one thing you could change about your coach, what would it be? (Mine would be that she and I would both have the time for lessons everyday!!!!)

You know, I can't think of one thing I'd like to change about my coach. He's really really good to work with. Maybe the one thing would be how he tends to get nervous when he tests - he's great with us when we test!

Do you get nervous when you test?

Bwah ha ha ha ha hahahahahahaha ... nervous, me???!!!?!?!

Funny you should ask (and I may have told this story here before, so forgive me if I have). When I took my first test in July 2002, which was Pre-Bronze FS, I was so nervous that I thought my legs had turned to concrete. I was over prepared for the entire test and yet when I went to do my first jump--a waltz jump--instead of the giant, high flying, stretched out, delayed jump that I had been doing in practice, I swear that I did something that was about a half inch off the ice, right foot brought through only to the left one, with legs all tight together, and this teeny weeny beeny little twisty turn that could have been a toepick rise and nothing else. It was PATHETIC! This was so shocking to me that it jarred me out of my coma and I did much better on everything else. Imagine the judges' surprise that the person who could barely leave the ice for the waltz jump suddenly was ending her "program" (you don't use music on this one) with a gargantuan flip jump! Phew, pulled that one off.

So, when it's time to test Bronze MIF, I worked very hard on my mental state and did lots of mental exercises to reduce my fear/nervousness. Unfortunately, I did this WAAAAY to well. During the slide chasses pattern, I kind of "zoned out" and just let my body take over. It was kind of like sleep walking. At one point in the middle of the four moves, I looked out toward the edges of the rink and saw this woman watching me test. I was all surprised and thought to myself, "Oh my gosh, look at that, Sue is here at the rink. How nice!"

Trouble is, Sue is my COACH and OF COURSE she was there because I was in the middle of a TEST and I suddenly wasn't even sure which part of the test I was in or whether I had completed all 4 repeats of the pattern!! (Luckily my body just kept going and I passed that move with flying colors. Now that's a little TOO relaxed!)

Afterwards, she asked me what was going through my head because my face had registered both my shock when I first saw her and then a bit of confusion as I awoke from my stupor.

So now I make sure I am in the zone, but somewhere between comatose and deer in the headlights.

Q: What is something that you've accomplished recently skating-wise that you are most proud of?

Passing Gold Interpretive. I'm competing it Halloween weekend, and I'm getting excited about it!

Have you ever switched clubs? If so, what was your experience like? If not, would you ever switch clubs?

I have not - in fact, I am now skating for the same club that I skated for 23 years ago as a kid. I find that to be kind of nice. (Different rink and, of course, different people - the club moved to a two sheet facility - I occasionally skate at the old rink, which has a new club.) I did have two clubs as a kid - one USFSA (the one I am with now) and one ISIA.

What element are you working on now that is soooo close, but not quite yet there? (For me it's the 2toe - fully rotated, but I just haven't got the one-foot check out nailed.)

Element....

...definitely the camel/sit! Being a Bronze skater, I desperately need it too, so it's very frustrating. Having had a c section 2 years ago also does not seem to be helping. The other frustrating thing I am learning about the camel is that you can't save it when it goes bad (or, as my coach says, "when camels attack")!

Here's my question: if you could magically borrow the skating skills of any one skater for a day (for competition or even just skating), who would it be and why?