Ask any question - skater's version

This is a fun thread on another site I'm on. You ask a skating question and somebody else answers the question. Then they ask one of their own. This is a lot of fun...so here goes!

Does your coach make you laugh during your lessons? (Mine does, and I love my lessons )

All the time. And I make her laugh too. Especially when I tell her that my jumps are on vacation in Florida. We like to have fun on the ice.

What's one piece of music you'd love to skate to?

I would have to go with Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."

What would your dream skating dress/outfit look like?

I am lusting after my "dream" skating dress on this website:

http://www.revellawear.com/

It's the blue flame dress, with crystals, that the girl at the top is wearing. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. I think it would be perfect for my Fire on High music. It's very expensive. My husband wants me to buy it, but I'm conflicted. It probably should be red -- but I think part of what I like about it is the blue, and it would go great with my eyes. I keep telling myself that "fire on high" might mean fire in the sky (blue), but I don't know.

I'd appreciate anyone's comments, though you should probably put them in a separate thread.

OK, for the next question: How do you convince yourself to skate on the days that you don't feel like it?

Cindy - you know, the hottest flames are the blue ones!

It is a very rare day that I do not feel like skating. When it has happened, I tell myself that I will enjoy myself once I get started, and I usually do!

Do you get obsessive when you are learing a new element?

Depends on the element...if I enjoy it then I do it lots. If it is one that I do not find pleasureable, and am doing it for testing purposes only... then there is no love loss.

Have you eve met someone in person from this or any other skate forum? (If you were friends before, it does not count)


CINDER:
Love the dress!

Yes I have. I've met 2 people so far, with a possiblility of 3. They were people from synchroboards and the 2 I met, I met at Festival Synchro Nationals last March. If I go up to see a friend who's been training away from her normal rink, I'll get to meet the third, since she lives 15 minutes from that training site. Before I met the 2 people, I had e-mailed with them for about a month before hand. The one, I have even skated with before, since we live close by.

What is one move that has come easily to you, that it takes others eons to master? For example, it took me less than a month to master an outside spread eagle, and now I'm trying to master it in the other direction.

I got a half toe walley on the first try. Forward three turns, however took forever. And let's not bring up spinning!!!

What is you absolute "nemesis" move, the one that's hardest for you?

Laybacks. Ugh!

What's the hardest spin you can do or are learning? (For me, it's the flying sit and the corkscrew, both of which are works in progress).

camel

what's the hardest jump you are working on?

learning but still scared of the lutz....bonked head on flip very hard, and still shy because of it...also started working on axel.


What was it about skating made you feel like you had to do it:
(eg; saw the Olympics, had a sibling that did it, therapy, needed exercise, want to fly across the ice)

I got fat. Seriously, I went back to skating after 21 years off because I weighed over 200 pounds and wanted to get in shape. Got bitten by the skating bug far harder than I ever had it as a kid, and here I am! (45 pounds, 4 dress sizes and counting...)

Do you drink water while practicing?

It's not unusual for me to drink 2 bottles of water on my dance session. For freeskate sessions, I usually have 1 bottle of water, unless I'm sick, and then I usually have 2. I can't not have water while skating. I work too hard not to.

What do you typically wear to practice?

I never wear dresses. I usually have jammie pants on, stretchy pants, or windsuit pants. Sometimes I will wear shorts with over the boot tights. I usually coordinate my gloves to match what I have on. Sometimes I have a bandana on my head if I have serious bedhead and get up too late to primp. My shirts are usually short sleeve, and I bring a fleece shirt or sweatshirt, or sweater. My signature colors are black and pink. Gotta love that pink!

What is your favorite advertisment featuring skating/skater?
(Can be magazine, t.v., etc.)

Glacier, my apologies, because I'm going to answer your question in the negative. The skating commercial that just sets my teeth on edge is the Dorothy Hamill Vioxx one that they played AD NAUSEUM during the Olympics.

Now I LOVE Dorothy and my problems with the commercial are: (1) that I REALLY want to see her skate, but they cut away from her so much, it's like she just gets to do two edges and (2) I was watching HDTV at the time, and this was the ONLY commercial they were authorized to run, so it would play every time they had a break, and sometimes back-to-back-to-BACK! Yikes! that's way too much.

Multi-part Q: Do you keep a skate journal, and what do you put in it, when do you write in it, etc.?

I hope that I am not monopolizing this thing...I work nights, and get access when everyone else is sleeping then I check it when I get up...plus there is no skating on Sundays

CINDER: I know the commercial. I like the one where she is skating outside....whenever it would come on everything at my house would be silenced so I could watch her 2.5 seconds of skating.

I do not keep a skate journal. BUT, I have this friend on GS that was telling me about hers, and I am going to start keeping one. I think that I will make note of what I worked on that day, what I want to work on in my next lesson. Best/worse moves of each practice. I think that a journal would help keep me mopre orgranized and focused. I will also keep ideas for programs, music, and costumes.
__________________________________________________

My question is two part as well: Do you foresee yourself going to any event that might draw fellow GS "board members"?
If so, do you intend to try to meet any of us, and how would you expedite said meeting?

Absolutely. I met several fellow skatingforums members (another site) at the last AN, one of whom has become a good friend. We email pretty much daily. We arranged meetings through PM's, emails and the forum.

I know I'm going to see Cinderella at Lake Placid - and hopefully at either Sectionals in Cleveland or the Wyandotte Adult Invitational here in Detroit. I hope to see Yazmeen and Glacier at future USFSA adult comps too. The adult world is close knit, but wide in it's scope. There's room for everyone (including the young adults, age 18-25 - at all levels, unlike AN where you must be at least Bronze. We just need to get more of you competing to get the events offered for you - or get the comps to offer them so you'll compete! ).

Oh, almost submitted without a question -- I am in a quandry about my son. He loves playing hockey, but he is interested in figure skating too. Yesterday was disasterous - too many high level kids on the ice, his lesson time didn't come as soon as we thought it would,and he got frustrated, took his skates off, and had no lesson. (This would have been his second.) He's been told he can do both, by the way, for the next season. He seems to go back and forth about another one.

So here's the question (and I'm sure nobody can answer it, but I'll ask anyway). How do I know that he really wants to figure skate and is not trying it to please me? How do I avoid being a skatemom from ****?

Sk8r1964 - I'm not sure if this will answer your question, but I'll try. I don't think that SMFH (skate moms from h*ll) are born overnight--I think it takes some time for them to come into power. So I don't believe it is something you have to worry about yet.

Encouraging a child to begin an activity, and perhaps strongly "convincing" them to stick with it and/or practice at the beginning, is sometimes a necessity. Kids often don't know any better. They haven't yet learned that you have to sow in order to reap. Given a chance, at first almost anyone will take the easy way out. Most people don't develop a passion for something the first time out (some do, but most don't). The first times you do something, you're often not even good at it. You're not hitting home runs, swimming faster than the other kids, landing double jumps. There might even be pain (in the ankles, the arms, the butt). There's that beginner's hump to get over. Think about how kids are when they eat new foods (yuk) and don't even want to taste them. Change can be difficult.

Most SMFH are frustrated FORMER skaters. For whatever reason, they cannot or do not any longer skate. Or for whatever reason, they try to live vicariously through their children. This is not the right reason to push or encourage a child to skate. So examine your motives. I think you'll find them to be quite different. I think you enjoy skating so much that you'd like your child to have that wonderful feeling too. That's entirely different.

And right now, it may not matter why your son wants to figure skate. He may start out because he wants to please you. At least that gets him out on the ice trying it. Soon you will know whether he wants to do it for himself or you. At THAT point, you can give him a choice and let him do what he wants.

I believe you said he is showing a lot of potential. Isn't it a parent's job to help their child develop his/her potential? Maybe you can make him a deal -- if he'll complete X number of FS lessons you'll {fill in the blank}. And at that point, he can choose to quit FS or continue. Perhaps you can point out all the ways that FS will help his hockey. I was talking to the wife of national hockey coach Wally Kormylo and she was telling me how Wally would incorporate figure skating into his hockey camps because it made the players better skaters. There are probably articles on this somewhere, and that may be encouraging to your son.

OK, this is sounding like a lecture. I guess I just wanted you to know that NOTHING you have done would qualify you for SMFH of the Year. At least not yet!

Q: What is just ONE skating "thing" that you can't do right now that you would just love to?

I gotta get in on this! Sheesh where've I been

I could be really unrealistic and say the one thing I'd like to do is a triple loop or somesuch, but let's see... realistic thing I'd like to do: a nice one-foot spin. More unrealistic thing but still in the realm of possibility: a Russian split jump. Oops you said just ONE. Well I cheated.

Here's mine, I guess it's a multi-parter as well:
Do you follow upper level skating (nationals, worlds, etc.)? If so, who do you admire most, and whose skating do you not care for?

I do follow elite skating. Each season it starts for me with the smaller competitions in Ontario, such as Minto, Summer Sizzle, Thornhill, etc. where I find out who from WOS is competing in what, and what Canada's top skaters are doing. I have attended sub sectional and sectional competitions as well as 2 National Championships this past year alone. They were for lower levels, but they're still Nationals. I practically live on the computer the week of Senior Nationals and Worlds to get the live result updates. My friends all think I'm nuts, but they just don't understand.

I greatly admire Jeff Buttle. He's such a sweetheart and is in my opinion, Canada's next big star in men's singles. I like Alexei Yagudin and Kurt Browning as well. I don't particularily follow ladies. In pairs, I LOVE Sale & Pelletier, and am beginning to really enjoy Langlois and Archetto. Also, I enjoy Putnam and Wirtz, and can't wait to see Lee & Faustino. In dance, Bourne and Kraatz are my faves, but I also enjoyed Steeves & Coreno, and Moir & Moir back when they skated together. I also enjoy Virtue & Moir. I'm such a Canadian!

Do you have any skating regrets? For instance, I regret not going to an ice dance partner tryout when I was 11.