gkelly, just want to say thank you for all the helpful, specific information you have provided in both your posts in this thread and elsewhere on the forums.
It depends how you define "successful."
Kiddo currently defines success as...
long-term: being an elite skater who could compete at high levels internationally
short-term: mastered jumps
He is focused on jumps because to him they are the most fun of skating, along with spins and little tricks.
To him, MITF are stressful and the least fun. Not only just the tests but also practicing because they are very difficult to practice on busy rinks.
I define success as...
long-term: excellence in sport, living up to full potential, having lifelong interest in sport/active life
short-term to medium term: progressing at a steady rate, feeling a sense of accomplishment, developing internal discipline to motivate self, developing the skill to talk self off the ledge in stressful situations
I think the OP deserves kudos for encouraging and helping her child be involved in any activities outside of home. My parents had next to nothing to do with my skating, and did nothing to help me be involved in anything else. I would have been happy if they had taken enough of an interest to do research and post on message forums. There are a lot of parents out there who wouldn't bother with making inquiries at all, but clearly the OP is not one of them.
Thank you. I'm so sorry your parents weren't more supportive.
You are right that many parents don't do any research whatsoever and base all their decisions purely off their own interests or what friends and coaches say. They don't read any books or articles or studies. Example (totally unrelated to figure skating): Many parents make car seat safety decisions based on what their friends say. They don't read at all about it. They just buy whatever is convenient and follows the law and go from there. Studies suggest most don't bother reading the car seat instruction manual and actually use the car seat incorrectly.
https://www.parents.com/baby/all-ab...arents-use-infant-car-seats-with-no-mistakes/
No, I saw it. However, even if the parent hates ithe sport, she put her child's interest in it above her personal opinion about it. Also, it seems obvious that she isn't one of those skating parents who puts her kid in certain activities to live a second life through him.
Yes, I drive him 4-5 times a week to skate and we pay about $200/week right now for skating, not including skates, travel, costumes, and competition fees. It adds up to more than his private school tuition. When I admit that to other non-skater parents their jaws drop. They cannot imagine spending so much money on any sport at this age. They think we are crazy. And even some other skater parents think it's too much, though they're far more accepting of the costs because they understand that elite level skating comes at a high price. And well, that's been pointed out in this thread and I appreciate that - he simply cannot come close to achieving his goals if he is limited to only 2-3 hours per week of skating, on average.
I think it may be hard for some people who are not parents to understand how one could be supportive of a child who has a passion for something you dislike. But the reality is that many parents can do this. It's called unconditional love. It means we love and support them no matter what.
As a boy, if he takes up pairs, it will almost be guaranteed that he would get there most years just because of numbers. But pairs is a whole other level of expense and danger. Even in singles, his chances are much much higher as a boy than they would be for a girl with the same talent level.
This certainly explains some things I see at the rink. I did not know this information.
I new that there were opportunities for boys that did not exist for girls simply because there are far more girls in figure skating than boys in the US. But I did not know this about pairs. I don't want my son doing pairs (unless he really really wants to) but this is interesting to know.
I think we can say that 2 hours a week of ice time would not get him to Nationals, and 20 hours a week is not necessary at this point. (If he gets the point of working on double axels and triples and trying to qualify, you could reevaluate then.) [...]
If you're looking to estimate talent level, I would reiterate that you should look at the quality of the basic skating, not just on what jumps are mastered when -- it's harder to measure, but rate of passing MITF tests and passing them with higher than the minimum scores would be a good indication. When you get to IJS levels, the program component scores, compared to other skaters at that level, will also tell you a lot.
I'm sorry if it didn't come across earlier but I read your other post, liked it, and this is very helpful.
Overall
I was trying to get a better picture for the timeline for progress and when we'd get a sense of whether he's on the elite skater track or the recreational skater track. Prior to this thread I did not know if we should be making a school decision now, in a year, in two years, in 5 years... On one hand, coach seemed to love the idea of switching to homeschool now so she could work with him more and set him up for Nationals in a few years. But teachers say, he's doing great and keep him in school. Some of our academic goals for him would be particularly difficult to achieve if we homeschool so this is a BIG decision. I needed to get a better feel for things to determine the right timeline to make these decisions. (Of course there are other factors to consider but they are not related to figure skating.)
when a skater first lands each jump is less important than the quality of the jumps.
Yes, but the chart and this thread has always assumed the timeline was for quality jumps - it specifies that the jumps are clean and consistent. So that was never in doubt. It was just something people wanted to harp on.
