Talked to some
Meanwhile, thanks for the input. It's (sadly) as I expected all over, then. I've put some feelers out & talked to a few skaters who either quit skating, or quit competing, or scaled-back. Here's some insight--
Senior Men, On & Off National Team through years: Realized years ago the only quad he MIGHT do is quad toe. Decided he was beat before he started on that front if that's the only one he could do. Developed his triples and got out of competition. Unwilling to sacrifice the well-being of his body for "no reason. "
Sr Pairs skaters---talked to both a male and female. Partners each quit. One, coach moved also. One tried moving to where new partner lived. Cost and logistics prohibitive. The other could not move due to financial hardships. Both gave up looking for partners and moved on to other things. This broke my heart. Both these kids had been able Nationals skaters with good promise.
Jr Men singles and pair--still trains, does not compete in either. Gave up looking for partner. Money not as much a problem as others seemed to have, but did not want to work on a pair team if partner could not develop triples. Said it seemed that any girls who could do triples did not want to do pairs. For singles, will test into Sr but decided to not compete. No expectations of return on efforts. No plans to include triple axel...similar feelings to other skater who said that if there were no quads to do, then why bother with the entire triples list?
Which brings me to the point some of you already noticed. The only ones who seem to have some staying power right now are younger girls (Novice and below). But, even these are thinning. I noticed at a recent Novice Women event (7 competing) that 5/7 were about age 15, the highest triple accomplished was a salchow, one by the youngest in the group, the one completed by the "elder" competitor was flawed. But, overall, this age group and below reported positive feelings about progressing forward.
I guess I did not see this coming and so I am still "floored" by recent trends. I understand that the "system" has been marred with controversial judges and now new judging systems, and so on. But, none of the kids in my informal poll mentioned any of that. The things that made them scale back, quit competing, or quit, period, were money, quads, logistics (location, partnerships, travel, moving, loss of coach, and so on).
In the end, I've concluded from this little (not scientific in the least) foray that the older, accomplished, highly-tested skaters are experiencing exaggerated feelings of "worthlessness" and the younger skaters are feeling exaggerated feelings of worth. I just mean that I feel these older ones that I talked to have given up in the face of great forces after many years of developing their skills, only to feel "abandoned" and without resources in one way or another when they reached the National level....and then, the younger ones seem to be unrealistically pursuing competition; without a real stable of "skills" behind them by age 15, I don't see where they think they will end up? The chasm between these two groups was huge, you see.......on the one hand, kids who could do almost anything and do it well felt like failures, and on the other, a group who could barely do one triple feeling like they were all going to go to the 2010 Olympics with a triple salchow (perhaps just the joy and exhuberance of youth?)
