Have you ever noticed...

[Chico]

I had a thought the other day. It seems like some folks start skating and they stick around "forever". Some folks start and vanish rather quickly. What do you think makes a person stick it out and others vanish? Sometimes it's work, family, money, but often it's not. I've seen folks with all the problems above and fight tooth and nail to skate and others quit over nothing. What makes a skater?

Here's mine.

Competitive with self. Likes a challenge and is self motivated. Is somewhat fearless. Hardworker. Needs time to be alone and is a thinker. Can be stubborn. Isn't afraid of a long list of things to do.

Chico

[jp1andOnly]

usually with an adult skater many leave because of conflicts with skating/work time, not enough hours in the day. For me right now its money!!!! Can't afford skating at the moment and i'm afraid probably not the whole year..again. Rent is darn expensive. Many people have families so those with young children devote much of their time to them.

[SDFanatic]

I couldn't agree more with;

Originally posted by Chico
Competitive with self. Likes a challenge and is self motivated. Is somewhat fearless. Hardworker. Needs time to be alone and is a thinker. Can be stubborn. Isn't afraid of a long list of things to do.

I'm a detail oreinted person, and at times a bit of a perfectionist, skating is deffinitly not something one does a couple times and has a handle on it. Skating for me is annoying enough to retain my attention and to keep at it. Frustrating? Heck ya! Simple? Heck no, too much like work? Never I hope, fun? Most deffinitly!

I think some of it comes too when there are others around that you can talk to, have fun with, and do stuff with. My summer rink was fanatastic most of the time, everyone talked to everyone, had fun doing this, that, and the other thing! It's nothing compared to my winter rink with very few people who say or do anything.

Holdbacks? Costs of course, silly people around here complaining having to pay $500 for their kids to participate in school sports. Their lucky their kids aren't in involved in a non-taxpayer supported sport like figure skating. I have a coach this year so it's going to cost even more then last year, and frankly, I'm not sure how long it's going to last.

Steven

[dooobedooo]

I just love the ice: being on the ice; the fresh, cool, clean, unpolluted air; the crisp slidiness; the fun atmosphere; the big barn space. It seems to clear my head. Maybe if I lived in a ski resort, I wouldn't need to skate!

[blurrysarah]

I started lessons when I was 7 years old. At the time, they wanted all the kids to do a christmas show, and my shyness got a hold of me. I quit because I didn't want to perform. 7 year old logic, I know.
So when I started skating again at 16 (2 years ago), I was determined to stick with it this time, and eventually perform. Goal achieved there, with synchro, but now I'm hooked. I love skating because there's always a new goal, you can't just accomplish all elements and tricks and then go "ho hum".

[Figureskates]

I take the view from the other end of the spectrum. Being 57 years old, elements and techniques come a little slower. However, everytime I finally master one, I figure I am cheating growing old one more time. I fully realize that single jumps will be my limit since my body just ain't what it use to be..I plan to skate as long as I can stand, probably going more into figures.

However years from now when I can't do jumps, I will always have the satisfaction that at one time I could.

[TashaKat]

Easy! It's addictive .... in the past I would do anything to skate. Why did I stop? Broken wrist wasn't the reason, I was ready to go back. Change of circumstances (some nasty stuff happening and a huge upheaval) and coach dumping me when I got back. I like to learn, I can't STAND just going and skating. I lost the will.

x

[dobiesk8r]

I skated for 7 years, starting as an adult. I got
really into it, eventually testing. When my son
started playing hockey seriously last year and I
was at a rink EVERY DAY, often TWICE a day, that
was when I decided to back off. I also started
teaching the learn to skate on Saturdays. I
OD'd, pure and simple.

I skated only a couple of times this summer, but
as is my way, went to the gym a lot, walked miles
and miles and worked on my Pilates equipment. So
I want to go to the rink again now that the kids
are in school.

Maybe on Monday.;)

[icenut84]

I started skating in the first place because it was something I'd wanted to do since the 94 Olympics, but I'd never been able to because there was no local rink. I eventually took my first (group) lesson at age 17. I started to have occasional private lessons about 7 months later or so, and it wasn't till after that that I properly started dance and freestyle rather than just recreational/basic skating lessons. After I'd been going there every week for 2 years, the rink closed. In the (nearly) 6 months since then, I've skated a lot less often and only had one lesson. I'd skate more if I had the chance, but I just haven't been able to. (The next nearest rink is even further away.)

2.5 years later and I still love to skate though. I go to University next weekend, and there is a good rink in the city, so I plan to skate more often and start regular lessons again. Although my motivation has been less since my old rink closed, I still love skating and want to progress.

For me, there are several reasons why skating actually *isn't* ideal - I hate being too cold, I'm not comfortable with falling, I hate being frustrated. But the cons are greatly outnumbered by the pros.

I love to skate. Few things make me happier than when I am having a good practice session. I love the exercise aspect. I love the fact that it isn't a case of just learning one skill or movement and then working to improve it, like many sports are. There's always something new to learn, a new combination of moves you can come up with, something different and original that can be done. I love the music aspect too, and the choreography (although I haven't had a programme before). I like the social element. I like the fact that skating is a lot of fun in itself, no matter what level you are. I love the feeling when you're doing a good forward edge spiral and you feel like you're soaring through the air. I like making up footwork sequences, trying to make them both difficult and fast, challenging myself to be in control and get my technique perfect. I love the feeling of being graceful and elegant (whether I am or not, lol), especially when someone tells you you are :) . And there are few better feelings than when you complete an element flawlessly, especially when it's one that you've found difficult or have been working on for a long time, or you've just completed for the first time. I also love the fact that, for me, being a skater means that there is an aspect to me that is different to everyone I know - none of my family or friends skate, in fact I don't know anybody who does apart from people I've met there. It gives me something that is unique about me, as far as my friends and family go.

Sorry bout the long post ;)

[Black Sheep]

I guess for me skating is my fountain of youth. It just seems to keep me from aging. It's something I can associate with my childhood in the '70s and '80s, even though back then I didn't skate nearly as well or as much as I do today. Skating is a wild kids' ride I'll never outgrow! 8-)

[Alexeiskate]

Originally posted by Chico
I had a thought the other day. It seems like some folks start skating and they stick around "forever". Some folks start and vanish rather quickly. What do you think makes a person stick it out and others vanish? Sometimes it's work, family, money, but often it's not. I've seen folks with all the problems above and fight tooth and nail to skate and others quit over nothing. What makes a skater?


A person continues to skate or decides to give it up for various reasons. You have to do what is best for you. There is no right or wrong. I'm sure that what you judge as someone quiting skating "over nothing" has a valid reason for that person, just as there is a valid reason for you to continue pushing on. Skating isn't the best thing since slice bread, pardon the cliche. There are other things in life just as interesting, if not more :)

[ChristianeDK]

Originally posted by Alexeiskate
Skating isn't the best thing since slice bread, pardon the cliche.

It isn't? :o :o :o ;)

[supersk8er]

Originally posted by Alexeiskate
Skating isn't the best thing since slice bread, pardon the cliche. There are other things in life just as interesting, if not more :)

:o Whoa, dude, that was risky...:P

[sk8er1964]

Originally posted by Alexeiskate
Skating isn't the best thing since slice bread, pardon the cliche. There are other things in life just as interesting, if not more :)

To be honest with you, I'd rather skate than eat sliced bread. There's something else as interesting? I doubt it (my family excepted, of course) :lol: :lol: :lol:.

[batikat]

why do I continue to skate... well it's expensive - but it's the cheapest form of therapy and you get exercise too!

It's me time - I can't think of anything other than skating when I skate so it's very relaxing. Besides , how else am I going to get the undivided attention of a handsome young man (my coach)for an hour a week?!!:D

[Mrs Redboots]

I think you either get hooked on skating - the Usenet group talks of "Adult Onset Skating Syndrome" - or you don't. For those of us who do, no other form of exercise is 1/10 as much fun, or as interesting, and, of course once you get bitten by the competition bug..... well, they say it's incurable....

[jazzpants]

Originally posted by Alexeiskate
Skating isn't the best thing since slice bread, pardon the cliche. There are other things in life just as interesting, if not more :) Poor Alexeiskate is gonna get one more post about that line...from me!!! Heh heh heh... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Ummm... sliced bread??? Eh, I'll take the skating, thank you. (Then again, I'm not that much of a bread fan... PERIOD!!!) :P But seriously, you're gonna like skating or find something you like better than skating. That's just how things are in the universe... (And I've certainly have contemplated giving up skating recently because of my lower back problems. But I love it too much to give it up. I'm gonna fight to get my lower back better.)

Originally posted by batikat
why do I continue to skate... well it's expensive - but it's the cheapest form of therapy and you get exercise too!

It's me time - I can't think of anything other than skating when I skate so it's very relaxing. Besides , how else am I going to get the undivided attention of a handsome young man (my coach)for an hour a week?!! :D I totally agree on the therapy part. (Not to mention much more effective...) As for the "handsome young man" part... :roll: I'll just have to settle for my primary coach. :P :lol:

[Mrs Redboots]

Originally posted by jazzpants
As for the "handsome young man" part... :roll: I'll just have to settle for my primary coach. :P :lol: You haven't seen Batikat's coach - I have.....;)

[TashaKat]

Originally posted by Alexeiskate
I'm sure that what you judge as someone quiting skating "over nothing" has a valid reason for that person, just as there is a valid reason for you to continue pushing on. Skating isn't the best thing since slice bread, pardon the cliche. There are other things in life just as interesting, if not more :)

I feel that I quit 'over nothing' ... I don't really feel that I've quit even though I don't go any more :( I wasn't offended by Chico's terminology .... it's true, I really don't know why I quit!

[icesktrkidz]

Little ones (especially the ones who win,win,win) Get burned out.
Big ones (the winners for a while) get bummed out.
The girls grow up with the 3 B's (boys, boobs, butts)
The boys just grow.

The truly dedicated ones just work, work, work to be the best they can. A coach can see this far in advance. Work ethic (which the world is now lacking) is achieved and those who acquire this ethic -achieve. Maybe not their dreams but their self worth.

When girls get to Jr.High/High School they are introduced to 2 sports which don't exist before this. Boys and Cheerleading. OK now we don't have a gold to work for. Too bad for them and their parents.

Years wasted (no commitment even to test out). Money gone. But, they're having fun.

[sk8er1964]

Originally posted by icesktrkidz
Little ones (especially the ones who win,win,win) Get burned out.
Big ones (the winners for a while) get bummed out.
The girls grow up with the 3 B's (boys, boobs, butts)
The boys just grow.

The truly dedicated ones just work, work, work to be the best they can. A coach can see this far in advance. Work ethic (which the world is now lacking) is achieved and those who acquire this ethic -achieve. Maybe not their dreams but their self worth.

When girls get to Jr.High/High School they are introduced to 2 sports which don't exist before this. Boys and Cheerleading. OK now we don't have a gold to work for. Too bad for them and their parents.

Years wasted (no commitment even to test out). Money gone. But, they're having fun.

Although I see a lot of validity in what you are saying (heck, I quit in high school for some of the reasons that you are saying), I don't consider those to be wasted years or wasted money. As a child skater I learned discipline and goal setting, even if the Olympics wasn't one of those goals. I learned the value and rewards of hard work, even if those rewards were simply a good skate at a local competition or passing another test. I have carried those values into my working life as an adult. As a bonus, I have rediscovered the love of skating - it is still fun, it still allows me to accomplish goals, and it is a wonderful physical challenge -- 32 years after I started to skate and 23 years after I quit in high school!

Don't count out those who quit as high schoolers -- the values instilled by skating will be with them the rest of their lives, and they may come back to love the sport again. If they don't, chances are that they will remember their skating days with fondness.

[SDFanatic]

I can relate to some of that, and think a lot of it works, I go through forty or so employees just to fill five positions, and even then I'll go through a few more because of their "work" ethic.

I think I will be with skating for a while, as I do have a work ethic, I'm too mellow to let little things bother me. So I just plod along and keep going, and going, and going....

Now just to find more adult oriented things I can do, almost everything is geared toward kids and parents, hardly anything for adults, especially male adults.

Steven

[singerskates]

What keeps me skating?

It's addictive. Spouce is now supporting me in my figure skating as I support him in his World's Fastest Drummer thing. He now understands competition. Then there is the competition. I love the feeling of landing jumps and love to mess up the ice. Love to move with the music on the ice. It's just deep down in my soul and I wish I would have found out about figure skating before 1994 when the Olympics were on TV. And I had no idea that adults would be allowed to skate with the kids. At first in Windsor 1999/2000, not one single club would allow me to join them to learn to skate. I had to beg and plead. Then during the 2001 to 2003 season, I begged and pleaded with Skate Canada to have Canadian Adult Nationals. Now during this season, 2003/2004 we will have one. And now, I finally found a club that believes in adult skaters and even more is there to get me to Canadian Adult Nationals. What a world of difference there is when you have support! Just need sponsors for Canadians.

Brigitte

This girl is long term addictly committed to the persuit of skating.

[Mrs Redboots]

I don't think it's wasted when kids give up. Chances are, they'd not have made squad anyway, even if they have had enormous fun. Most kids I know gave up when school work became too demanding for their level of skating. For many, that was when they went to secondary school at age 11, but I know at least two who stayed on until 16, and only then stopped. One lad left school at 16, and had to stop skating as he got a job with a firm of landscape gardeners and the timing didn't work out - he still skates during his holidays and so on.

But the point is, these kids have skills that it really won't take them long to pick up when their lifestyles permit. They may well find themselves digging out their skates when their children reach that age.... and they will probably be skating long after their own children have given up (well, look at me and Robert!).

And it's not really a waste, either - I don't know what it's like in the USA, but here, anything that gets children off their fat behinds and actually moving is to be welcomed with open arms.

[melanieuk]

Competitive with self. Likes a challenge and is self motivated. Is somewhat fearless. Hardworker. Needs time to be alone and is a thinker. Can be stubborn. Isn't afraid of a long list of things to do.

OK, I am all of the above - APART from "Is somewhat fearless".
Is this the factor that's made me quit skating TWICE?
Not the first time...I was a kid and fearlessly did axels.
Second time, fear did play a part but only a minor one.

In my case I think I've stopped skating (who knows, I might return one day) because of a life changing event in that it completely changed my priorities.
From being determined to get my 10 hours of ice time a week and obsessing over axels and backspins, I went to : "It really doesn't matter now!" and the compulsion to skate was lost.
Maybe self-motivation has been lacking...

mel

[CanAmSk8ter]

What's kept me skating? I think my support system at the rink is a big part of it. If I were thinking seriously of quitting, I have any number of people- coaches, friends my age, older and more experienced skaters- I could talk to who would help me figure out whether I really wanted to quit or if I just needed a break, or a change. At a more cutthroat rink, that wouldn't necessarily be the case. I've also had several great role models who have been through times when it would have been 100% understandable if they'd quit during their lows. But they didn't, and because they stuck it out, they experienced highs a lot of people would have thought possible.

When I'm discouraged I remind myself of what Victor Kraatz says- that you know when it's time to quit. I've been frustrated and discouraged, but my heart has never told me that it's time to quit. I can't remember who said this- I think it was either Victor or Shae-Lynn- but as long as you still love to skate, you still feel like you're improving, and you still feel that you have something to contribute to the sport, it's worth continuing. Put that way, I really can't help but want to keep going.

I've had opportunities in skating that any skater would kill for- the people I've met, the coaches I've had access to, the places I've been. I sometimes wonder why I've had these opportunities, when I'm really not anything special as a skater. Surely someone younger and more talented deserves them more? But I think everything in this sport happens for a reason, and that everything in this sport works out the way it's supposed to in the end. Skating entails some really high highs and some really low lows, and it's hard sometimes during the lows to keep in mind that the highs will come around again. Some of the highest highs have their roots in the lowest of lows. You've all heard the expression, "One door closes, another one opens?" I think that sums up skating pretty well. The only difference is that in skating, it may be months or even years before that second door opens; it may open completely unexpectedly; and you may think it's not the door you want until you step through it.

[jazzpants]

Originally posted by Mrs Redboots
You haven't seen Batikat's coach - I have.....;) Batikat... care to PM me your coach's picture??? ;) (And that comment is more of a *sigh* (like "*sigh* Why can't I find a good looking coach to drool over?")

Then it hits me that it's better this way... less distractions! :P

[Chico]

CanAmSk8ter,

Months, years...you ain't kidding! I've worked for the longest time on my backspin, and although I have had success from time to time, it's not been good for the most part. Finally, and I mean finally, I've had success many times each time I skate. It's almost like a miracle. What seemed impossible actually seems fun. This is a miracle! My friend has "whee" backspins and I always thought she was nuts.... Now, I think I understand and I've become nuts too. =-)Moments like this is what keeps me skating. A sense of accomplishment, "I finally can do it!"

Chico

[wannask8]

What makes me keep skating? Personality factors, including many already listed here (competitive with self; likes challenge/hard-working, self-motivated; analytical but artistically inclined), yes, but more importantly, nothing else can push other things out of my mind like skating. No matter what else is going on in my life at any particular time (crazy work stress, personal issues), I can always get my head back when I’m on the ice.

-- wannask8

[batikat]

Originally posted by jazzpants
Batikat... care to PM me your coach's picture??? ;) (And that comment is more of a *sigh* (like "*sigh* Why can't I find a good looking coach to drool over?")

Then it hits me that it's better this way... less distractions! :P

:lol: :lol:

Not sure I have any pictures actually - mmm better remedy that.......
Is it sad that he is definitely one of the reasons I keep skating? ;) - and he's so unattainable - not only 10 years younger but he's married with a kid:cry: :cry: :cry:

[Michigansk8er]

What keeps me skating? I don't have the brains to call it a day. I'm off to the surgeon tomorrow to see what he can do about patching me back up. After all, those backspins are in my blood. Wheeee!!! :)

[Chico]

Hey Miss Michigan,

Email me. I can't email you until you do.

Chico
Your mail box is full by the way.