a question for freestyle skaters

[florence]

hi!
this is my very first post there and I wanted to say Hi to all of you!
my english isn't very good because I'm Italian but I hope I'll improve with times :oops:

I wanted to ask you if in your skating rink there are special hours for freestyle skaters that aren't doing competitions and want to skate only because they enjoy to stay on the ice..

I skated for eleven years, I was a freestyle skater, but I quit three years ago because of many reasons..(bad injury, parents that wanted me to have a normal life, school, and others)

Now I'm 20 and there are some moments in which I miss it, it's like I miss something of myself..I don't know how to explain in english but I think that maybe you can understand :)

sometimes I'd like to come back but with no more every day practices..the problem is that here in Italy figure skating isn't a very popular sport , we don't have recreative skating..
at my skating rink there are only:

1) public sessions
2) class for childs
3) hours for skaters that still do competitions and that aren't more than 16.
4) hockey

I wanted to know if there are some of you that even if aren't doing competitions are still able to skates in a rink..if there are special hours for freestyle skaters..or something like that.. I'm just curious to know how it works in other countries!

Am I the only one who is missing it even if my life is really ok and full of things that I like?! sometimes is just strange..and since my friends aren't skaters I fell like no one could understand what I fell..

<3 <3

[Clarice]

Hi, Florence, and welcome to the boards! At my rink (in the U.S.), we have the same categories you do: group lessons, hockey, public sessions, and freestyles. Freestyles are open to anybody who wants to pay for them, although most of the skaters are young competitors. I'm an adult skater, and I do most of my skating on those sessions. Will your rink really not allow older skaters to use freestyles, or are you simply uncomfortable using them because you're older than everybody else? I haven't had any problems - the kids and I get along just fine!

[florence]

older skater are allowed in theory :) ,but unlukily for being able to skate in a freestyle session a skater has to have a coach that follow him, we have three coach in the rink that only give lessons to young competitors that have a future..every time that there's a freestyle session (about two/three hours every day) those coach are following their 3/4 kids giving them a group lessons for all the time that the session is going..
we have a couple of adult hours too but those are class for beginners..

I think that maybe it's like that because there aren't a lot of people who skates in Italy and those who skates if they don't get big results just stop skating :( I think it's sad because skating can be great even if you aren't skating for competiting..

Are you ,in usa, obliged to have a coach for skating too? maybe it works in a different way..