How did you get into your discipline?

[FSWer]

Say,I was just wondering how everyone here got into the discipline that they skate?

[Sk8Bunny]

well, i started out how every skater does- as a singles skater, learning all the basic jumps and spins and stuff. i have always wanted to skate pairs, but being 5'3" in height, my coaches dont think this is possible, so back in december, they started me on ice dance. sadly there arent any male skaters at the rink, so im stuck doing solo dances. however, not to mislead you, i dont compete ice dance and it is isnt my main discpline, singles is. my coaches just thought that since i cant do pairs i might as well try ice dance, and they said it will only help my freestyle and overall skating, so yeah, i started cause of them telling me too. although i still, with all my heart, wish to someday pairs skate, but until then, ill be skating myself. lol.
p.s. geez, this was terribly hard to type. i just put on fake fingernails cause i have a bad habit of biting my nails :roll: and i can hardly type on the keyboard! its taken me like 15 minutes to type this small message.:??

[CanAmSk8ter]

At the rink where I started, everyone did dance when they got out of Learn-to-Skate, so I thought it was like a "cool" thing to do and I could wait to start. The spring I was in Learn-to-Skate, I remember seeing Usova and Zhulin skate their Blues for Klook FD at Worlds, and I thought I might really like to get into dance, rather than doing it once a week moaning all the while like most of the kids did. I started the next fall taking a dance group class once a week, then went into private dance lessons after I passed my Preliminaries. In 1995, right after I passed my Pre-Bronze, I went to see COI with my dad. My coach at the time was Canadian, and I had heard her talk about Shae-Lynn and Victor before, but I don't think I had ever seen them skate. Maybe I had seen them on TV at Worlds, I don't remember. They did "Return to Innocence" on the tour that year, and that was when I decided that maybe I wanted to be a dancer, rather than a skater who did some ice dancing. Eight years later, I have to say it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

[Aussie Willy]

Well I started doing singles, but it was doing the back chasses in the Swing Dance (when I attended a dance session that we used to have at our rink) that got me started in dance and I have been doing it ever since. I really enjoyed those. Now I just do it for fun and have a great teacher who I have been with for about 8 years and really enjoy my lessons.

[TreSk8sAZ]

Well, I got started in Learn-To-Skate programs when I was very young, then quit for about 10 years. After I gained about 2 pounds of the dreaded "Freshman Fifteen" I realized that I HAD to do something. Skating was my first choice. Went back to adult classes, just to get my basics back. I was a dancer for the first 14 years of my life (I'm 19 now) but am not allowed to, so my coach started teaching me dances right away. Right now, I'm doing both singles and dance, though I'm thinking dance is more of my true love than singles.

[skateflo]

I started in Learn to Skate at the age of 46. When I asked what next, almost with a sneer I was told adults do dance.....well this adult wasn't interested. 10 years later and I am still doing freestyle, albeit slowly, but I still love it, half jumps and all!

[Figureskates]

let's go back to 1956 when I was 10. I first started figure skating group lessons with a Hungarian coach who had just fled Hungary during the uprising. Figures, figures, figures, plus I spun CW which drove everyone crazy since evryone else was CCW. Then the hockey thing took over in the early 60s. At college had left knee torn up from a bad check. The result was a rebuilt left knee and a get out of Viet Nam free card.

fast forward 30 years when I needed to do some exercise that was fun, why that would be figure skating!! So started group lessons in 1968, but had to change a few things. Could not land on left leg anymore since knee was rebuilt and it would be bone crashing on bone. This meant that I had to become CCW. S had to rewire the brain..big job...and now I am at freestyle 1, having passed my pre-pre moves. I guess I am a single skater. tried dance, it was fun but am I a KLUTZ!! Stupid has trouble remembering all the patterns. The problem is that every once in awhile, CW tries to kick in and my brain gets a cramp. I am a CCW stuck in a CW body.....I feel like I should be talking to Jerry Springer.

But I do have fun, that's all that counts.

[kayskate]

Originally posted by Aussie Willy
the back chasses in the Swing Dance (when I attended a dance session that we used to have at our rink) that got me started in dance and I have been doing it ever since. I really enjoyed those.

The back chasses are one of my favorite steps! I will circle the rink several times doing nothing but these. I love them. I feel the same about change edge swing rolls.

Kay

[JDC1]

I started out for about a year as singles, had my waltz, toe loop, so so salchow, sometimes loop and not very good spinning. I kept having pain in my left knee so I had to stop most jumping and spinning then I got tendontis in my left foot. Had always been interested in dance and decided what the heck I'll just do dance and then go back and do both but now I'm just going to focus on dance. I enjoyed free style but I don't really like jumps (I made my peace with them) not wild about spins, I love spirals and moves in the field. It's not that dance is easier, it's HARDER, but I get muscle soreness not joint soreness and I can deal with that by stretching.

Most adults at "my" rink do freestyle. :-) There's a misinformed opinion that dance is "easier" and your "tougher" if you do free style, couldn't be less true, I'd like everyone who says that to learn progressives on both sides the correct way and then compare how easy cross overs feel. You really have to go with what's in your heart and what makes you happy and dance makes me happy and calm.