I am curious to know, why did most of you start skating? Sure, we know we're all addicted now ( ), but what prompted you to start skating / having lessons in the first place?

Myself - I skated for a short period as a child, and also trained as a ballet dancer, so I have always loved doing anything that needs grace (not sure I always manage it, but you know what I mean!). I absolutely hate going to the gym, and wanted to find an exercise that stimulated me, so that it doesn't feel like exercise and decided to start skating again. A friend and I joined up to the SkateUK classes, and bingo!

Six months later, (friend no longer in attendance), I changed to private coaching, and have never looked back from that first tentative group lesson!
I did expect to enjoy it, but I never expected it to become the absolute passion that it has become

So let's hear about your story behind your skating 'career'!

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Amanda

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance . . . "

My Skating Journal

My first class was freshman year in college, and I needed a "filler" class so I could qualify as a full-time student. Just for the heck of it, I decided to try ice skating. I was always a fan of watching figure skating on TV and secretly wanted to learn as a child.

I loved my college class and was sad to not be able to continue it. There was no "intermediate" class, and my schedule didn't allow me to repeat the first one. So, I completed my degree and became way too stressed out with work and absolutely needed a hobby to keep my sanity. That's when, on a whim, I decided to sign up for a Learn to Skate class. I think I signed up about an hour before the first class started! It was very spontaneous, and I love it! I think I might be getting into shape now.

Now I just need money so I can take lessons again....

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My Blog - FINALLY updated!
Living out my childhood dream

I was dancing competitively with private lessons and everything, but then my dancing partner was compelled to stop and I couldn't really find anybody who suited me.

So, I was sitting at home, and the 2006 olympics were on TV. I'd been wanting to skate when I was 9 already, but by our home rink I was told I was too old and not allowed into the club. So I figured I was certainly too old now. But, I went to a skate shop anyway, who told me - adults don't learn to jump - and told me to get risport etoiles. I did.

Joined my current club that autumn. After about 5 minutes I was sent out of the group I was assigned to, and told to go to a higher group. That new group trained with our B-competitional group on the same ice. I used to look up to the girls in the B-competitional group and hope to "someday skate like that". Then after three months and testing five of the six basic tests at once, the coaches bumped me into the B-competitional group.

Broke the risports mostly down that year doing lutzes and practicing the axel (they look ok-ish on the outside but the padding's shifted). Okay so I did break my ankle and this year I can't jump but I'm pretty confident that as soon as I can jump again I'll still be able to. Meanwhile I'm doing the 2 things I don't like best, MIF and spins and I'm discovering I'm not as bad a spinner as I thought I was. Plus, I just had this sudden realisation that - admittedly, after 3 girls of the B-competitional group went elsewhere - I'm the second/third best skater in the group.

Now I'm looking at the A-competitional group trying to land their double axels when we share the ice on friday nights, and I'm thinking, "I hope I'll someday skate like that." - think it might happen?

Well, my mom had enrolled me in several things as a kid, swimming, tumbling, girl scouts, etc., to see if there was anything I really wanted to do (no, I was not your typical over scheduled kid, these were all done one at a time). Then there was an ad in the paper for ice skating lessons. I took one session, and passed basic 2 and just kept going. My mom had said that I couldn't get my own skates until I passed all of the levels, so that was my motivation. I got through all of the USFSA basics and freestyle levels (there were 6 basic and 4 freestyle levels at the time) and continued on with my first coach. Started testing and competing, then coach #1 left to move to Hawaii and I started working with coach #2.

I liked coach #2, however, my goals were different from hers. She wanted me to compete, I wanted to focus on testing and just having fun (I was also coaching as well), but it was hard to find a coach in that area who would take you if you weren't going to compete. If I were to that again, there is another coach that I adore dearly that I would have approached.

So, then comes high school graduation, and college. I skated my first year and the summer after my first year, then, I didn't go home for the summers after that, and pretty much stopped skating through the rest of my 4 years of college, 2 years of grad school, and my first 2 years of professional life. I went skating every once in a while, but not enough to really call it skating.

The past 2 years of professional life, I kept thinking about skating and talking about skating, and finally this past summer I contacted my current coach, and had my first lesson in September and I haven't looked back since. I am having a blast, and have all of my jumps and many of my spins back...am almost landing my axel, will be testing Intermediate moves in 2 weeks and then will be testing my pre-juv freestyle at the end of February. I never thought I would get back into it, but it was a good decision.

At the age of 30 I was depressed and overweight and gave myself a birthday present of figure skating group lessons. I enjoyed it but I was also really bad at it. Everyone progressed so much faster. After a year, I still couldn't do a two foot turn, my crossovers were clunky, and going backwards terrified me. It didn't really occur to me that if I practiced more than once a week, I might improve more quickly - so I quit. For the next 7 years, I inlined several times a year but only ice skated once or twice a year recreationally.

In 2004, I attended four funerals; three of them were for people who died way too young. These deaths really affected me, made me realize how short life is. I really thought about what was missing in my life and what I wanted but felt unable to do. I realized that I had always wanted to skate, and that I had stopped because I was embarassed that I wasn't better at it. What a stupid reason to stop doing something that you love to do.

For the next year I skated regularly and got myself a coach. I improved very slowly but I did improve, and I loved every minute I was on the ice. Then in the summer of 2005, I moved to the midwest. The nearest rink is 50 miles away from my house. I was unable to skate all that summer due to 1) the move, and 2) insane public sessions. But since Fall 2005 I have managed to skate more or less regularly again. I have an amazing coaching team who take me and my skating seriously and I'm learning and improving. And most importantly, I'm loving it. Currently I'm working on Adult Silver Moves in the Field and Pre-Bronze through Pre-Silver Dances.

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3turn
The Great Skate Experiment

The daughter came home from school with a form offering skating lessons as part of that term's PE for a very reasonable price. We said "Yes" - and have lived to regret it! She, at that time, wasn't quite old enough to go to the rink alone after her course finished, so we took her... and bought our own skates.... and then signed up for Learn-to-Skate classes.

This was back in 1995, and we still skate pre-Bronze. Ah well....

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I took lessons as a child but as I progressed and required both more money and time out of school, I think the money would have been a problem but I remember my mom trying to get me out of school early one day of week to get to the afternoon class and the principal saying that skating was not a good reason to miss school.

I always regreted it. I followed figure skating as a fan.

Fast forward. DD is three. A local club puts on a skating show and we go. Again I am flooded with regret. First thought "MY daughter is going to have the opportunity to skate I did not have" Second thought "Um, if you regret missing out on skating, the person who needs skating lessons is you, not your daughter"

So I signed up both of us. First was a "Mom and me" class. Dd liked skating but she liked every activity we put her in. I really liked it. I just zoomed through Basic Skills. Ha Ha. I thought that was because I was talented. DD would take a basic skills class now and again. But dance was really her thing.

Then we moved and we couldn't find a dance studio she liked. My new coach first suggested I compete and then suggested she compete in Basic 5. She was 11. She came in second. She was hooked. She got really into it and progressed and for awhile there just wasn't money for both of us to skate so I quit and she skated and I enjoyed cheering her on.

A couple of years ago we moved and the situation was a little different so I could manage both of us skating. She's going off to college next fall and her former coach has offered her a job running the LTS program at a rink near her college. But I'll still skate after she's off doing her thing.

j

As a little girl I loved watching ice skating on TV. I used to go to the rink and skate around public skates for hours. I took Basic 1 but that was it for classes. I knew I wouldn't be able to become a skater- because I couldn't get to the rink for patch ice. Anyhow I bought myself boot covers because only skaters with their own skates could skate in the middle (living in TX it was rare for rec skaters to own, here in IA it seems even people who can't stand up own skates)- the boot covers made it look like I wasn't in rentals, and I learned how to do little 2 foot turns and felt very proud of myself. When I was about 10 my parents bought me the most beautiful white skates- now I could save $3 everytime I went to the rink! They dropped me off for the day, and I skated and skated. Still, no lessons. I did this all through middle school- 2 or 3 times a month, but pretty much stopped skating at all in high school except once a year.

Fast forward 10 years, I had graduated college and started doing ballet while student teaching and while living in Ohio with my husband. The pointe work was really straining my ankles- I had multiple strains and sprains and the doctor told me I needed to stop. I had found my old skates (from when I was 10- I was now 24) and they still fit. Friends went skating together, and when I was told by the doctor to stop pointe, I decided ballet wasn't something I wanted to do without pointe and thought I should look up skating. There I found out there was a thriving adult skating community in my town. I took a 30 minute private and passed Basic 2 and 3 in that lesson and started in Basic 4. I went through Basic 6 in my old skates, moved to Iowa, got new skates, finished basic skills, found a coach and the rest is the present! I'm glad I've moved to Iowa- as the rink is open year round and SO much closer!

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

The first time I ever skated was, to some people's surprise, when I went with the Brownies when I was about 8 or 9 lol. I wasn't bad actually =P although I did spend a lot of the session being dragged around by my friend...she wasn't gonna let me hold onto the barrier for long!

I went a few times after that, with my friends, but it wasn't until about two years ago, when Dancing on Ice UK started, that I got really serious about it. Seeing Dancing on Ice really inspired me, and I asked for lessons. The response I got to THAT (which I periodically like to remind my dad about, two years on =P) was 'You don't REALLY want lessons, it's just a craze 'cause of Dancing on Ice. It'll be over in a few weeks...'

A few months after that, after threatening to get myself a job and sell all my stuff to get the money to pay myself, they gave in and bought me group lessons. Because I already knew how to skate and do a few moves, I got moved straight up to level 4 (Skate UK). I already had my own skates by this point, after the rentals almost crippled my feet. I passed all the my tests, up to level 6, when they told us that if we wanted to continue with the lessons, we had to go to the Saturday morning session. Neither me, nor my parents wanted to do that, as we often go out together on Saturdays, so, after years of begging - they gave in and let me get a private coach =D

And here I am. I have a lesson every Sunday, with a coach I love and who really inspires me. I practise mid week too, so I normally skate about 3 1/2 hrs a week. I've almost finished Skate UK, and my dream one day is to compete. I know perfectly well that I haven't got the talent to compete in National Competitions, and I'll never win the Olympic Gold, but skating is something that I'm passionate about. I've always believed that if you have a dream you should follow it. Well, I've found my dream, and I'm not about to let it slip away from me...

Pretty simple for me. My daughter took up skating after a birthday party, and after a few months of taking her to the rink I got tired of watching from the sidelines and decided to teach myself enough to get around so I wouldn't be bored. I went out and bought myself a pair of those soft-sided skates for $50 because I couldn't stand the thought of stinky rentals.

If/when she burns out I'll still be skating.

A moment of madness I still reckon I had an early midlife crisis at the age of 24!

I'm now 26 and having a second childhood. I get to wear clothes I would never have been allowed to go out of the house in before, and I have found somewhere where I feel like I belong.

Never danced or skated as a child. Played the violin! After having four kids I wanted to get into shape so I became a dedicated gym rat. OK, how many of those classes can you take before you just cannot listen to it anymore? So, having always appreciated the beauty of figure skating, I decided to try adult group lessons (age 46 by now.) Absolutely loved the feeling of the blade on the ice, even in the clunky, boxy rentals. Continued with group lessons, started private lessons, started taking ballet, added tap and jazz classes and here I am, nearly ten years later still at it and loving every minute of it despite the frustrations that we are all acquainted with. I'm even back at the gym as well!

I'd never skated before in my life. I saw Kimmie at 2006 Nationals on TV flipping through channels and remembered in 1998 that I saw the Olympics and wanted to skate, but I didn't ask because I was playing soccer. But I had gotten lyme by Nats and decided not to play soccer again and I was like, you know what I want to skate. And I asked my mom and she said yes. So that's how it worked. I skated because it was the only thing that made me forget about all my pain. It still is.

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I started skating twice. Ironically both times it was to be with somebody. My sister and I were very close as kids. She got into skating and I never got to see her because she was at the rink all the time, so I took up skating too. The second time was when I was about 30. I was getting uncoordinated and out of shape. I wanted to find an activity that I would stick with. I figured I'd take up ice dancing to get in shape and meet women. I had so much fun with freestyle I never got around to the dance part

i've just started to skate. i'm taking a Learn To Skate program atm.

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Giaz.
scene chav gonna tear you down .. because i'm gonna come and get you!
take the pee, and i'll hit you where it hurts with my toepick.

I grew up in farm country and "skating" meant scrapping the snow off the pond, putting on some cheap beat-up old hockey skates (whichever available pair your feet fit in) that were stiff as a board, older than dirt, and smelled like rotten leather, then scratching around on the pond and trying NOT to get be seriously injured by older cousins, neighbours, or wobbly adults.

About age 13, we moved in to town and the rink was the centre of social activity in the winter. That was the first time I saw anybody in figure skates or a skating dress (we didn't have television at that time). Oh my, that was so pretty that I just HAD to try it! I think my first pair of figure skates came from the local hardware store and cost all of $15! But I was hooked.

I ended up working for the president of the figure skating club and skating a LOT, but I had come to skating late and we were in the middle of nowhere so there was no place to go with the skating so when I wrecked at 19 and did in my knees, I went off to college, got married, and just got busy with life and a career.

After some 15 years I noticed that I wasn't having knee problems anymore and suggested to my husband that we take up skating for exercise. He was allergic to exercise and was hostile to the idea so it got forgotten again.

During the Christmas break of 2005, I happened to be flipping channels and saw a young woman land a beautiful triple axel. "WOW!" I thought, "She did that well!" and I asked myself why I had never gone back to skating. Knees? - no, they were fine. Hubby objected - well I threw him out years ago so that's not a reason So why not? I made some inquiries online and found out there were other adults skating (some nearly as old as ME ) and went out and bought a pair of skates. On January 18, 2006, I stepped on to the ice for the first time in 36 years and started all over again!

.... and the rest is, as they say, history

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

I was in a grad program and with the stress and having just burned out of another sport I was gaining weight fast and needed another stress reliever. One of my friends was the skating director at a local rink and suggested that I join the kids alpha class. I picked up the sport really quickly and the next week was placed into the gamma (I have since slowed down and am now progressing at a snails' pace, but that is neither here nor there). I was inconsistent while in school, but now that I have graduated I am hooked and am so glad I picked up the sport.

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Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

I wish I knew! For a year after I finished my degree, I'd been saving up to go to a summer school abroad. After it was over, I suddenly had expendable income and wasn't sure what to do with it.

Thinking through my options, I found out that my town had a rink, so I started group lessons. I had no expectations at all, other than to enjoy being on the ice, and the motivation to get to the next level.

After the first course, I switched the day I had lessons on to one that had a dance interval on the public session. Someone dragged me out for a Prelim Foxtrot... and my expendable income suddenly disappeared, along with my free time!

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"Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases:
(1) It's completely impossible.
(2) It's possible, but it's not worth doing.
(3) I said it was a good idea all along."
- Arthur C Clarke

I started at age 8 when my mother's friend asked me if I wanted to accompany her son to Learn to Skate lessons. He wanted to be a hockey player and needed to master basic skating skills before enrolling in the hockey class and my parents were looking for a way to get me away from horseback riding and into a "cheaper" sport (HA! Skating...yeah right! ) So, when asked, I jumped at the opportunity.

That was 13 years ago and I'm still loving it as much as the day I began. In those thirteen years, I've passed my Senior MIF and I'm currently working on getting through my darn Intermediate freestyle and my last Gold dances. I also got involved with my university's synchronized skating team when it formed two years ago and I've been coaching for about 7 years -- private and group lessons. I like to think of it as my way of earning back all the money I sunk into the sport, which as you can imagine, means that my parents didn't find that "cheaper" sport they were looking for!

I started twice - same as a lot of others here. My parents took me to an ice show at our local rink when I was 10. I got hooked, and begged for lessons for months. I skated through high school, but focused on dance and figures. My parents could never afford to buy me really good skates, so I didn't progress too far especially in freestyle. But I passed my 1st figure and Bronze dances. Then I took at break for about 30 years while I went to college, started my career, learned to ski, learned to fly, took up tai kwon do, got married, had kids, etc. I would skate occasionally with my son at public skating. He is a hockey player. Not until my daughter decided at age 9 to give up hockey and start figure skating did I seriously get back on the ice. She wanted me to teach her to do a spin and a spiral. So I started working on my skills again to teach her. Then she started taking classes. Well, I was at the rink all the time, and they had adult classes, so I said, why not??

Wahoo! Another woman skater/pilot!

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

The really quick version of this is that after skating very casually as a child and through college, I noticed one day that I hadn't skated in 20+ years. My younger son had been rollerblading, so we went out with a group to the ice rink. He was immediately hooked, and I realized that I needed remedial work to survive. So, figuring that I wanted to spend more time with him anyway, I signed us up for some group lessons, starting with USFSA Basic 1. That was not quite four years ago, and he's passed Intermediate MITF, pre-Juv freestyle, and pre-bronze dance...and I've passed pre-bronze dance as well, and hope to be testing my first bronze next month. Let's just say that we've spent a *lot* of time together by this point.

Rob

When I was 9, my older sister took me along with her then-bf to an ice rink that was ONE BLOCK from my home. Well, she and her then-bf broke up and they've stopped skating shortly after. But I didn't! I kept going and though I didn't have my own skates (mine were just rentals) and I didn't have lessons (my "lesson" was a book from the school library and picking up tips from kids and some of the skating adults. Sadly I had to give up skating to go to high school and had to take up swimming for a high school requirement (which I ended up getting out of thru a doctor's note...) By the time I got around to going back to skate, the rink that was a block away from my home is gone!!! A CONDO was put in its place!!!

Fast forward to me being 31 and was in need of a change in my workout routine apart from my aerobic classes and the weights. I originally wanted to take up dance again, but couldn't find a class that fits my schedule. I found out thru a coworker that there is a NEW rink in San Francisco near the Moscone Center. So I gather my courage and went on the ice and put on those sky blue booties!!! Soon one time became a weekly ritual on a Saturday night for me. The ice guard convince me to take group lessons and then eventually to get my own skates. Next thing I know the group lessons became private lessons with one coach. I thought I wasn't going to do much beyond testing... well, I'm now testing AND competing!!! One coach became two regular coach, two (well, one now) personal trainer and a coach I travel to take lessons with when I visit NYC.

I'm now 40 and can finally say that I will be an Adult Nationals competitor THIS April!!! I'm very happy to finally be part of this tradition!!! I have a feeling that one of my next goal is to land an axel! (Will take QUITE a while, I'm sure, but I think if I keep my body healthy and in shape that I'm up for the challenge!!!) We haven't worked much on it... but I have a feeling that I'm not that far off from getting to work on them. The other goal will probably be to pass Silver Moves. I'm trying not to think about Silver FS test right now. I just want to enjoy the journey and the challenge of seeing if I could do these goals.

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

I used to love watching the skating on tv as a youngster, however my parents had other luxuries to pay for such as food and clothing, skating was something for the rich.

Many years later, my son started to skate and I got very cold watching, so I thought it would be better to have a go rather than sit there freezing. I never dreamed that I would carry on to compete late into my 50's, way after my son had virtually given up. I have gained a lot of self confidence out of it that I never had previously and made some very good friends including Mrs Redboots.

I never grew out of wearing girlie stuff and this is the perfect opportunity to wear something that I wouldnt normally dream of wearing.

At the moment I am lying here with my foot up after surgery on it, but you can be sure that as soon as I can, I will be back out there, but I'm not telling my surgeon!!

I didn't see any skating when I grew up (country Australia). My wife and I met through the University fencing club and that used to be a good form of exercise.

We then moved to the UK and I spent all my time behind a computer at work with the inevitable consequences.

I wanted to find some form of exercise that would be sufficiently intellectually stimulating that I would keep at it (i.e. not an exercise bike or treadmill!) and so decided to see if skating was an option.

My wife skated briefly as a teenager, so she was able to get me started and we now regularly take dance and free lessons (I'm currently slowly working through the UK passport for both).

It's taken several years to get to the stage where I'm getting decent exercise, but it has been worth it and I can now see the weight very slowly dropping. Of course by now, I've become hooked by the sport and the original motivation is just the icing on the cake!