Yesterday I had probably the worst practice on a public ice, but as I stepped off the ice, not one but two parents and their kids came over to me and said,

"My kids say they want to be you when they grow up. You're really good. My daughter and her friends were telling me how fine and beautiful your skating is. And thanks for skating today, it was really a special treat! "

As figure skaters we work so hard to get to where we are in skills and sometimes we forget how far we've come, especially when we have a bad day.

This thread is to share these positive experiences.

Has this happened to you? please share.

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Keep Evolving. "From this moment forward, every voice that told you - You Can't - , has been silenced." - Freedom Writers

Fer sure!

After skating for only 14 months, starting at age 56, finishing my first-ever competition program at Nationals - the applause and the stuffies thrown on to the ice - I couldn't have been more proud if I had won a medal at the Olympics! It is a moment I will cherish forever. I didn't set the world on fire and I didn't even place, but I DID IT, I was there, and I skated.

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

Yes, this has happened to me. I feel uncomfortable when someone compliments me after I skated particularly badly. I wish they could see me when I skate well. I guess the bottom line is what I think is bad still looks pretty good to the inexpert observer.

Kay

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Visit my figure skating journal
http://www.skatejournal.com/

I've occasionally gotten compliments from stranges on my F cross strokes, but what I hear all the time, that I think is really funny, but true, is "you make those look so easy" - about F swizzles, when teaching LTS . Well, at least I've truly mastered one move!

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After a lesson with my coach, in which he partnered me working on very simple, forward skating only dances (I think we were doing Rhythm Blues and ChaCha that session), I was asked by a wide eyed, beginning adult skater, "Were you skating pairs with that man?! That looked amazing!"

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3turn
The Great Skate Experiment

It happened to me today during my terrible lesson. I totally sucked, but this guy and his kid applauded me when I two footed a double sal right in front of them. They were being very nice and complimenting me while I'm snarling inside. Sometimes I think I'm too much into the moment and I lose perspective.

Kevin

Definitely! To the uneducated spectator, anything you do will look great. They almost certainly did not catch the double footing, and might have even thought you did a triple. Take a good look at a public session sometime. Most people are staggering around, holding the wall, falling after a few steps, or careening crazily around out of control. I think skating on a public session is a bit like driving when all the other drivers are drunk. Of course they admire you! You really are far, far above the average skater.

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One time a mom skated up to me on a quiet public session where I was done practicing by biellmann spiral, and behind her legs was hiding a tiny little boy. She said, "I'm sorry if I'm rude but maybe you can do that again? He thinks it's very pretty and he'd like to see it again but he's too scared to ask". And the boy behind her nodded and looked at me with eyes like I was gonna eat him.
Obviously I practiced my biellmann a few more times after that, LOL!

In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king. It's nice to be recognised for it sometimes.

At Adult Pac Coasts last year, after I finished one of my solo dances, I was walking back to the warm room when a mother and her two young daughters stopped me. The mother said "My girls just wanted to say hi and congratulate their favorite skater." I'd never seen these girls before, but it was adorable! Even though I hadn't skated my best, even though I was injured, these girls said I was their favorite skater and it made the entire competition for me!

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"Without a struggle, there can be no progress" ~ Frederick Douglass

Doesn't that make you feel so good? It's nice to hear that someone else thinks you're a fantastic skater, especially when you feel like a complete klutz. My favorites are the kids who ask "Are you a professional skater?".

Oh yes, I remembered one more!

I skated at a large local competition in November. There was nobody there that I knew except a few of the other skaters, their parents, and coaches. When I took to the ice for my program, a cheer went up from one section of the crowd When I was done, they cheered again. They didn't seem to be "a generic cheering section" who cheered for everybody so I wondered "What the heck???"

The whole group of them snuck down in to the dressing room after where all three of us "mature women" were changing and said how thrilled they were to see us out there competing and that we were such an inspiration to their daughters and to themselves.

Gee, it's nice to be a celebrity

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

Just before I left campus for the winter break, I was skating at the rink on campus and was practicing my program. I was the only one out there besides one other person who looked like she was learning to skate...when I finished, all out of breath, analyzing what went wrong and what I needed to clean up, she told me how beautiful my skating was It was nice to hear when I wasn't feeling all the graceful...

At a local competition, I skated my FS program and completed most of the elements but struggled with one which I proceeded to beat myself up over when I got off the ice and headed to the locker room to change for Interp. This very nice lady comes by as I get ready to go on the ice for Interp and says "Oh, you're skating again? Cool, I'll go get my daughter so she can SEE your Axel because I told her it was really great - in fact way better than hers!"

Last summer while I was skating/competing abroad, another skater gave me a very nice compliment, he said I made everything look easy and I didn't look like an adult skater. That meant a lot to me, while I did skate as a kid I wasn't very good, since I was injured at the time it meant a lot more to me, I was feeling very unsure and really just trying to continue skating without pain.

I only hope to be able to skate like that again.

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

After I failed the Dutch Waltz for the third time and was just about in tears, a young girl (about 11) from our club who also tested came up to me and said "I just want to tell you that I admire you so much, you skate with your head up and my head is always down and you always smile when you skate and you never give up ...you just keep trying no matter what. And I thought you skated beautifully and if I was a judge I would have passed you"

Well that just did make me cry for a different reason!

j

JSkater49, find that kid's parents and let them know they must be doing something right. Some people go their whole lives without showing the sort of candor and kindness that she displayed. You were so lucky to be the recipient of it!

Last week, during my first skate in new boots, a woman and her husband stopped me and said, "You skate so beautifully!" I thanked them profusely and said I was now ready to collect my Academy Award for best actress, because my sweet little pinky toes were in agony and here I was, gliding along as though life were all sweetness and light.

I've been very lucky to hear many nice compliments skating. Saying that, I'm always very aware in my head of all the things I need to improve on. I guess I tend to focus on this more than I shoud. Today I was very lucky to hear from a coach, that I didn't know, that I was a "Darling skater and she saw many things she liked." I was so embarassed that I started telling her all my bad issues. She informed me that I wasn't my mistakes but a whole package, "You have great ponts and needs to improve points. I'm seeing the positives." What a nice compliment and it ment even more that I didn't know her.

teresa

Oh how I hope she grows up to be a judge!

My moment of arrival was going to the family skating party for my company, most people I work with know that I teach learn to skate, but I don't really talk about being a skater because (little voice) I'm not very good Upon some urging I did a spin and a toe loop, I was tired and they weren't great and then I played with the kids and bopped around the ice until the Santa/hot chocolate and presents time. No one said anything to me then, but the vice president looked me up the next day and said that I was a very good skater and how proud he was to have me work at the company. I asked for a raise skating costs you know, didn't get it .

I love it when they ask that!!! As I usually skate morning public sessions on weekends I do get that from time to time. Funniest was one girl who was carrying on a running commentary as she skated. Everytime I was at the barrier having a drink of water or checking my practise list, she would stagger past with the commentary going; "and she overtakes the professional...."

What I love most is when other middle aged ladies there watching their kids tell me I am an inspiration to them, and that I'm so graceful. As my size & shape is more reminiscent of a baby elephant than a ballerina, anyone saying I am graceful makes my day.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

I told her mother about it and she wasn't surprised at all

j

About a year ago I was working on a program, brought my CD player to the rink and started going through the program at the end of the session. A mom and her son got off the ice last, but then appeared a few minutes later and sat in the bleachers. They watched me until I got off the ice at which point came up to me and said "thanks for the show". The little boy also thanked me.

That was a great moment. Embarassing because relatively speaking I suck, but a great moment nonetheless.

This sport is so difficult, it's nice when other people notice our efforts.

That wasn't me was it? Nah, couldn't have been

Just yesterday at a public skate as I was lacing-up when one of the fathers said that he saw me practicing the previous day.

He told me that it may have been just a practice & a work-out to me, but that I was an inspiration to everyone else on the ice!

That did make me feel good, but always comments like that have to be tempered with reality.

I also get rhetorical comments from other adult public skaters; "You must have been skating all your life!" Sometimes I just keep it to myself, but I do like to brag a bit that I didn't put on figure skates until I was 50.

It's merely my persistance that makes me any better. I certainly am not a natural at this sport.

Then at this time of year usually a college skater shows up on the local ice making me look like the duffer that I really am.

Yesterday I skated at a seasonal outdoor rink with my DH and twins. The younger kids at the session were just blown away by my really mediocre spins because of the ice tracings they left! lol

I had a brother and sister, who take lessons nearby, ask me to show them lunges and spins and jumps. "Are you a professional?" Hmmmm....I don't get paid to skate, just to teach and coach.

When I told the nine-year old that I started skating at 17, his eyes went big and round. Then I gave each of them a lecture to NEVER STOP skating. Since they have a big head start on me, they should become better skaters in the long run.

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