I skate 1 day a week on afternoon freestyle (lesson). I don't mind skating with the high level skaters near as much as I mind skating with the combination of high level skaters (novice thru senior level), me (mid-level Adult dancer), and what seems like a horde of private lesson LTS kids. Some of the LTS privates are in lessons, and the coach will generally pull them out of the way, but the ones who are practicing are generally oblivious to what's going on around them. No matter whether it's a senior lady setting up for 3Z, a middle-aged ice dancer trying to do Tango, or a novice guy setting up for 3L or a combo spin.

It's the disparity of the levels that makes it dangerous and frustrating...

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Our sessions are mixed, but last Wednesday morning, as my husband reminded me this morning, the only people on the ice were middle-aged men! "And this is supposed to be a sport for young girls!" said Husband.

What's more, only one of those men, a beginner, was in hockey skates, and he reckons he got the wrong thing. He says that now he's got them, he'll do his LTS in them, and then change to figure skates next year, which seems fair enough to me.

But at our rink the average age of the skaters tends to be around 50! We had three elite skaters on the ice when I arrived this morning; they all left at around 09:30, and after that there was only one skater under the age of 40, and most people were in their 50s and 60s.

Teatime is a whole other ball game, of course....

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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 don't recall any WFSC adult freestyle sessions. They used to have a freestyle session at Mt. Vernon but it was mostly junior skaters since it was late in the afternoon when most of the adult skaters were still at work. Several years ago they had a Sunday morning freestyle session at Reston that was open to all ages and levels but that disappeared.

I skate on their Sunday morning club sessions at Cabin John. The first is an open practice session with freestyle and moves, and it's followed by a family session. Both have a mixture of all levels of skaters from some who can barely totter around to one who is working on triples. The family session also has some skaters on hockey skates.

It's difficult to get much accomplished because of all the different levels but mostly because a group of little girls, once they finish their private lessons, skate around in a pack all trying to do the same thing at once. They don't look where they're going, nor do they care if somebody else is having a private lesson. Last Sunday four of them nearly ran into me as I was spinning because they all decided to squat down and go around one of the hockey circles even though the space was already occupied by me, another skater in a private lesson, and a coach who all had to dodge.

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"May the wind be at your back and the sun upon your face and may the wings of destiny carry you aloft to dance with the stars."

I loved skating with the kids (avoided public sessions like the plague anyway) in fact I'd rather skate with kids than with other adults. I doubt that I would have gone to an adults only patch to be honest. I had a lot of support from the kids who were very helpful and even came to tests and competitions to cheer me on. I'm sure that I progressed more BECAUSE I was skating with kids.

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The best whisper is a click

I've done both... skated with the kids during freestyle session and skate during adults only coffee club session... I have to say either one is fine with me but since coffee club in general is less busy I prefer it. At times it's almost like having private ice time!