Did anyone see that episode of "MADE" on MTV? It was on in the Uk about a month ago about a guy who was around 16, was good in school and was the star of the school Lacrosse team that were bound for state finals but secretly, he had always wanted to be a figure skater but his dad was really macho and seemed to weigh a guys manliness on how much he can bench press!! He was shocked when this guys MADE skating coach could lift just as much weight as him but the grief that this guy got from his dad because he wanted to skate and from his friends in school that god forbid something should get in the way of the universe saving Lacrosse game. Even his life long best friend was refusing to watch him compete because it wasn't manly in his eyes!!! but he proved them all wrong and it was very cool that his girlfriend was really supportive to the point of helping him design his costume!!

Well my son skates and so do I but I did not care one way or another if decided to skated. I do not live my skating life through my kid. As I always tell his coach when she asks me about what I would like him to do as far as testing, competition etc. I tell her to ask him not me because it is totally up to him to make his own decisions about what he wants to do with his skating. I just pay the bills. Don't get me wrong I am delighted that he has found a sport that he loves but in no way did I push him into this sport, the day I have to drag him to the rink he is done.

Talking of male costumes..... this year, for the first time ever, Husband is going to wear CRYSTALS!!! Mostly for dance he wears a shirt and bow-tie, and for free a T-shirt with a relevant logo, on top of his plain dark skating trousers. But I have had crystals put on my T-shirt, and the woman who did them for me said she would do Husband's, too, and explained that we should match, and he didn't complain!

But I don't see him ever wearing sparkles of any kind when he didn't have to!

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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!

Months? :eek: My recommendation to new Learn-to-Skate parents whose kids want to play hockey is to try the hockey skates initially, but realize that if your child struggles, figure skates may be the better way to start. If it's really unacceptable to you to have your child take even a few lessons/skate a few times in figure skates, wait on skating until he/she is at least 5, and realize that even then you may end up needing to wait longer or do private lessons instead.

Also, we have a lot of parents at my rink who go to Play-It-Again Sports for their kid's skates. I can understand wanting to save the $$$, but a) our local PIA is notorious for selling overused, broken-down hockey skates, and b) these same kids often come in wearing full hockey equipment when all they need is the skates and the helmet. By the time they need full gear, the stuff won't fit them.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

I'll be an exception to test (prove in the archaic sense) your rule, then. My son and I have both been skating for about four years now, and there are no family females around at all. He's pretty self-motivated, too, and the finances are such that I would welcome the budget relief if he changed interests (but would keep skating myself). We've also got one pair of brothers (no sister) at one of our clubs who are/were competitive ice dancers (older one has retired). Their mother has never skated at all...There are also the Lorellos at UDFSC http://www.udel.edu/udfsc/ (look at the slide show of 2007 competitors). While there is a girl, she's the youngest of the four them, with both older brothers competing dance at the Junior level this year.

On the whole, though, I'd agree that situation is pretty common.

On boys in general, I could echo a lot of the commentary. My son is pretty used to getting inquiries regarding his tryout availability by now.

Rob

Come to think of it at our rink of all the boys that skate mine is the only one that has a Mom that skates. Not one of the boys even has a sister much less one that skates. None of the Moms have ever put one foot on the ice. So much for the thought that all boy skaters have a Mom or sister that skates

I can safely say (just to blow this theory out of the water ((sorry!! ) but I have no relatives that skate, I have no friends that skated before I started and I knew no one that skated or had even been to an ice rink so I guess I may just be the extreme exception to the rule. Any more extreme would have to be a guy who lives in the middle of the sahara desert with a goat and thinks the world is flat

I have two boys that figure skate. One, 13, is serious about it and the younger one, 11, just plays around. Myself, the Mom, doesn't skate. My husband plays hockey. My oldest son skated for the first time when he was 3, on hockey skates, of course. Watching him was very painful and I suggested to my husband that he take a LTS class to learn how to skate before he threw him into hockey. Well that was 10 years ago and my son, much to the chagrin of my husband, has never shown any interest in hockey. He loves to figure skate and my husband and myself are very supportive.

I do have theory as to why there aren't as many boys in skating. As I watched my two boys take LTS classes from a very young age I noticed that they typically didn't get much attention from the female instructors. I watched my boys get ignored many many times in group classes. I don't think it was intentional but subconsiously I think many instructors are thinking they're boys and they're just going to play hockey anyway so I once I teach them the basics they'll move on. We were fortunate that my sons had a wonderful male instructor at around the Gamma/Delta stage and that's where my older son got hooked on skating. I do have to say that once my sons hit the FS levels things did change. They then started receiving the same amount of attention as the girls in their classes. Since so few boys make it to the FS level, when they do they must be serious about it.

I do have to echo many of the previous comments in this thread. Being a boy figure skater is hard. First, there's not many of them and chances are that friends at school won't know much about figure skating or understand how hard it is. Second, there's not as much competition. My sons are always somewhat disappointed when they find out that they're not competing against anyone at a competition. It's hard to judge how well you're really doing when you're competing against the book. My older son actually likes it when he does compulsories or interp and he's put into a mixed group. I think one of his best moments was last year when he was in a mixed compulsory group and got 1st. That made his day.

On the upside...my sons are very comfortable around girls. This will be a handy skill in their teenage and adult years.

Wow! You guys are great. I am getting such an education about the skating world for boys. Just for the record no one in our family skated (except hockey dad) and my son took an extreme liking to it. That was 2 1/2 years ago. His sister who is 3 years older started along with him. She is a trooper though, she still wants to skate even though he has exceeded her in all areas of the sport.

DS was very popular and gots lots of attention when they picked up that he wanted to figureskate in LTS.

I remember hearing this tap tap tapping in a hallway behind me - it was a coach running madly in her hardguards to get me to sign him up for a development program even though he wasn't a very strong skater and there were girls with more talent and skills who weren't getting this approach; and he always got more attention, more coaching, and I got more "attention" too because they wanted to get on my good side and get the private coaching appointment. It was quite nauseating ... and hard for DD, who got shoved aside in the rush of coaches towards her little brother -

A colleague asked me only yesterday what I would do if my son wanted to take up figure skating when he got older, which I don't see happening as he's not got any kind of love for skating. But then he is only 4 so we'll see.

Bearing in mind the whole macho thing really irks me, saying that boys play hockey, girls figure skate and sexual stereotypes have never seemed like a good idea to me; My answer was the same with everything regarding my kids, I will support, nurture and understand.

Maybe even be slightly jealous if he turned out better than me