I was wondering something. Do you like or dislike being called an adult skater if you are one? Either way, why?

I truly don't. I am an adult and I do skate however. I've thought about this some. I think it's because when I first started skating a skating parent called me an "adult skater" and didn't say it very nice. I felt like a dirty word sorta at the time. Second, my old coach used to always tell me I couldn't learn certain things because I was an "adult skater". I hated this to say the least. (I have learned many of things I wasn't supposed to do. =-) ) Anyhow, I just say I skate. I just leave out the adult, because it's obvious I am one.

I really would like to hear your thoughts.

teresa

I don't mind either way. I don't pay much attention to what others think or how they phrase their comments.

Perhaps being a male skater in a mostly female sport has hardened me to taunts and slights. It's like a boy named Sue, if you remember that old song.

Or maybe it's because I'm old and grumpy...

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Bill Schneider

I don't really think about what category I fall into. Most skating parents I have met have been very supportive and impressed that I can do the things I do. Many parents have told me that their daughters really admire me (even though those kids can outskate me by a mile). I have overheard (or heard second-hand) some very obnoxious comments made by a few coaches regarding "adult skaters", and that has been upsetting, especially since those coaches also teach adults. It makes me sad that someone's coach has such little respect for them and the rest of us.

It would depend on the context and intent of which I'm being called an "adult skater."

But yes, most of the non-skating adults are quite amazed when I tell them I'm 40 and compete as a figure skater. (Some of the adults think of me as their "on ice" baby-sitter/adult playmate for their kid... )

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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 refer to myself as a competitive skater, just one who falls into the adult category. Since my coach and I actively promote "adult skating" I would never malign the term!

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

I've never heard "adult skater" used negatively around here, so I'm totally okay with it. It explains why my hips have a bit more padding than the typical skater, and why my jumps are a bit lower- but it doesn't provide any excuses for why I can or can't do certain elements.

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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)

How about being an "adult skater" who has got to be the slowest learner in the universe? I don't mind being called an "adult skater," but I wish I could show people that adults can actually skate! As opposed to being an adult who "tries" to skate.

Is there anyone else here who loves skating but doesn't 1) find it relatively easy and/or natural; and 2) doesn't have time to commit more than 3-4 hours a week to it?

(I should sign this "intensely frustrated." <g>)

I'm enjoying reading all the comments.

sk8dreamer,

If I was honest, I would say that I have been lucky learning skills. Easier than some anyhow. I wouldn't say things were natural. Everything is a process. Sometimes the process is longer than others. I skate between 6 and 7 hours a week. I have many peers who do a great job on 3 or 4 hours. Don't be frusterated with your progress. Skating is a journey and just worry about your trip.

teresa

I don't mind being referred to as an Adult Skater because I enjoy breaking people's stereotypes of adult skaters and forcing them to redefine what they think we are. I say, bring it on!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I have a friend who says she doesn't mind being called "an adult skater" -- because that means she's qualified to skate at AN... BUT when her coach wants to motivate her he tells her "you're skating that like an adult, not a skater".

I think the tone of voice he uses and the fact she trusts him to push her help mitigate how that might otherwise be interpreted. Two years ago she told me she would "never have a layback spin" and couldn't even imagine wanting to work on laybacks. He started her working on laybacks last year and now there's one in her new program. So he does push her past what she thinks her limitations are.

I am an adult skater, in every sense of the word!

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

I don't really care. I think when it comes to skating, I've been battling stereotypes my whole life. For years I dealt with the whole "synchro is for skaters who can't really skate" stereotype--I got that all the time from singles skaters back when I wasn in high school, my usual defense to that was "wanna come over some time and see my national medals? Or maye you'd like to watch the videos from when USFS sent my team to international competitions in Europe? What, you've never even made it out of regionals in novice ladies? I competed at the senior level for the first time when I was 13! Who's the "real skater" now? Synchro isn't for people who can't skate, it's for a different kind of skater (both in terms of on-the-ice and personality). It's like comparing swimmers to divers. Do swimmers consider divers people who just can't swim fast?

I like to think that I set a good example of someone who isn't afraid to try new things...like switching disciplines at age 26. Or as someone who promotes the fact that skating really is a lifelong sport--something you can do through college and as an adult (even if you take time off--I took a year here and there). Or someone who proves that you can stay active in something like skating even though your "real life" is hectic--I work full time and attend law school at night. So if that's what they want to define as an adult skater, fine with me. The other adults who skate at my rink range in time skating and ability, but they, too, are professors, lawyers, doctors, parents (some are parents of skaters), full-time coaches, etc. And I generally find that all the kids (including the home schooled prodigys who train at my rink) and parents are, for the most part, really respectful toward us.

I always make sure I take the time to talk to our teenage skaters about all of the opportunities that are available to them in terms of skating when they are adults, whether in college (collegiate conference for singles, joining synchro, etc) and the benefits that continuing to skate has (and putting them in contact with synchro coaches at schools they are interested in, helping them find the right info on the USFS site, etc). I also try to make them aware of other non-school related opportunities that are open to them ("young adult" category at some competitions, being able to come to adult nationals when they turn 21). I think it's important to look at these kids as our future adult skaters and rope them in! So many of my friends quit after high school or during/after college, and there is no reason to do that!

I still don't know how true "adult skaters" (in the stereotypical sense of an adult who doesn't even strap on a pair of skates until they were adults) do it. I'd be scared to death to flat out be learning to skate at my age (or older)!

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

HAHAHAHA!!

I did not start skating till I was 28 and I do not have one scrap of talent! Nothing comes naturally and I have to work like a fiend for every single new thing I learn. I didn't start making progress till I started skating at least 4 hours a week (but with only 5 months of ice a year it's still been awfully hard to move ahead...). It took me forever to get my scratch spin. I'm hoping to get my loop before I'm so old that I have to use a walker to get out on the ice but after 15 minutes of working on it I'm so sore that I have to stop!

But, having said that, I'm finally working on more advanced spins--my coach just started me on a layback and the sit-backsit is starting to look like a real spin--and I competed at Adult Nationals this year (I qualified by passing the first six ice dances, which allows you to compete in Interpretive) and I wasn't last (not that there's anything WRONG with that!).

You just have to keep plugging away at it. Eventually the kids and even the skating parents get used to you and treat you like a skater and not a lunatic! There's plenty of us out here just like you.

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

I am an adult skater who didn't start learning til I was 38 and don't' mind the term as long as it's not used derogatively.

I do have to work very hard to stop looking like a skater who learned as an adult though, (as opposed to one who learnt as a child who - even if they have had a long lay-off before coming back to the sport - invariably look more at home on the ice than most adult learners can ever hope to achieve).

We just had a skate camp at our rink and I was extremely gratified when one of the parents watching told me I didn't look any different to the kids out on the ice and I wasn't in the lowest group either.

As more skaters continue in skating once they reach adulthood I think the derogatory use of the term 'adult skater' will hopefully fade, as well as the fact that more and more adults who learnt as adults are proving that they can learn to skate as well as some of the kids.

I only skate about 2-3 hours a week with 1.5 of those hours being in lessons (2 free skating and one ice dance).

Me to, only I started at 56! My coach has the patience of a SAINT because I learn in a month what the kids learn in an HOUR! (Then I forget half of it before the next lesson!)

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

I think the lack of natural talent is why I've actually stuck with skating for so long. I learn things quickly and easily so as a kid and in college, I never had to try or work hard in school (well except law school now), was good at music, art, my job came relatively easy, etc. However, with skating, I've always had to *work* hard to be successful and achieve my goals.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

One of the positive comments I've gotten from my coach about how she loves teaching an adult is this:

When we work on moves, right before I start she asks me to name the 5 things she's told me to focus on for the move. I can answer all 5, and if I think about it, can attempt to apply them. She tells me her kid skaters often just look blankly- having forgot the focus. (These are things like "don't back off on the first 3-turn, deep knee bend on each crossover, don't look down, use all the space on the end pattern, finish with as much speed as possible: not really big technical things)

Another coach also mentioned that he loves that he'll give us footwork in class one week, and I remember what it is the next week. The kids can all do the footwork, I usually can't, when he tells them it, but none of them remember it the next week (and he usually doesn't either, until he asks me).

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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)

It's easy. We were the coach potatoes who use to just watch our favourite skaters compete and do ice shows on TV and/or in person. But then one of our favourite skaters inspired us to try skating for ourselves. So then we try inline skating first because well, we don't know anything about any skating clubs or ice skating at all in our own towns. But soon, some how through the grapevine we find out about a group of adults skating at a local rink. So we go to check it out with a newly bought department store no support skates. The adult skaters that are there at the rink take pity on us helping us to get the basics. We continue for a while like this. Then we have no ice for a time. See an ad about ice when we've already become hooked but still can't do much, so we go and do something foolish but find that if we can make it through that, skating isn't all that scary as we thought. So then we search out skating clubs and join one to take real lessons. The rest is history. The reason we keep on skating is that we the real "adult skater" are addicted for life. And even though we thought we'd not skate through the summer, we couldn't help ourselves and signed up anyway. We adult skaters are the most consistant with attendance at the summer skating school.

How do I feel abot being called an adult skater? Happy. It took quite a while to become an adult. It's easy to just put on a pair of skates and stand on the ice. But to be an adult skater, an adult who doesn't just put on the pair of skates and stand there but does things on the ice with the skates, learns, creates, executes and emotes feelings from the bottom of our blades to the top of our grey (or someday grey) hairs with our movements on the ice is joyous. Where else can an adult play like a kid sharing their heart?

Although, I must admit. I want to look like the best skater I can be. So I must quit examining what I'm doing on the ice with my head almost planted in the ice and say a keyword to myself "audience". This gets me to lift my head and share my soul with the audience which fixes my posture everything else. Then I can be a better looking skater who happens to be an adult and that's the kind of adult skater I want to be.

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

I've always been proud of being an adult skater and I've been skating for 28 yrs. Yes, I've had sarcastic comments thrown at me: "Are you going for the Olympics?" "Skating's for kids!" as well as compliments. Not to brag but I've tested, competed, including the first two AN's and wish I could dangle every test result and medal high 'n dry in front of those negative talkers and say: "Now-what was that about skating being for kids??!"

Second, my old coach used to always tell me I couldn't learn certain things because I was an "adult skater

Interesting. Before AN (some) coaches were reluctant/refused to teach adults. They figured adults weren't "going to the Olympics" so why bother teaching them. Adult Skating Camps, Adult Level Groups, etc. didn't exist. After ANs the adult skating community boomed as well as skating programs for adults and (some) coaches who were reluctant to teach adults "suddenly" realized that was another source of income for them. Bet your old coach is now teaching adults(!)

Be proud you're an adult skater - through AN we've finally gotten the recognition we deserve : ) I've taught tots - adults and I never hesitate to teach adults nor do I demean their confidence because I truly understand how they're feeling: I started out the same way they did: afraid, yet determined to learn.

I don't personally remember a thing. I write everything down in a little notebook with a pretty cover that HappySkates gave me last year, usually before I even get off the ice because otherwise I menopausally forget everything instantly!! (Probably ought to cross-reference this to the "getting old sucks" thread)

There was something else I was going to add but I've forgotten what it was...

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

Generally, I don't mind it. I am an adult who skates. I do mind it when it's used in a condescending way. The people at the rinks I skate at seem to be supportive of adult skaters, so I don't often hear the term used in a bad way.

What I really, really don't like are generalizations of adult skaters - ie. we're slower, we take longer to learn things, we don't like to jump or we'll never learn doubles, we all learned to skate as adults (or, the opposite - we're trying to relive the glory days of our youth). Not all of those things are true of every adult skater. Everyone is different, and it annoys me when people think all adult skaters are the same. Someone may not like to jump, but she might pick up dances faster than the kids. Someone else may have learned as an adult, but is landing doubles now. Generalizations aren't true of kid skaters, so why should they be true of adult skaters?

Well, I was a horrible skater as a child...so ...at the age of 44, I am an adult, and I do skate. That is the end of it, my life, my sport that I enjoy.

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

I'm an adult skater who thinks she's a kid, trouble is the body doesnt believe me.

I'm fine with it - the adult skaters are well-respected at my rink because we've got one of the top masters skaters there (I always think that may be why, anyway). Now at my last rink the kids didn't respect us as much and it used to bug me!

Plus as I get older I like it...it'll be a lot of fun to be called an adult skater when I'm 70!

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

It's not the "how do you find a club" that's hard...if I hadn't started as a kid, I don't think I'd be able to put on a pair of skates and learn to skate at age 27 if I hadn't been on the ice before! I'd be scared to death.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything