This is not an exaggeration, by the way - at least one Nobel Prize winner is an ice dancer, and turned up one Sunday morning at Oxford's regular dance club session. Friends of mine, who are members there, were thrilled to meet him, and I gather he danced superbly!

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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!

Gee, I can't wait to go meet Peaches in person at the Peach Classic in the Fall. Maybe get a pep talk from her.

I quit debating on this already, just want to inform you that most rinks (including mine, so that counts me out) have special adult freestyles, and even if they don't, they separate skaters by level. If Novice is at 10am, you're not on it. If Juvenile is at 3pm, I'm not on it. Our pathes never cross. And btw, I'm very friendly/chatty with every single adult skater at my rink- they all love me and I love them back and get very excited when they have something new to work on. Just because I don't support obesity within a physically demanding athletic setting doesn't mean I don't support people working on their personal goals and that I can't appreciate people's accomplishements and personalities all the same. I know, I know, that makes you "chuckle". My purpose in life. But clearly, by your constant asumptions about my character, I'm not the only one who could stand to be a little less close-minded (and at least, I admit it).

-FadedStardust

Maybe MOST rinks where you live. Where I live there are hardly any Adult-only Freestyle sessions. At the rink I skate at, there used to be 1 Adult freestyle session, once a week, which was very well attended (15-20+ people). But it was opened up to anyone some months ago and is now more crowded than before. Can't speak for the other rinks in the area where I live.

I choose to skate mostly very early mornings, before work, with the obligatory once-per-week skate on one of the afternoon FS sessions, for one of my lessons.

Adult only freestyle session? Never heard of it.

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Me neither, though during the school year, our regular FS session essentially becomes an Adult FS session after about 8:30am...

There's also Coffee club though, but I jokingly refer that as our "impromptu ice dance session" since a good group of the regulars are ice dancers! (Same with our Monday nights Adults only public session since a lot of the adults are figure skaters, though lately it's been evenly mixed between them and the hockey skaters!)

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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!!!

Every adult I've talked to who goes on adult freestyle absolutely love them. For those of you who say you don't have them or haven't heard of them, that's a shame, maybe you could mention it to the rink staff where you skate? I know a LOT of adult sessions accross the nation are cancelled due to lack of attendance in that they don't make back the money it takes to make the ice, but that is CRAP because a lot of rinks have early morning freestyles for high level kids, and there's only one or two people on there and I doubt they are making the money back there, either. It's a good idea because I know the adults at my rink always hold back and don't practice as much as they'd want to on regular sessions (even of their level) because they feel like they'd be "in the way" which is a shame. If you have ice you're happy with then good, but if not, it'd be an option to get some adults from your area together and ask for adult freestyle, it could even maybe get more people to get into it, if the rink advertizes it well enough.

-FadedStardust

all of our fs are together, from my 4yo who is doing her 3 turns, to the ice dancers and the adults.everyone gets along .

Same here

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This is my final post on this entire board:

If you'd added "but thanks for the suggestion, maybe someone else will find it beneficial" to the end of that quote, I would have had a sense of you actually being a semi pleasant person returning my gesture in trying to calm a long winded argument. But there's really no pleasing you people is there? I post a "controversial" point of view on adult skating, you're not happy. I offer a positive suggestion to better some people's practices in adult skating, you're not happy. I thought that if I tried to bring something positive into this thread, it could be a way to end this in peace and tame the fire. But it's really sad how immature some of you really are, clearly holding a grudge over something that wasn't an insult to begin with. Your posts, twokidsskatemom, have grated on my nerves as much as mine have grated on yours, not on this thread but on others, but I have bitten my tongue so many times simply because your opinion is your opinion and I have no reason to cut it down and tell you mine's better (unlike 99.9 percent of you on EVERY topic from Michelle vs Sasha to this one...it's impossible to exchange ideas here! Just FIGHT about them, cause no one accepts diversity of beliefs). I voiced on this topic because it was a pretty unpersonal thing, it wasn't "should *I* lose weight, here are my measurements", which I wouldn't have replied to no matter what I thought, it was "in general, should people attempt to be fitter in skating" which is why it was safe enough to voice opinions without attacking or offending anyone personally. If you were offended by my posts, then you think you are too fat. If you think you are too fat, that's not my fault, I never called you fat and I never will. I was voicing a general opinion on the sport. Apparently none of you function like that here, which is sad, but I've really come to hate this place. It's time for me to stop posting, this stopped being fun way too long ago and I haven't even been here long. Peaches, carry the torch of reason please. They need someone who actually understands how the sport works instead of how people wished it worked. You've got a patience of steel for still being here. Good luck, my friend. I'm out.

-FadedStardust

I have no clue what your deal is all about.
Its my job as a parent to discover my childs passion and help them persue it. No matter if its skating, hockey, or reading. That is part of the role we play.I dont want my child to win a medal as much as find out for herself what she LOVES to do. Alot of kids never ever find it.So, my child likes to no excuse me loves to skate. She is never forced or made to go.She is happy on the ice. next year it might be something else, and then we will support her in that choice as well. You dont think kids should do jumps, that is fine. How about all the kids in hockey, football ect? Lets see, a kid sitting at home watching tv or skating ? A child who loves to skate or a kids doing drugs ?
Then you dont think adults who are overweight should skate either. I dont think anyone said...boy I will not lose weight but skate. everyone here who has weight issues im sure would love to lose weight. But I sure the h--- dont think they should stay off the ice either. i think anyone should skate no matter what. You dont have to watch them. Its not your life. you dont need to coach them or watch them so you ?
places arent the same. our rink isnt the same as yours. sorry. its life. our fs is all, just how it is.It wouldnt be hard to check on my story, everyone knows Im in alaska and how many rinks do you think we have here?
Then I should make nice about your coment? excuse me, I have two small kids and fit this in when time allows. I was just agrreing with another poster who said they dont have adult fs either. We dont have high low, adult ect. I wasnt comenting about you.
And btw, i am 5 foot 6 and wear a size 8. But I hate when people put anyone down, it really irks me.
You have said you are a teenager. you have said you are a coach.You think about this thread when you are 40 and married with kids.Life changes alot of views.
no one said you couldnt disagree. But not acting like you know it all either.You dont and neither do I.But I admit it

you were offended by my posts, then you think you are too fat. If you think you are too fat, that's not my fault, I never called you fat and I never will. I was voicing a general


I was offended as they were RUDE< not cause I am fat. ADULTS dont name call.My kids know better than that.

Nope. Won't happen at my rink. We're already losing well-subscribed freestyle sessions to hockey, because hockey is willing to pay more.

All winter, I skated splitting the rink with hockey players...me and several other skaters on half the rink, 5 or 6 hockey players on the other.

Anytime a freestyler makes noises about any session other than the 3 "after school" sessions, we run the risk that the session we were commenting about will suddenly be sold for hockey.

Hockey is BIG BUCKS. Up Front.

I have to say I do appreciate this post, and it does seem that you do have some understanding of what some adults are feeling out there. I agree that many adults feel they are "in the way" and hold back.....I don't think the responses are a slam to you, it's just a reality at most rinks that adult sessions are not an option. Especially rinks like mine with only one ice surface.

But as to Peaches carrying the torch....and us not understanding the way the sport really is....well, that's been the whole point of many posts here. I'm assuming you are a competitive skater at Novice or above? I believe you absolutely understand the way competitive skating is on the regular track. We've been saying all along that adult skating is different in many ways, but you haven't been hearing us. These aren't excuses as you suggest, it is the reality. I don't think you will ever experience what most adults do, as you will go directly to Masters if you chose to compete as an adult. You will have different challenges, that of keeping those doubles consistently as you have less time to spend on training. Nobody is going to tell you that the moves you have passed on the regular track don't matter, and you have to pass a bunch of tests that include all the moves you already tested. That's the situation for any adult who hasn't passed Intermediate FS. Nobody is going to make you pass Intermediate and Novice moves even though your FS level is equivalent to Juvenile. That's the situation for Adult Gold testers. Nobody is going to impose some unknown standard on your tests. If you are hearing us then you realize many judges are expecting higher standards for adult tests, not lower. The lower passing standards mean nothing. Just numbers.

Well, I have to admit I've enjoyed this whole thread......

It's very difficult to take your "suggestion" as positive after you've been "convtroversial" (your word, not mine) on a topic. You started off by telling us adults that we need to fix what you perceive to be wrong with us, or we shouldn't be testing and competing. So forgive us if some of us see your post as another indication of how ignorant we are and that you know what's best for us. We aren't ignorant of the ways of the skating world, as you seem to believe. Many of us serve as officers and board members and test chairs of our clubs. We represent our clubs at Governing Council, and we know how to negotiate ice time. But most of the places we skate simply will not create adult only figure skating sessions because they don't make enough money for the rink. They've tried; we've tried. Duh. It's a matter of economics. Why would a rink choose to make $90 off of adult skaters when they can sell the same ice to hockey for $220? But thanks for the suggestion. <shrug>

Twokids, I've read and re-read your "all of our fs are together" post and cannot for the life of me fathom why fadedstardust went off on you. I have no clue what faded's deal is all about, either. I don't know how your post could be viewed as holding a grudge. It wasn't even about the obesity issue anymore, either! If anything, you were moving on with the issue, and faded was dredging up the past arguments.

Oh well, at least this thread has provided me with amusement for the past few days.

Whoa. Overreact much? I didn't see anything argumentative in the previous post. All twokidsskatemom was saying was that adults-only freestyle sessions were not available at her rink. But apparently you feel you need stroking when you give a suggestion. That, my friend, is immature.

Um, nope. Personally, not fat, not offended. However, my feelings are irrelevant to the fact that your comments were offensive, regardless of whether someone was personally offended or not.

For anyone in the Baltimore area, there is an Adults Only freestyle at Ice World on Tuesday evenings. My home club, The Ice Club of Baltimore at Northwest ice rink is a very open club welcoming adults and kids of all shapes and abilities. The six year olds, the teens, and the adults all skate together and we get along quite well.

Elsy2 - I think you've summed up my feelings!

Thanks Flo!

Successful people can and are accepting mediocrity when they make excuses for why they're the size they are and why they'll remain that way. Maybe they're just happy with themselves, or maybe it's just too hard for them to get up and do something about it. Either way, in the end they're doing nothing, and that is what I meant about accepting mediocrity. That, and of course saying that because they're older they'll never get certain jumps or moves, or whatever. I say, never say never, but I'm apparently more optimistic than a lot of people here.

If you've gotten the vibe that I'm against adult skaters, then you haven't been paying attention. Not liking excuses about skating and weight is vastly different than disliking the adult skating community as a whole. But, if the adults want respect then they need to take skating more seriously, IMO. And that means no excuses.

To Flipper - No I do not intimidate anyone on the ice. I wouldn't want anyone doing it to me or my students, therefore I don't do it to anyone else.

Faded, I'm done being the voice of reason. I can't deal with unreasonable people that only want to take comments and twist them into "You're a mean, bad person who hates adult skaters". I guess that's just easier for them to believe than what I actually posted though.

I said: you translate that into:

who's having a harder time reading what is posted?

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

Do feel free to point out where anybody was "making excuses" for the size they are? Some of us pointed out that losing weight is a lot more difficult once you hit fifty (tell me about it!), and others - me included - said that often perception of "overweight" is as much a matter of fashion as of fact.
Well, your experience may be different, but I don't know anybody who started skating over the age of 45 who has any more difficult jump than a single lutz, just possibly a rather small axel jump. And had you the coaching of me, Peaches, you would know that there are limits - even though my coach said, in another context, "Lutzes are easy; even you could do one if I showed you how!" But I'm a dancer at heart and have no interest in doing more than minimal jumps.
Again, feel free to point out how skating four or five times a week and winning medals in international competition is not taking skating seriously?

May I suggest you learn to read accurately - our Moderator's handle happens to be "Flippet", not what you have just written.... it is a good job she has a sense of humour!

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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 attend, thanks.

Mel, tit for tat. Others exaggerate the situation, so can I. BTW, I know who you are and I've heard some *really* interesting stories about you.

Mrs. RedBoots (let us hope you don't actually skate with red boots), my apologies for misspelling a name.

From Peaches:
"If they want to sell themselves short, remain fat slobs, and skate like hippos on downers then let them."
From Peaches to Mel:
"BTW, I know who you are and I've heard some *really* interesting stories about you."

Peaches, This is not the "voice of reason". It's one of intolerance and imaturity, and one we can do without.

I wonder why you hope that? I know skaters with blue boots, and purple boots, as well as the more traditional black, white and beige. And you can even get leopardskin-print boots, I've seen them!

Me, I use bootcovers, to ring the changes..... On Sundays, I try to reflect the liturgical colour of the season.....

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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!