I wish my club would have orange vests! We used to have neon pink arm bands but the board decided we didn't need them any more.

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Until later,
*Lily*

Yes, I could see where this could be a problem, too. Seems like you just have to find some time when you are on the ice with only a few people to practice some of those upper-level Moves! At least with figures we all got our own patch of ice and crashes were very few and far between!

She was going backwards and I was doing a forward outside eight or serpentine -- moving very slowly doing the figure. I didn't see her coming. Very scary!

Our rink's priority for rights-of-way is the same as a lot of others...person whose music is playing, followed by lessons, followed by everyone else. Actual collisions are pretty rare, but we have plenty of close calls. We used to have a couple of coaches at our rink who were **awful** about teaching their little ones to watch out for others, so certain sessions were all but useless due to the 'clueless factor'.

Regarding "excuse me", I have mixed feelings about that one. I understand the need to warn someone if you're coming up behind them, but I've seen kids bellow "excuse me" at someone who is fifteen feet away and clearly not heading in their direction. Or who holler "excuse me" **every** time they are heading into a jump in their program. That kind of thing gets obnoxious in a hurry.

Can't really complain about summer ice, though. The kids are all skating during the day (mine included) so the evening sessions are deserted. Tonight it was me, another adult skater, and our coach. My friend stood off to the side and watched my program run-through. No worries about slicing anyone on my back spiral! I love summer and dread the fall when everyone is fighting over the sparse evening ice we do have.

This is interesting -- we generally skate during the day and so absolutely dread the summer ice scene -- during the fall-winter-spring our sessions are mostly populated by adults, some days sparsely and other days are more busy. This summer has been better because they've introduced some Adult/Ice Dance noon-time sessions which have been great.

Sorry to ramble away from topic. It is a habit of mine.

This morning the rink was more crowded than usual as it's summer, and I think some of the coaches are going away at the end of the week, so people were having their lessons early. Anyway, I was doing Field Moves in my lesson, and a couple of times I had to significantly reduce my pattern as skaters were in my way, but I noticed that any time someone saw that I was having to do that because of them, they apologised. And realised what I was doing, and looked out for it next time.

It tends to be like that at our rink - the older and more experienced skaters tend to do the avoiding..... obviously, priorities are the same as elsewhere, plus, of course, people with competitions coming up probably get to hog the music a bit more than those with nothing on the horizon until Christmas.

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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!

Yes, it's like that here too. Skaters with competitions coming get to hog the music machine, plus there's always training ice available. If no one's using the machine, then they either put the radio on (like some music station) or give skaters chance to have their music twice in a session, if no one else needs it.

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Until later,
*Lily*

LOL - if I skated during the day, I'd dread summers too. Unfortunately there is this small matter of having to work full time to pay for this sport...

When skaters are not doing elements or run-throughs at our rink they skate around the outside of the rink (ccw). This means that even on a crowded session you only have to worry about people who are actually doing stuff, not people who are between elements and just sort of wandering. It works really well.

After 20 years of working the old ( to 5, I finally figured out my priorities and found a way to work full time and find time to skate during the day. My only question is: why did it take me so long?

Yes, I've had that too! When you've got the coaches telling them not to yield under ANY circumstances (and behaviour begets behaviour!) then the whole thing just degenerates into one appalling mess. One of our 'skating princesses' actually jumped into one of my coaches! We were doing spins, she was NOT in a lesson but running through her jumps and actually LOOKED at my coach, jumped anyway and spiked her in the calf with her toepick! The coach was one of those who doesn't care about anyone else on the rink and the kid had just carried through this behaviour! Neither coach nor pupil apologised.

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The best whisper is a click

I've taught my daughter to say "excuse me" when she's skating to her music (with orange belt on, therefore the right of way), however since she is a Tot/no test skater sometimes on sessions with Junior/Senior level skaters, they pretty much ignore her. We actually had a FS session last week with 25+ skaters and my daughter came off the ice and told me she wasn't able to skate - it just wasn't safe! I told her to get back out there, but stressed that she has to watch out for other skaters... which she is getting MUCH better at!

I just wish free skating coaches who have never danced would learn that dancers are apt to be on a particular pattern, just like free skaters doing their programmes are.... we have one coach who, if she happens to look out for the dancers, it's a matter for congratulatory comment!

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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 try to avoid sessions with dancers on them as much as possible, especially with couples who are dancing. The reason is two-fold:

1 - I don't know the dances, so I don't know where the dancers are going.

2 - It seems like the dancers are always in a pattern. With freestyle, you are only in a pattern if you are working on MIF's or doing sections of your program. Therefore, it's easier to get around each other. Around here, (and I'm not saying it's this way anywhere else, so please don't jump on me), it seems like the dancers always expect everyone to move out of their way, no matter what you are doing, because they are in a pattern. Of course, this is at a club who's main ice rule seems to be the person who can intimidate the most gets right-of-way .

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"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown