How many of you are former child skaters? (And as a former child skater, I mean you had a coach (or coaches) and/or started skating competitively when you were under 21...)

If you don't fit into either category (i.e. in my case, I skated as a child for two years as a recreational skater, but I seriously can't consider myself a child skater b/c I did not have proper coaching. I learned everything from a book I borrowed in the school library.)

I will post one shortly for Masters level skater as well.

Also, please post how many years you skated as a kid and how many years you skated as an adult. By that, I'm mean how many years you've competed standard track.

Thanks much!

__________________
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 am both, I am a kid skater who was really bad, I had good coaching and made it to my 3rd figure test, I didn't pass it. I skated at maybe 5 competitions as a teenager. Started @ 14 quit by 18, on my 3rd figure,and working on but had never passed my int fs.

21-18 years off the ice, back at 36 started at silver according to USFSA retook adult tests and skated silver for 1 year. Gold for 3 years and just moved up to Novice. All my double jumps (not that any are consistent) are from being an adult skater. Passed int, nov FM and int FS as an adult.

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

Can I play? I'm an ice dancer, not freestyler, but am in the middle of my pre-golds, which qualifies me to compete adult gold dance w/ the right partner. I started skating at 27, having never skated before. I've been skating for 11 years now. (6 of those ice dancing)

My story sounds similar to co-skater's

I skated from age 15-18, with private lessons for a little over 2 of those years. I passed my Juv Figures and FS test shortly before going to college. I started back again with private lessons at age 39 - 3 years ago (for 6 mo before that, I went by myself at lunch - I got back to doing weenie waltz jumps, sals and toe loops by myself, but couldn't do a full loop; I also fell and broke my arm on a three turn before starting lessons again). As a child, I could land an axel, but never landed a double. I competed in exactly 3 competitions as a child, a couple at prelim or pre-juv, and one at juv. As an adult, I've competed at 3-4 local Silver competitions, and then this year at Sectionals and AN (Silver).

I passed up to Silver within a year, and then had an overuse injury that waylaid me from jumping for a year and a half. I'm mostly through the rehab and healing from that (with knee surgery a year ago), and have an axel now - and just tested up to Gold. 2sals are close, but not quite. No sign of any other doubles yet. My plan is to compete at Gold for a few years - with hopefully a few solid doubles, and then we'll see - I'll probably continue testing up the standard track. As an adult, I have also passed my 3rd figures test, and through all pre-Silver dances (heck, when you can't jump...).

Sara

I was coached from age 5 - 12ish (maybe 13, I can't remember) I passed a couple of tests, but never competed. Started, again, right after graduating from college for about 4 years and passed my 1st figure test (this was a very ancient pre-moves era.) Then I stopped again (huge mistake) started up again at 36 -48. Not going to stop, again, until I drop dead. Should never have stopped when I was a teenager, but I wanted to go shopping at the mall instead stupid me

I think under my criteria you're a former child skater, since you were coached when you were a kid. The difference between you and me is that I had rental skates and no coaching as a kid.

Unfortunately, this vBulletin thing that skatingforum runs on doesn't allow me to change your category. Oh, well!

As for shopping... hey! A girl's gotta do what she's gotta do!

__________________
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 skated as a kid from 4 to about 13. Passed the first couple of figures and competed , then stopped when we moved. I came back to skating 2 years ago at age 49. I passed all the adult track moves pre bronze thru golds in 7 months ,as well as freestyle thru silver level, I will be testing free style gold this month as well as my intermediate moves. Most all my single jumps came back easily although my doubles are terrible , but i am still trying to get at least double sal and double toe back. I skate two hours or more five days a week and never plan on stopping. We have an 83 year old coach who is still teaching everyday!!!!!!!!

Oops! Never mind . . .

I never skatied as a child, not even pond skating. I started skating 6 months before the 2000 nationals in lake placid. I am 34 now and this was my second year in gold.

so i have competed for 7 seasons. but have in actuallity only skated 5 years ( somewhere in ther i have lost 9 months on the ice 2 seperate times for broken ankles and a few months to knee surgery ). so i lost sometime in the count. i qam not sutre which number of years skating counts to you. I am sure lots of adults have gone crash and boom enough to know there are always 2 answers to that question! (lol)

__________________
Q:If landing an axle is 3 times your body weight, then how many times your body weight is the landing of a throw axle
A: depends on whos throwing you and how much you lied about your weight on your pairs profile


a can of stickum : $5.95
the email asking "how do you get this sticky stuff off " ...priceless

those are great ideas...now what lift were we doing again?

hey Tim...i finally figured out how to get the sticky stuff off!

Missing: east coast stunt doubles poster

Started as an adult - staying as an adult. No sports as a child, I was an academic and music kid.

__________________
Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

I started at age 25 on a pair of rentals .
5 months later I went to Europe on a one way ticket and $400 to try and join Holiday on ice.. They told me I was the worst skater they had ever seen,,..... That was 21 years ago..

I started in a group class at age 27, did that for 5 years with a few privates here and there, quit completely for 5 years, then came back to the ice and got serious in 2002. That's when I took my Pre-Bronze test, put together my first program, etc. I did my first competition at Bronze in 2003.

Fortunately, I was already pretty comfortable on the ice when I started classes at 27, since I had a few friends who skated when I was in junior high school and I would go to the rink with them sometimes and try to copy them. I ended up with crossovers in one direction, a bunny hop, and a tiny waltz jump landed on the flat of my blade, LOL!

Started at about 7, quit after my sophomore year of high school -- would have been so great to have high school teams like they do here now!

Skated mostly ISIA my first years, passing the 6th test. My friend wanted me to take the 7th with her, but I didn't want to (and am glad of it now! ) Started the USFSA system at around 11. Totally sucked at figures -- hated the 5:30 sessions before school . I did manage to do well at a few multi-state/Canadian USFSA competitons (one win, two seconds), but couldn't pass my second figure test. The last year I skated up to Juvenile, but I couldn't go to regionals and I decided to hang up the skates at 15 and have a real life enjoying high school. I had doubles in my program through the loop, and was working on the flip and lutz. Never tried a 2axel. Could do pretty much all of the spins, including a death drop and flying sit, but that was never my strong suit. Still isn't. Loved footwork - still do. Passed the preliminary dances, but knew quite a few more. Loved the Kilian and the Blues.

Fast forward 23 years. I was very overweight (over 200 pounds on a 5'5" frame) when I came back, but I did lose quite a bit the first year. Within a year of coming back in 2002, I had passed the pre-bronze through silver free, then the gold MIF, and gold free, making me eligible to compete at the 2003 AN. Of course, I got an over use unjury practicing 2sals right after I passed my gold free test , but skated anyways and finished 8th in the open event . I've passed the intermediate MIF and the pre-bronze dances since.

Qualified the next year, quite unexpectedly, at sectionals. Tanked totally at AN due to my own nerves (heck, AN was NOTHING like Tri-States as a 12 year old), but learned a valuable lesson. Tanked again the next year at sectionals, but not because of nerves -- I was sicker than a dog . Had my best showing at the open gold event at AN that year (tie for 5th), then finished 5th at sectionals this year with a program that was not too well practiced due to work getting in the way of the real important things (skating ). Hadn't planned on going to Dallas anyways, so that was ok.

Started pairs last year and this year, and that is really fun. Not anything I ever wanted to do as a kid. We competed and the DBNAI twice, and at sectionals this year. With us, and most of you know who my pairs partner is , the journey is the fun part (unfortunately, I pull him up a level higher than his freestyle level). It is really a different experience to compete with someone else out there with you -- a good experience!

I can land 2sals and 2toes, but not at all consistently. My axel-2toe combo can be good, at times. I can land a loop-2loop also. I seem to do better with the double as the second jump . Working on the 2flip, but am not touching the 2lutz at all. At least my axel is pretty much 100% reliable - would like to at least attempt a 2axel some day - maybe before I'm 50! Spins still suck, that hasn't changed since I was a kid. My death drop is better than my forward camel . If I could only lose those last 50 pounds..... Also working on the Hickory Hoedown, and some of the novice moves. Got new blades last week, and I think that will help a bit (was 3 1/2 years on my old blades).

Skating as an adult is great! I enjoy it just as much, if not more, than I did as a kid. I just wish I had more than 3-4 hours per week to spend on the ice, which is all I seem to get now. I have tons and tons of respect for skaters like cosk8er, who have had the guts to move past gold (I don't know if I ever will), and anyone who got to this level without the advantages of skating at this level as a kid. Adult skaters rock!

__________________
"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

Jazz,

I picked the "I don't fit into either catagory" selection, because I had training as a kid, but actually more years of training as an adult to date. However, I see your point and should have select the "kid" button.

Starskate,

Well, you should show them what you've got now! Their loss!!!

Actually, that brings up another question: Has any adult skater ever been hired by Holiday, Disney, or whatever else is out there to skate in their show--even if only as Mini Mouse, or in the chorus line? Starskate, do you know anything about this having skated with one of the shows???

I took Basic skills Level 1 when I was 12 and my Mom said that was enough. I learned to spin on my toe pick (a bad habit I'm still trying to break!) and do a little waltz jump by watching others at public sessions and then gave up.

When I was 34 I signed up for Level 2 and haven't stopped since. I passed my Gold FS test in May of '04, the day I turned 41.

I consider myself a true Adult skater.

Hi Sk81964,

Beat you! I win the Gold Medal, because I was 230 lbs., and now I skate pairs, too! No, I don't know who you and your partner are??? Will you visit:
www.adultpairskating.com and write to me. My email address is all over the website. I'd love to hear from you. Sounds like we have a lot in common, and, especially when I pass my Intermediate Moves on May 18th!

I chose other. I've skated since I was 6, with one year off, and am 25 now. I never competed as a child; I took group lessons until I was 11 and then quit and focused on synchro. Synchro changed a lot over the years, and requires much more individual skating now. So when I was 22 I hired a private coach to take me through all my dances and skills. Now I'm working on free skate (and still competing in synchro). Although I took lessons as a kid, I was really starting from scratch with free skate since I only learned up to a really bad loop when I was younger, and hadn't attempted any jumps or spins for years. I guess I'm a child skater who was a really late bloomer!!

__________________
~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

I'm a former child skater. I started skating at 5, got my first coach at 8, started competing at 9, started testing at 10, stopped jumping at 19, and I'm now 21. I have 2 gold tests (Skills and Interpretive) and am working on my third (dance). I competed for approximately 10 years as of right now in both singles and synchro.

I have yet to compete as an adult, but that isn't out of the question. I'm looking at joining a competitive adult synchro team in the future, as well as competing in interpretive at adult competitions.

ok I voted former child skater before I read your post. yes I loved skating when I was very young but I was not competitive or had a coach. I just skated at a youg age. (even though I am 13 now and some consider that young.)

__________________

Check your pm

__________________
"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