Yes, that was the situation. The problem is--if you're a group of 6 people joined shoulder-to-shoulder, it's more difficult for you to clear out of the way in time than if you're ONE person. So even if they were trying to yield, they couldn't.

There was no synchro coach present that I could identify--at least, no one was telling them to practice those particular moves. I would venture to argue that it's because they're there 4 hours a day in the summer and they got bored doing freestyle, and so they decided to work on synchro instead since they had a few members of the team together.

Synchro practice should be done during synchro ice. Freestyle skating should be done on freestyles. Dancing should be on dance (oh, that's another thing that ticks me off--when people freestyle or do moves on dance ice, but I won't go there right now). Hockey should be done on hockey ice (oh gosh, can you imagine if I went out on a hockey session and did a camel spin?). The only free-for-all, in my book, is a public session, and those are only run as well as the management/skate guards choose to run them.

That would be a big problem. We occasionally do synchro moves on freestyle ice, but it is usually only 2-3 of us working on one small element at a time, not a whole routine. Maybe next time they could be told they cannot work on their routine during freestyle session at the risk of getting kicked off the ice. It sounds like they just didn't think....

We sometimes had ice dancers trying to do their stuff on freestyle ice but that ended (we have no dance ice). They were only permitted to work on "isolated elements" such as pair spins or such-no connecting moves or dance steps. Too bad for them as they paid for ice (club ice) just like everyone else and couldn't use the whole thing. They would drop in on daytime public, as did some of us freestylers, daytime is cheaper and typically less crowded (unless the rink has a school group booked).

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Even two or three is a big problem, in my book. Synchro moves do not follow the normal freestyle/moves/dance patterns, so there is no way of knowing where they're intending to go. If I see Nova and Loops going into a lift, for example, I can plan my skating around them. I can't do that for synchro skaters, unless I know their program myself.

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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

I am sorry, because I imagine how frustrating your day must have been, but I agree with them completely. I mean, not about the coned off part...they should've left that for your guys, but really, there's no rule that says public skating HAS to offer a center for figure skaters- so if they decide too many kids are going through the middle anyway and it's dangerous, then...it's their discretion to stop making the middle available. As far as the lesson taking place in the middle- I also do think that's frustrating, but...you know the rules are to skate freestyle only in the middle, so if for some reason the middle is taken...then...it's taken. It doesn't make the corners a free-for-all. It's not fair to people who come here to just skate around in circles and have a social hour, which is what public skating is all about. I agree with the guard that if you want to figure skate, you should just be on a freestyle session, period. There are some available for not that much more money than what you paid. In my opinion, a figure skater isn't entitled to expect anything more out of a public session than skating forward in circles- that's what they're made for.

We-ell yes, but only if you know their this year's programme well enough that you know where they're likely to go next. Next year, they might be about to shoot off in quite a different direction after a very similar lift!

Our elite dancers are still busy tweaking their free dances, and it's very difficult to know which direction they are going to go in next - once they're fixed, we'll all gradually learn their programmes and it won't be a problem, just as they know where our free dance will go after the step sequence. But sometimes, last night, on a busy session, we found we were either slowing down to avoid weaker skaters, or speeding up to avoid the elites! We all managed, though, and we did get a couple of run-throughs of our compulsory dances in.

One thing that irritates me are "coach corners" - I don't know if it happens at your rink, but at ours, you know that Coach A most likely has his students in the far left-hand corner, coach B in the near right-hand one, coach C will probably be found leaning on the barrier by the music box, coach D half-way up the far side, also propping up the barrier (and knocking me down when I happened to skate backwards into her the other day!)..... and so it goes. Of course, they don't stay there all the time, but if what their student is doing is elements, then that's where you'll probably find them!

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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!

It's dangerous to assume that other skaters know your dance/freestyle/synchro patterns; just because we skate on the same ice at the same time doesn't mean that we know where you will be at a particular time in your music so it does work both ways.... I don't mean to be smart or anything, I'm just being real. I haven't been skating long enough to learn about patterns and stuff, and don't really know any dances beyond the Dutch Waltz...our rink's only requirement for freestyle is able to skate back crossovers....nothing was said about brains!

I skate with ice dancers and I told them once that I don't know where they are in their dance-I was told not to worry about it because: a) they are better and faster skaters that I am, b) they are working on original dance, c) they didn't expect me to learn their pattern. What they did expect from me is to pay attention and if I see them coming to clear out, if that wasn't possible, to freeze and they would skate around me (they would rather skate around someone not moving than try to second-guess where I was going to move to).

That being said, I don't want to be in anyone's way! Our rink does not use the vest thing (I wish we would because I don't know everyone) and I hate trying to guess who is skating to the music. I usually scope out an area near but not close to a lesson and if I see the coach and student move out of the way, then I do to, but I'm always on the look-out.

Public sessions are another story!!! Our rink does not use cones in the center at all! We are permitted to do stuff in the center, provided it's not too crowded, and we must always be on the lookout for the little comets (kids) flying around not paying attention, as well as the hockey kids. We also have to try to be good sports about the whole thing, (as much as it pains me!!!) We sometimes get a bad name as diva's or prima donna's because of our attitudes.....

All-in-all, there will be times when we end up in everyone else's way, or someone is right where you wanted to do a jump/element next. Even on uncrowded sessions. It's frustrating. I just deal and be glad I get to skate....

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

There is this one coach who teaches her kids that no matter what, THEY have right of way, and if they see someone coming at them, to just go for it anyway- no matter whose right of way it is. This coach also decides she will coach in the middle, for everything: jumps, spins, footwork, doesn't matter. I cannot practice ANY spin combinations while she's there (which is the entire session, every single day) because not only does she teach only in the middle, but she doesn't move (and often when she sees I'm about to try a spin, aborts it by throwing her body at me for no apparent reason) but also encourages her kids to do the same. I've watched said kids on freestyles by themselves after their lessons, and it's a zoo- everyone hates them and hates that coach, too. She's not a high level coach, and always talks management into letting her coach her kids on high level sessions, even though most of them can barely do forward spins. Everytime I see her getting ready for the session I'm about to skate, I want to kick something. This hogging of the middle also drives me to practice way more jumps than I'm really supposed to be doing, because at least the corners are free...unless she decides I really shouldn't be trying that triple lutz anymore (I can't say she's wrong...hah) and moves on to the corner for the duration of my lutz attempts, after which she gladly goes back to the middle. One of these days I'm going to skate right into her, and I won't stop. I just can't afford another injury right now, and she's way bigger than me.

end of rant.

Yes, if those were the rules then fine. But those weren't the rules two days prior, and those weren't the rules when I skated there a year or so before on an every other day basis. If you're going to have rules, make them official, don't trick people into thinking that its okay so they pay their money then get told that they aren't allowed to follow the existing rules. And it wasn't so much the private lesson taking place in the middle that teed me off - it was the attitude, THEN the bs of not being able to jump or spin at ALL?

As a point of interest when I called on Monday I was apologized to profusely AND was given credit for another session - so obviously the manager must have felt as if the guards were out of line and even stated that this wasn't the first time he's had complaints from figure skaters about this type of treatment. I went over the rules with him - every last one - for public skating so there won't be any confusion, and I have his "permission" to skate freestyle on a public session, provided it isn't too crowded. But I won't be going back there again unless I have a TRUE "ice emergency".

I do agree with most of this, although I would add that the same rules should apply to other kinds of non-recreational skaters as well.

I frequently see hockey players on public ice doing drills--starts, stops, glide turns, etc, weaving in and out of recreational skaters. Some of the hockey players are good skaters. Some only THINK they're good skaters. Some of them think it's hilarious to skate real close to other skaters and then scare them by doing a sudden stop. Others think it's fun to skate as fast as they can and then slide across the ice. I don't see how what they are doing is any less dangerous than if I were doing a footwork pattern or a flip jump. So, i think it would only be fair that if figure skaters are not allowed to figure skate, then hockey players should not be allowed to do hockey drills on a public session.

I've also seen two short-track speed skaters on a public session--this was a few years ago. Technically, they're just going around in circles, right? But OMG, they were terrifying, and if they fell, they would slide across the ice until they hit the boards, taking out anything/anyone in their way. Luckily, only two cones were knocked down, although a little girl and a man who was actually a pretty good skater came close to being knocked over as well. So...skating forwards in circles is not entirely risk-free, either.

On the other end of the spectrum, I've seen public sessions that are truly a free-for-all, with no skate guard that I can see, with figure skaters doing spins and jumps, with hockey players doing drills, several coaches giving lessons, and recreational skaters from the ages of 2 through 80. Usually, though, these kinds of public sessions have fewer than 25 skaters on them.

I'm all for rinks having their own public session rules, and they can be as strict or relaxed as they want to make them. The point I'm trying to make is that if a rink wants to enforce a "recreational skating only" rule for a public skate, they must enforce it consistently and fairly across the board to all kinds of non-recreational/competitive skaters, be they figure, hockey, or speed skaters. What I find is that in many rinks that I've skated at, the teenagers who serve as skate guards are on one of the hockey teams, and so they will bend the rules backwards for their fellow skaters in hockey skates, but will suddenly become rule-Nazis to you if you're wearing figure skates.

Might I remind you that this rink has NO FREESTYLE SESSIONS? That's what I stated in my original post. This place has a history of being the stupidest, lamest rink I've gone to. And they have hardly any business, sometimes they've closed down because no one is there. This rink, unlike my primary rink, NEVER has cones down on the ice during public sessions, even if there is a bigger crowd.

I realize public sessions are mainly for skating around the rink in circles. So, why weren't the kids doing that? They WEREN'T skating around the perimeter. All they were doing was standing at the sides and going across the center and then back, and throwing things. I skated around the perimeter more than they did.
If they want to just throw things, purposely fall down and stand around, why don't they go to a rink that has Broomball sessions?

I forgot to mention that it wouldn't have been as annoying if the kids had done this at THE OTHER END of the rink. It would have mattered less, or not at all. But the fact that they were doing it right near me, and in the center of the ice, made it worse. If they want to throw things, at least go to their own section of ice. I have a feeling that they were trying to annoy me and would have followed me wherever I went.

I don't like the idea of rink guard "Nazi's" either, don't get me wrong. But the rink in question is the opposite extreme. I don't think that a few loud-mouthed, crazy acting people should overshadow/bully more civilized people. It's just that most of these teens and kids are used to getting their way and when someone complains about them, they act so shocked because they're used to getting away with everything.

I by nature am reserved, shy and tend to be intimidated, so I am the last person who would try to bully someone. If I were disrespectful or troublemaking, I could've thrown the ball at them or took the ball from them. I did neither.

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Andrea

Well, then don't go there. From the sound of it, getting no ice and going rollerblading or working out in a gym would've been more beneficial than the ice you got, anyways. So, since you know how bad they are...just don't go! You can't complain about a place being bad if you know it's bad and you still choose to go. I mean, it sucks that they run the rink this way, but they do, so all you can do is not give them your time or money. Problem solved. Many people don't have the choice of rink one or rink two to go to, so if for some reason you cannot get to your primary rink, act like this bad one just doesn't exist, and like it's not an option. That's all you've got to do. There's a rink I despise and I never go there, even if for some reason it's the only rink open. It's just not worth it.

My rink has no freestyle sessions at all except by private booking. Everything else is public. We do get coned up area for lessons and thats about it. I cant change rinks. Because there is the one rink in the whole country.....

So yeah, we get our fair share of collisions with oblivious skaters during more crowded sessions. And even during my lesson we had to keep chasing people out of the coned up area because I was going to plow into them if I just did my jumps

The rink doesnt open before 8 or 9 am I think... or something like that. (And the ice at late night is so horrible, scratched up and stuff) If they would only open at 5 or 6am (so its possible to get in some skating before work)

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Tidesong