In the Netherlands we have a system a bit like that in the UK, it seems. We have the KNSB cup, which is open for people with far lower tests than the nationals are. However, it only allows people of no older than 36 years to compete.

Very insightful Cecealias. Every time I see Sasha Cohen or one of the Hughes sisters skate, this comes to my mind.
Lyle

<teasing>B-b-but I've seen you skate..... </teasing>

I suppose one good reason is that Adult/Masters skating is now a separate ISU discipline? Therefore, one would expect articles that relate specifically to Adult/Masters' skating, just as one expects articles relating specifically to free skating, or ice dance, or short-track....

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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!

Agreed about the kids tending to be sloppy at times, Liz.

Casey, you can gain a good 6 inches on a jump with proper technique. Not more muscle required, just better draw/arm follow-thru/timing, etc. I never woulda believed it until I saw it in my own skating this year....my coach worked really hard on *proper* technique for all my singles thru lutz and it was the first time I really felt "hang time" on a lutz with very little effort. It was amazing how effortless/easy a *properly* excecuted jump actually felt like!!!! Brains over brawn!!! I am a believer.

Oh sh!#, then I am in TROUBLE!

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

That's it for me too... even more exciting are landings that I nearly miss but somehow hang on... (I must say that cycling on an extreme curve and lean can bring a bit of that excitement too, but unforunately I find that highly limited....)

I also believe in proper technique. I believe that in not as good technique, your body is working against itself, so just take that and imagine it working together, you can probably double the resultant force you were getting previously.

Its hard for me to talk about adult skating since I started in my late teens and in Singapore there aren't really any figure skating sessions at all... there is pretty much just one huge public session every day of the week and everyone has to fight with the public and the other skaters to skate in it.

As for the falling issue, I sometimes have people come over to check if I'm alright especially if I end up on my back. But the most painful ones actually don't look as painful... And I've generally learnt how to take the falls now, and maybe even more importantly learnt what causes a certain kind of fall and what I'm going to do from falling the exact same way the next time.

I find it more enjoyable skating with people my age because we tend to relate better and can not only chat but give each other tips as well. So I would appreciate age-based sessions, but since I don't even have any kind of sessions at all, I'll do with anything

Sorry... my paragraphs are not completely related to each other, just throwing out my thoughts on some of the topics raised here.

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Tidesong

I'd have to say, if a child is going to give up because they got beaten by an adult on one particular day, they weren't going to get very far anyway. In a subjective sport like this, you really have to go out there with the attitude that what matters is how you skate, and if the judges go with it, they go with it, and if they don't, they don't. I wouldn't want a special adult test track, because what interests me is where I can get to on a standard scale, not a special scale taking account of my age.

Catherine, who is very proud of having beaten the current British junior male solo ice dance champion. Once. And he was I think ten years old at the time, and his partner was six, and they'd been skating together for at least a month

Hi Everyone.

I did not have the time to read all of the postings here , there are too many.
However I do understand that Adults do have a hard time in some rinks.

I like to think that we as adults are only limited by a few things.
1. Finding a coach who won't treat us like we are about to break every bone in our bodies and lets our minds determine what is possible.
2. A rink that supports us and values our presents with respect and support.
3. A club that does the same..

I am very lucky to have all 3 at my rink. There is support from the skaters and the coaches where I skate and If I land a new jump or achieve something great they share is my success regardless of how small it may be.. . We have a growing adult presents because of this open attitude towards older skaters.
Today I had the pleasure of meeting an adult skater at our rink for the first time. I went over and welcomed her to our rink , she was thrilled that someone would do so . I told her she was welcomed any time on our ice.

I skate with adults, kids and Olympic hopefuls , and we all get along ,
I extend a welcome to all skaters who need ice and can get to Ice Works in PA. Just say Hello to one of us when you arrive and you will be welcomed..

I would love to see more adults as well so if you send me a note here , we can exchange E-mail and Ill meet you there and introduce you to others.. there is no obligation to join our club or anything like that. Just a place to skate if you can make it and Ill join you there..
If you can't make it for practice I wish you all the best.
" The greatest risk in life iis not taking one "
Ross

Rusty, you are cracking me up over here!!!!!! LOL!!!!

I hear ya, Cath!

Also, there ARE some things that adults understand better than the kids like proper edges & placement on 3 turns. When I was testing my Adult Silver field moves through USFSA last year, a judge came up to me afterwards to tell me she really liked my 3-turns ("3 turns in the field") because all the turns were at the top of the lobe. She mentioned that she likes judging adult moves in the field tests because adults "get" the idea of putting the 3 turn in the proper spot (vs. turning it early like many of the kids do).

Just because we are *older* does not mean we are *dead*!!!

Have a wonderful weekend, y'all!!!

So true - I think that adults really get the "skating is technique" thingy much better than the kid skaters do, especially now that they aren't teaching figures so much anymore. When I took my Pre-Bronze Moves, the judge wrote, "Wow, real lobes!" on my test sheet because she just doesn't get to see them very often at that level anymore.

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

My $0.02:
1) While I think most adult-onset skaters are seroius about what they do, personally, I don't care much if they're featured on the websites and magazines any more than I care if their softball team gets a writeup in the Major League Baseball. I figure the primary purpose of USFSA is to promote the competitive track. Great if they want to feature adults, nifty; not as important to me as finding ice time and a coach. It's *competitive* but not *elite.*

And to that extent, a separate testing and training track makes sense. We're not going to the Olympics or even thinking about it, so being in that stream doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

2) Age does matter. Consider that if you gave most talented little kids the same ice time and coaching that avid talented adult skaters have in a year, you'd have a little kid landing doubles and thinking about triples. It's not just fear or a lack of work ethic that holds back adults. My coach, who mostly coaches competitve younger kids says that the conventional wisdom now is to build the doubles and triples into the growth plate. You don't have a growth plate when you're an adult.

Plus, there's years upon years of muscle memory to move past and most of these skills take a long time to master. The brain just doesn't forge connections in the same way. This isn't to say that they're impossible obstacles, but that a five-year-old doesn't have as much to unlearn as a forty-year-old.

I don't think it's defeatist to acknowledge reality. Adults don't spend their first two years on the ice playing bunny games and drawing on the ice with markers, either.

Crayonskaters?

When the kids fall, they usually jump right back up. I have to do a quick head-to-toe assessment to make sure I haven't injured anything too badly.

The time I fell and broke my ankle, I had one of the kids asking me if I needed ice. Like the sheet I was sitting on wasn't cold enough.

I started skating at 38 and just turned 44. I've come a long way since then, but the kids that started with me are working on doubles. Some that started much later than me are working on doubles. I'm still working on half- and full-rotation jumps. I may eventually get them.

I wish I'd been able to learn as a kid--it would certainly be easier today. However, I really appreciate what goes into the sport now.

I guess that depends on who's running the show.

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

I couldn't agree more! I've never understood adults who try to deny the differences. So for those people, enjoy the Standard track and have at it. For those of us not afraid to acknowledge the differences, we'll gladly take our adult track tests and competitions and have at it. To each his own.

At least until we've passed our Gold Moves and FS tests... then if we want to move up from that, we're SCREWED!!!

And for the record, I am proudly doing my adult tests and competitions b/c I have no aspirations of going to the Olympics and just wants to see what I'm capable of doing (and apparently far beyond my wildest dreams!!! ) But I *am* slightly curious to see if with a bit more training I can pass my prelim and pre-Juv moves test.

Cheers,
jazzpants, who STILL practices her Bronze Moves for warm up and plays around with Silver Moves.

Please send this judge to the Bay Area for my next test. Tell me the judge's approximate weight and where to send the postal label so this judge will be at the boards. I will be happy to schedule my next test around her convenience.

I was an open freestyle last week that was more crowded than usual, with young children in the majority. (Usually, it's mostly adult women with one or two little kids.) It was an interesting opportunity to study the "Adult Freestyle" vs. "Open Freestyle" dynamics.

Here's what I noticed:

No one thought to put on listening music, which we usually do when it's mainly adults. For the first 20 mins, it was silence, then one of the adults played her program music and then put on a CD for background music.

The youngest skaters "camped out" on circles and lines. They didn't watch where they going and were hard to SEE because they were short. When they were on lesson, you really had to look out because they were so distracted by the coach that they didn't even know that you almost planted a blade in their butts. LOL

The tweenies were somewhat arrogant. The most interesting group by far, they expected you to move at all times. Didn't matter if someone else's music was on or if you were on lesson.

The adults, who usually chit-chat a bit barely spoke to one another when all the kids were there. The kids didn't speak to anyone but their coach, yet they were all from the same skating club and skated together regularly.

The most interesting thing that happened really denotes the difference between the adult skating I love and the skating I often see. I started working on backspins when one of the tweenies came from the other side of the rink to do backspins. Whatever backspin I did (sit, scratch, upright, etc.), she would then try to "do better." It was a little bit unnerving because she would set up right next to where I was already spinning. I moved to another part of the rink and watched as she copied another adults' sit spins (which are stunning, btw) and then followed one of the kids doing waltz jumps. I guess she didn't have a set list of practice elements and wanted a challenge. She had her lesson later and it wasn't good - I hadn't seen her practice those elements before her lesson. She was too busy copying and one-up'ing others.

I've never seen that copy or one-up approach on an Adult session. ADULT skaters would watch the other then say, "Cool, watch mine and tell me if it's okay." More of a "let's work together" approach, in my experience.

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I started skating at 28 and am now 53. The kids who started skating with me now HAVE kids who are landing doubles - and triples!

Absolutely.

In fact figure skating is one of about 3 activities that is good for adults because it forces the brain to forge new connections. That is why it takes longer for older adults to "catch on".

Also I think adult who do figure skate have a tendency to be more resiliant and bounce back. I broke my little toe in two places two weeks agao when I kicked the frame of the shower stall full force stepping out.

I had it checked out and the first words to my doctor was when can I skate again? My doctor who is athletic as well said that is not the words I would expect to hear from a typical 61 year old (he knows I am a figure skater). He said I could go skating when I could fit my foot into my boot when the swelling goes down. That was three days later...the only thing I can't do at the moment is any toe jumps since I have to go up on my toepick and that still hurts... alot! That should go away in about another month.

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

Forsure! In the one group of adults where I sake there is a Gold level male skater about my age (mid-50's) and I have stopped him a few times and said "How the heck did you do that??!!" He is always very obliging and free with the pointers

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

I often play the "can you do this?" with the kids. We have a good time.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

LOL! I did the same thing running into a doorway about a year ago. I went back to the rink 2 days later and did everything except toe loop. It hurt for awhile, but it was worth it. One of my coach's fairly serious teen skaters is taking 4-6 weeks off for a broken finger, and I was like WHAT??

Hope your toe heals soon

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The skating may not sparkle, but my dress sure does!

Just passed: Pre-Bronze MIF & Freeskate. Next goal: Bronze tests in July.

The toe is tucked away in your boot, not much else can happen to it. Falling on a broken finger, even if it's in a cast-like thing, could be really, really bad. She could fracture that entire bone. Arm injuries typically take skaters off the ice much longer than foot injuries, because feet are protected by boots, and you don't usually fall ON your feet...if you did you wouldn't fall. Arms are necessary to break potentially bad falls, protecting the face, and so forth and so on, so taking time for fingers, wrists, etc.. to heal properly makes sense imo.