Figure Skating Journal, Reflections of an Adult Figure Skater

April 2005

Friday April 1, 2005
Skating With Friends

Since I had time off from work, I arranged to meet friends at the rink where I skated in the good old days. Everyone was there, all of the adults who frequented the morning sessions, the younger women who gave lessons to beginners, and my former coach, Cynthia. We exchanged hugs in the lobby. I was delighted to be around so many adult skating friends. I have new friends at my current rink, but I enjoy keeping in touch with those who filled my ice time with companionship before I returned to full-time employment.

The ice was in reasonably good condition, though it drew an unusual crowd for a Friday, according to one of my friends who still skates there several times per week. In addition to the adult skaters, a few public skaters, and children taking private lessons, two discourteous speed skaters tore up the place. The management of this facility lets anything willing to pay a few bucks onto the surface.

Inconveniences aside, I enjoyed seeing this group again. We always have a happy reunion. I noticed subtle improvements in one woman’s sit spin. Another learned a simple camel and layback. She was always a good friend. When asked about my experience learning the camel, I reported it was the most troublesome of the basic forward spins for me to master. Some days I still cannot anchor the spin, but slip off the hook onto a shallow inside edge before salvaging its center. This gave her some comfort, as she claimed I am the best spinner she has seen. (That is easily one of the nicest compliments I have ever received!) If I struggled with it, her problems seem justified. I suggested beginning work on the back camel; which, in my opinion, is an easier spin. Much less can go wrong with the back camel when performed as an isolated element from a forward inside three-turn. It does not require the same precision as its forward cousin. Accidentally hitting a forward inside edge in a back camel is virtually impossible, while this problem explains why most adults struggle with the standard backward spin.

While demonstrating camel spins for my friend, I mentioned this issue. I have wanted to learn the advanced forward inside edge back camel and explored it a few weeks ago with my instructor, Eileen. Just as I declared it insurmountably difficult, my weight shifted, and I rode a smooth inside edge. Still turning, I called out: “I’m actually doing it! I’m on an inside edge!” This challenging variation earns elite skaters extra points in the new judging system. Sasha Cohen has elevated this camel to an art form. And I can do it, too! Of course, I failed to repeat the miracle the next day on home ice.

My confidence inflated, I practiced another spinning trick borrowed from TV. During the 2001-2002 season, I watched a performance by Canadian lady, Nicole Watt. She skated a forward lunge down the length of the rink and rose directly into a forward camel. I play with this skill occasionally, never making an impressive showing. However, after my glorious inside edge back camel, the stars aligned; and I hit a fast strong lunge, curved, and lifted effortlessly into a beautifully controlled camel spin. I repeated this stunt at will.

We had coffee after the session and sat around gossiping for two hours. What a wonderful day! Good friends and good skating; an unbeatable combination.

Week of April 3, 2005
Spring Flowers

my first spring flowersThe first flowers of spring have bloomed in my yard. Soon the place will burst with color and fragrance. Birds perform mating dances in the air above my lawn and search for food in the freshly thawed earth. My cats are drawn to the open windows to observe the majesty of nature and taste the sweet air. Winter may signify the solidification of water, forming the most glorious of substances: ice; but as winter recedes yielding dormancy to renewal, my mood changes. I no longer feel tired, cold, and lethargic. I want to be outside. I take more walks, although walking in the cold burns more calories. Buds on trees and fat blooms waiting to flower transform mundane exercise into a visual feast.

With the coming of the warm season, hockey teams have packed up their gear until summer camps. The rink is less crowded. People’s fancy has turned from indoor ice skating to outdoor activities. With these changes, the rink has closed for the season. It did not close last year, but is currently under new ownership. I do not know if this will repeat in the future, though I certainly hope not. I have effectively been laid off as a skating instructor. Hopefully, I will be rehired in the fall. I like the extra money, free ice time, and experience. Plus, I truly enjoy sharing my knowledge of this wonderful sport with other people.

So, I am left with no convenient place to skate. Honestly, not having to go to the rink has felt like a vacation. I am almost ashamed to admit that, but I was exhausted. Between my fulltime job, coaching, and trying to skate for myself; I was very busy. I often came home from the rink, stuffed some food into my face, and collapsed. The beauty of spring and this mixed blessing reprieve have increased my energy level. I may explore other rinks with a friend, and some adult skaters have promised to email if they find a decent weekend session. For now, I will not worry about skating. I need a break.

Meanwhile, I take regular walks around the springtime neighborhood; admiring the flowers, birds, and water churning in the streams. I do aerobics at home followed my a weight routine and stretching exercises. I practice axel drills during the aerobic segment to really get my heart pumping. We might buy a trampoline and set it up in the backyard. Even though I am not on the ice, I have not abandoned skating. I will be ready in the fall to work on the axel again with Coach Eileen and transform a fluke inside edge back camel into a permanent possession.

Week of April 10, 2005
Off Ice

At one time or another every adult skater finds him or herself with time and energy to skate but no ice to skate on. I have often taken a break from skating due to professional or family reasons, but rarely because there simply was no place available to skate. In my current situation, the rink near my home where I was also teaching group lessons has closed for the season. Other options are either too inconvenient or unexplored. I have one possibility about a half-hour from work, but I have not looked into it yet. During previous summers, I enjoyed outdoor roller skating both on freestyle inline skates and quads. Since moving last year, the park where I roller skated is farther away. While I may make the drive in the future, I presently have no plans to commute long distances to skate on asphalt. The roller rink I frequented last year is also further flung due to my relocation.

So I am left with other alternatives. These include walking, aerobics, stretching, etc. Included in this program, I practice axel drills according to my coach, Eileen’s, requirements. The living room floor, driveway and backyard offer excellent axel zones. I prefer the backyard because grass yields under the pressure of a landing, cushioning impact to my joints. My axel work involves the following steps:

At this point, I have not started practicing full-rotation axels.

While unpacking a box over the weekend, my husband unearthed my spin trainer. Yes, we still have plenty of stuff packed away that we obvious do not need or miss. It had been tossed into a carton of other miscellaneous junk from our former living room. I never found this thing particularly useful, but it is a gadget every skater sooner or later decides to buy. Mine is the ball bearing type that spins freely on any surface. The only practical use I have found for this gizmo is pulling one or two quick rotations in a backspin position as a jump rotation drill. In my opinion, it is virtually worthless for spinning. A spin is the product of an entrance and subsequent balance. Spinning requires manipulation of the entire blade, including edges, rocker, and toe pick. A spin trainer has none of these; therefore, simulating the entrance is impossible. Assuming one actually begins to spin, balance is completely different than balance on a skate blade, nullifying the entire exercise. I am a very competent ice spinner and cannot spin worth a hill of beans on a my spin doohickey. Maybe it is helpful for some people; but, let’s face it, I already know how to spin. This thing is a curiosity at best, and most likely a waste of money since I never missed it even before it was thrown into a box.

Yet, I placed it next to my aerobics weights and resistance tube, planning to use it at the end of my at-home workouts. Years ago, when I was a child, my mother bought a similar device called a “Trim Twist”. It was basically the same as a ball bearing spin trainer but larger and made of particle board. The overweight individual supposedly trimmed her waist by gyrating Elvis-fashion on the Trim Twist. Like several of my mother’s other exercise investments, it wound up as one of my toys. I loved to twirl around on it while listening to the pop sounds of the seventies on a little transistor radio. I could do a camel on the contraption as a twelve year old. Shortly thereafter, I learned to do a camel on my cheap quad roller skates. Hence, a spin master was born. Maybe there is something to those spin trainers after all.

Week of April 17, 2005
The Lunge

I started exploring lunge-spins four years ago with Geoff, one of my former coaches. A lunge-spin is basically a forward lunge that pivots into a spin entrance. It is relatively easy to do, but the challenge comes in doing it spectacularly well. This trick has the potential to be jaw-dropping. Of course, that is what I want. Lacking big doubles and an axel (for now, anyway), I need some huge space-filling moves. The lunge-spin can be just that. Now that I execute it on command like a seal performing for a sardine, it is time to transform the average into the spectacular.

This pursuit began routinely enough with a day off from work, a long drive to the rink where I planned to meet friends, and a gloriously uncrowded session. I had already been skating for two hours by the time I decided to play with my lunge-spin. While talking to another adult skater, I remembered an interpretation I planned to try. With the rink almost empty, conditions could not have been more favorable. I skated forward crossovers as fast as possible around the back of the ice surface and cut straight down the center. The entire length of the arena stretched out before me, I kicked my left leg forward and allowed it to swing behind me. Simultaneously, I descended into a deep lunge, my free leg locked and dragging the ice as I knelt in a dramatic pose.

Riding a very fast lunge from one end of the ice to the other was one of the greatest rushes I have enjoyed as a skater. The ability to control speed and position, holding that lunge longer than I should have been able must be akin to the sensation involved in a floating delayed axel. It lasted too long. It was too perfect. I was too good. In my next pass, I discovered that I am an ambidextrous lunger. My left leg lunge was just as powerful as its right legged counterpart. I decided to work my legs equally, though I only attempted clockwise forward spins (on the right leg). As the grand finale, I hit the best lunge of the set, opened my arms and began to turn. My right toe pick anchored into the ice and my free leg rose, centering a fast beautiful camel from the most unlikely of approaches. It was a skill ready for television. I don’t have too many of those, so I don’t feel bad bragging about this one.

My friend and I had coffee after the session and shot the bull for over two hours. What I wonderful day! What an incredible high! That lunge-camel goes down in pixels as one of my finest skating achievements.

Monday April 18, 2005
Ode to Mrs. G

People often comment on my flexibility while watching me stretch before or after a skating session. An older couple recently asked me to demonstrate my routine for them. An adult skating friend regularly remarks that she has never seen someone so flexible. I find this hard to believe, though I am extremely limber for a woman my age. Most of my stretch positions do not translate directly onto the ice. I cannot do a Biellmann spin, though I have not devoted much time to trying, nor do I own a decent split leap. However, my spirals are quite good, though not as high as the current elite standard.

I have been asked so many times where I learned to stretch, I no longer have a grasp on the frequency of the question. I always tell the same story. My middle school physical education teacher taught me to stretch when I was twelve years old. Of course, my routine has developed and changed since then to suit my needs, but it originated with Mrs. G, a woman who was in her mid-twenties at the time. Mrs. G told her class: “Girls, if you start stretching now, your legs will never get flabby. You will never have to get back into shape when you get older because you will have never been out of shape”. Of all the teachers who have imparted their wisdom on me over my long academic career, Mrs. G’s contributions were the most profound. Certainly, others offered academic pointers that helped me survive college and graduate school, but Mrs. G’s love of fitness laid the ground work for the adult athlete I was to become once I had the opportunity to pursue my skating dreams. Mrs. G’s words still echo in my mind, accompanying the image of her pretty young face smiling kindly while showing a group of awkward pubescent girls how to stretch their leg muscles. I have followed Mrs. G’s suggestions for over twenty-five years.

For a long time now, I meant to contact Mrs. G to tell her that she touched my life. She made a dramatic contribution to who I am today. She gave me one of my most coveted abilities: the suppleness of a child-trained skater. And I was trained as a child; trained by Mrs. G. I found the school district personnel directory on the internet. It listed no email address for Mrs. G, but I did find her office telephone number. I dialed the number, fully intending to leave a message. To my incredible surprise, the voice of Mrs. G spanned the country and a quarter of a century. She sounded no different than that young woman whose advice I have cherish for all of these years. I owed Mrs. G a “thank you”. I wanted her to realize the incredible impression she had on my life. Initially she laughed in astonishment that I had actually listened to a teacher. Then she said I made her day, and she was going to tell her students about my call. Mrs. G is still teaching little girls to stretch. I was glad to hear it. Her efforts certainly were not wasted on me.

I have told the story of my middle school P.E. teacher for years to dozens of people. Now I have told it to the person who inspired me. Thank you, Mrs. G. Thank you for everything.

View my Stretch by the Sea in the Photo Gallery.

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The content of this site is copyright by K. J. N., 1999 - 2005