April 2009
For the last few weeks I have been attending pilates classes at the gym. Pilates has been a major exercise trend for several years because it strengthens core muscles while lengthening and promoting flexibility. Skaters have been particularly interested in pilates because core strength and a long lean bodyline are essential to the sport. Most skaters are not interested in exercise that bulks muscles, as skating itself tends to bulk muscles especially the quads and gluteus maximus. Skaters tend to have big thighs (not thunder thighs) and big butts (not fat asses). Both are pure sculpted unadulterated muscle. This is not necessarily true of the recreational and/or adult skater whose training and nutritional programs usually do not parallel those of competitive athletes. Myself, I have those bulky muscles but also some fat to pad them.
My abdominals have never been strong. With summer coming, I would certainly love to have a bikini-ready stomach and get rid of some of the middle-age belly paunch than plagues so many women. So I took up pilates. I have been going to two classes weekly for a month in addition to one Latin dance class and one kickboxing. Bulky muscles or not, I like resistance machines and pumping iron. Maybe pilates will help to balance some of that.
The pilates classes are excellent. They are not so difficult to be discouraging. I try the advanced variations and intersperse them with the standard methods. I can actually see some preliminary results in my torso. My abs are looking good and my inner thighs are getting tighter. The dull soreness makes me feel like I am doing something productive for my body. The regular breathing makes the exercises easier. I have adopted it for resistance training. Inhale during the easy part and exhale for the exertion. It really works. It also helps with stretching. My flexibility is improving with pilates. I have seen the difference in my spiral positions. Maybe pilates will contribute to the full standing split that has occupied much of my workout time.
Early to Mid April 2009
Missing the Peak Season
Peak season in skating rinks occurs during the depth of winter and corresponds with the Christmas holidays, which also corresponds with the US National Championships followed by Worlds. Most rinks do not hold group skating classes over the holidays, but resume again after the first of the new year. Over the holidays, families go skating. Kids get ice skates as gifts. They sign up for lessons with their brand new skates, enthusiastic after a couple of public sessions with parents and friends. By mid-January, I took a leave of absence to care for my father. I was gone for two months; long enough to miss new enrollment, extra classes added to meet rising demand, and the stream of requests for private lessons that came through the front desk either in person or via the telephone. By the time I returned to work, it was over. Other coaches had made extra money and recruited new students. This is how seasonal recreational skating really is. In fact, this year was worse than last. Last year, we continued to teach extra classes for another couple of months.
Please do not misunderstand. Being with my father during his last weeks of life, hosting his memorial, and handling his estate were things I had to and wanted to do. I would not have missed those moments to coach a champion, though my father probably would have insisted on my grabbing that opportunity. He was that type of person. He put me before himself.
But now I am home, and living my usual life. Without him. I come into the rink on the weekends to teach classes. Every other coach has a line-up of private students. I have one. I lost another one while I was away. She was a good little girl of limited skating ability, which another kid boldly pointed out to her. The shy little girl suffered a crisis of self-confidence and dropped out. I talked to the girl’s mother, offering to teach her daughter at less crowded times, even if it meant a special trip just for her lesson. The child has not been back. Kids can be cruel to each other whether they mean to or not. Try to explain that to a quiet eight-year-old who struggles with toe hops. The mother tried, but the child was adamant. She did not want to skate anymore. A shame for her and me; and, no doubt, a disappointment to the mother. Regardless, it is better for a parent not to force a child into an activity that the child does not want.
I lost another student earlier this season when a freestyle session was cancelled due to low attendance. One of my students came to this session weekly. She did not want to skate publics, and the parents had tight schedules. They were also sacrificing financially to provide their daughter with one half-hour lesson per week. I assumed the kid went to another rink that offers more freestyle sessions; however, a colleague who works at that other rink told me she has not seen that child there either. I think she must have just quit.
The rink scheduled several blocks of classes during the day for adults and small children. Very few people enrolled in those classes. Most were cancelled. Those that remained did not go to me. The coach who took the classes in my absence continued to teach them, which is fair. The end result of all of this is that I am earning about half of the money I should be earning at this time of the year. I am disappointed and disgusted, though there is little I can do about it. In addition to the sluggish economy, I missed the short-lived peak skating season.
Monday April 13, 2009
The Annoying Pilates Instructor
The health club offers pilates classes at various times during the week. I can attend whichever one suits my needs on a particular day. I went to a Monday evening class with an instructor I had not had before. She grated on my nerves. The class was packed. She introduced herself in more detail than necessary. The gym has a lot of new members, and she must have seen several unfamiliar faces, including my own. She went on and on about her years of experience and the hundreds of teachers from whom she has taken classes. I started to do the math. If she has been doing pilates for twenty years, she would have had to train under at least ten teachers per year to have literally worked with hundreds of teachers. In the couple of months I have been taking pilates at this gym, I have taken classes from five teachers, so I guess her grand total is easily possible. She also bragged that she took a class from Joseph Pilates, the inventor of the discipline before he died in 1967. So she has been doing pilates for over forty years. Five teachers per year matches my current record. I wished she would stop talking and tell us to peel our spines off the mat one vertebra at a time. I was already doing bridges out of boredom.
Yes, there actually was a guy named Pilates. Although he originally called his exercise program contrology because he believed his method utilizes the brain to control muscular function, his name has since become a noun to refer to exercises designed for physical rehabilitation of war veterans. The proper name “Pilates” has become a common noun along with Kleenex, Vaseline, and Q-Tips. Had Joseph Pilates’ surname been Smith, Jones, or Majchrzak; gyms might still offer “contrology” classes.
Finally the instructor stopped babbling and started our workout. She paced the room correcting technique, promoting hip turnout, and telling women to suck in their bellybutton. I was in a back corner next to a row of spinning bicycles. I wanted to be left in peace. Pilates is very relaxing, even though it can be taxing to the core muscles; but that, after all, is the point. I like to close my eyes while doing pilates movements. The instructor was loudly correcting another student across the room. I looked at my legs. Yes, my ankles were together with toes turned out. I was safe from constructive criticism. I closed my eyes again and ignored the annoying voice.
Apparently someone in the scheduling department goofed. The instructor drifted off several times to discuss another class that was supposed to be using the studio halfway through our class and a conflict over the Pilates Reformer room. She ended our class abruptly when students who were paying extra for a specialty class had lined up by the door waiting for our group to vacate. We glanced around in confusion and packed up our mats as the instructor encouraged us to clear out quickly, please. No warm-down stretching. The class had actually filled the whole hour. We probably missed stretching because she wasted so much time at the beginning giving us an oral version of her resumé.
For more information about Pilates visit the following Wikipedia sites:
Pilates
Joseph Pilates
Week of April 19, 2009
If It Weren’t for Bad Luck…
Anybody out there old enough to remember Hee Haw? My dad loved that silly show. “If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. Gloom. Despair. Agony on me.” Okay, so I’m being melodramatic. But sometimes that’s how I feel with this coaching thing.
I walked into the rink to teach a private tot lesson. Another coach met me coming in. She promptly told me the child’s parent had made an appointment with her to teach the sibling while I was teaching the tot. This other coach is very conscientious. She did the right thing by telling me she had a lesson with this family. I like this coach and respect her credentials. However, I was very disappointed that the family did not ask me to teach their other child. I could really use the money from another private lesson. From the family’s point of view, they want to be in and out of the rink quickly; both kids on the ice taking their lessons at the same time. One from me, one from another pro. Regardless of this logic, I had hoped the parent liked my teaching well enough to want both children to learn from the same coach. Now I have to coordinate my schedule with another instructor so both kids can be on the ice at the same time. I also viewed this parent as my client, perhaps wrongly. I could not help but wonder, if I cannot get another lesson from the same family, who else can I conveniently recruit? This should have been obvious. Nothing is obvious when coaching ice skating.
I do not blame the other coach. She did not solicit the student. The parent called her. It is the parent’s money to do with as she pleases. She can hire anyone she wants. It would have been nice if she had told me the other kid wanted lessons and their schedule only allowed a certain amount of time in the rink and both kids would have to train at the same time. I know other coaches who have managed to recruit multiple siblings and even parents, cousins, and friends. But not me. If it sounds like I am feeling sorry for myself, that would not be entirely untrue. I need students. I need the money. Of course, this is not all about me.
When I got home, I told the story to my husband who promptly suggested I look at the problem from the family’s perspective, which I had already done and understand. However, I cannot help but look at it from my own perspective, probably more critically. I was hurt and upset. My husband wondered if this coaching situation has become too discouraging and is more trouble than it is worth. I have started to wonder the same thing. I do not plan to coach forever. I have gone back to school to train for another career, but had to take a semester off from my training because of my father’s illness and passing. I am thinking of getting another part time job to release some of the pressure of the competitive nature of coaching.
Luck seems to be a big part of coaching recreational skaters. Being at the right place at the right time. Picking up a student who doesn’t quit after a few weeks. Being the one who gets the phone call when the manager hands out three numbers per request; even being home when the phone rings. Being the kid’s group instructor when the parent decides the kid needs extra help. Getting an older kid instead of a tot. Doo dah. Doo dah.
Week of April 19, 2009 Part Two
We Didn’t Go Skating
I got together with a skating/coaching friend. We used to work together at Oak Ridge Arena* when I first started teaching skating and have remained friends since. We haven’t seen each other in months, so I sent her an email asking if she wanted to get together for lunch. My friend suggested we meet at Oak Ridge for a session. At first, I agreed. After giving it some thought, I decided I did not feel like skating and really preferred not to go to Oak Ridge. I wanted to sit and talk with Ariane* rather than fool around in an ice rink. Ariane is a fellow adult skater and instructor. I wanted to share some of my recent experiences with her and get her opinion.
But there is more to it than just wanting to gab. I still do not feel like skating for more than an hour or so before I teach. And I don’t want to skate anywhere but Ice Castle. I like the atmosphere and feel very comfortable there. My lack of desire to skate is more than just grief over my father’s death. Coaching has become a source of frustration for me. Skating has become a job. I have started to equate skating with work at the stress that accompanies work. I like teaching ice skating, but it is still a job. I wanted to see my friend in a context separate from work, even though I wanted to discuss work with her because I knew she would understand and offer me helpful comments.
I drove to her house. She and her husband have done a “before and after” on their home. It has doubled in size and looks wonderful. We sat at her dining room table and I spilled my guts about the “lesson debacle” and the “bad luck” of not recruiting a current student’s sibling. Ariane is content at this point to teach groups. She currently has no private students and enrollment is down from last year at her rink too. Ariane retired from her “real job” and teaches for fun. She does not feel the same pressure to earn a living in an ice rink. Ariane is one of the most up-beat people I know. She is the type of woman who can transform a pile of crap into a chocolate sundae. Even when she was commuting over two hours each way to work, she always had a smile on her face. She found time to volunteer to teach skating to underprivileged children.
Of course, Ariane had good things to say to me. She provided encouragement. 2010 is a Winter Olympic year. Interest in skating always picks up during Olympic seasons. Next fall things will start to turn around, if only temporarily. Some of those students who take up skating may stay on. She encouraged me to send resumes to other rinks. She encouraged me to try the roller rinks too since I have a childhood background in recreational roller skating.
Early in our adult training, both Ariane and I believed skating instructors needed to pass high-level tests. Neither of us saw a realistic possibility in our futures to coach. However, one of my former instructors several years ago suggested I teach learn-to-skate classes. I don’t think I took him seriously, but I should have. After years of skating experience and now years of teaching, we both realize a basic skills instructor does not have to be a former champion or gold medallist test skater. People like us fill a need. We teach group classes. We teach tots and beginners. We can coach children and adults up to a point when we can turn them over to a more accomplished professional. We also charge considerably less for our valuable knowledge, making skating lessons financially accessible for beginners, low freestyle, and recreational skaters. Ariane has great perspective.
As I mentioned in my last entry, I am involved in training for a new, higher-demand career path that will offer me stability in the future. I realize I am not going to be a successful full-time figure skating coach. I do not have the credentials. Even if I could afford to test the entire USFSA adult track, it will never substitute for high level accomplishments that are normally acquired in youth. I’m not saying that no one can do it given sufficient experience, dedication, circumstances, etc. I just don’t think it is working out for me. Teaching ice skating has always been a dream for me, and I glad I am fulfilling that dream, even if it is not resulting in a fantastic career. No matter what I do in the future, I can always teach skating just because I enjoy it.
Week of April 26, 2009
Athlete’s Foot
I have never suffered from athlete’s foot before. However, since I have been going to the gym at least three times per week and showering there, my risk of contracting the condition has probably increased. I also used to shower at the YMCA and have occasionally used the shower in the rink’s locker room, especially when we were having problems with our plumbing at home. I belong to a health club with a huge membership. The locker room is often crowded and the showers are continually in use. A custodian cleans the facility regularly but cannot seem to keep up with demand. Like most other patrons, I wear shower sandals to reduce risk of infection. However, contact with contaminated surfaces can always occur.
At first my feet were itchy. I wrote this off as dry skin itch typical of wintertime. I continued to shove my feet into sneakers and sweat for three-hour workouts. Then I would shove the same nasty (but supposedly clean) feet into my skates. Some times my feet were so itchy, I scratched them raw. I cannot remember having this problem from skates before or tennis shoes, for that matter. My skates are getting old and need to be replaced. Maybe they are just irritating my skin on their way out.
This week, I went on vacation with my husband and sister to Mexico. Don’t start me on the media frenzy of swine flu. No, I did not come into contact with that and was nowhere near Mexico City. However, I was eager to get into the sun and salt water to clear up the pimples I never had as a teenager, get some color on my pallid skin, and soak my itchy feet. In my understandable haste, I got sunburned on the first day frolicking in the ocean. The zits vanished, my skin turned red then a healthy golden brown, but my feet nearly drove me mad. I scratched and scratched experiencing a euphoric sensation whenever I yielded to the urge. My right foot had already cleared up but the left one swelled until I limped and the sores oozed a yellow liquid that turned vitreous upon drying.
Athlete’s foot is a fungus, though no obvious signs of fungal growth were obvious. There was no scaling or discoloration. I bought an antifungal cream at the pharmacy and applied it liberally and popped a couple of antihistamine tablets to stop the allergic reaction. My bad foot began to improve. By the end of the week, it was healing nicely. I am sure I got this at the gym. I will have to be more careful in the locker room by wearing shower shoes with a thicker sole to minimize exposure. I wonder how many other people at that health club have itchy feet.
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