December 2007
Early December 2007
Kay Meets the Crone
I introduce myself to everybody. I introduce new people to the rest of the group. I try to be friendly and pleasant. I introduced myself to “Sheila”*** at the earliest opportunity. Although this older woman's reputation did not preceed her, I was impressed that she had been teaching for thirty plus years. Sheila has seen major changes in the skating world. Though I still do not know her competitive or testing achievements or whom she has coached and to what levels; she has certainly taught before, during and after the demise of compulsory figures; tracings based on a figure eight that originally gave this sport its name. She witnessed the rise of triples and men’s and ladies’ events and watched female Olympic champions get younger and younger. She probably learned to jump before the cross-legged position revolutionized what could be achieved in the air. Sometime I would like to sit down and have a cup of coffee with Sheila and listen to her stories.
While this may still happen, it seems unlikely since I have had a few unpleasant encounters with her. Sheila has not endeared herself to me, otherwise I would not give her the obnoxious title of “Old Crone”. A person I once perceived as interesting has shown her colors on several occasions to me and other coaches at Elite Arena. She is an unpleasant woman when dealing with adults, though she drips syrup when helping a little kid learn to skate. Attracting flies must operate on a similar principle to recruiting private students.
Crone Sheila is responsible for Elite’s sloppy class assignment system. She asks kids what level they were in the previous week and directs them to a coach. The higher the level, the less likely that student will come my way. In my skeptical mind, I view this as a way to keep students from forming relationships with pros. I have not had the same class twice at Elite. I do not get to know students or parents. Without forming relationships, a coach can hardly hope to be approached for private lessons. This way, when a parent contacts the skating director in search of a private instructor, she can direct the student to whomever she pleases including herself. Elite's director has no dead time, from what I have seen. From a financial perspective, I can relate to needing the money. However, from a business perspective, this is not a way to win friends and influence people. I have never received one referral from Elite.
Sheila stands by the doorway to the ice during group lessons to admit any stragglers. A tiny tot arrived for class fifteen minutes late. The Old Crone decided she would not escort the child to a group. Instead she called me away from my students to pick up the kid. I began to swizzle across the ice, as a coach swizzles once her legs are heavy and numb from barely moving in a frigid arena. The Old Crone hollered: "Skate over to me! Don't swizzle!" An expression of shock must have passed over my face. That remark was completely unprovoked and unwarranted. Is she purposely antagonizing me? She noticed the look of bewilderment in my eyes and responded dully: "I know, I know. Whatever." What the heck does all of this mean? She treats people like garbage, and I do not deserve it. Nobody does.
Discussions with other coaches have uncovered similar rude behavior from Sheila. It is not specifically aimed at me. I take little comfort in this. If this is Sheila’s personality and she is engrained in the system at Elite, nothing will likely change. I either have to swallow her attitude or get out before I say something. After that unnecessary “swizzle attack” I was very tempted to approach the Crone with “what gives?” But I bit my tongue and steered clear of her in the locker room.
Years of experience in many jobs and in different fields has shown me that there are assholes everywhere. They cannot be avoided. Dealing with them is a another challenge. I’m just not sure how to deal with Sheila other than to stay cool and as far away as possible.
*** Not her real name.
Early December 2007, Part Two
No Fun at Elite
I have dedicated several entries to my coaching experiences at Elite Arena. In one entry, I nicknamed the place “Insane Arena”. This honor continues to apply. First off, let me qualify my comments by stating very plainly that I am disappointed with my situation at Elite. I was promised regular classes and referrals during my interview with the skating director. None of this materialized. I am at best a sub. Granted, I am only starting out in this profession and might have found this acceptable had the director not initially offered something better. Actually, I want to get out of Elite before something bad happens. The atmosphere feels very tense and heavy. Other coaches are also not happy with their circumstances, most of them with more impressive skating resumes than mine. I feel nervous while I am teaching groups at Elite. I know I am being watched with a critical eye. This is not necessarily a bad or unexpected thing, since I am new. However, advice is rarely given constructively. It is usually yelled in front of the students and parents by the director or her henchwoman, an old crone who has been coaching for thirty years.
I thought I was basically alone in my humiliation at Elite. It’s just me. It’s all my fault. Not so. Of course, I do not have these problems at Ice Castle, nor do I feel uncomfortable teaching there. A colleague who works at both rinks has echoed my thoughts. She watches her step at Elite. As a staff pro at Ice Castle, she has a bevy of freestyle students learning higher level spins and jumps. New to the staff at Elite, she has finally graduated from teaching tots only.
After a busy group session, I sat in the locker room unlacing my skates with several other instructors. Outside in the hallway, we overheard an argument between the skating director and an experienced coach. When the angry exchange subsided, the coach walked in crying. Another pro and I took the coach out into the lobby where we could talk privately. The coach, who I shall call Jennifer***, was tired of her teaching style being questioned. She holds senior tests in three disciplines, competed at nationals, and was a staff professional at another prestigious rink before she got a "real job". Jennifer is also sick of being embarrassed in front of her class and parents. Sound familiar? The other pro who accompanied us chimed in with similar sentiments. All three of us had the same problems regardless of experience or status. At this point, Jennifer teaches skating for fun. Since Elite is no fun, she quit. The other pro plans to leave as soon as he gets something better. I want to leave too.
Elite is also grossly disorganized. Instructors do not get roll sheets. The Old Crone assigns students to instructors as they enter the rink. These assignments compose our classes for the session. One kid was placed in my beginner class. Apparently the student's parent wanted his child in a higher class. He called me over and complained that "this happened last week too". I told him I cannot place students in levels. The Old Crone does this. Honestly, if I tried, I would be bawled out in the hallway just like Jennifer. I told the Crone and pointed across the rink at the father who was already standing on the ice ready to pounce. The Crone hollered : "Get off the ice, sir!" then took the kid to the next class. I exchanged glances with the father, both of us certain this would not be the last time.
While a group of extra pros stood around waiting for students to be directed to us, one younger girl begged for a higher level class. She either was not heard or ignored. The class went to someone else and certainly not to me. The girl complained that she had a year of experience teaching tots and had been teaching higher classes last season. Now all she got was tots. I told her I was in the same boat. "But I’ve been teaching a long time," she whined. I had to glide away before I burst out laughing. If this individual is older than twenty-one, I am the Queen of England. I wanted to say: "Honey, can’t you see the gray roots I’m having dyed next week? I’m old enough to be your mother (if I married young). How do you know how long I’ve been coaching?"
Apparently no one is happy at Elite except for the few who are in the good graces of the director and the Old Crone. These select coaches get the better classes. Maybe they even get a referral once in while. They probably are not public berated and disciplined outside the locker room where their colleagues cannot help but eavesdrop and cringe. I hope to bail out of Elite by the end of the year.
*** Not her real name.
Week of December 10, 2007
Remnants of an Injury
About a year and a half have passed since I broke my ankle skating in July 2006. I have been back on the ice since last October and have regained my skills. However, remnants of the injury still give me some trouble. My ankle feels very stiff a few hours after exercise and I limp a little. I can live with that. A previously damaged joint may never be exactly the same especially for someone my age. I broke my fibula and dislocated my foot. While my doctor did not have to perform surgery to put me back together again, I wore a cast for two months, during which time I could not put any weight on the damaged foot. Overall, I lost weight and the muscles in my right leg atrophied. When I got back on the ice, I skated like a toddler. Through determination and love of the sport, I got back to where I was pre-break and am in the process of improving again.
I always spent a healthy chunk of time warming up. This includes off-ice stretching and an on-ice regimen of stroking and moves in the field. I often invested thirty minutes in warm-up exercises. Of course, I still do this. However, part of my warm-up must focus on loosening my ankle. The ankle lacks flexibility and requires a bit of patience to get it working properly. The primary area of difficulty is the understrokes required for backward and forward crossovers. I understroke with my right leg in clockwise (CW) forward crossovers and backward counterclockwise (CCW) crossovers. The toe pick scratch I hear during backward crossovers is very distressing. Scratchy back crossovers are the mark of an inexperienced skater whose technique still needs refinement. I thought passed that barrier long ago. Now, due to an injury that happened seventeen months ago, I scratch the ice like a neophyte.
To overcome this problem, I practice slow deliberate backward alternating crossovers around the rink and on a hockey circle, gradually building up speed and flexing my ankle properly so the blade contacts the ice without any toe interaction. I must do this at every session, no exceptions. I do the same thing forward, though I find forward CW crossovers far more unsteady than backward CCW ones. The lean on the right forward outside edge of the understroke exerts excessive stress on my ankle. I have started training power circles both forward and backward to relieve these problems. Power circles require the skater to begin crossovers at the center of a circle very slowly holding each stroke to demonstrate command of the edges and positions. Gradually the skater builds speed until s/he is flying in a large circle. This should take no more than fifteen crossovers. I am really good at power circles that do not incorporate a right leg understroke. In fact, I am becoming very competent at the backward CCW version too. Unfortunately, the forward CW power strokes leave much to be desired. I feel uncomfortable and insecure on my right foot and cannot find the rhythm to create enough speed.
As a CW skater, I perform forward spins on my right foot and have had no problem reacquiring my repertoire of spins. Spinning apparently does not require the same degree of ankle flexibility as fundamental crossovers. So, I keep skating in power circles.
View pictures of my broken ankle experience in the Photo Gallery
Week of December 16, 2007
The Hysterical Parent
Skating is a sport. Sports can be inherently dangerous. Athletes get injured; not just beginners but elite athletes can get seriously hurt, sometimes to the point of ending a career. People seem to realize this about football and hockey. They even know jogging can damage the joints. Fans of figure skating may be familiar with some of the horrible falls taken by pair skaters and the Russian woman (Yelena Berezhnaya) who was impaled in the head by her partner’s blade and later became Olympic champion with a new (more careful) partner, Anton Sikharulidze. Rink managers, coaches and professional organizations fully understand the riskiness of ice sports. Releases must be signed by parents enrolling students in group lessons, camps, or teams. Coaches carry liability insurance. Rinks post rules and “skate at your own risk” warnings. Some rinks require public skaters to sign a release before entering the arena.
A couple of months ago, a skater took a nasty fall skating backwards in one of my classes. The resultant gash required stitches. No one got freaked out. The mother was loving and supportive of her child. The girl was back in class the next week. Mom said I was a great teacher. Of course, no coach wants a kid to take a hard fall during a lesson. Furthermore, no one wants a child to get hurt. But kids fall. Most of the time they bounce. They even fall for fun. But it stops being fun when the fall takes the kid by surprise and results in an injury.
This week, a boy took an unexpected fall in a group class. The students need practice stopping. I stress stopping without hitting the boards in my classes. I encourage the kids to skate and stop either with me in front of the group calling "skate, skate, stop" or watching the group from the side as they attempt to stop before reaching the wall. We start out slow, even though some students always try to get ahead of me, because they apparently already know how to do this. Some do, most don’t. Each time, I ask the kids to skate a little faster, but not faster than they can handle or control. Most pay attention and push themselves a little bit. Some kids think they are ready for the NHL and barrel-ass down the lane. The previously mentioned boy fit this category. He caught his toe pick and took a dive.
I skated over to him. He was crying, as is typical. The child scared himself. He earned a small bruise and tiny ice burn on his cheek, but he pulled himself together and wanted to keep skating. He rejoined the group. Meanwhile, mom had come down from the balcony. I brought the child to his mother, who was absolutely hysterical. "Oh, My GOD!" she hollered and dragged the kid off the ice. I told her to take her son to the front desk to get a cold compress. I felt sorry for the kid. He was a bigger boy, probably seventh or eighth grade and apparently had never even skinned his knee before.
Later the manager talked to me about the incident. She was amazed by the mother’s panic. "There’s one boy who will never play hockey," she concluded. In her opinion, the mother lost all sense of reason. I know it’s different when it’s your kid, but it was just a scrape. She chose to take the kid to the emergency room, which may not have been a bad idea, if only to put her mind at ease. The manager told me if the parent is so worried about her child falling, maybe she should not bring him back to the rink. Maybe he should sign up for chess club or debate team. A kid can get hurt playing any sport. Or, she should buy the kid a helmet and make him wear it… all the time. Maybe she should put him in a plastic bubble to keep him safe. Yes, we made a bit of fun between ourselves. We were not trying to be cruel. As skating people, we have seen and experienced plenty of injuries, most more serious than a little bruise.
In any case, I hope the boy is okay.
Late December 2007
Sick for the Holidays
I am really getting tired of being sick. I know people suffer from much worse ailments than the common cold, but this is my second nasty cold this winter. My husband came home sick from work and within a couple of days I had a sore throat followed by the typical sinus progression of congestion, runny nose, and hacking cough. We did not have plans to travel over the Christmas week, but we did hope to go out and enjoy ourselves. That was pretty much impossible.
Although I did not plan to skate for my own pleasure, I was scheduled to teach a few classes. Since I had to call in sick last month, I decided not to do it again unless I was on my death bed and needed a doctor’s note. Getting to the rink to teach was unpleasant. Standing in a cold rink while sick is also unpleasant and does not speed recovery. Fortunately, I was not coughing out of control and could disguise my discomfort with a wad of tissues dabbing my nostrils. A couple of young innocent faces looked at me with wide-eyed concern. “Are you sick?” they asked.
The week of Christmas and New Year’s are notoriously crowded at ice arenas. Kids get skates for Christmas and are eager to try them out. Families are together and need a fun wholesome outing. Parents want to get their children out of the house for an afternoon. The spirit of the season is conducive to skating. It all dies down after school reopens. But beware of weekend public sessions until the spring. They will be mobbed until the weather turns warm and sunny. This explains why I choose not to skate over the holidays unless I am being paid.
When I cannot skate, I like to substitute exercise at the gym. Well, I was too sick for that. So, I sat around the house reading for the whole week. It required supreme effort not to eat continuously. Since I so recently went through a period of sickness and inactivity, following it will another put me into a funk. The weather was gloomy, my husband sounded ready to hock up a lung, and we both suffered from cabin fever. I am looking forward to purging this virus and getting back to a normal healthy routine.
Week of December 23, 2007
Return of the Hysterical Parent
We actually did not expect this woman to bring her son back to Ice Castle for more classes. She was so freaked out to see a scratch on the kid’s face after he took a dive trying to stop. Nobody likes to see a kid fall, but falling is part of learning to skate. Not only did she come back with her boy in tow, she brought a box containing a brand new pair of department store hockey skates. She was planning to strap the prince’s feet into these for his group lesson with me. Thank goodness Leslie***, the manager, saw this.
According to the account Leslie shared later, the mother thought her son was ready for hockey skates. Leslie told her children should not start using hockey skates until they already know how to skate fairly well. Mom was indignant: "My son knows how to skate." Leslie is not one to mince words or play games to placate a wacky parent. "And your son fell on his face last week trying to stop." She recommended sticking with rentals. Even after the mother’s hysteria the previous week, she decided her kid was good enough for hockey. Lady, just wait until he takes a beating playing hockey. You will have ulcers, migraines, and ultimately a stroke. Get a prescription for Xanax now.
So the boy joined my class halfway through as he did the previous week when he fell. The mother interrupted my class, called me away from the other students to tell me he needs help stopping. Very politely, I told her we worked on stopping at the beginning of class and now the kids were practicing gliding. She said: "We had scheduling problems and could not get here on time. He needs help stopping. He fell last week." Yes, I remember. Poor bugger.
I incorporated stopping into my gliding lesson, as is normal. Kids need to practice stopping without hitting the boards or wiping out. Meanwhile, Mom watched and talked to another coach. I later saw this coach giving Mom her card. Busting the coach, I said: "Good luck with that one." She thought I was upset that she was "soliciting my student". Please, take him now. You can have him and his crazy mother.
Leslie and I spoke afterward. I like Leslie. She is a straight shooter. No BS with Leslie. She supports her staff and knows how to deal with difficult people. I have voiced my appreciation of these qualities to her. I have worked for and with plenty of jerks. The change is refreshing. Laughing, Leslie told me Crazy Mom wanted every rink employee to give her a hug after her kid fell because she was so upset. Leslie rolled her eyes, "Oh, the drama." Leslie said she has watched a parade of bizarre characters come into the rink, go back out, and sometimes reappear. She told me not to worry about this nutcase. All I have to do is put a star next to his name on my roll sheet, and she will never assign him to my class again. Works for me.
*** Not her real name.
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