What was the moment you -- or your kid -- knew they wanted to get on the ice?

4rkidz

plotting, planning and travelling
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14,636
My daughter was in the rink attached to the skating centre playing indoor lacrosse. One day after leaving she saw the figure skaters twirling and with pretty dresses on and had her nose up against the windows watching their simulations. She was about 4, later in the year I was watching the 94 Olympics and the figure skating and my daughter loved watching it too. I asked her if she wanted to try it, two years later she was getting picked up at school by her coach and competing lol. A medal at every competition but peaked at age ten with her little cheated double jumps lol. By age 12 she realized she wasn’t going to the Olympics so she switched from competitive to recreational till she was 14, discovered speed skating at age 13 (another Olympics), retired figure skating (with gold tests completed) became a national speed skater and now coaches. I think it was mainly the Olympics! All i know is I spent decades in cold rinks in North America and Europe, but some cool trips and I wouldn't change a thing lol
 

Viktoria

Active Member
Messages
105
My daughter was in the rink attached to the skating centre playing indoor lacrosse. One day after leaving she saw the figure skaters twirling and with pretty dresses on and had her nose up against the windows watching their simulations. She was about 4, later in the year I was watching the 94 Olympics and the figure skating and my daughter loved watching it too. I asked her if she wanted to try it, two years later she was getting picked up at school by her coach and competing lol. A medal at every competition but peaked at age ten with her little cheated double jumps lol. By age 12 she realized she wasn’t going to the Olympics so she switched from competitive to recreational till she was 14, discovered speed skating at age 13 (another Olympics), retired figure skating (with gold tests completed) became a national speed skater and now coaches. I think it was mainly the Olympics! All i know is I spent decades in cold rinks in North America and Europe, but some cool trips and I wouldn't change a thing lol
That is an AMAZING story! I love that even though the discipline and focus of skating changed and changed again, she found people who encouraged her to stay with it. I think that sometimes there's so much focus on Olympics or even Nationals, and while Olympics is currently one of our best promotional tools, we can sometimes discourage kids and families with the sort of "tier system" of silently insinuating some kinds of skating are more worthwhile or "relative" than others. Especially in these times, we need to be as enthusiastic and supportive of our rec, club competition, test, synchro, figure-to-hockey skaters as we are our skaters with national competition ambitions and clubs need to be there for all the "pivots" in a lifelong skating career.
 

overedge

Mayor of Carrot City
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35,415
That is an AMAZING story! I love that even though the discipline and focus of skating changed and changed again, she found people who encouraged her to stay with it. I think that sometimes there's so much focus on Olympics or even Nationals, and while Olympics is currently one of our best promotional tools, we can sometimes discourage kids and families with the sort of "tier system" of silently insinuating some kinds of skating are more worthwhile or "relative" than others. Especially in these times, we need to be as enthusiastic and supportive of our rec, club competition, test, synchro, figure-to-hockey skaters as we are our skaters with national competition ambitions and clubs need to be there for all the "pivots" in a lifelong skating career.

And adults!
 

Bunny Hop

Queen of the Workaround
Messages
9,390
1984 Olympics - watching Torvill & Dean - made me actually want to learn to skate properly. I'd been skating a number of times before with a school friend from about the age of 9, but that was going round the edge mainly hanging on to the barriers. So I started learn to skate classes at 14 and did that for about 2 years. I was learning single jumps when the rink shut down. After that I only skated recreationally for a number of years. Then when my husband and I were looking for something we could do together, I started private lessons. That was in my early 30s. I've never been good at skating, but I do enjoy it.
 

syzygy

Well-Known Member
Messages
173
So my mother just threw me on the ice when I was like 4 and then I quit because I got cold. 4 years later I had to quit Irish Step dance because my feet were getting so messed up from the shoes (looking back I probably could have found some that fit) so I insisted that if I wasn't allowed to do Irish Step, I wanted to go back to ice skating. I don't know why I thought so. The rest is history.
 

Ananas Astra

Get woke, go broke!
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14,803
It actually came as a surprise. In my hometown, there are two huge parks and one day, back when we still had real winters and the ponds were completely frozen, my dad took us kids for a walk in one of the parks (which happens to be near the ice rink) and we saw some figure skaters practice right there on the ponds. A former piano student of my mother's was part of that group, so we watched them for a while and my dad asked us whether we wanted to try it as well. He talked to that girl's dad and then to the coach to find out the next practice date.
A day later, we went to the mall to buy skates and went to the park again to try them out. Of course, we had no idea how to even stand on the ice, but somehow we managed and when we went to the first practice in the park, we were allowed to stay.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
 

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