After work yesterday, I traveled to a new rink. It's the rink I'm supposed to be going to for a 6:00am session that I've never made. Yesterday, they began their summer sessions, which includes 6:15pm sessions twice a week. The rink is about six miles from my office. So, off I went.
After traveling in the wrong direction for approximately five or six miles, I stopped in a gas station and got turned around in the right direction. "Okay!" I thought, "I may be a little late, but I'll get there." And I managed not to get lost again and arrived with little or no additional problems. Oh wait, I did drive right past the big sign that stated it was the skating rink. Thank goodness for private roads that allow you to turn around.
The rink is owned and operated by the town (it's in Long Island), so the price can't be beat. It's less than half what I pay in Manhattan. That was one very big selling point for me.
As almost any skater will tell you, there is a bit of a learning curve when skating at a new rink. You're nervous, the ice feels funny, and in my case, there are the looks. Lots of looks. No, I'm not being paranoid. I'm a 5'6" African-American adult woman with more than a few extra pounds on her. I add the word "adult" because I am writing about figure skating and while there are more and more adult skaters, the parents of the children on the ice seem to think every adult falls into two categories: 1) skated competitively as a child and has all of their double and triple jumps and is coming back to the sport; 2) a big annoying waste of ice time who is taking up space that their little darling child could be using. I fall into the second category, not having skated as a child. When I go to a new rink, it's almost as though I've never been on skates before. I always hope that this feeling disappears after a few minutes, but it almost never does. There are people at World Ice Arena and Aviator who still wonder if I know how to skate. Then they'll see me at Chelsea Piers and ask if I have a sister who looks a lot like me, but doesn't skate very well. Go figure.
So, off the the rink in Long Island. I pay my fee, change my clothes and walk over to where all the other skaters are located. I start talking to another adult skater; her name escapes me right now. Actually, her name escaped me ten minutes after she told me. Sometimes things just fly right out of my head; usually names.
To my surprise, I saw two coaches I knew from years ago; they look exactly the same. That was the biggest positive about this session. Sadly, now for the negative.
Including myself and coaches, there were 22 skaters on the ice. Just 22. I've skated with as many as 32. How 16 actual skaters, average age of 11 managed to be in the way for the entire session boggles my mind. I started off stroking, but had to stop on the other side of the rink because a little girl decided the track was an excellent place to spin. Another lap, another spot, another spinner. Crossovers on the end, no, almost tripped over a leg doing a sudden lunge.
My moves in the field were only done down one side of the rink because the other side seemed to be devoted to little girls doing whatever the heck they wanted, wherever they wanted. I was moving backwards, when I heard "heads up" by a coach who decided that was the perfect place to stand to watch her student. Never mind that I was in a pattern on the track; I was in her way. Her student was doing three bunny hops.
Undeterred, I tried jumping. After twelve attempts at lining up the jump, only to abort due to a little girl deciding that spinning in the corner was the perfect place, I did the jump anyway and scared the pants off of her. Not on purpose; I guess she never saw an adult jump. It wasn't even a good jump, nor was it a high level jump (it was a basic waltz jump). That little girl eyeballed me for the rest of the session; still don't understand why.
I've been spoiled. The ice at Chelsea is usually perfect; not too hard, not too soft, not too wet and very, very smooth. Yesterday's ice was dry, hard and in need of a resurfacing. More than once on a back edge, I heard my toepick dig into the ice, a bad habit I'm trying to break. My jumps were not my best and spinning seemed to be a waste of time; everyone else was jumping in the center.
This brings me to an important point. There is a coach who doesn't allow parents to sit in the bleachers during sessions. They may watch from the large windows on the other side of the rink. This is not because the coaches are abusing or yelling, but because the parents are a distraction. I watched a coach trying to keep her student's attention when every eighteen seconds, that kid was looking over at her parents. She would do an element and look at her parents, who clapped enthusiastically, and as a result, distracted the child. It is this need for instant praise that created the spinning in the track problem. The skaters are spinning where their parents can see them and right in front of where they are sitting; along the track. If you don't allow parents in the rink, you eliminate this problem.
I am grateful for the opportunity to skate at this rink, even with all of the issues I raised. I need more ice time, and am trying not to waste my time or money. I should be on the ice tonight at a different rink, but I have to go buy an air conditioner with my roommate, so that plan has been squashed. I'll be back at the Long Island rink on Wednesday; not sure if I'll try to go in the morning as well.
It is my hope that it gets better; both the ice and me. I marvel at those high level skaters who can skate anywhere and not have it effect them. I want that. I just have to work hard to achieve it.
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