This is my own designation, and it's kind of hard to pinpoint, except I know one when I see one.
A 'fun rink' is inclusive. None of the coaches are former world champions or national competitors. Winning a title doesn't make you a good coach. It makes you a retired competitor. Good coaches have good teaching skills.
In a 'fun rink' an old lady like me is welcome on freestyle. None of the coaches give me grief over skating on FS. ISI rinks tend to be fun rinks. (TEND, mind you, TEND TO BE.)
Leading indicator of a fun rink: No high or low freestyle. Just Freestyle.
Second indicator of a fun rink: No one's going to Nationals, unless it's Adult Nationals or ISI Nationals.
Third indicator of a fun rink: People love skating.
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| Fun Rink interpretive program |
Tough rinks on the other hand, have high and low freestyle, obscure rules on who can be on what ice. Lots of competitive skaters. Lots of team coaching. Specialized coaches. Some skaters have a chance at Nationals or have already been. You go in one day and there's famous people on the ice.
Leading indicator of a tough rink: Well, for now I'm going to say it involves the statement "Elite Freestyle requires the permission of the HEAD COACH." (This is a quote from a tough rink, just not the one I'm going to.)
Second indicator: Weird skating mom stories. I just can't wait. I need material for the blog.
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| Meow Asada works on her new spiral position at her Tough Rink |
The real question should be, Why am I leaving my fun rink? I like to take group lessons, and I'm not getting anywhere in the ones at my present fun rink. The (potentially) tough rink has a greater variety of group lessons for adults, plus an adult public. I think it's worth the effort. Plus the psychotic skating mom stories. Excellent.
We are most definitely a fun rink. That said, tonight I practiced my crappy waltz jumps next to a guy doing a triple axel.
ReplyDeleteIt always makes me laugh whenever I tell someone I ice skate they either ask me "can you skate backwards" or "can you do a triple axel". The answer to the first question is Yes. Theanswer to the second is "no, but I know the only man in Iowa who can." (Maybe there is another person, but I don't think so...)
I know a guy who was a competitor 15 years ago, and he occasionally has a triple. Amazing things, aren't they? And especially nice at a fun rink where it's unexpected.
DeleteI would definitely categorize my rink as a fun rink. I've always felt welcome and very comfortable there. There is another rink in a city about three hours away, where I have to go to get my skates sharpened, and I thought it would be fun to drop in on their Freestyle session while I was there. When I looked up their schedule online, I noticed a rulebook. After reading their rules, my jaw dropped and I decided maybe I won't be stopping by to skate after all. It was so intimidating!
ReplyDeleteAll these little rules about how you can only skate the Freestyle session that aligns with your skating level, and how you have to sign up for Freestyle ahead of time (not during) and you have to be on the ice exactly when your 45-minute session begins. And how if you're visiting a Freestyle session that isn't "your" Freestyle session, you never have right-of-way--even if you're in a lesson!--and you're not allowed to skate before or after your lesson, you have to get off the ice immediately.
I don't know, maybe these rules are normal for most places, but it seemed so extreme in comparison with my rink's rules. I mean, at my rink, you arrive when you feel like it, you sign in, and you skate. That's all there is to it. If our rules ever get like that, it will suck all the joy out of skating! (This other rink appears to be ISI, while our rink is USFS. But our rink only just opened a few months ago, so maybe they just haven't written all the rules yet?)
"if you're visiting a Freestyle session that isn't "your" Freestyle session, you never have right-of-way--even if you're in a lesson!-"
DeleteWow, just wow, there's a disaster in the making. Right of way isn't a privilege, it's for safety. I agree those rules seem pretty extreme. It wouldn't be Robert C Crown would it?
LOL since Robert Crown has different freestyle levels, I guess it fails the fun rink requirement. I do think the rink rules there are reasonable when enforced correctly. Not a good idea to put learn to skate skater on the same ice with advanced freestyle skaters / ice dancers, not fair to any of them and just plain dangerous. I regularly skate with kids on freestyle ice, but sharing ice with high level ice dancers once totally freaked me out, they just move too fast. Of course, in some regions elite skaters train on public sessions, due to lack of proper training facility and ice time, not because it's more fun.
DeleteMy rink's rules say skaters cannot skate on sessions higher than their current level, but will have the right of way on their own ice. So low level skater cannot attend high level ice, high level skater can opt to attend low level ice but *MUST* yield to low level skaters (cough cough monitors). I do not think it's a good idea for them to have lesson and land triple jumps on tiny ones who barely have control over forward edges anyways, especially since the low level freestyle ice tends to be the the most crowded over here.
Orianna2000, I am curious when you say "visiting a Freestyle session that isn't 'your' Freestyle session", does it mean difference in skill level or walk-on/non-member status? I think right-of-way shall not depend on whether the skater pre-registered or just walked-on, it should follow set rules such as running program to music, in private lesson, etc. etc.
Regarding showing up on time, I imagine some rinks probably want skaters to be on time because the ice monitor needs to be in the music booth after session starts, hence cannot stay around to check the skater in / collect music CD etc. Also certain ice times are always in high demand with a waiting list, monitors need to know if the pre-registered skater will show by certain time so the walk-on skaters can get on the ice.
If freestyle sessions runs from 6am to 7am, then 7am to 8am, I assume skating from 6:30am to 7:30am would mean paying for two full sessions per most rinks' rules.
It's very interesting to observe how expectations differ from area to area!
This paragraph
Delete"Regarding showing up on time, I imagine some rinks probably want skaters to be on time because the ice monitor needs to be in the music booth after session starts, hence cannot stay around to check the skater in / collect music CD etc. Also certain ice times are always in high demand with a waiting list, monitors need to know if the pre-registered skater will show by certain time so the walk-on skaters can get on the ice. "
Tells me a huge difference between a "fun rink" and a "training rink".
Ice monitor? Music order? Pre-registered skaters?
We have no monitors or rink guards. We don't have a music order. Unofficially, coaches can ask to play their students music, if there is a line. But a line is literal- you camp by the boom box if you have to, but generally it is a "hey are you going next? I'm going after you". Then you have to see if anyone is lollygagging around and will push play for you, or else you push play and skate as fast as you can to your starting position.
At my present rink there's no music monitor and Dance Coach gets to bump kids twice to play his music. From the behavior of the skaters on the ice I guess it's because they worship him or something. I asked him about this rule once and he said, "Is rule."
DeleteYeah, okay, how'd you swing that one?
So, yes, totally fun rink. I can't see other coaches putting up with that at a more competition oriented rink.
** Orianna2000, I am curious when you say "visiting a Freestyle session that isn't 'your' Freestyle session", does it mean difference in skill level or walk-on/non-member status? **
DeleteI believe it was talking about not having right-of-way if it's not your skill-level's Freestyle. As in, if you're visiting that Freestyle in order to have a lesson, then you don't get right-of-way, even during your lesson.
At my rink, there are no "levels" of Freestyle. There's only three Freestyle sessions per week (one hour each on Monday and Thursday, and two hours on Saturday) and the rink owners change the day/times randomly to accommodate hockey games or whatever. The hockey players own the rink--literally. Apparently a bunch of hockey parents pooled their resources to build the rink, and it's the only public rink within a three-hour drive.
I'm only in Adult 2, but if I was told I couldn't skate Freestyle with the higher-level skaters, I would have to quit skating. My only other option would be to attend public sessions on the weekend--and those are so crowded that I get panic attacks. Plus, there's no room to do anything other than skating forwards. The teenagers hang out in the middle, horsing around, so you can't even use the middle to practice in. I got tired of it and asked the assistant skating director if there was any "private" rink time, and she told me to come to Freestyle. Sometimes it's crowded, but there's usually only three or four other girls at the Saturday Freestyle, plus one or two adults who show up for the second half.