Friday, March 9, 2012

When are you a "Real Skater"?

All that practice and money and coaching, when do you get to be a "real skater"?

The first time I heard this was when I was complaining to the Big Guy, "I could skate my figures if the ice was better."

He said, "You're a real skater now. You always blame the ice, it's never yourself!"

The next time I heard it was when I bought a horridly expensive, beautiful skating jacket to replace my old white, canvas jacket. When I walked in the dressing room one of the women exclaimed, "You're a real skater now!"

The first time I felt I was a real skater was after a lesson when I fell several times. Not only did I just pop up and do the element again without hesitation, but after the lesson I couldn't really remember what I fell on---because it wasn't that important. "I'm a real skater now!" I thought.

Oh, you can talk about competitions, and medals, and tests. But I don't think those are the high moment of being a real skater. I don't think you'll ever know when that moment comes. Sometime, somewhere, after you've done a particularly smooth but difficult piece of footwork, or demonstrated absolute control over your edges, or have executed a particularly beautiful program in practice, a coach may turn to another coach and say, "Y'know, that's a real skater."

5 comments:

  1. I felt like a real skater when I stopped practicing in track pants and started wearing leggings :)

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    1. So, you're at level 2. :-)
      I would have thought you'd be at level 3!

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    2. Well, I've also left the rink to go to the Emergency Room...

      And I've stood on a podium and taken a picture holding my medal like I won the Olympics...

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  2. Drawing blood on a bad fall gave me a lot a rink cred with the Jr and Senior competitive males but there are probably much less violent ways of feeling like a real skater.

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    Replies
    1. Level 2 with a bullet? (That's a Billboard reference for you young folk)

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