Full Contact Figure Skating

During lesson last week, an older teenager--a tall male skater, bent over at the waist, skated hard as he could and head butted me in my back while I was skating backwards IN THE CENTER!  I heard my coach cry out, and glanced over my shoulder so I just had a glimpse of him heading towards me when he hit. Fortunately, I reflexively dug a toepick in and my coach put her hand to my shoulder in the split second warning we had.

I, my coach, and another adult skater got right in his face and started all chewing him out simultaneously. In that instant, I saw a faint realization on his face that he was in trouble and he was off the ice in about 2 minutes with his friends.

Then during practice ice later that week, I was knocked over twice in 10 minutes by two different little  kids who just skated right into me at max speed.

There are two things I want to comment on.
1.  When I fell, coaches skated over to me instantly asking me forcefully, "Did you hit your head!" then they'd glance at the kid and ask casually, "you okay?" Do I get the extra attention because:
 a. I'm the beloved adult recreational skater, or 
 b. They're afraid I'll snap like a twig.

2. Then when I tell the coaches I'm afraid I'll fall on the kids and squash them, the reaction is usually....  

Yeah, that's an interesting attitude to have. What's with that? 


Anyway, why me, oh Lord? Why am I the target of interest? Cause if you're testing me, Oh Lord, I want a panel of 6 USFS judges and a full sheet of ice all to my self. 

When I'm impressed by someone's ROH

It turns out our Silver Ice Dance/synchro skater sharpens his own blades, and a former National level coach at the rink gave him the thumbs up as a sharpener. This skater is the one who I referred to as 'the one who skates with sprezzatura.'

I sat down next to him in the lobby as we were booting up and asked, "So, now that you do your own sharpening, what's your radius of hollow?"

"13/16 ths." He replied.

 Say hello to our Badass Skater....cause Sprezzatura Guy takes too long to type!

Want Some Cheese with That Whine?

I threw a birthday bash at the rink for my 65th birthday, and invited my coach. This is the bag she put my gift in.

Wait, wait....is she trying to TELL me something?