Lake Placid Adult Skate Camp-- Part I: The Lay of the Land (updated_2017)

All Lake Placid Posts here.

UPDATED 2017


I've attended the LP adult skate camp twice, in two different years. They should be announcing the summer skate camps starting in February, so I'll prep you what to expect.

How to find out: Sometime in February, LP will announce the dates for its adult camp. In the past there has been one in June and one in August. I usually start checking the LP adult camp webpage in late Feb/early March. In 2017 the announcement was made in mid-March.

Housing: The camps take place in beautiful (but isolated) Lake Placid, New York. How that town handled not one but TWO winter Olympics, I'll never know. The town is small and expensive. It's also a tourist town, so it's casual wear all day. Even the upscale restaurants  allow casual wear.  There are hotels (expensive), athlete dormitories (you give up some of your privacy), and private homes for rent to stay in. The best deal is to go up with a group and rent a house. The most expensive is to rent a hotel room. I understand the athlete dormitories are reasonable, but I have no personal experience with them.

Travel: There are three ways to get to LP: car, train, and plane. I took the train one year when the Big Guy was still skating. From where we lived it was the same travel time as a car trip and it cost way less. But cars do have conveniences associated with them once you're in town, so it's a trade off. Last year two of the skaters in the group I was with flew in and rented cars. It's a long drive to the airport which is some distance away in Albany, NY. You can also fly into Saranac Lake--but that's expensive.

Signing up: The controller of the skate camp at Lake Placid is the Olympic Redevelopment Association (ORDA). When the camp is announced, you can go to the website and register online. The fee last year for the August full wee was $275. (In 2013 a 'processing fee' or $50 was added). That is just ice time and three receptions. That doesn't include lessons. Usually the website has an outline of what group classes they think they will hold. This is vague. Don't expect to see an exact list until you show up and sign in. (In 2013 a pdf of the schedule was emailed the week before).

Coaches: There are a number of resident coaches at LP, and ORDA brings in some guest coaches who are elite skaters.  Since there's usually an ice show during the August session, sometimes ice skating stars show up and give a group class. Jeremy Abbot showed up and gave an adult group class last year.   Ryan Bradley has also appeared. There have been some non-resident coaches who show up with a stable of students, and these non-resident coaches are sometimes available for lessons.  You can look on the Lake Placid website for coach listings. Many (but not all) of those coaches are available for Adult Skate Week. For example, in 2011 and 2012 I never saw Paul Wylie or Gregory and Petukhov coaching (but in 2013 I did) . Non-resident coaches are not listed here. You won't learn about them until the initial reception.

Tomorrow--Part II: Getting Started at LP Adult Camp

Don't.Slouch

I can't tell you how many skaters I've seen, young and old, amateur and elite, slouching while they skate.  As an ice dancer I am sometimes forced to look at video of myself skating and I occasionally see myself as bad as everyone else. Slouching is a terrible posture problem for both young and old, and it's easy to fall into bad habits. It's also bad for you.

Let me describe the kind of slouch I'm talking about.

1. The shoulders roll forward so the chest is narrowed.
2. The upper part of the back curves so the chest is collapsed
3.  The head is pushed forward

This posture has a lot of effects. It can impede deep breathing since it compresses your internal organs and rib cage into your lungs, it can affect the angle of the pelvis causing back pain, it disrupts your balance,  the angle of the head can cause pressure on the brain stem raising blood pressure and most critical of all....

It makes your boobs sag and your stomach pop out!

MO-TI-VA-TOR! Right, am I right? People will ignore the health issues, but talk about looks, and everyone's all standing up straight!

So what do to? Good posture is mostly good habits, stand up with chest out, shoulders back is enough. But you have to do it all the time. Every minute. Every hour. Every day.

Is it hard to be consistent? Yes. I lift weights, do Pilates, and yoga and I still catch myself slouching. Still, there's some simple exercises that you could try to help you straighten up. I found these on  the Women's Health magazine website.

No matter how young and beautiful you are. Slouching is ugly.
(And bad for your health)

Skating with out slouching gives you more breath to skate with, centers your balance, improves your looks. All you have to do is be conscious of it. All.The.Time.

Johnny Wier. Always perfect posture. A lesson for us all.

Jan 2: Just a little Practice Session

What with the Federal Holiday I zipped down to the rink and got some ice time in. I was doing okay for the first half hour laying down the Rhythm Blues and Canasta Tango patterns, then some little girl did a lunge right out of my blind side while I was in a FI swing roll. That rattled me. Another six inches and the both of us would have been splattered on the ice.

After that it was a carnival of adult skating. Coach X showed up, also The Only Skater Older Than Me, Helmet Guy, Hockey Guy, Hockey Guy's Friend, and a couple of other adults that I know. Every one wanted to chat as I orbited around the ice so I gave up doing patterns and just did some foot work in between chat sessions.  My mohawks are solid and consistent. What a relief. I've been focusing on dance so much I haven't done them in weeks.

Helmet Guy and I caught up what's happened over the winter. He had an accident on ice last year and hit his head. He's now sensibly wearing a skateboarding helmet to protect him in jumps.  Right now he's developed some big--let me correct that--huge waltz jumps since I saw him last.  He has everything but the check out. (Sort of like my FI3s.)  He told me he wants to skate every day, but life keeps getting in the way. I had to agree. We had both signed up for evening sessions and missed all but one or two.

You know you're at the rink too much when on your way out, you stop at the cashier and she says "I know, you want to renew your public skate card," before you can open your mouth.