Some Tips to Help Your Child (or You!) Get Started

Figure skating (also called "artistic skating" or just "ice skating," though that's really a broader term), is a sport that can reach out and grab your kid­'s attention at any time.

Maybe your son or daughter has friends who skate. Maybe they watched a televised competition, and they want to be like Michelle Kwan or Tim Goebel.The reason doesn't matter. What does matter is that skating can be a rewarding, challenging, and fun experience.

A Word of History

Skating goes back hundreds of years, to the days when people in northern Europe strapped runners carved from bone or antlers to their boots to negotiate frozen bodies of water. As time went on, it became less important to skate for transportation and more popular to do it for fun.

There's no need to go through all the sport's growing pains. Suffice to say that skating underwent its first explosion of popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, as elegant ladies like Peggy Fleming and athletic men like Scott Hamilton showed what could be done on blades of steel an eighth of an inch wide. Dick Button, an Olympic champion, ice-show promoter, and ABC commentator, played a major role in popularizing the sport. The interest in skating continued to rise, and spiked when gigantic audiences tuned in to the Olympics in 1994 to watch Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan compete after the bizarre incident in which acquaintances of Harding had tried to knock Kerrigan out of competition with a physical assault. American skaters like Tara Lipinski, Michelle Kwan, Sarah Hughes, Todd Eldredge, and Tim Goebel, along with athletes like Canada's Elvis Stoiko and Russia's Maria Butraskya, have kept the sport in the limelight ever since.

What does this have to do with your child?

The odds of your child­'s becoming an Olympic champion are too small to calculate. If that happens, wonderful. But don't think about it now. Many a child's life has been damaged irreparably because a loving parent was sure that little Suzy or Chuckie was incredibly talented and was a sure-fire national champ. Concentrate on helping your child learn the sport and have fun.

STARTING OUT

To start out as a skater, all you really need is ice.  Do NOT rush out and buy $300 SP Teri skates for your three-year-old. There are plenty of people willing to sell them to you, but there's no need to buy them. All public skating rinks rent skates, and rentals are just fine to start with. If an older sibling has an outgrown but still serviceable pair, that's even better.

The best way to get started is to enroll in classes. There are "Learn to Skate" programs everywhere, sponsored by the US Figure Skating Association (USFSA) through local recreation departments or private rinks. In Colorado Springs, the options include Sertich Ice Center in Memorial Park (385-5983), the Honnen Ice Rink at Colorado College (389-6495), the Colorado Springs World Arena (477-2150), or the Chapel Hills Ice Arena in the Chapel Hills Mall (594-ICE-1). An eight-week session with skate rental might put you back $40-60. That's enough for you to find out whether your child's interest is serious or something that will vanish the first time they realize that skating takes work and ice is slippery, cold, and really hard.

STARTING LESSONS

What to Wear

Ice is cold. Rinks, especially indoor rinks, can vary a great deal in temperature. So whether skating indoors or outdoors, dress for warmth and flexibility by layering your clothing. Warmups or sweatpants work very well, since they keep a skater warm without restricting movement. Fancy skating outfits are not something you need at this point. Gloves or mittens and a hat are good ideas, since these extremities tend to get cold first. Your feet get quite a workout when skating.Wear tights or comfortable (not thick) socks.Make sure, when the foot goes in the skate, the sock is pulled tight, with no folds between the sock and the bottom of the boot. Make sure that you have enough room to move your toes once your foot is properly laced in the boot. Safety helmets are becoming more popular for beginning skaters. They are a darn good idea. A helmet designed for bicycling will do the job.

"Skate With U.S." Programs

The USFSA Basic Skills Program is an eight track learn-to-skate program teaching the fundamentals of ice skating to all ages and abilities. The starter programs are:

SNOWPLOW SAM 1-3

The Snowplow Sam levels are designed to help the preschool age skater develop preliminary coordination and strength necessary to maneuver on the ice. Snowplow Sam is a friendly polar bear who loves to skate. Time with Snowplow Sam will allow preschool children to become comfortable on the ice.

BASIC 1-8

The "Basic Skills" are the foundations of skating. These eight levels introduce the fundamental moves- forward skating, backward skating, stops, edges, crossovers, turns, and mohawks. Upon completion of the Basic 1-8 levels, skaters will have the basic knowledge they need to advance to the more specialized areas of skating.

ADULT 1-4

The Adult curriculum is designed for beginning adult skaters. It is intended to promote physical fitness and improve balance and coordination while teaching proper skating techniques. It is divided into four levels. This is a fairly new program for people who look at skating as an enjoyable way to pursue fitness.

WHEN DO YOU NEED A COACH?

Group lessons are certainly the easiest way to start and to progress through the various levels of Toddler and Basic skating. If your child really shows the desire to get better, or to compete instead of skating just for fun, sooner or later it will be time to find a personal coach.

There’s no hard-and-fast rule for deciding when a child needs his/her own coach. Sometimes the coach giving group lessons will suggest individual coaching, either because your child needs a little extra help or because he/she is pulling ahead of everyone else and the class is no longer challenging. Sometimes a child will ask for more teaching time, or a chance to learn something more challenging.

(TRUE STORY: My daughter, when in Basic 3 lessons at age 5, on her own initiative approached her instructor and asked for private lessons so she could learn something harder! The instructor suggested they talk to Mom and Dad first. In my daughter's case, we found she really was ready for some extra coaching, and she loves it.)

SKATING LEVELS

The skaters most spectators are familiar with – the ones who perform in televised competitions – are at the highest level of the test structure, called the "Senior" level. But there are many levels below Senior, and most competitions will have divisions for each level. Competitive skating levels are not determined by age, although age can be used as a secondary factor to group skaters within a level.

THE DISCIPLINES OF SKATING

Freestyle

This is the glamour event most spectators are familiar with. In Freestyle, a competitive skater performs a program composed of elements such as jumps and spins, skated to music. In a freestyle competition, both "long" and "short" programs are skated. The "short program" at each level has a list of specific elements which must be performed, and the skater is marked on his/her performance of those elements. There are established deductions which must taken for missing or failed elements. A failed element may not be repeated. The "long program" has no list of required elements. Skaters are marked on “Technical Merit” and “Artistic Impression.”

Competitive levels in Freestyle are: Pre-Preliminary, Preliminary, Pre-Juvenile, Juvenile, Intermediate, Novice, Junior, and Senior.

Pairs

Pairs skating bears many similarities to singles freeskating, except that two skaters perform as a couple. This adds new moves (such as lifts, throws, and side-by-side spins and jumps). Pairs skating also has both "long" and "short" programs. Competitive levels include Preliminary, Juvenile, Intermediate, Novice, Junior, and Senior.

Dance

Ice Dancing is meant to emphasize artistry over athleticism as two skaters move together in an interpretation of music. Ice Dancing includes "Compulsory Dances" and "Free Dances".

In compulsory dances, skaters must follow a pattern which specifies the skater's moves right down to which foot is doing what during every beat of the music. In free dances, skaters create their own programs, within certain guidelines. These programs must demonstrate basic dance elements and steps, and the rules emphasize that the moves are intended to be similar to those performed on a dance floor. No jumps or spins are allowed. Dancers must stay close together, and there are limits on the number of seconds that can pass without dancers being in contact with each other.

Dance levels: Preliminary, pre-Bronze, Bronze, pre-Silver, Silver, pre-Gold, Gold, Junior International and Senior International.

Synchronized Skating

Synchronized Team Skating (formerly called "precision skating") features teams of 8 to as many as 24 skaters skating complicated routines. The teamwork and timing required makes this a challenging sport. Precision skating is catching on as an intercollegiate sport, with many colleges offering scholarships to competitors.