Competitive figure skating moms...

[Shells9]

Good morning.
This is one of my first posts here on the CB. I know I saw something about ice skating on here before, so I thought I would see how many other moms of competitive figure skaters we have here.
My DD is 7 and just started last fall. She has her first out of town competition this weekend in Miami. She is skating at Basic Level II in compulsaries and a one minute program. She is in Learn to Skate Level Three now, and takes one, soon to be two, private lessons each week.
I have no idea what to expect. There is a HUGE amount of time in between her two events (like 3 or 4 hours).
What do you do to pass the time other than watch everyone else?
Also, what about make up? The coach suggested some glitter on her face or something, but what kind do you use? I have some body glitter, should I try that?
Thanks for your help.

 

[shelbyjosh]

Count us in!! DD is 9 and she has been skating since Nov 01. We started out doing the Learn to Skate. She climed that ladder quickly. I think she skipped Basic 2,3, and 6. We have been in private lessons now for 2 years. She has 2 coaches. One is the director of our FS club. She actually "clicks" better with the other one, Lisa. I am not sure which club you are at. FS Club dues can range in price. We pay $360/year for 1 day of "club ice". Our designated day is Thursday. This year we will have to do 2 days of club ice. We contract our ice monthly. Each freestyle session is $7. Between coaching and ice time, we are around $4-500 month. She does compete. We have a few comps coming up this summer. We have been at comps where she has one event one day and another event the next day. Waiting 3-4 hours in between is nothing. Take that time to check out vendors. Meet different dressmakers. That is how we found the lady that makes DD's dresses. She has taken her pre-pre moves test. She is almost ready to start her axel. Have you dished out $$ for good skates yet? DD is in Klingbeils with an Ultima blade. Thank goodness that is a once a year event. One piece of advice....drag out the group lessons as long as possible. YOu will eventually have to start private lessons and you don't want to spend that kind of $$ any sooner than you have to!! You will meet some very snooty people in this sport. Every parent thinks their kid is going to the Olympics. My daughter knows better. She has fun competing and has yet to get a 1st place medal. She has quite the collection going! She enjoys the sport and it provides her with great exercise. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!!

 

[shelbyjosh]

Oh, make-up....yes she should have her hair in a bun, if possible. Make up is a must! The glitter around the eyes is great. Just makes them sparkle even more!! I use some body glitter on DD and she doesn't mind it. Don't forget an extra pair of tights, laces, etc. We had blade guards stolen at one comp. Talk about gall!! My DD loves to be out there by herself. She doesn't really get the jitters. She said when that music starts she has the whole ice to "feel the music" if you can get that!! We just finished up our ice shows this weekend. THose are lots of fun.

 

[Shells9]

Thanks for your insight! It is nice to meet someone with a different perspective on the sport.

As I said, DD is in Learn to Skate. Ours is $125 for each 8 week session, with one hour of instruction one time per week. With that you get a punch card for 8 public skate sessions. Her private lessons are $32 per half hour, and you have to pay for freestyle ice time, which is usually $12 per hour, but we have the punch card with 10 sessions for $100 at our rink. I think we may pick up another day of Learn to Skate through the week next session.

DD's coach is very nice and they work well together. I am not sure, though, that she will stay with her when she gets to a more advanced level. There is one coach there that is VERY competitive.

I think I paid about $200 for skates. All I know is that they are Ridel boots and John Wilson blades.

The bun thing -- her hair is a little too long for that, and will be VERY heavy on her head. Her coach thought for this competition it would be okay to do braids. I put in a pony tail and put three braids in it. I got some rhinestone hair springs to put in her braids, and a colored scrunchie. Here is the outfit she is wearing: Skating Dress

 

[shelbyjosh]

WOW!! I can't believe your ice time is that much! Like I said, ours is $7 for a 50 minute session. Her one coach is $24/half hour and Lisa is $20/half hour. DD will be very involved at the rink. We plan on doing 3-4 hours a day 3-4 days a week. She will have a freestyle, a moves session, off-ice training, and a power skating session. Not every freestyle session will have a lesson. Lisa suggested even doing a 10 minute field moves lesson each day.

DD started out with Reidells. Then she went to Gam. Now in Klingbeil. She was able to keep the same blade from the last boots. Now on the next pair of skate, we will have the whole kit and kaboodle. We pay $13 for sharpenings. DO NOT let a hockey dude sharpen her blades! They will grind down that first pick. A friend of mine had a pair of almost $300 blades and they were ruined by an untrained kid on a hockey grinder! How about if I email you some pictures from her last comp?? PM me with your email address and I will send them.

 

[Shells9]

Will do, thanks for sharing your pics. I sent you a link to some of ours, too.

She is due for a blade sharpening soon, so I will make sure I see who is doing it.

Thanks

 

[Jeafl]

My older daughter started doing competitions when she was in Freestyle 3. She has now passed Freestyle 6, which is the highest you can go (at least at our rink), and now does privates one hour a week. She has gotten first place twice, but more often gets third or fourth place. She spends only an hour a week on the ice now, since she is in high school and is involved in other sports as well. When a competition is coming up though she does add more ice time.

It is possible to do competitions and not spend a ton of money. My daughter has used the same routine for the last few competitions, but just adds different jumps and spins as she perfects them. This way, she doesn't need to practice nearly as much, therefore using much less ice time. She also has three dresses that she rotates for competitions.

There are parents involved in this sport that are way over the top. They remind me of pageant parents, buying dresses for the young girls that are over $1000, and having a commando-style rehearsal schedule. Some of these girls are only in the lower levels of basic, but their parents have invested several thousands of dollars already. I know of some parents who did this and then the daughters hated it and quit before they ever really got to the upper levels of lessons.

As long as your daughter is having fun, it can be a wonderful sport. Make sure she keeps a big smile on her face and she'll do great!

 

[Disneycrazymom]

I am so happy to find you guys to talk to! My DD is 4 and began learn to skate this winter. (Her 11 brother plays hockey there) I had no idea what we were starting, she just wanted to be on the ice like DS. Anyway the child LOVES it and I am scared! She has completed Learn to Skate 1? and is going to do the next one this summer. She is in dance, which she also loves. So all you experienced moms tell me what to run from, what to allow her to do, any insider info is great for me! Thank you

 

[Shells9]

Hi, Disneycrazymom!
Unfortunately I do not know anything to run from just yet! But it is nice to know there are other people out there. There are two kinds of people at my rink -- the ones who know it all and don't talk to anyone, and the ones who are like me and know nothing, lol!

 

[Pin Wizard]

I used to work with a lady whose daughter is a skater...many years. And now she also teaches! She makes more money in a week than the mom does working full time! Have fun with it!

 

[Growin'upDisney]

These posts make me laugh. I was an amateur roller skater from the age of 5 through 15. I can sympathize with so many of the things being posted here.

In roller skating you did not have to pay nearly as much as you do for "ice time". We paid club dues to the rink for the entire year (about $400) and could practice all we wanted to during open practice. I took 4 private lessons a week - two freestyle and 2 figure lessons. $30 an hour.

Shells9 - I too had very very long hair which was difficult to handle. As you DD progresses and does more jumps and spins the braids might start to hurt. Try french braids and tucking the excess back up with pins. I eventually grew tired of it and cut off over 29 inches when I was 11.

Our competitions were by age and not by level. I truly enjoyed skating and travelling for competitions. I wasn't the best at it but it was a lot of fun until I became a teenager. Then it was just an obligation and no longer fun. We had the same overbearing parents even back when I started (20 years ago).

I had Riedel boots until I switched to custom Harlicks. They are located here in the Bay Area so it was easy to go right to the factory and be measured.

Good luck to all of you.

 

[Microcell]

My DD loves to skate especially since her cousin is taking classes with her, but my goodness it has been getting very expensive for even just competing on a small scale. I don't think I could afford Olympics!!!I won't have a pagent attitude, I will be the one with the calculator and a worried look on her face!!!

 

[TammiMcMan]

Hi, I'm the mom of a competitive figure skater. Actually, I have two skaters in the family. My younger daughter takes group lessons, she is at the Basic 4 level and she loves to compete. Right now she is only skating for fun because her interest has turned to cheerleading. My older DS is all together different. He is at the intermediate level and he went to Arizona this year and competed at Junior Nationals. He also started slow with a learn to skate program and then moved up to just one private lesson a week. Once he passed all his freestyle tests, we had to move onto a junior club. He made some great friends there, but he moved up the levels very quickly and we outgrew the club. Now we're at a higher level club in Boston. We have met families who have moved across the country for figure skating opportunities and some kids who are tutored and spend most of their time skating and then there is my son. He wants to stay in school full time, play soccer, run track, be involved with drama and still keep skating. It's a balance, but we manage. He's very friendly with the skaters in the club and they have been very supportive of each other. I think he still enjoys it so much because we did take it slow and haven't pushed him into making an all or nothing choice.

His competition elements are now spaced out over two days, so I kind of miss just having to be in the rink for only a few hours. A few things to remember if you do have time in between is that you should definitely remove your skates. Feet can get tired easily. Also, a jump rope is something my son always has in his bag. It helps him stay loose and if the rink is cold, go out into the lobby area to stay warm and keep muscles from tightening up. As for the makeup, it's glitter glitter glitter. You'll find someone selling it at most of the competitions. They have it for the face, body and hair.

I love the dress you have picked out. I have done a lot of my skating costume shopping at E-bay.

Good luck and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to help out if I can.

Tammi

 

[CarolA]

I found all this interesting.

I thought you might find it interesting that ice time is generally more expensive in the South. That is mainly a supply/demand function. For example, when Nashville hosted the Nationals a few years ago we had ONE ice sheet in the city! We are up to four, but between the use of the pro hockey team and all the amature teams, ice time is still hard to get!

 

[TammiMcMan]

In the north, our ice is primarily used by the hockey teams. We're lucky though. The club we joined earlier this year owns their own rink. There is ice skating going on from 5am right up until 9pm, seven days a week. They even offer a few open ice times, similar to public skating, but only members can use it and the cost is included in our yearly membership. Unfortunately, that open ice is not available right now because they're getting ready for their yearly ice show. We were able to get Michael Weiss and Miki Ando as guest skaters. My son is really looking forward to meeting them.

Anyone in the Boston area on May 1st and 2nd that's interested in more information, just let me know.

Tammi

 

[Jeafl]

We are so fortunate to have an ice house with 3 sheets of ice about 6 blocks from our house. With the amount of time we have to spend there (especially for hockey), I don't know how we could do it if we had to travel far. I do know that on my son's hockey team there are boys that live 45 minutes away. It really chews up your whole evening everytime they have a practice or a game.

 

[Disneycrazymom]

OK, help me make some sense of this, please. We are doing Learn to Skate, is this the same as a group lesson? Her teacher said something about tests? Are these ususally part of the lesson? Then the teacher tells us what to sign up for next? No way am I starting privite lessons with a 4 year old, so I do not need to know about that! I only wanted her to learn enough to skate when we go as a family, but she seems so excited, everyday she asks if it is skating day. Learn to Skate ends in 2 weeks and then there is another one for summer. I assume that I can just keep her in that and they will teach her whatever she might need to know, right? I know the parents some of you are referring to, I do not even want to ask them my questions. There seem to be quite a few too! Thanks for the help!

 

[TammiMcMan]

I can help you out. The learn to skate program is usually sanctioned by the US Figure Skating association. You probably filled out the paperwork for them when you signed up with the club. Your little one will get a card with a number on it. It doesn't really mean much when they're little, but if they go on to higher level competitions, they will need to have it. The number is renewed each year.

Skaters are placed in appropriate levels. For most just starting out, they will be in a group called Snowplow Sam. This teaches them the very basics of getting up once they've fallen and pretty much just balancing on their skates. You pass each level by taking a test on the ice. Normally it's with their same instructor and it will cover everything that they've been taught. There's a Snowplow Sam 1, 2 & 3. In the learn to skate club that I worked in, the skaters are given a sheet which shows how well they did on each required element. If the teacher passes them, we have patches that they can get and they move onto the next level and start learning the elements for that one. After Snowplow Sam, there are 8 Basic Skill levels and 6 Freestyle levels. Learn to Skate programs are group lessons, but for students or parents that want more individualized time, the coaches can pick up private students from these groups.

Hope that helps.
Tammi

 

[Disneycrazymom]

Thank-you Tammi! That is the class we have Snowplow Sam 1 Yea! Now I understand a bit more. They are soooo cute they learned to fall and get up by playing Ring Around the Rosie. Now they are "skating fast" and jumping. I don't remember a card but I'll see if I can find one, maybe DH got it? Ok, so now I will just plan to go to the rink and enjoy watching and not worry if we are in the right place. The teachers are really nice and it is the same rink we play hockey in, so I am glad it is an ok program.

 

[TammiMcMan]

Sounds like you're in a good group if they have them playing games to learn. We use plastic animals and sometimes beanbags to set up little slalom courses that they need to skate through or they throw the bean bags across the ice and then have to skate, bend over and pick them up.

Definitely check with who ever you registered with for your US Figure Skating packet. When we affiliate our kids, they each get a book which shows all the levels and what the requirements are and also their USFSA card and badge.

Our club has a little recital at the end of the year, complete with costumes and music. They are so cute. My son started in basic skills 6 years ago and he could barely stand up. Now he's completing triples and double axels. It's amazing to see them progress, especially if they like it and they have good instructors.


Edited to add --- I just went through my boxes and I do have some extra copies of the Basic Skills record books. Let me know if you'd like one and I'd be happy to send it out.

Tammi