*Is a male figure skater*
I'm 21, I started skating at 20. Which is an odd age to get into skating, as about 20 years old is the age most people quit skating, and then it seems like if they skate again, they pick it back up again in their 30s or older as an adult skater. Life gets in the way obviously, and if they've accomplished a ton skating, and plateau at that age, why continue? So I'm too old to be a teenage skater, and too young to be a real adult skater, either.
That said, not that I've actually counted out everything exactly, but here's the ratio of skaters at my rink. In my age and below (high school/early college age) there is exactly one guy my age who skates often at my rink, and is an LTS instructor too I think. This only what I can gather from the timeslots before and after noon to 1:20PM public session. Occasionally you'll get some other guys from other rinks, or maybe someone from another timeslot, but at my rink, as far as "regulars" I see in those timeslots, there is that one guy, per about 6-10 "regular" girls. As far as little kids, like elementary age, I see some more, but it's still a very skewed ratio.
Once you get to adult age, the ratios get a bit more even. There's two or three figure skating guys in my public session that are there almost daily like me. One that has spotty attendance to public, but does seem to skate as his life allows. Both of those old guys are old, at least their 60s. The spotty attendance guy is like 40. Generally on the ice there will about 2-3 women adult skaters, too. Coaches is where it gets really interesting. The most qualified (as far as competition wins in their career) coaches at my rink are guys. There's probably at the very least an equal 50/50 split with male to female coaches, but I'd say on the whole, there's more highly skilled male coaches.
As far as speed skaters.... two old guys, 50+. That's it. There was one female speed skater who was in her late 30s or early 40s, who oddly was a professional cyclist and was speed skating to give herself something to do during the winter, but she was a very strong (could deadlift like 300lbs) and athletic lady. She managed to get quite fast in a very short amount of time just due to sheer athleticism, and could easily after only about a month of skating keep up with the 50 year old men who skate 3+ days a week. So because of that, her coach told her to stop because she's very competitive and could potentially hurt herself and mess up her cycling progress. 'Tis a shame.
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Anyway, I'm gonna ramble on here a bit, about my experience and what I see, it's probably gonna be long, boring, and maybe slightly inflammatory, so just skip reading if you want.
One elephant in the room... There's the whole perception that males who figure skate are homosexual, and then if you actually talk to some male figure skaters or see them interviewed, you don't see many guys looking like Chuck Norris or something. Some, or even most, male figure skaters are quite effeminate, and many people would say they're gay if they had to guess off the top of their head. Of course, too, there are homosexual figure skaters. I've had the accusation levied against me, too, for my mannerisms when I am in fact not homosexual. So for that reason alone, many guys steer clear of figure skating, even if they did have an inclination towards doing it, just because of that (rather recent) perception. This thankfully doesn't seem to be the case worldwide, I've heard in former Soviet countries, male figure skaters were viewed as manly. But....yeah...
For most guys, there's simply much more in the way of opportunity in the way of hockey. Just money and general success alone, it's in a lot of ways a better bet than figure skating. The only thing figure skating gives you, if you're deadset on just succeeding at a sport, is being able to compete at the national/world level. But even at the national and world level in figure skating, there's not much prize money, and the sport pretty much will only COST you money due to coaches/etc. There's a chance if you're really good and committed, you could be national/world level, but most people never make it that far. The only advantage I can see as a guy in figure skating is probability is on your side. Due to seemingly the 1 guy per 10 girls figure skating, you have less guys to compete against. Basically the only "end game" of figure skating is being able to coach other people at $50-80 an hour, and even then, the demand may not be there, and it likely will not be a fulltime career option for you. This isn't even getting into the social problems of figure skating and the social advantage hockey will give a guy (which I'll get into below.)
Hockey on the other hand, start as a kid. Then you can play in high school. But, even more important than that, you can get a college scholarship to get your college education for free, just for playing hockey. If you're good in college, you make the NHL and can make millions a year. There's probably only handful of male figure skaters who make what hockey players make a year. If you don't make the NHL, you can still play semi-pro at 30K year or so, and have a blast (this would work if you're not married.) Then you can still get drafted from semi-pro to the NHL. That's a lot of monetary advantage right there. But even if you never reach a high level in the sport, you get a sense of camaraderie, because it's a team sport. After hockey games, people all drink beer in the parking lot/locker room, go to post-game parties and stuff like that. It gives you a social group. Figure skating, as a guy, you can't just show up to a freestyle session one day, be on the "team" regardless of skill level, and then go party with everyone after. It's just a completely different social atmosphere, and honestly one with a good deal of exclusiveness and elitism, intentionally malevolent or not. It's one more comfy to me than the fratbro kinda atmosphere of hockey, but basically only "nerdy" guys are currently attracted to figure skating for this reason, from what I can see.
Oddly enough, though, nobody's made fun of me much for it, at least to my face. Some high schoolers got mad at me/jealous/thought I was gay, and dumped some iced tea on my car after one public session where I was the only one not apart of their group and skating alone. I talk to hockey players in public session quite often, am acquaintances with a few, a small percentage even take my skating advice I give them. Usually the conversation is like "So you get to lift chicks in the air and sh*t? That's pretty cool!" and I'm like "No, I'm not good enough to do that yet." And then they're like "Oh..." I don't know how well I'm appreciated or liked among the other figure skaters at my rink, the ones my age (I get along better with the older adults) never really go out of their way to talk to me, or I to them. That might change once I get going to freestyle sessions where I'll be on the ice with them often, but who knows. That could be my fault, too, as I have Aspergers and have been told I'm very socially awkward, but yeah...
So those are my perceptions and experiences, sorry if I've offended anyone or anything like that.
Mod note: thread split
Topic: Figure Skating from a Man's Perspective (Read 35580 times)