Growing Figure Skating

[4711]

here is something I found digging through old boyscout stuff that might be of interest to the various clubs:
http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Skating

Show that you know first aid for injuries or illnesses that may occur while skating, including hypothermia, frostbite, lacerations, abrasions, fractures, sprains and strains, blisters, heat reactions, shock, and cardiac arrest.
Complete ALL of the requirements for ONE of the following options,

    ICE SKATING
    a. Do the following:

        1. Give general safety and courtesy rules for ice skating. Discuss preparations that must be taken when skating outdoors on natural ice. Explain how to make an ice rescue.
        2. Discuss the parts and functions of the different types of ice skates.
        3. Describe the proper way to carry ice skates.
        4. Describe how to store skates for long periods of time, such as seasonal storage.

    b. Do the following:

        1. Skate forward at least 40 feet and come to a complete stop. Use either a two-footed snowplow stop or a one-footed snowplow stop.
        2. After skating forward, glide forward on two feet, then on one foot, first right and then left.
        3. Starting from a T position, stroke forward around the test area, avoiding the use of toe picks if wearing figure skates,

    c. Do the following:

        1. Glide backward on two feet for at least two times the skater's height.
        2. Skate backward for at least 20 feet on two skates.
        3. After gaining forward speed, glide forward on two feet, making a turn of 180 degrees around a cone, first to the right and then to the left.

    d. Do the following:

        1. Perform a forward shoot-the-duck until you're nearly stopped. Rise while still on one foot.
        2. Perform forward crossovers in a figure eight pattern.
        3. Take part in a relay race.
        4. Perform a hockey stop.

To become a merit badge counselor is really easy: Submit a form for membership and for the badge you deem yourself qualified to teach.
You also need to be able to pass a background check and the BSA youth protection program (which is really easy)

I snickered a little when I found the old booklet in the drawer, since it has an ice skater on the cover, and we don't really see ice outside our beverages much down here, but the badge can be earned on roller skates as well, soo....(unlike the mile high stack of skiing books....)

I am aware that many do not like BSA because of their policy regarding homosexuality. Some people and groups are just harder to drag into the modern era (I don't agree with it, because it puts too much emphasis on stuff that is already too distracting, and the scouts are not the people to address it IMHO...) but all in all the program is solid and beneficial to the kids.

[VAsk8r]

I hesitated to post on this very important thread because of a year and half of frustration as a Club Pres/Membership Chair trying to “grow” the figure skating program at my rink. I will try to restrain myself from venting too much.

It appears I'm right down the road from you. We should get coffee sometime and vent together.

My rink is seasonal, so any efforts to grow figure skating are halted when the rink closes for the summer and families have to drive an hour to skate. An amazing number do make the drive at least once a week, but some don't, and they get involved with other things, and skating becomes less important and less worth the money and effort when the rink does open again.

I asked a couple of hockey players if the rink being closed in the summer was disruptive to them, and they said, not really, because it's actually good in the development of a hockey player to take a break from the ice and do other sports or training in the summer.

So, when the rink opens, we have hardly anyone at freestyle, and hockey has a packed roomful of people at their interest sessions. Not a great incentive to give us freestyle time.

Hockey is redneck, and this is Virginia. People, especially boys and men, are naturally drawn to sports where it's OK to make noise, hit each other and drink beer and belch afterwards. Compare the popularity of watching football to ballet. The big college teams here can draw 63,000 people to a game at $40-$50 a person. The ballet company in the city where I grew up can't sell out a 5,000-seat auditorium.

USFS isn't doing a great job of communicating the basics of the sport to parents and people interested in skating, and this miscommunication trickles down to the club level. Search the U.S. Figure Skating site for info and you're likely to get a bunch of 100-page PDFs in the results. It's discouraging to people who might be interested in starting lessons or otherwise don't have a coach to guide them.

I think our club and coaches do a great job of getting figure skaters to join. Pretty much everyone at our rink who takes private lessons is a member. We don't have group lessons beyond delta, so you have to go private if you want to go beyond that, but a lot of beginners end up in private lessons too.

But it's bringing in the skaters in the first place and then keeping them skating that's a problem. The bottom line is that even if your kid only takes one half-hour private lesson a week and practices for another hour a week, that's still a minimum of about $150 a month, not to mention the cost of skates and club membership and the Chloe Noel pants your kid is going to beg for. A lot of people just can't do it. If we want to grow figure skating, we have to figure out how to make it cheaper and then convince rink owners they can make money off options like more advanced group lessons.

[ONskater74]

"...convince rink owners they can make money ..." - vask8r

What do you mean rink owners? I do not know of any private rinks within hundreds of miles. There are hundreds of rinks, all owned by municipalities and run as "community centres", rented out for hockey wintertimes, and trade shows in summer. Figure skating hardly even registers on their radar. Most rinks offer 3-5 hours public skating a week at inconvenient times, and are happy to cancel without notice if hockey requires it. I showed up at the rink today, a new schedule just came out in the paper Thursday, and found that they had moved the time up an hour and shortened it a half an hour - in other words I arrived as people were leaving and a group of rednecks were lugging massive hockey bags out of their trucks for practice.
There are no private rinks here. The municipalities don;t care. in the minds of 99% of people Skating=Hockey. Figure skating does not exist in the real world just on TV. At best it is a girls after-school activity...end of story. Until figure skating revamps its public image I really doubt there will be a large influx of skaters other than the current supply of junior ice princess wannabe's. Adults? forget it.

[FigureSpins]

"...convince rink owners they can make money ..." - vask8r

What do you mean rink owners? I do not know of any private rinks within hundreds of miles. There are hundreds of rinks, all owned by municipalities and run as "community centres", rented out for hockey wintertimes, and trade shows in summer.

In the US, most of the newer rinks are owned privately, usually by a family or through a partnership.  Many municipal rinks are operated by a concessionaire or management company, who basically have free reign in decision-making.  Plus, there are rinks operated inside commercial shopping malls where they lease the facility, as well as "chain" skating consortiums such as FMC Sports, USA Skates, Ice Ventures and Polar Ice.

Canlan Ice Sports in Canada is similar, but they make no bones about being hockey-oriented.
http://www.icesports.com/

[FigureSpins]

FWIW, I've noticed that several of the afterschool skating academies include homework help, which lets qualifies for childcare on the parents' taxes.  They also have a dress code or actual skating uniform, which cuts down on the designer clothing battles.

[AgnesNitt]

I'm going to rant about USFSA and ISI.
The problem w/ USFSA is that it (the mgt and employees) see it as the national figure skating association. Recreational skating is left to ISI. ISI is dying, but at least it is designed to make the rinks money. I've never skated at an ISI rink that didn't have large chunks of figure skating time, because ISI figured out how to make the rinks profitable.
At some point USFSA figured out they could make money w/ LTS (I was told this by a long time USFSA coach) although originally it had been satisfied with ISI running LTS, and the kids switching over when they had an axel.
Then at some point USFSA added, Learn to Play. Have you seen the LTP curriculum? It's awful.  But it makes money.    http://www.usfsa.org/Content/HockeyCurriculum.pdf

If USFSA wants to 'grow' skating, it's got to take the route that ISI takes which is to make it profitable for the rinks to have figure skating or some kind of program that builds skaters, and makes them want to learn figure skating.

First, there's lots, lots, lots of guys that don't have the money to join a hockey team, but they'll only skate in hockey skates. I think most of these guys teach themselves to skate. They've created this sub-culture called Xtreme Ice Skating.
There's an audience for rinks and USFSA to cultivate. These are male (usually) skaters that want to do 'tricks' in hockey skates that look a lot like half jumps, some spins, and basic skills.  But cultivating this audience requires a skating director/rink manager that's willing to look at what's going on in public skate and taking a chance to offer a group lesson in 'xtreme ice skating--learn tricks--bring your own hockey skates' and get some male coach to teach everything from 'xtreme' crossovers, to all the little 'tricks' I've seen guys doing on youtube. Cultivate a new audience.  There's a chance that some of these guys once they're introduced to real skating skills will either switch to figure skating, or at least learn to skate well enough to populate freestyles, making them profitable.

Secondly, there's the predominantly adult skater who  skates every week. Sometimes several times a week.  There's a lot of adults like that who skate for fitness. What about developing a Skate for Fitness program, with log books, and fitness tips, and recognition on bulletin boards (FitSkate member John X skated 40 miles this month! Congratulations John on completing the FitSkate Distance Challenge!) Maybe some big patterns similar to hockey drills that  will provide goals and breaks in the tedium, but don't have the committment required for moves ("Congratulations to FitSkate member Mary Y for doing FitSkate Drill Gold in under 2 minutes!" or "Congratulations to Fitskate Member Chuck Z for mastering the mohawk variation of Silver Cardiac Drill! Great work Chuk!')

But no, USFSA is all "OMG OLYMPIKS!"

[alejeather]

"...convince rink owners they can make money ..." - vask8r

What do you mean rink owners? I do not know of any private rinks within hundreds of miles.

On the contrary, where I live, there's no such thing as a municipal rink. I never even knew such a thing existed until I joined this board. Every rink in my city is privately owned.

[davincisop]

All those in favor of Agnes developing that curriculum, if only for her awesome track names, say AYE!

[alejeather]

All those in favor of Agnes developing that curriculum, if only for her awesome track names, say AYE!

AYE. Also because I want my name and picture on the bulletin board next to completing one of them!

[ONskater74]

Hi alejeather,
I know that ALL municipal rinks here locally operate on a losing basis, the brand new Belleville recreation and "wellness centre" rinks are subsidised to the tune of over a million dollars annually. I don;t know why it costs so much to run a rink. Here are my guesses: hydro, insurance, property taxes (of course on municipal propery that is moot). ALL municipal rinks are heavily subsidised with tax revenues, and rental fees are a drop in the bucket, even though they run from 100 to 175 dollars/hour. When a municipality builds an arena they plan on operating it at a loss for its entire life, when the equipment finally gives out they shutter it and that is the end. Belleville lost their only downtown arena 3 years ago due to a leaky pipe, rather than fix it they shut it down. There is no political will to encourage figure skating or recreational skating. Hockey is everything, nothing else matters. Hockey rental times take top spot, everything else gets cancelled for Hockey. Ice time is very pricey even at non-peak times, and the public skating times are when people are working usually. I rented an hour last fall and it ran me, with HST, $125.00 for a mid morning weekday slot, that is the cheapest rate there is.

Municipalities get sold the idea that a rink needs a huge auditorium, a full fledged kitchen, a huge canteen, 10 heated change rooms, a walking track, a fitness room, a dozen offices, an elevator, an escalator, all kinds of towering glass atrium areas, and everything gold plated and wheel chair accessible. Then they marvel that the damn thing costs 10 million dollars...    
If I built a rink it would be an insulated barn with hard wooden benches beside the ice to change skates. I'd rather spend my time skating than sitting in a 5 star canteen sipping latte's. ice is what matters, everything else is just a money making scam for the contractors.

[AgnesNitt]

I've actually done some thinking about FitSkate as a program, I just have no way to implement it other than for myself since in the skating world I'm a nobody.

I thought there would be different parts to FitSkate

 Basic Drills--5 or 6 simple patterns that cover the rink like a hockey drill, but can be made to cover various situations such as:

a. Cardiac drills-covering the ice in a pattern x number of times to see how you improve in time and heart rate
b. Flex drills--skating patterns with places where you can do arabesques, advancing to spirals around a circle.  or other leg positions held not for looks but to build core strength (for example: a ronde d'jambe, or a held attitude position)
c. Skill drills--improve power or improve edges, for example, how far can you go on a single push from a stop? Building up to circle 8's then maybe waltz 8's
d. Circle patterns or 8 patterns that are very large (not figures) but  repeat steps like mohawk to back edge to step forward to three turn repeat. More like the old circle dances than a moves pattern.
e. Off ice training-hand book w/ exercises done with a thera band. Cheap but effective. Balance Exercises. Flexibility exercises. Walking/running goals.
f. a log book to cover your heart rate, time on ice, laps/pattern skated. skills improvement
g. I don't know how to measure miles or laps skated, maybe some app in a smart phone can do that.
h. A FitSkate club run by the rink. Maybe pay $20 annual fee to join, get a log book, have a website where participants can log in and record their efforts, the fitness book, and  some tchotchkes ( a pin or badge, maybe members could buy a jacket "Local Name FitSkate Club" if there were enough members.)
i. Monthly challenges: Laps, Distance, heartrate improvment,c alories burned

Benefits to the rink:
FitSkate members would be regulars. They're the ones who buy the annual passes. It's a game a whole family can play, even mom and dad.

Benefits to the coaches:
To advance to the higher levels (Platinum! Because, why stop at Gold?) FitSkate members would take lessons. Especially since I think Fit skate is a public ice kind of thing, Fitskate should emphasize turns rather than spins and jumps. Want to get your Diamond Level? Get your rockers.

Benefits to coaches and rinks: Once someome decides to advance in Fitskate, they'll start gravitating to freestyle and create a demand.

[VAsk8r]

I LOVE Agnes' idea and could see it catching on in my town. Maybe I'll take it to the rink owner when it re-opens. I mean, they have curling, for heaven's sake.

"...convince rink owners they can make money ..." - vask8r

What do you mean rink owners? I do not know of any private rinks within hundreds of miles. There are hundreds of rinks, all owned by municipalities and run as "community centres", rented out for hockey wintertimes, and trade shows in summer.

It's totally the opposite here. I live in the mid-Atlantic/southeastern part of the U.S. I know of one municipal rink, but for the most part, people would completely freak out if you suggested using tax dollars to build an ice rink. Municipalities have a hard enough time convincing taxpayers that public pools, gyms and parks are worth the cost. Winter sports and especially figure skating just aren't ingrained in the culture like I assume they are where you are. Rinks are privately owned and the owners want and need to make a profit.

[ONskater74]

Where I am Hockey is the National State Religion, the Arena is the Cathedral, and every person has a right to a Cathedral in easy driving distance... That is why arenas get built with tax money. It is a religion. Figure skating does not even factor in to the decision to erect a new arena. The canteen is not open during figure skating sessions, the canteen is not even open during public sessions. But when Hockey time arrives, Boy Oh Boy! Full On! the Faithful gather in for their nightly devotions
If there were a private for-profit rink I would gladly patronise it.  As it is the public rinks are happy to rent out 6 hours of ice a day at $110.00/hr rather than 18 hours a day at $40.00/hr...less bother. They'd rather see the place dark and locked than to allow taxpayers the pleasure of skating on the ice they financed...

[VAsk8r]

If there were a private for-profit rink I would gladly patronise it.  As it is the public rinks are happy to rent out 6 hours of ice a day at $110.00/hr rather than 18 hours a day at $40.00/hr...less bother. They'd rather see the place dark and locked than to allow taxpayers the pleasure of skating on the ice they financed...

At $110 an hour my club would happily rent ice and sell it back to skaters. For that, if we did dead times when the kids don't have school (most likely Sunday mornings) we could easily charge $6-$7 a skater and break even. Weekday mornings, a lot of kids wouldn't come because elementary school starts around 8, but we could still charge $10 a person and break even, still below the freestyle rate. Unfortunately, it's $250 per hour to rent ice at my rink, and we have never been able to find a time we could consistently rent it and sell it back to skaters and break even.

We have the chicken-and-egg issue...the high cost of figure skating and a seasonal rink mean it's hard to get figure skaters. But management won't prioritize figure skating if there aren't enough of us.

[sarahspins]

No kidding.. $110 an hour is a steal.  My rink currently charges more than 4 times as much ($450/hr, and there is no daytime discount now that we only have one sheet), and hockey leagues have bought up every bit that they can.  It has been cheaper for our club to buy ice time at the arena where the local hockey team plays/practices (which is a facility that doesn't offer any public skating) - because there is more of it available (the leagues want consistent time slots, which is something the arena can't offer week to week as the facility also hosts other events while the ice is unavailable), and the ice quality tends to be better overall as well.  My club has not had a test session at their "home" rink in about a year because there just isn't enough ice time to go around... all of them have been at the arena , and our last few club ice (open skate) sessions have been there as well.  IMO it's a bit of a sad state of affairs when that is the only ice our club can get and it really points out the problem of why our club isn't growing - our rink (and hockey) is basically forcing them out because hockey leagues buy up the ice 6 months in advance, and the rink is more than happy to accomodate them because it means they get paid up front.  Even the evening freestyle sessions (unrelated to the club) are under threat of being sold to hockey if they aren't pre-sold to skaters on contracts 3 months at a time.  It's a frustrating situation.

[sk8lady]

Municipalities get sold the idea that a rink needs a huge auditorium, a full fledged kitchen, a huge canteen, 10 heated change rooms, a walking track, a fitness room, a dozen offices, an elevator, an escalator, all kinds of towering glass atrium areas, and everything gold plated and wheel chair accessible. Then they marvel that the damn thing costs 10 million dollars...    
If I built a rink it would be an insulated barn with hard wooden benches beside the ice to change skates. I'd rather spend my time skating than sitting in a 5 star canteen sipping latte's. ice is what matters, everything else is just a money making scam for the contractors.

Oh you Canadians! Every rink within 2 hours of me IS a barn (insulation debatable) with hard wooden benches. They charge $240 an hour for ice and STILL claim to lose money. What I wouldn't give for a bathroom with at least a space heater in it!!!!! No wonder it's almost exclusively hockey--they're wearing a ton of gear and NEVER get cold!!

[lemongranita]

I'm responding from a UK perspective here, but I think some of the issues and solutions may well be the same (though with much less hockey!). The best thing figure skaters can surely do for figure skating must be being visible and approachable. On most busy public sessions I suspect people don't see any "I want to do THAT"  stuff at all.

One rink-led success I've seen is that group lessons include the public session afterwards in the price, so people stick around and the 'public' get to see people practicing skills and thus sign up for courses themselves. In a similar, but more organic fashion, the quiet late night public session at one local rink has quite a few regular adult or student-aged skaters, and barely a week goes by without someone asking one of us if they could learn to jump like that/how to get started etc.

We're like a human FAQ for the rink by now! It's rather pleasing when they turn up in future weeks in their new skates, working on turns and stuff.

I do like Agnes' idea for FitSkate. I find it frustrating that Runkeeper won't work in the rink, despite having a skating option, so I could measure my speed, distance, heartrate etc.

[PinkLaces]

Agnes' FitSkate is a great idea.  There is a rink fairly close to me that offers skatercise.  Several of the "moms" doing it have gone on to take lessons and formed a synchro team.  One of them is now a USFS judge.  I just checked out the schedule for that rink.  They hold at least 1 public skate, 1 open figure skating session, and 1 open adult hockey session during the day.

[VAsk8r]

I'm responding from a UK perspective here, but I think some of the issues and solutions may well be the same (though with much less hockey!). The best thing figure skaters can surely do for figure skating must be being visible and approachable. On most busy public sessions I suspect people don't see any "I want to do THAT"  stuff at all.

Here, here. We're very fortunate that we're able to do freestyle on public sessions. We have a couple of kids who are novice level who work on double axels on public. They can't do them on super crowded sessions, but when it's not crowded, it's a more affordable way for them to practice and get in more ice time with limited freestyles. They get stares and autograph requests (which embarrass them).

During the more busy season, I was getting asked "Can you show me how to XYZ?" at almost every session. I will try to boil it down to a basic level, but I also give a spiel about foundations and how you have to learn to turn before you can spin, etc., and talk up the rink's Learn to Skate program. I've also had people approach me and just ask, "Does this place offer lessons?"

Obviously rinks have to set rules and limitations to prevent injuries, but letting figure skaters practice on a public can be great free advertising for a figure skating program. It also provides an economical way for beginning figure skaters to practice.

[treesprite]

I recently found out that in spite of the seemingly massive intake of funds, the park-operated rink I go to is indeed losing money. But because it's part of the public park system, it gets funds from the profits of things like mini trains and carousels. There are 3 sheets of ice and almost constant activity, and usually at least one sheet in use as early as 6am and as late as midnight. Group lessons go all the way through advanced freestyle and MIF, plus classes just for spins, classes just for axels, figures, and of course for hockey; the rink will set up a specialty class if enough people as a group say "hey, we want a class for this". 

[AgnesNitt]

I spoke to the president of my club and she liked my Fitness Skate idea. Next step is to take it to the skating director as an idea for outreach to adults.

She also liked my Xtreme skating idea for males who will not wear figure skates but try to teach themselves half jumps, spread eagles, etch.

[twokidsskatemom]

I just saw this idea on some gov council stuff, let me see if I can find more out.