Lack of Progress is the Root of All Evil

[Kitten23]

Do you ever feel as though the world of skating is passing you by?

People who started after you are now are better than you?

Your coach is teaching other adults harder elements than you're learning, even though you have mastered elements that the other adult hasn't?

You see an old skating friend for the first time in years and she asks what elements you're working on and when you tell her, she says "STILL?!?!?!"

If you answered "Yes" to any of the above, welcome to my world.

[CrossStroke]

The only thing that matters though is your answer to the following question:

Do you still love skating?

[Live2Sk8]

Kitten23, I'm a premier member of your world.  I can answer 'yes' to all of your questions.  It's depressing, but then I ask myself CrossStroke's question and the answer is 'Yes!  I still love skating (even though I must be the worst skater of all time)'...ok I should get the back half of that message out of my head and stick with the yes/love portion.  Now I am injured with something that may never heal and I am regressing even more.  I fear Pre-Bronze is the most I will ever be because of the injury.

[Icicle]

Kitten 23, I feel what you feel. What exacerbates my situation is the fact that where I skate there are hardly any adults, just children and teenagers. Needless to say, they are miles ahead of me. I know a few girls who have only been skating for two years, and they just passed their novice moves. I have been skating for over six years, and I only just passed my bronze moves. But I still love skating, and I'm definitely improving, so what's there to do? Just keep doing my best.

[jjane45]

Everyone hits a technical plateau at some point, be it waltz jump or triple axel. (OK if you are Evgeni Plushenko, then quad axel)  There will always someone else who scores higher / jumps higher / moves prettier.

On the other hand, how about summarizing how did you improve different aspects of your skating from a year ago?   Not just technical progress, but all around?

[icedancer]

And don't compare yourself with others!!

I don't answer any of your questions with a yes because I don't compare myself to the other skaters at my rink - but my lack of progress or rather declining skills is discouraging... I have blamed age but recently started back with my old coach who I haven't taken regular lessons from in YEARS and hopefully will be making progress.

I still love to skate though!!!

[techskater]

Everyone learns at a different pace and eachperson has a different area of expertise.  Just because skater A is working on a flip and you'restill working on a Salchow (for example), doesn't mean anything - your spins may be miles better (you have a consistent camel and skater A can't do a scratch spin well). Once you stop worrying about what everyone else is doing and focus on what you need to do, you progress!

[VAsk8r]

Yes to all of them except your last question, only because the other skaters at my rink are very nice and encouraging! I do wonder what the kids think about me, though.

I cannot say anything in skating comes naturally or easily to me, but I'm probably best at jumps. On the other hand, I've been working on my sit spin for two years, and I still can't pull my free leg all the way in so it's touching the other one. My progress moves at a snail's pace, and I skate almost every day.

Earlier this year, my coach reworked my forward crossovers. Last night, my bronze moves looked so bad that she apparently didn't think it was worth continuing, so she instead assigned me drills to work on instead of the moves themselves. She had me do forward power pulls. And when those went badly, she had me do slaloms.

I said, "Aren't these like beta level?"

"Oh, never mind. It's not like we've been working on this whole time you've been skating!" she said cheerfully. She's so nice.

So, tomorrow morning I'll practice my slaloms while the pre-pre skaters working on backwards power pulls zoom past me.

[RosiePosie.iskates]

I feel this way sometimes with skaters who've been skating for 5 years compared to my almost 2. I'm at the same level as they are, however, they're like, 12 years old going on 13. A.k.a around 2-3 years younger than I am. And they started skating at like, 7, whereas I started at 12. This sorta makes me feel left out. I think back to all those years I spend being criticized by my ballet teacher and wondering if I could've progresses sooner in my skating rather than wasting my time in dance for sooo long. (9 years going on 10) I never fell in love with dancing as much as I am with skating. So in a way, even thought it took them twice as long to advance as  did, I still sorta envy their level at their age. My coach says I should be proud of my progress in so little time, (Preliminary Freestyle in less than 2 years) and I am, but things like the cut-off age for regionals sorta gets me down. I've heard it's age 13 maximum for pre-juv and below. Which sucks for me, because I compete at Preliminary soon Pre-Juv but I'm too old. Oh well, mayble a couple years down the road for Juvenile. 

[Kitten23]

You all make valid points.  I really just had a weak moment because someone I hadn't seen in years really did say "STILL?!?!" when she asked about my skating.

I had forgotten about all the things I do well.

And yes, I do still love skating.  Lack of practice, which causes lack of progress is the true root of all evil.

VAsk8r, regarding the sit spin: try grabbing your leg when you get into the sit position.  Yes, you'll end on your rear for the first hundred attempts, but you'll get your leg closer.

  Thanks all!   

[Clarice]

My comeback to "Still?" is "Always".

Just because you're working on the same thing doesn't necessarily mean you're not progressing.  For the past six months my dance coach has had me doing the same exercises over and over at my lessons - laps of swing rolls, then chasses, then progressives, first forward, then backward.  Then maybe I get to work on a step from a dance.  Maybe.  But at the last dance weekend I attended, I got a lot of compliments on how much better my edges were.  Now that I'm getting to work on dance patterns again, I've clearly made significant progress, even though we weren't specifically working on dances.

I know this isn't exactly what you were addressing, but the point is, never underestimate the power of the basics.  And it's always better to do the basics well than to do complicated things poorly.  Hang in there!

[fsk8r]

Join the club.
But ask yourself why you're not progressing. It could be that life is getting in the way of skating time (hey something's got to pay for the ice), or injury and illness. It still sucks and it's still really difficult to feel like you're making progress. Just hang in there. There's a lot of us doing that and hopefully one day soon we'll have the breakthru we've all been working towards.

[AgnesNitt]

You all make valid points.  I really just had a weak moment because someone I hadn't seen in years really did say "STILL?!?!" when she asked about my skating.

I had forgotten about all the things I do well.

I like to think of skating as a journey, not a race. I can learn somethings in a lesson, others take years. Other skaters can take years to learn something I learn in a minute; conversely, they learn something in a lesson I take years to learn. Everyone's different.

And if someone says 'Still?' to you, just say, "But I have good manners, I like to think that counts for something."

[RosiePosie.iskates]

I like to think of skating as a journey, not a race.

I like this new look-out of things! Very great point!