skatingforums
On the Ice => Sitting on the Boards Rink Side => Topic started by: Cush on February 10, 2013, 11:27:50 PM
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I am an adult skater in LTS in the Chicago west burbs. Sometimes, my weekday schedule makes it possible to run away from the office during lunch to practice on those nice lightly attended public skate sessions. Most often though I have a lunchtime meeting or too buried with some insane deadline.
One class on Saturdays and a thoroughly congested public skate on Saturday nights and/or Sunday night's don't feel like enough and I don't feel I am making the amount of progress that I might be capable of. Wish I could just throw myself into it maybe with 3-4 good practices per week? Any tips on how to do that on my schedule without breaking the bank? Not really an early morning person but will do before work if it's the last resort (probably won't be allowed on those sessions anyway). There are sessions in the late afternoon at one rink I know of about 30 mins from work, but it doesn't go late enough and you can only get on if you are usually coached by one of the coaches there. Other rinks nearby won't let me on ice any time other than public because I am not high enough level. Wondering what are my real options.
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Silly me. Forgot to say what exactly is my "schedule". I need practice time outside of 9am-5:00pm.
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Public sessions are appropriate if you are in LTS.
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I agree, public sessions are appropriate. But I am not getting to them, so I am trying to find something that might actually work for me. If that something exists...won't know till I start asking. :)
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Chicago has more ice time than almost anywhere. You may have to drive to find it- but if you want it, and want to make an effort to get to it, it is there.
Public sessions are crowded, but many, many, people have figured out how to make them work. At the LTS level a lot of what you are doing easily fits into the flow of a public session. In general, you can't get on freestyle ice without either a coach or being freestyle level. If you want skating to happen, you're going to have to make it happen, and for LTS levels, that means crowded publics and (for everyone) that often means inconvienent times.
Good luck!
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I skate on publics all the time. It can be madly frustrating but it's better than nothing. You may need to travel, or skate on a less than optimal rink, including congested ice--find a spot, probably in the middle, and work on things that don't need a ton of room. Claim your space and stick to it. Don't know the Chicago rinks particularly well but you might even be able to work on 3's and mohawks that don't take up a lot of space, or even stroking, at Millenium Park or someplace like that, where you can spend 10-15 minutes just to get some time in each day
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getting 3-4 more public sessions - I don't know what the cost is - but let's say it's $9. If you did 4 that is 36dollars.
If you don't have a coach, I would get one for a 20 minute lesson during a low level freestyle (about $11 here). Coach+freestyle ice would be about $40ish.
So my advice is adding a coach and freestyle instead of 3-4 publics you might not get to or are not really committed to (it's easier to commit when you have a coach waiting! Plus everyone progresses faster with a coach.
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One thing that may be helpful is to make a list of all the public skating times at all the rinks that are some what reasonably accessible to you. That helps make clear what all the options are schedule-wise. I found this helpful last spring when the various municipal rinks started shutting down, in order to figure out where I could skate with my daughter to help her practice her LTS skills. As the weather starts to warm up, you will likely find that the public sessions are not quite so crowded. Some sessions will always be less crowded than others - I found a public rink with a 9:30 - 11:30 am Sunday public session and that was noticeably less busy than the weekend afternoon public sessions.
I've heard there are a *ton* of rinks in the Chicago area. Some of the rinks may require some effort on your part to get to them, but there should be options for you. I once read a blog about a young boy in the Chicago area who was VERY enthused about skating, so his parents would take him to two different rinks on a weekend day, so that he skate at each of their public sessions. Not terribly convenient, but it got him the ice time that he loved! Everyone has a different aptitude for learning skating, but how quickly you progress, relative to your maximum possible rate, is largely determine by how much time you spend on the ice. More ice time will definitely improve your rate of progress.
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As the weather starts to warm up, you will likely find that the public sessions are not quite so crowded.
This is very common around here - once it warms up outside, or the spring sports season starts, the attendance drops. I refuse to coach or skate on a Saturday afternoon or Friday night, those sessions just too zany for my taste at any time of the year. Saturday nights are okay, as are Sunday afternoons, throughout the year. They empty out tremendously when Spring arrives.
Check the public session schedule regularly - when one of the leagues' hockey season ends, our rink converts that time to a discounted-price public session. For the first few weeks of that weekday-evening session, there are as many as 12 people on the ice and it's awesome for skating practices. It takes a while for people to notice it on the schedule, but even then, it's never mobbed unless there's a group trip.
You can also check out "club ice" - the skating clubs in some areas rent ice for their members. Those aren't always listed on the rink schedule, but many of them welcome guests for a slightly higher fee. To find out about them, you'll either see "(clubname) Ice" or you have to go to the Club's website/schedule.
Most clubs and rinks will allow a beginner skater on a freestyle if they'll spend their ice time taking a lesson with a coach. If you're going to practice by yourself, be sure any freestyle is listed as "low" or just "freestyle" since you're a beginner. Avoid "Moves," "Dance," and "High" freestyle sessions.
Ask the skating director if there's practice time included with your group lesson. I've coached at several rinks that set up a practice area during the group lessons, coning off one end of the ice. A lot of parents didn't realize it meant the skater could practice for 30 mins, then attend their lesson for 30m. (It was an hour-long time frame with two 30m group lessons scheduled.)
The lack of convenient public sessions during the week is really killing non-hockey skating in the US. Gone are the days when a kid could go skating with friends after school or an adult get in a practice from 7-9pm on a Thursday. You look at rink schedules and all those choice times are rented by hockey leagues, which is why it's growing. They can hire 1-2 professional coaches, add a handful of volunteer parents and fill the ice with kids and cover the rental cost easily. Sorry for the soapbox rant.
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The lack of convenient public sessions during the week is really killing non-hockey skating in the US. Gone are the days when a kid could go skating with friends after school or an adult get in a practice from 7-9pm on a Thursday. You look at rink schedules and all those choice times are rented by hockey leagues, which is why it's growing. They can hire 1-2 professional coaches, add a handful of volunteer parents and fill the ice with kids and cover the rental cost easily. Sorry for the soapbox rant.
This is the one thing which bugs me. I only fly over once or twice a year and always double check the rink timetables before I come and I've yet to find ice time that I can get to with working fulltime, now knowing the area and suffering from jetlag. I keep asking the question how anyone ever learns to skate (I've even checked freestyle timetables), but I do know that I learnt more in my brief time living in the US than I did in any similar period of time in the UK. Mainly this was from actually getting on and working hard because I knew how precious my ice time was. But I did used to do some crazy drives to find ice time. I find that if you want to really learn to skate, you make it work.
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ITA but some skaters don't get the idea of "conserve your ice time." They get on late, stand around chatting, leave early....sorry, I'm ranting.
If I'm going to NJ on business, I check eight rinks' schedules to see who has ice time after work. (My office is in a very-congested traffic area, so going west/north/south to skate before heading east for the office just doesn't work.) Many times, I've driven miles to a rink only to find that the session was cancelled and no one updated the website.
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LTS generally does not need freestyle ice, and Chicago is lucky indeed when it comes to ice rinks! Some of my friends (hockey or freestyle) religiously keep track of available public sessions. They are dedicated...
I practiced on late night public ice (offered on two weekdays) thru LTS and maybe up to FS3. It's coned off in the middle for figure skating elements. It took some courage at first to go in there and claim the center circle for a while to practice the back crossovers, but they were NOT improving otherwise going against the general traffic :sweat: I also know 2 other rinks 45 minutes from me that have decent Friday night and Saturday night public sessions that are practice friendly (guarded center ice or just empty in general). Seasonal outdoor rinks are definitely decent options too.
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I was in a similar situation a few years ago. I have a coach that I see on my lunch at 1:30 every Monday. It's a public session but very light in attendance. Mondays are light on meetings so I knew this would be a better time to schedule a lesson. I found the private sessions more helpful then LTS so I don't even take them any more. I miss the company but it's nice to have my Saturday mornings free.
I agree with some of the above comments. If you can lay out all the publics near you and systematically see which ones you will be able to regularly attend it will be helpful.
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Thank you everyone for all the helpful comments! Really helped me to start looking outside the box.
My LTS program does come with free publics for practice. Unfortunately, those are the lunchtime publics I cannot get to. All the rinks near me have only lunchtime sessions on the weekday. I threw the net wider and found a rink about 1.5 hrs from home which has a public session on Tuesdays at 6-8am. But it is also 1.5 hrs from work. :( So far I haven't found any with night weekdays though. Will keep looking.
Yes Chicago area has a lot of rinks, but if you live in the FAR west burbs the options thin out considerably.
My experience with the weekend public is that the rink fills up fast to a mad rush of people. The coned off center is filled with several kids flying around doing a lot of advanced moves, jumps, spins etc. If I do go to the center I am quickly feeling pushed out. Maybe as you guys said I just need to bide some time till spring for the crowds to thin out. ;D
On the option of getting with a coach, I am seriously considering it. I already know exactly where and who I will go to because he already told me that he will take me when I am ready. But not sure I am ready with the $$$. I will do some calculatin' and see.
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I just read some responses above again. "Club ice time"? I didn't even know the concept existed. Will have to check into it. Thanks.
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"Club ice time"? I didn't even know the concept existed.
Unfortunately, in Chicagoland, I do not think any will be available to you yet. SVSC/Winnetka, CFSC/Skokie, and Windy City/McFetridge have small amounts of dance ice, which is probably a bit above your current level.
I think there is ice at Park Ridge at 9:30 PM on Sundays, open to adult figure skaters only, including beginners. I'm not sure of the details, but if that interests you I can put you in touch with someone.
I only know about north side ice.
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Nicklaszlo, for sure dance ice would be above me I think. You are quite a ways north and east of me, but I will never refuse the opportunity to explore an option. I would be grateful for the contact info. Maybe instead of saying west suburbs I should just say I am west and south of Chicago. Would be tricky to attempt that commute several times a week.
I just completed and reviewed the list of all the rinks within an hour of my home. There are 9 of them, all are east of me (includes where I have classes on Saturdays). Some have no weekday publics at all, those that do are all at lunchtime except one day at the furthest rink. This rink is the one I mentioned earlier that has 6-8am public. When I mapped it at around rush hr I got 1.5 hrs, now at midnight it is about 55 mins :o. They all have weekend sessions -Friday night/Sat/Sun. I have attended public on weekends at 3 of the 9 regularly enough. Now that I have the list maybe I will check out some of the others to see what their Friday or Sunday might be like compared to the places I am used to.
Other than driving an hr to rink and then an hr-ish to work afterwards on Tuesday mornings, seems a good idea to sign up with a coach if I hope to make it on the ice regularly on a weekday. Unless my work schedule changes. Signing up will likely do me a world of good too anyway. Gotta see how the prices play out, last I checked it was $25-$35/half hr instruction, a cost that I didn't anticipate at this stage. Won't make any decisions till spring.
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I'm hoping to win the lottery and build my own rink... :P 8) retire early too....
Until then, I skate at 3 rinks on weekday public ice whenever I can. Weekend or weeknight public ice is bonkers, 500 kids going nuts. Joining a club in March so will be entitled to guest skate on ice reserved for clubs, just pay the fee and skate.
What sucks is that 99% of rinks here shut down for the summer. Summer ice is like streets of gold if you can find it. :(
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:o The rinks close in summer? So is your skating forced to be seasonal too. I hope you live near to a rink that stays open.
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Fellow Ontario skater here, I live in a different city than ONSkater but yes rinks do close in the summer here. Most of our city run arenas get rid of their ice in April or so. My club keeps its ice but does take it out for a month or so.
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My club keeps its ice but does take it out for a month or so.
Wow really? Your club seriously closes for a month? Do serious skaters take that month off or do they have other options in the city?
And we have recreational rinks here that nearly go all year around...
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They try to have the closure coincide with the elite skaters taking their break or when they go off to do shows. It isn't always a month it is closed for just until the permafrost melts or something like that. We also have the curling rink we can skate on at that time because curling is over but that rink is small and square and has a cement floor, not fun for jumping on so most start choreography. And also soooo weird to skate on because of the corners and the mirrors they have in there. Takes some getting used to.
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Rinks here are called "Community Centers", so the ice disappears in spring and the municipality makes money all summer by renting it out to Home Shows, trade shows, dances, agricultural fairs, high school graduation, prom night, sportsman show, Flowerama, Model Railroader show, blah, blah. It would be "unfair" to keep the ice in all year. The town I lived was always fighting with the hockey team because the hockey team had to drive to another town for the first month of practices due to a longstanding non-ice rental of the "community Center" by a community group, "Home Show" or same stupid thing. The work of putting in ice would seem to me to be more than just leaving it year round. However, life is like that... :( No skating from April - Oct
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Here where I live ONSkater the outdoor rinks have the worst policies. This year they opened December 3 and close February 26. Who cares if it is still cold and skating weather you are out of luck. I hate policies that are just set and make no sense at all. Most of our arenas like the one in our formerly local park just get locked up once the ice is out and sit there empty. Some open for ball hockey or when Roller Blading was popular that, but we have so many arenas in the city most just sit empty. So frustration when you want to skate.
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Oh man! I could see how that could be thoroughly frustrating. Here am I worried that I don't get to practice on a weekday, when you get to have months of no skating at all. :'(
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I had a trial lesson with a coach this morning. This coach is at the rink daily from 6-9a.m. so the time works well for me. Tomorrow night I will have another trial lesson with a different coach. Then I get to think about it a while and decide who I would like to go with.
This morning when I arrived at the rink bright (actually gray) and early there were only 7 cars in the lot. In all we were 5 skaters on ice with 2 coaches. Don't think I ever saw the ice look so nice. Initially I thought a half hour lesson was ridiculously short for the price. But surprisingly we covered a LOT. There are so many things for me to practice! I really liked today's coach. I had another surprise too: I am allowed on the freestyle ice outside my lesson time because I am already working on high enough moves!!! My problem is solved.
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Starting out I did only a half hour. It wasn't until I started working on silver moves and bronze free that I needed to switch to an hour to be able to go over everything with my coach.
So glad you get to go on freestyle!!!
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I don't know Chicago, other than it seems like a huge portion of elite skaters train there, so you folks must be doing something right.
I do have four minor suggestions:
1. Take more USFSA LTS or ISI WeSkate classes. They provide fairly cheap, fairly focused ice practice time, under a degree of supervision. At most rinks I know, lessons are on evenings or weekends, and there is usually a public session just before and/or just after the set of classes. BTW, one thing classes don't provide (unless you take power skating classes) is endurance training. Off-ice training can supplement.
2. Cross country skiing is great off-ice training too - many muscles in common.
3. I don't know about you, but for me, a lot of skating issues relate to muscle strength and flexibility. I need muscles to do deep knee bends, on one and two feet. I need muscles to push my limited flexibility. I need muscles to push and pull against edges. There are a lot of exercises you can do at home that build the same muscles, and that stretch my flexibility. But maybe those issues don't apply to you.
4. Run or jog during off-work hours. Probably the best possible overall conditioning exercise you can do, and strengthens your legs and core besides. Learn to keep your feet low to the ground so you glide through and don't have hard impacts - race walking technique works fairly well, or you will be hard on your knees. If it's a little cold, wear a scarf, so your breath isn't cold enough to freeze your lungs. If it's a lot cold - forget it, unless you have a gym with an indoor track.
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Thanks dav. It's weird, I am excited yet so nervous at the same time.
Query, I am definitely keeping on with the Saturday morning LTS class. We get about 20 mins practice time after class ends. I am also going to keep with the Sunday public skate. Now I get to add a couple weekday practices and most likely one private lesson. I also have a good share of strength and flexibility imbalance issues - working on it.
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I don't know Chicago, other than it seems like a huge portion of elite skaters train there, so you folks must be doing something right.
...
BTW, one thing classes don't provide (unless you take power skating classes) is endurance training. Off-ice training can supplement.
Ha, I'd like to know which elites train around here ;)
At my rink the first half of standard 60 minute group lessons is literally group power class to kill your stamina. When I was in those classes, sometimes there was no gas left for the instructions in the second half.
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YAY! I'm glad you liked your private lesson. I agree with your assessment - a private lesson covers so much more in the same amount of time as a group class. My friend's daughter just started LTS and I told her after her first LTS session to get a coach once a week as well - 15-30 minutes of focused attention will give a rapid progress and good habits. Mom was so amazed that she signed up for lessons as well. I wish she lived locally, maybe I could have received a referral discount! ;D
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Ha, I'd like to know which elites train around here ;)
I confused Chicago with Detroit. Oops.
At my rink the first half of standard 60 minute group lessons is literally group power class to kill your stamina. When I was in those classes, sometimes there was no gas left for the instructions in the second half.
Interesting. LTS and WeSkate group lessons in my area are 25-30 minutes.
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:'( Turns out I learned SO many bad habits while in LTS. Some basic skills I knew I could improve on, but other things I thought I was good at are in need of rework.
I am keeping positive about it even if I am a little bummed. Setting that good foundation will make more difficult techniques less of a struggle later on.
There was a lot of discussion on this forum recently about the role of figures in skating. I realised this week my coach is big into figures!!! So guess what I am practicing a lot of. It's all good, I will be better for it.
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I am a little bummed.
Don't be, I think this happens to everyone. I realized recently that I still don't bend my knees after all these years.
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Don't be, I think this happens to everyone. I realized recently that I still don't bend my knees after all these years.
I'm quite certain mine just don't bend.
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:'( Turns out I learned SO many bad habits while in LTS. Some basic skills I knew I could improve on, but other things I thought I was good at are in need of rework.
It's OK. All of us get picked apart every now and then. You should worry when the coach tells you everything is perfect. After I switched rink, I was sooooooo happy when new group coach said my crossovers need major fixes and actually spent time working on them. Attention to basics = the coach actually cares!!
I realized recently that I still don't bend my knees after all these years.
You bend. It's just everyone bends less than visualized in their minds. ;P
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Thanks guys. After reading your replies I don't feel so bad anymore. :)
One other thing that I forgot to mention: I love actually having structured approach now for my practise sessions. Coach has outlined for me exactly what she wants me to do to warm up before getting onto the ice, and everything to do when I get on ice. Normally I drive to the rink, boot up and jump onto the ice. Not good apparently ;D hahaha! I kinda knew that but didn't know what I should be doing. Ran through the entire thing tonight and took me about 1.5hr.
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stretching is huge for me. I try to spend 20-30 minutes just stretching deeply prior to heading to the rink. Then I do a real quick "refresher" stretch in the change room once my skates are on before hitting the ice. Then I take it easy for the first 5-10 minutes on the ice.
old geezers like me :D need to be careful
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Is there a 'surviving freestyle ice without your coach' guide book somewhere? How long does it take to settle in?
I am getting a bit less scared in the 6 am session with coach by my side. I don't mind practicing after my lesson is done because she's still around too. And now I am understanding better how to duck away from what the 3-4 other skaters in this session might be doing.
However! Yesterday afternoon I got off work earlier than normal. I noticed another rink close to work allowed 'walk ons' during their Contract ice BEG hour. Called them up before going to make sure they'd be fine with me there. They assured me it was all good and the slot was set there for beginners anyways. Got on the ice and it started out fine. I had a whole corner circle and surrounds to myself except for having to yield for the occasional skater flying through. Then in the second half hour it got a lot busier, and I lost my confidence. I could not tell who was going to come at me next since there were too many! Those with coaches were easy to spot as they approached, as we're those skating with the ribbon on doing their program to their music. But there were too many others flying around too. Ended up just practicing 3turns at the goal half circle. :'(
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Is there a 'surviving freestyle ice without your coach' guide book somewhere? How long does it take to settle in?
I still feel this way when I go to unfamiliar rinks. I'm working on my single jumps and bronze moves, so I know I'm allowed on anything advertised as freestyle (unless it specifies level.) But the kids are so much faster! And I look younger than I am, so I don't think other people necessarily think, "Oh, an adult, of course she's going to be slow. Let's not knock her down or she'll break a hip." I think they think I'm just some slow, insecure teen.
Of course I know where to spin and jump, but I still haven't figured out how to work on moves around a lot of unfamiliar, significantly faster skaters without getting off pattern and stopping/slowing down a bunch. I'm also not sure where to go if you need a quiet space to work on turns or footwork.
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. Got on the ice and it started out fine. I had a whole corner circle and surrounds to myself except for having to yield for the occasional skater flying through.
May I suggest you have a discussion with your coach about freestyle etiquette? What you described above is sometimes called 'camping out' or 'hogging the circle'. It's generally considered bad manners since people need to do jumps in the circles or patterns through them. If it's a lutz corner, your coach should point them out (my rinks have lefties so ALL corners are lutz corners :( ) Also harness alley. Although I'm a very low recovering from injury skater, when I'm on freestyles, I make sure I don't stay in one corner, or work on one thing in one space for a long time. I know the moves and dance patterns, and I pay attention to everything that goes on around me.
You asked for a 'surviving freestyle' guide. Here's a humorous look at 'first time on freestyle'
http://icedoesntcare.blogspot.com/2013/01/first-time-on-freestyle.html
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Hi Agnes. I will have that chat with my coach to make sure I am aware of everything.
However, at the time I was on the circle, it didn't feel like I was hogging the spot since no one was doing any jumping at all. I was the only one on that side of the rink. There were 3 or 4 other skaters with coaches working on moves along the center line or on spins up on the opposite end of the rink. Then there were a couple other girls practicing perimeter stroking (the occasional ones flying through). Then it got busier and I didn't dare use the big circles. I might be guilty of camping out for some time behind the goal line tho.
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:laugh: Your blog is very cool! Thanks.
I think I will stick to my regular time and regular rink for now till I have learned how to deal with all the details.
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Hi Agnes. I will have that chat with my coach to make sure I am aware of everything.
However, at the time I was on the circle, it didn't feel like I was hogging the spot since no one was doing any jumping at all. I was the only one on that side of the rink. There were 3 or 4 other skaters with coaches working on moves along the center line or on spins up on the opposite end of the rink. Then there were a couple other girls practicing perimeter stroking (the occasional ones flying through). Then it got busier and I didn't dare use the big circles. I might be guilty of camping out for some time behind the goal line tho.
Just realize those girls 'flying through' may be trying to get you to move because you're in a corner where they want to jump to for a program or a test. You'd think skaters would just ask, but it's been my experience that there's a lot of passive / aggressive stuff on freestyle. What can I say, it's the stock in trade of teenagers. :D
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Yikes. Ok, good to know.
I've got much to learn.
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It is helpful if you can get to know the people on ice with you. Talk to them while you lace up your skates. The passive aggressive behavior usually stops when they know you better. They might just say something instead (would you mind moving off this circle?), or give you a "you're okay".
I used to get buzzed by skaters, which would terrify me, but they'd skate by saying "you're fine!" warning me not to move, essentially. Good skaters know how much space they take up.
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At minimum, I skate 5 days a week. On a good week, I'm skating every day with a combo of Public and Pre-Freestyle ice.
Public ice is for when I need a small amount of room or for elements I still need the boards for. (Mohawks, lunge stretches, FI3's, spread eagles.) I don't try to do anything "big" on publics unless they are lightly attended, which lately they haven't been. (Sunday skating I do Guard Duty so I can't really "practice," and I usually end up retying a lot of laces anyway.. :D ) Practice Ice I keep a tight schedule on as that's coming at a premium price; "accomplish these sets of things, no excuses."
I can make it work by using the combination of public and practice ice, but it has to be clearly delineated what can be expected on either surface. I would imagine I'll eventually graduate out of public ice entirely, but I don't see that day coming anytime soon.
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Ha, I'd like to know which elites train around here ;)
Jason Brown is Chicagoland based. Or was. I don't know if he's actually moved yet but he did say "March".
deliapm, one thing that helped tremendously after I started using figure skating sessions was to remember that I have as much right to be there as the girls doing doubles and triples. And one of the unintentional best things I ever did was I showed up to a competition with interstate competitors that I wasn't high enough level for to cheer on the girls from our state. After that they were a lot more open and friendly. I've even had the Senior lady offer to play my pathetic little Free Skate 3 music!
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Jason Brown is Chicagoland based.
So is Gracie Gold.
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It's amazing how there is so little ice time for beginning or developing adult skaters. This is a problem everywhere, even in skate-crazy Massachusetts. All public sessions seem to be between 10 a.m.-noontime, or on Friday nights when the rink is likely to be overrun by throngs of teenagers. Even freestyle sessions that accommodate no-test or low-test skaters always seem to be right after school gets out--not late enough for any adult with a typical weekday work schedule. Evenings seem to be reserved for hockey games. Yes, it is hard to find appropriate ice time. I lobbied for years at my club to have an adult skating session on a weeknight not so much for me (I can skate on any session and I also work afternoons) but for my husband who is an advanced no-test beginner who works during the day. He would love to develop as a skater but he can't find ice time to do it. Even when I was working in New York, I found the rink schedules on Long Island were the same as those in the Boston area: public skating between 10 and 12, freestyle after school, and hockey in the evenings. The Chicago area must not be that much different.
I'm glad you were able to solve your ice time problem. Best of luck to you!
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It's amazing how there is so little ice time for beginning or developing adult skaters.
Ice time is problematic for developing skaters at any age. I think it's easier for me as an adult skater to get more than enough ice time in because I can skate daytime public sessions - it's typical at my rink for there to be fewer than 5 skaters on the ice from 12-2. Of course I say that because my schedule allows me to skate during that time. My daughter on the other hand, basically gets to skate saturday after LTS classes and maybe one other day a week - it's just not enough, and she can't skate on freestyles yet, but even if she could, it would mean getting to the rink before school with the super high level skaters, or trying to make it to the rink for one of only two 45 minute evening freestyles during the week. We live too far away to make getting to the rink after school an option.. I've tried, it just doesn't work well.
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It's amazing how there is so little ice time for beginning or developing adult skaters. This is a problem everywhere, even in skate-crazy Massachusetts. All public sessions seem to be between 10 a.m.-noontime, or on Friday nights when the rink is likely to be overrun by throngs of teenagers. Even freestyle sessions that accommodate no-test or low-test skaters always seem to be right after school gets out--not late enough for any adult with a typical weekday work schedule. Evenings seem to be reserved for hockey games. Yes, it is hard to find appropriate ice time. I lobbied for years at my club to have an adult skating session on a weeknight not so much for me (I can skate on any session and I also work afternoons) but for my husband who is an advanced no-test beginner who works during the day. He would love to develop as a skater but he can't find ice time to do it. Even when I was working in New York, I found the rink schedules on Long Island were the same as those in the Boston area: public skating between 10 and 12, freestyle after school, and hockey in the evenings. The Chicago area must not be that much different.
I'm glad you were able to solve your ice time problem. Best of luck to you!
I used to skate at a rink that had "Secret Adult Freestyle".
Ice time was going to waste Sunday mornings because even hockey wouldn't take it. So the skating director opened up the rink on Sunday so she could practice w/ her pairs partner, and invited a couple of other people. By the time I arrived it was an invitation only adult freestyle from 8-10. It was not on the schedule. You signed in and stuffed cash in an envelope. Because it was initially invitation only it was the honor system.
It . was . wonderful. :stars: Then the rink closed. :P
For the longest time I thought every rink had Secret Adult Freestyle. MAybe they do, and I'm just not invited. :-\
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Back at my old rink, because I worked there my boss would let me skate on dead ice (it was rare that there was any and you had to grab it before the boys did for hockey). Because I am friends with my old boss' daughter and she worked there and could check the schedule she would let me know when it was dead, she would ask her dad, and she, her sister and I would grab the ice for an hour to two hours early on a Sunday morning before hockey came in. The guys always were mad when they'd find out we got it, but they got dead ice EVERY NIGHT that they were there. So it was only fair lol.
At my current rink, it's quiet but the rink manager said that if I came early (6:30am) he'd punch my card for the 7:00 and I could skate 6:30-7:15 before work. Now that I'm freelancing I don't have to worry about that and I just skate the midday public with the figure skater hater.
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When I worked at the rink 15ish years ago we could skate on any "dead" daytime ice we wanted to, but now there isn't that much that is free but I don't think we could skate on what little is even if we asked nicely. We'd be expected to pay for "private ice", just like anyone else. I used to be able to skate freestyles for free back then too but now under different management I'd have to pay (which is okay with me, the schedule doesn't really include any sessions I'd like to skate). That said, when the ice is empty before adult skate (as it often is on Wednesdays) we normally get out and skate at least 15 minutes early (but sometimes as much as half an hour) and no one says anything.. the same goes for public. I showed up at the rink early today and the ice was empty and already resurfaced. Back when we had another facility and two more sheets of ice, EVERYONE would show up early for adult skate and stay late, sometimes we'd milk 2+ hours out of an hour session, and management didn't seem to care unless the ice was booked for something else after... in which case our signal to leave was when the resurfacer came out.