Why figure skating is the hardest sport out there

[rosereedy]

We have to be strong like a hockey player, graceful like ballerinas, flexible like a gymnast, fast like a speed skater, tough like a football player, agile like a soccer player, and mentally tough like a boxer.  We skate when we are tired, hurt, sick, frustrated, and when our friends are doing something fun.  We skate really fast, do a hard jump only to fall with the force of at least twice our body weight then get back up and try it over and over and over again.  We do all the elements in our programs in a little dress, with nothing but tights to protect us from the 0 degree ice under our feet.  We do it ALL on a blade surface of less than 1 millimeter.

So to the people that say figure skating is not a sport and it's for sissies, I beg to differ!


(Back story, got into it with some guys recently.  They said figure skating wasn't a sport.)

[jjane45]

We have to be strong like a hockey player, graceful like ballerinas, flexible like a gymnast, fast like a speed skater, tough like a football player, agile like a soccer player, and mentally tough like a boxer. 

Hehe, well written

We do it ALL on a blade surface of less than 1 millimeter.

OK more like a square inch but that's not the point!

[ChristyRN]

Where the heck is that "like" button??

[VAsk8r]

I used to get into this with my ex-boyfriend, who insisted figure skating wasn't a sport because you don't have games the way you do in team sports like baseball. At the same time, he refused to go to publics with me because he knew someone who broke her arm skating. Hmm...sport or not, he was a lot more scared of skating than he was of his martial arts.

We skate when we are tired, hurt, sick, frustrated, and when our friends are doing something fun. 

I hear ya on this...I get so many weird looks when I tell people I can't go out on Friday nights because I have 8 a.m. Saturday lessons and a test/competition to prepare for. But I think skating is more fun than being falling down drunk at 2 a.m. in some club.

[fsk8r]

That's not to mention that's it's one of those sports you can't start competing in until you've reached a reasonable level of proficiency. Anyone can go kick a soccer ball around or hit a tennis ball, but you can't just go out there and skate a program without first learning how to skate.

[Query]

If someone says figure skating isn't a real sport, stick up your nose and say that "Art" is a higher State Of Being than "Sport"!

EDIT: A Buddha prayer pose would be good too.

[Rachelsk8s]

We have to be strong like a hockey player, graceful like ballerinas, flexible like a gymnast, fast like a speed skater, tough like a football player, agile like a soccer player, and mentally tough like a boxer.  We skate when we are tired, hurt, sick, frustrated, and when our friends are doing something fun.  We skate really fast, do a hard jump only to fall with the force of at least twice our body weight then get back up and try it over and over and over again.  We do all the elements in our programs in a little dress, with nothing but tights to protect us from the 0 degree ice under our feet.  We do it ALL on a blade surface of less than 1 millimeter.

So to the people that say figure skating is not a sport and it's for sissies, I beg to differ!


(Back story, got into it with some guys recently.  They said figure skating wasn't a sport.)

Soo true!!!  Love it My boyfriend used to consider figure skating not really a "true" sport, until I got back into it and has watched my endless off ice jumps as well as on ice training.  He's a believer now  

Kind of related, but what I love to see is in the winter season, both adult and kid hockey players trying to imitate figure skating moves and/or spins, usually to realize they can't and how difficult it is!!  The best comment I've every received was from a long time hockey player, teaching his grandson to skate, he told me that he always respected figure skaters for trying to jump and spin in tights in dresses, and when they fall they get up and try it all over again

[icedancer]

I was sick recently - bad flu - was off the ice for a few weeks - did basically nothing...

When I got back on the ice I realized how much strength it takes even just to stroke around - you have to be really strong to do this sport and I think that's why most recreational skaters you see can't skate at all - they just don't have the strength for it!!!

It is a tremendously difficult sport (and why I do it I have no idea... just took to it when I was a kid I guess) - and like someone said, it takes a great deal of proficiency and time just to do a basic program of any kind...

[sampaguita]

Dance also has this problem: the difficulty of doing dance is highly unappreciated by most who watch it.

In my opinion, skating is very special because it involves a lot of strength and artistry, something which other sports do NOT have (obviously artistry does not exist in hockey games  ). It's extremely hard to make it look extremely easy.

That being said, figure skating and ballet earn my highest respect among all physical activities.

[Query]

Why figure skating is hard - for adults

One thing that makes skating - and many other performance dance forms - hard, is that you are expected to move in ways that are both unnatural and unintuitive. So it is very hard to figure out what to do. In many sports, what you want to do is obvious - e.g., knock the puck into the goal. In figure skating, it's a lot harder to figure it out.

In fact, since most skaters who win world competitions are students of an extremely small group of elite coaches, perhaps those coaches are the only ones who know exactly how skaters are supposed to move, and how to get them to move that way. If you don't have such a coach, it may be impossible to get it near perfect.

But I think a lot of what we are seeing is that it is very hard for us adults to learn. Especially if we try to apply the standards to ourselves that can only be achieved by extraordinarily athletic children, and by adults who were extraordinarily athletic children. Watch kids in group lessons. The ones who don't do well - the vast majority - simply drop out. Adults are more pig headed.

It is difficult for adults to learn because it is so very difficult from other activities we have done, and it is hard to learn completely new ways to interact with our bodies as adults. The low friction environment means that extremely small motions, pose changes, and muscle tensions make tremendous differences in how we move, and figure skating still places significant emphasis on very small effects on blade tracing and sound.

That high precision requires that we attain a very high degree of repeatability (especially for spins, twizzles and jumps), which in turn requires that we stabilize joint movements, using stabilizing muscles throughout our bodies, which seems extremely unnatural to me, and totally different from everything I have done, or that many adults have done. In addition, the emphasis on doing edge changes and turns with minimal body motion, for dance and for freestyle tests, requires that we be able to continuously balance and use antagonistic muscle pairs at those places we are "allowed" to move enough to transfer angular momentum - e.g., shoulders, hips - and that we be able to alter that balance to make and control that transfer very quickly, then check the motion by rapidly re-establishing that balance. Again, very unnatural and totally different. You must also learn to "feel" your bodies balance, orientation, and joint positions - something which is extremely hard to start to learn as adult.

I had many fine coaches, but only the latest one is helped me begin to understand these requirements, and got me started on working to achieve them. She is not an elite coach, but in some ways she is more analytic than others.

Per example: when we prepare to spin out of skating on an edge, we have to use the ice to create angular momentum, which we gradually store in specific body parts like swinging leg and arms, without letting the skating foot spin enough to make a messy tracing. Then we must abruptly shift that angular momentum into spinning the whole body. Very small changes in the free leg trajectory make huge differences in our motion, both in terms of the ultimate speed, and in terms of creating uncontrolled and inappropriate oscillations. And the checking out of the spin is difficult to.

In many sports, most participants form a lot of friendships, and people help each other. Around here at least, adult skaters tend to be less friendly. What is more, each coach teaches their students to achieve skating movements in incompatible ways, so you might not be able to learn things from the friends you do form.

The very deep, strong knee bends and high flexibility requirements sure don't help.

Sometimes when I've been working very hard on one thing very hard with little success, while all my other skills evaporate, and I see a little teen or tween working on her senior moves in the field, flow through her program with fabulous speed, strength, control, and grace, I get very discouraged. I know I'll never move like that. That's something we have to accept, as adults. (Since figure skating is mostly female, those of us who are males also constantly see girls moving with the kind of grace, flexibility and control that is even more difficult for males to achieve.)

And remember. Not only did that little teen or tween put in a tremendous amount of time to get there, but she is athletically selected out of hundreds or thousands of would be skaters to get there. By the time they are competing for medals in National or World competitions, they are perhaps selected out of thens of thousands of people who's families had the wealth to take them there. The principle female ballet dancers (if that appeals to you) who dance lead roles on TV, are athletically selected out of millions of little girls who take ballet. If you compare yourselves to them, you create for yourself a nearly impossible goal.

We ordinary adults sometimes need to scale back our dreams to that which we might achieve. Say, do a low level ice dance without tripping ourselves or our partner, this time. Maybe even pass it.

[sampaguita]

Well-written, Query! Couldn't agree more.

[Live2Sk8]

Why figure skating is hard - for adults

But I think a lot of what we are seeing is that it is very hard for us adults to learn. Especially if we try to apply the standards to ourselves that can only be achieved by extraordinarily athletic children, and by adults who were extraordinarily athletic children. Watch kids in group lessons. The ones who don't do well - the vast majority - simply drop out. Adults are more pig headed.

This is just perfect - thanks!  I forget sometimes that while I'm still stubbornly trying (after years of effort) to do something so simple for what seems like so many others, that countless others just quit trying.