The difference between figure skating & hockey parents

[Neverdull44]

Drinking booze while your kid practices, that's the difference.   

My son plays on the 8 years & under, Friday evening games, some Saturday afternoons & a few mid-week after school practices.   Every game or practice, some parents are downing a beer(s) while their little ones play.  I hadn't bothered to count the number of beer(s), but I might start doing that just for kicks.   Last night, one of the moms bragged about how much she drank (screwballs, beers, blah, blah) at the hotel bar the night before, and she gleefully boasted of her quenching delights in front of their other children.    I hear that this is what goes on at playgrounds, now, too.  I don't think this is a good idea, drinking in excess and bragging about it in front of your children.  How are these parents going to counsel their children on responsible drinking when the little ones become teenagers?  I bit my tongue hard last night.   She asked me if I drank, and I just brushed it off.   A nice glass of wine with a special dinner or one cocktail when I'm out with adult, fine.    I was thinking, I figure skate and would rather scramble my brains spinning.  From what I've seen, figure skaters will have a drink or two, but for the most part, are not heavy drinkers.  Am I right in my limited experiences?

[Loops]

I don't know about hockey parents, but after each one of the professional team's games at our rink and there are cases of empty beer cans waiting by the door to go out. Both teams certainly drink and I can only hope it's after the match......

My synchro team certainly drinks, but not excessively. Closer to a celebratory glass after practice if someone has something to celebrate, or a cocktail if we decide to go out together. When we're at competitions I don't see any of the parents drinking. At most a glass of wine with dinner.

[AgnesNitt]

It's always easy to notice the people who drink, and hard to see the people who don't. This is called a confirmation bias. Just sayin'..

[Bill_S]

I've never seen anyone with a drink at our figure skating practice, but have never attended a hockey game to see what they do.

When kids come in to practice hockey after our sessions, I've never seen a drink in hand of any parent.

There are fairly strict rules on campus about alcoholic beverages, so this likely has some effect.

Me? I like an amber ale after skating practice & subsequent shower back home, while sitting in my music listening chair. Just one please.

[Neverdull44]

Hard to be selective when the chick is telling you about how 'had to stay for another round of fabulous screwdrivers last night.'

[riley876]

I don't drink at all.   I suck enough already (at too many things) without making it worse by drinking.   Don't do caffeine either, for the same reason.   

I think it all comes down to the mind/body divide thing.   Many people, when it comes down to it, don't really believe that their mind is just a piece of meat in their head, and therefore seriously affected by drugs, nutrition, disease and concussions.    They instead believe that their mind (and therefore their ability to think) is something not physical at all, and thus not fundamentally affected by physical things.   

[Query]

There are exceptions to every rule.

Tonya Harding."
Need I say more?

Obertsdorf
"sitting in the beer garden at the top of the mountain is the number-one rated non-ice related activity for adult figure skaters."

ISU Worlds at Budweiser Gardens
One just assumes.

Ice Mom's Adventures in Figure Skating: How to Clean Figure Skating Dresses with Vodka

Many colleges and universities now sell beer at sporting events. I wonder if that includes collegiate figure skating competitions.

[amy1984]

I would believe the hockey thing.  There's a real culture of beer and hockey around where I live.  You should see the adult rec leagues!  So it's not hard to think parents might drink at their kids' games, etc.  I've also had the pleasure of staying at a hotel during a hockey tournament and the parents were more rowdy than the kids.

I've never seen a figure skating parent with a drink.  Not at a practice, not at a competition.  If it happens at competitions, it's obviously happening at the hotel afterwards or something.  It's certainly not seen as socially acceptable to drink around the rink if you're a figure skating parent.  I've been to quite a few competitions and I've never seen alcohol for sale (exception - adult nationals).

To me there's certainly a completely different rink culture with each sport.  For hockey parents, it's like their kids' games/practices/tournaments are social outings for them as well as their kids.  There's much more camaraderie, probably because it's a team sport I would guess.  There's not that same social aspect for parents of figure skaters.

In terms of adult figure skating and adult hockey, my adult skating friends certainly socialize at competitions, after practice, etc., and while there's drinking involved sometimes, our socialization is not dependent on it.  Hockey was really heavily associated with beer (and the cheaper the better! lol), so was slow pitch.  There was a bar at the rink Adult Nationals was in when it was in Regina but it wasn't even as busy as I thought it would be.  And let's all let that soak in.  There was a bar.  In a multiplex.  That's primarily used for kids' sports (hockey, indoor soccer, etc).  Now think about what people would think if someone put a bar in a gymnastics club or a dance studio, lol.  Everyone would think you were insane.

As a spectator, don't even get me started - I live in a city with two professional hockey teams and also some junior teams, and a football team that's notorious for it's infamous beer snake in the student section.  Everyone at these games are drinking - before, during and after.  It's nuts.  On the other hand, I went to Worlds when they were in Ontario and I didn't see anyone really drinking to get drunk.  I'm sure there were some people who were - I'm not an idiot.  But it never even occurred to me or the person I went with to order a beer at the concessions.  There was a really cool cocktail/blended drink stand though.  I guess that's more popular for figure skating fans, lol.

Sorry for the rant.  I just find this whole alcohol culture surrounding sports pretty interesting.  It's something I've been sort of half keeping tabs on for a few years now.

[Neverdull44]

My husband plays on an adult hockey league.   When they go to tournaments, it's usually three hockey games in a day, for 2 days back to back.  Yet, a few of them drink at night/go to gambling . . . to 3 or 4 in the morning too.   One soul got so drunk between games, that he missed the remaining games for the day.    That's sad.   A weekend of games cost us about $500 between hotel, gas, entry, food, etc.  So, I find it frustrating when some are drunk or are too tired to play.  They always say, "We play better drunk..."  I roll my eyes.   Luckily, the others are more responsible and treat it like a sport.   

When my husband played on another rec team at a different rink, there was the beer cooler.  It rotated between players, and the chosen player had the responsibility to bring it filled for the after game party.  This was each week.   

My husband says that figure skating parents need to lighten up.   Rolling my eyes . . .   On second thought, they might be nicer to coaches if they were buzzed . .. or not.

Whatever figure skaters, adult figure skaters, their parents, or their coaches do, hockey counterparts can drink them under the table.

[PhysicsOnIce]

I have to be the devil's advocate here. Sorry guys and girls but I live in Belgium... if there isn't a beer on the table there shouldn't be a table.... or at least that's what most parents here believe. It is not uncommon for both figure skating parents or hockey parents to have beers or a glass or two of wine during practice. (Un)fortantely, beer is less expensive than water at the rinks here.  That being said typically it is one beer for two to three hours.  I've definitively have seen my share of champagne bottles or magnum beer bottles opened during competitions and/or test, Its not uncommon at all. Typically, however, we don't see belligerent alcoholics at the rinks. My only experience with that was the 18-25 year old hockey team getting really really drunk two years ago after the Belgian Championships.

However,  I've seen/heard a few older recreational (and a few of our older competitive 17 to 18 year olds, drinking age is 16) figure skaters get on the ice with either a hang over at 7am or still drunk from the night before . Needless to stay the falls they took those days were not pretty, but it does happen.

Personally, I try to stay away from alcohol in general. I don't like the taste, it goes straight to my head and I hate the mind fog/ bloated feeling I get afterwards. My belief is that as an athlete be it international level or basic skills 1 , you need to body to work at its best and that's not going to happen with alcohol in your system.

[lutefisk]

At least they have decent beer to drink over in Belgium.  My rink is so far behind the curve it hurries them to have an overpriced vending machine for soda pop.

[twinskaters]

I keep threatening to bring a bottle of wine to share with  the moms I sit with during our girls' Friday night synchro practices. But I've never actually seen anyone drink any alcoholic beverages at our rink, hockey or figure skating, so it remains just idle chatter.

[Query]

http://firstwefeast.com/drink/drinkers-guide-watching-olympic-figure-skating/



Teachers tell me alcohol is the current generation's drug of choice, more than their parents' - at least in our part of the U.S.

But in my town, nothing beats the football games for beer consumption.

[jlspink22]

At our rink, the hockey parents aren't the ones drinking. They are the ones yelling at coaches for not making their peanuts hockey prodigies in 6 months. 

[fsk8r]

I keep threatening to bring a bottle of wine to share with  the moms I sit with during our girls' Friday night synchro practices. But I've never actually seen anyone drink any alcoholic beverages at our rink, hockey or figure skating, so it remains just idle chatter.

Apparently the moms had opened the wine at Christmas show rehearsals the other week.
But we do actually have a bar in the building so they can quite easily sit down and have a drink while the children skate.

[icedancer]

I just remember that when I was a kid there was a bar (lounge) above the rink - the parents used to get quite sloshed while watching their kids skate!

[Christy]

There was a bar at the rink where I skated as a kid (and I don't remember seeing any of the figure skating parents using it), but only coffee bars at the rinks where I skate now. There's one rink, which is totally hockey, which serves beer during games, and supposedly doesn't allow any beverages to be brought in, but that's not really policed.
I've stayed in a few hotels which have hosted tournaments and, confirmed by the staff the following morning, it's always been worst when they have hockey games with both the parents and kids running wild and ensuring no one got any sleep.

[Doubletoe]

Well, for starters, freestyle sessions tend to be earlier in the day.  If they were in the late afternoon or evening, who knows?  Maybe the parents would drink.  Having said that, there may be a "team sport" aspect at play here as well.  Figure skating is an individual sport, where the moms are always aware of how their kids are doing vs. the other moms' kids.  The last thing the moms need is to have other moms looking at them and judging the fact that they are drinking.   Hockey is a team sport, so the individual comparison/competition might not be as high.  The parents all share in the success of the team that their kids are on, so there might be more genuine comraderie.  Then again, hockey is also a more male-dominated sport, and when men get together over a sport it involves beer more often than when women do. . .

[accordion]

Our rink has a bar, but it is quite separate from the general skating area. Our licensing laws here require a very distinct delineation between the licensed area and the rest of the facility. It is also rarely open, leastways, never when I'm there!

During hockey matches they sell beer and wine in an area adjacent to the stands. It is the only time I've ever seen anyone at the rink actually drinking. I've not seen anyone who was clearly drunk though. As for the figure skaters... well we do or don't drink according to our personalities!!!

It would be considered unusual for any parents to be drinking while attending kids sporting events. I cannot think of any facilities where there are bars, or that would be open while kids are competing/practising. Again I think that is due to the licensing laws. Melbourne is full of coffee snobs so the portable coffee carts do very well at the sporting events like footy, netball and cricket.