COMPETITIVE FIGURE SKATING
HOW I STARTED FIGURE SKATING
People often ask how I got started competing in figure skating. My brother, sister and I started ice skating years ago, after my sister watched Ladies’ figure skating on television during the Olympics. She was fascinated and asked my mom for lessons. My mom let all three of us give it a try.
MY FIRST INTRODUCTION TO THE ICE
We were excited to get to the rink, more than an hour away from home. Inside, the rink was freezing cold, so we were bundled up in sweatpants and bulky winter coats.
Now, when I teach new students, I keep in mind how anxious the three of us felt the first time we stepped onto the ice. It is SO much harder than it looks on t.v.! We could barely stay upright and kept falling down. My little brother was especially nervous and cautious. He wouldn’t move away from the boards. But we stuck with it and kept going.
The coach was friendly and encouraging. He didn’t make us feel bad about not being good at it, and talked us through feeling scared and embarrassed about falling. By the end of the lesson all of us, even my brother, had had a good pretty good time!
We asked our mom to take us back. Soon we had a regular Saturday morning skating slot on the coach's schedule. We enjoyed it so much that we started skating more, and soon we had permission from the school for early dismissal so we could have more time on the ice during the week.
PHYSICAL TRAINING, OFF-ICE CONDITIONING AND MOVES IN THE FIELD
We became serious about skating after we went to the Nutmeg State Games in Connecticut for the first time to cheer for new friends from the rink who were competing. When we saw their beautiful costumes, heard their music, and felt the crowd's excitement over their routines, we decided we wanted to experience that, too.
But, just like most people, we hadn’t yet realized just how much hard work, discipline and long hours go into learning the skills needed to become a serious competitive figure skater. The best skaters make it look easy. Trust me, it’s not!
Training to become a competitive figure skater requires a strong commitment. In addition to spending long hours on the ice there’s also intense off-ice training and physical conditioning.
We had to regularly do specific exercises to strengthen our cores, so we could hold our positions, for example, sit spins and spirals. This means lots of push-ups and sit-ups! We had to regularly commit to stretching exercises to become more flexible, and have better extension and longer lines. This is the hard work behind the scenes that allows figure skaters to twist our bodies like pretzels into difficult positions. We have to hold our positions. for a specific length of time and spin for a certain number of revolutions, which increase in length of time and number of revolutions as we moved to higher levels.
It was a regular thing for hockey players -- and particularly their dads -- to challenge us on our stamina. We were always happy to show them that we could easily outdo them, especially on diamond-grip pushups and sit-ups.
Few people realize that the best professional hockey players train on the ice with figure skating coaches to improve their edgework, which gives them better balance and coordination. This helps them stop faster, pivot better, and maneuver quicker on the ice.
As competitive skaters, we memorized and practiced over and over again specific skating patterns, called “Moves-In-the-Field,” to pass the U.S. Figure Skating Association tests required to move up in skating competition levels. The patterns get more complicated the higher you advance. We took ballet so that the lines of our bodies, hands, and fingers, our foot turn-outs, and our posture would appeal to the judges' tastes. We ran laps, jumped rope double-time, and practiced vertical jumps to increase your hang time in the air (so you have more time to complete double and triple jumps).
MUSIC CUTS AND SWAROVSKI CRYSTALS
We also had to find just the right songs and costumes, and it had meet to the approval of our coaches and also the judges will, so your scores wouldn't suffer. The height of our legs extended behind us on our spirals has to be higher than our heads.
You might be surprised to know that picking songs for competition seasons isn’t easy. We used to give our coaches a list of 5 songs we liked, but then they always had the last word. In our first season competing, the three of us all skated to Michael Jackson. My song was “I Want You Back.” My brother skated to “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” and my sister’s song was “ABC.”
The length of the song cut is based on the level of competition, with cuts getting longer as you move up. This means that we often practiced 5 days a week for months for a program that only lasted a minute and thirty seconds. If you finish too soon while your music is playing, or run over after it has stopped points are deducted from your score.
Our friend Skye is a skating coach (in addition to adding bling to my sister's earlier costumes) always cut our music just right for us, meaning she had to cut down the time in the song while picking out specific parts that built up excitement, leaving room for our step sequences and jumps in just the right places, She had to do all this while making the transitions and deletions seamless.
I remember one time when my sister decided at the last minute to choreograph and skate a new program to "Light 'Em Up" for the Freaky Friday competition at Lake Placid. We called Skye in Connecticut and she came to our rescue, immediately emailing the finished cut to my mom, who always carried a portable disk drive and blank CDs with her just for competition emergencies like this.
Now every time we hear any of our competition songs from over the years it takes our family back to all those experiences the three of us kids shared on the ice together. That will always be special to our family and makes us smile.
SKATING COSTS AND ACCESSIBILITY
As you've probably heard, ice skating is a very expensive sport, which keeps many people from having access to it. We noticed this right away, especially because we saw so few Black skaters like us competing. We were always so excited to meet other Black skaters and would make a point of staying at competitions longer to cheer for them, too.
It was great when we met Starr Andrews at a competition in Philadelphia. She went viral when she was very young with a program she skated to "Whip My Hair." My sister was so emotional when she saw her that she couldn't even talk, but Starr was really humble and was sweet to us.
We had no idea at the time that we would one day live in California and that my siblings would have the privilege of also training with Starr's coaches, Derrick (Delmore) DeLeong and Peter Kongkasem. It's pretty awesome the way things work out sometimes.
It is important for you to understand why meeting Starr was such a big deal for us. When my sister was only 7 years old and on her way to the podium to receive her Gold medal in the Connecticut Nutmeg Games an 11-year-old stopped her to say "you don't belong on the ice." It really didn't faze her because she had just won, but it made my mom really upset to find out about it later.
Hey! This weekend Starr became the First Black American figure skater to win a Grand Prix medal, taking Silver.
The excitement Black people feel about Starr's accomplishments is why we need more Black skaters like her, Debbie Thomas and Surya Bonaly. It's important that my sister and other little Black girls and skaters have the chance to see themselves represented everywhere, including on the ice.
Here is a CBS Mornings news report about the Skating Club of Harlem, explaining why Black representation in figure skating is so important and why Black skaters deserve to be included in the sport.
For more information about the Skating Club of Harlem,
please visit their website and support their efforts.
MUSIC SELECTION AND MUSIC CUTS
You might be surprised to know that picking songs for competition seasons isn’t easy. We used to give our coaches a list of 5 songs we liked, but then they always had the last word. In our first season competing, the three of us all skated to Michael Jackson. My song was “I Want You Back.” My brother skated to “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” and my sister’s song was “ABC.”
The length of the song cut is based on the level of competition, with cuts getting longer as you move up to higher levels. This means that we often practiced 5 days a week for months for a program that only lasted one minute and thirty seconds. If you finish too soon while your music is playing, or run over after it has stopped points are deducted from your score.
This is our friend Skye, a skating coach who always cut our music just right for us, meaning she had to cut down the time in the song while picking out specific parts that built up excitement, leaving room for our step sequences and jumps in just the right places, She had to do all this while making the transitions and deletions seamless. She also added bling to my sister's Amazon costumes, sometimes staying up all night to get it done.
I remember one time when my sister decided at the last minute to choreograph and skate a new program to "Light 'Em Up" for the Freaky Friday competition at Lake Placid. We called Skye in Connecticut to see if she could help and she came to our rescue. She immediately emailed the finished cut to my mom, who always carried a portable disk drive and blank CDs so she would always be prepared for competition emergencies like this one.
Now every time we hear any of our competition songs they take our family back to all those experiences the three of us kids shared on the ice together. That will always be special to our family and will always make us smile.
CHOREOGRAPHY
To create your program you need a choreographer who understands your skill level and also your personality. For example, my sister did NOT want to skate to popular Disney songs, because that does not suit her at ALL. She used to always say, "I'm not a blonde princess!"
One of the skating coaches at the rink who wasn’t even our coach texted my mom a link at 2:00 a.m. to Harry Belafonte’s “Jump In the Line,” because he heard it and immediately thought of my sister -- it was PERFECT for her! In addition to Michael Jackson, my other program songs were "Going Down For Real" by Flo Rida, Duke Ellington's "Caravan" and "Runaway (U & I) by Galantis.
COSTUMES
Skaters will tell you that getting costumes is one of the highlights of competing. For our first season competing and skating in shows, my mom put together all our costumes from Amazon. She became an expert at finding retro jackets, poodle skirts, and Superman shirts. But as we continued to skate over the next three years, our costumes became fancier and more detailed because judges care about it and this impacts your scores.
My skating was interrupted when we moved to the West Coast for my Dad’s job, and I had to learn to deal with my recent ADHD diagnosis. Still, I have great memories of competing and training with Olympians and national and international champions. I particularly looked forward to going to Lake Placid, reconnecting with our coaches and skating friends there from all over the world, and skating on Olympic ice every summer.
SKATING WITH ADHD/NEURODIVERGENCE
One of the many important things I have learned from having ADHD is that when teaching skating you have to be conscious and respectful of the fact that not everyone learns the same way. Kids with ADHD can have a hard time staying on task and can be impulsive.
Back when I was training and competing we didn’t know yet that I had ADHD. I wasn't diagnosed until later, but looking back I finally realized why it had been so hard for me to focus and remember my coaches' instructions, my Moves In the Field patterns, and my choreography. One of my coaches stands out in my mind as my favorite be, because he didn't become angry or impatient with me when I skated my programs a little differently each time, or when I forgot he had asked me to go out and show them a Double Salchow -- not a Double Lutz. Instead, he just gave me a gentle reminder.
Now that I’m an Assistant Coach, I pay close attention to kids who seem impulsive, have extra high energy levels, or have a hard time making eye contact on the ice. The way we talk to children, the specific words we use, and having patience matter. Because of my own experiences, I make sure I'm respectful, encouraging, and inclusive so all my students feel accepted and welcomed on the ice. I make sure ice skating is a good learning experience and fun for my neurodiverse students, too.
I’m so glad I get to share my enthusiasm for this sport with others. It was such a special part of my childhood and I have so many memories of good times on the ice with my brother and sister.