[violetteloiv]

I am a long time figure skater. Wondering if anyone else is a figure skater or has any interest in the sport.

[glok]

Hello, violetteloiv. I watch on occasion.

[buzz bee]

You must have amazing muscles. I would love to skate. I do the butt flop on the ice instead. Must be 30 plus years since Ive skated.

[possum220]

I love to watch figure skating. It keeps me on the edge of my seat hoping that they can land the jumping parts. Some do it with such grace. I even remember the names of Torvill and Dean, upping the skating to a form of art. Scott Hamill was brilliant, skating his butt off, not falling on it.

[Fresia]

I cannot skate to save my life. My niece, on the other hand, is a figure skater. She is very involved and though out-of-state from me, I go to as many events as I can. It is a challenging, demanding, but beautiful sport. She is taking a break from competition now due to injury, and is skating purely for the joy of it right now and no jumping allowed. I thought she was going to be crushed when she heard this but is handling it well. Oh, the injuries y'all can suffer; it makes me cringe, the toll it takes on the body. The ice is SO not forgiving.

Do you skate for the fun of it, or do you compete too? No matter which, I hope you find joy with it and wish you well as you pursue it.

Well, I'm 51 now but I was a figure skater between the ages of 12 and 15. I loved it!

[nonightowl]

I never skated, but I had a friend who did when I was about 9.

I used to follow it quite closely, watching the U.S, World, and European Championships every year. And of course The Olympics...

Now, it's just the Olympics for the past two years or so. I got so SICK of the constant chatter of all the commentators (they always have at least 3 it seems), even yakking during the skater's PERFORMANCE. It's hard to enjoy the music and skating while they are criticizing every little thing.

"She could use more stretch here, and more speed." SHUT THE *&^$(# up!!!

**** Button, Peggy Fleming, and Scott Hamilton are the worse commentators. They can skate, and they should stick to that. I think the first two retired, so now Scott is on everything, being a chatterbox constantly. Tara Lipinski is getting on my nerves too. I don't mind if they say "That was a triple axel", but stuff like, "Oh, he's going to lose points right there for that fall." Well, duh!!! These commentators act like they never made a mistake on the ice, never fell, never missed a jump, etc.



I used to watch stuff like The Four Continents and other special competitions too. But those aren't as common as before....

Also, they are covering these events on a channel I don't get anyway. They used to be always on NBC, but sometimes it's on a cable channel.

[eskielover]

I just dabbled in skating for the fun of it growing up.....my mom didn't drive & the ice skating rink that was only a few blocks from my house closed when I was really young & my mom had no way of driving me to where the closest rink was.....so SOL. In college they had in ice skating group class for PE which I took along with my equitation classes for several years. I enjoyed learning a little more ice skating than just forward & backward.....got a couple of turns learned....but could never do any jumping.....didn't do horse jumping either....like all feet on the ground at all times (except when falling).

I enjoyed skating on days we didn't skii in Jackson Hole Wyo.....they watered over the tennis courts for the winter & they became the skating rink for the city.....that was fun in the out doors & it was close to our condo....couldn't ask for more...but the ice did get ruff with no Zamboni to scrape it once in awhile.

I gave our daughter skating lessons while she was growing up (you know that thing about I didn't do it so I will let my daughter if she's interested). She did great.....but NO COMPETITION. She didn't have a competitive bone in her body like her MOM did......but that's ok....she decided that she wanted to learn gymnastics & did that until they started pushing them into competitions also.

Had a friend's wife I worked with.....& our 2 families were close as they had a son our daughter's age & we went down hill skiing with them on long weekends......his wife used to do a lot of skating & really enjoyed it...but after marriage, he didn't like her going skating at the rink all the time....it created a bit of a war....but guess she ended up giving it up at that point.

I absolutely LOVE ice dancing.....but then I love ballroom dancing in the first place. I like watching the individuals.....but IMO....ice dancing is the ultimate form of beauty in ice skating.

I haven't had a TV for 7 years....but I love...all the good stuff is to be found on YouTube anyway.....so I don't end up loosing out because of having NO TV......I'm not in the dark like it was in the past without TV.

So what kind of ice skating do you do......how much time to you really spend practicing each day. Does your ice skating help your depression? I know when I was actively doing my dressage riding & showing, I didn't have the time to deal with the depression....but it was still bad & there were times the depression did get in the way of my ability to function.

[nonightowl]

I do love ice dancing better than pairs skating. It allows them to be more creative and original. For pairs, each couple has to do a required set of jumps or spins, and they are all the same ones.

For the free dance, they have more leeway. They do have to do certain things too, like "twizzles", but I think it's more creative and entertaining than the pairs event.

LOVE Meryl Davis and Charlie White, and their friendly rivals Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (sp?). Tanith Belbin and Ben Agusto too.

When I was a kid, that friend I mentioned earlier tried to coax me out on the ice. I admired the costumes and makeup she wore, and it looked glamorous. LOL, I was terrified as I slowly tried to skate or at least move a bit. I ended up stumbling and falling on my face. I didn't get hurt, just embarrassed.

[lizardlady]

Never did any figure skating. It was all I could do to go forward and stop without falling on my butt or other body parts. I do love to watch it on TV though. Owl, I too hate the chatter of the commentators. I hit the mute button on the TV and just watch the skating!

[nonightowl]

Originally Posted by lizardlady

Never did any figure skating. It was all I could do to go forward and stop without falling on my butt or other body parts. I do love to watch it on TV though. Owl, I too hate the chatter of the commentators. I hit the mute button on the TV and just watch the skating!

Liz, I have tried the mute, but the downside is that it mutes the MUSIC too! It doesn't have the same effect. It's an artistic sport, and the music they skate to is important as they interpret it.

I wish the mute button would mute selectively: Dialogue, music, etc.

Sometimes if I don't like the background music on a TV show, I can mute it and read the closed captioning. But it won't work the other way around, where I can mute the talking but not the music. When I was much younger, the chatter didn't bother me as much. And there was no mute button or no remote even, back in the day when I first started watching figure skating! It was in 1968, when Peggy Fleming won the Gold Medal.

Now, I'm older and less tolerant of that kind of thing. I can't stand too much chatter on ANYTHING now. The DJ's, the commercials on the radio, etc.

[eskielover]

I guess I"m pretty good at selectively muting the chatter in my own head. I'm so used to listening to music from my music major days in college....that talking is sort of just white noise that I don't hear......

Or maybe that came from the bad marriage I was in for so many years.....whatever......I just watch & focus on the music & the moves interpretation of the music.......Meryl Davis & Charlie White are an amazing team.....so many years together then just flow so well & beautiful.....the others are really good also. Loved watching the YouTubes of them doing the Dancing with the Stars when Meryl won....they were both outstanding in the ballroom dancing as they are on ice.....I'm sure the strength from all the work on the ice definitely made a huge difference & the knowledge of how to do the lifts already.....bodies trained for motions like that.......

Always is amazing how the body can make those kinds of moves since I don't to well if both feet aren't solidly on the ground.....wonderful that some people have the talent to be able to do things like that....I do believe that it's a talent that NOT everyone can just learn to do.

[GypsyButterfly]

Hi, Violette. I don't know how to ice skate. I do enjoy watching figure skating. Especially pairs. I've loved dancers as long as I can remember.