“Y’all ready?” I asked, looking at their fresh morning faces. “I’ve got some good ideas for today,” I said, rubbing my gloves together in front of me. “Keeping time with some music to start. Follow me,” I told them, and pushed off to start crossovers around the middlecircle.
“Keep the beat, make sure you fully extend!” I called out.
After I got them to a good tempo, I glided out of rotation and watched.
“Nice, Kimmie! Keep pushing!” I said to my smallest skater who was concentrating hard. She was keeping up well, and I could tell she was probably the most talented in the group.
“I know you’re getting tired but finish the song!” I coached. “Don’t let those shoulders turn in!” I reminded them.
I was just about to call for them to cease the crossovers and use their speed to glide out in a strong checkout, which was the landing position for jumps, when my music was suddenly cut-off and a whistle sounded loudly.
Most of my girls looked at me confusedly, but Kimmie kept right on moving. I liked her spirit.
I searched around to see who the whistle belonged to, and finally made eye contact with an older guy wearing a hockey warm-up outfit and hat pulled low.
I snapped my jaw shut and grinded my teeth, preparing my body for a showdown. We would not be kicked off our ice. I would stand my ground for my girls. This was clearly our time on the rink’s schedule.
I motioned for my girls to wait for me and skated over to the man.
“Excuse me,” I started, trying to sound as authoritative as I could. “But we’re in the middle of a session here, do you need something?”
“Yeah,” he drawled, looking out onto the ice. “What’s goin on over here? What’s all this?” he motioned to my girls.
“Power skating,” I snapped. “Now could you please let us get on with it?” He must’ve been part of the summer hockey camps, because I didn’t recognize him from around the rink.
He finally made eye-contact with me then. “Can you explain it to me?” He asked.
I cocked my head to the side, trying to figure out if he was actually serious.
“Why don’t you just watch?” I responded and reached for my phone to begin the music again.
What a weird exchange, I thought, as I turned quickly and skated back to my girls.
They looked at me questioningly, but I shook my head. “Ignore him, just some hockey guy. We have work to accomplish,” I reminded them. “Let’s line up at the end, we’ll practice a couple new moves in the field. I know Jaimie has her Juvenile test coming up and she’s going to pass with flying colors, right girls?”
They all gave their approval, and I could see Jaimie giving me a shysmile.
In figure skating, in order to get to the next level of competition, skaters needed to pass two tests. The first was a skating skill test called moves in the field, which consisted of edge work and power skating. The second test was for freestyle moves- meaning jumps and spins. I loved showing all the girls higher level moves even if they weren’t ready to test said level yet. Helping them in these little sessions meant they’d have a built-in familiarity when they finally did have to work on them to pass the test.
I ran the rest of my session in peace, going around to correct girls to help them master themoves.
At the end of the quick 10-minute group lesson, the girls all dispersed to work on their own, and the other coaches started to file onto the ice.
I skated back over to the boards and stopped in front of the stranger who was still standing there watching.
I’ll admit, I had a bit of a snarky edge to my voice when I asked, “Questions?”
He chuckled to himself and leaned over the team box where he stood. “Seems like you have something against hockey, Miss. You don’t know who I am, eh?”
I didn’t care who he was, I’d be irritated with anyone who interrupted my lesson. As for his other inquiry, what I wanted to say was that there was an unnecessary barrier between the two sports that wasn’t helpful nor healthy for either. Instead of the sports working together to attract more kids, they were always competing. And it always felt like hockey coaches looked at figure skating like a joke or a side show. They swooped in and took our ice time whenever they wanted to without giving it a second thought.
“What’s this all for?” he questioned.
I struggled to read him. I wasn’t sure if he was serious or just another hockey guy making fun of figure skating. I decided to humor him.
“What we did today was to work on stride,” I told him. “Pushing, lengthening… You see how small my girlsare?”
He gave a firm nod.
