Comments on: The Traffic Issue

By: fromthedeskofstephanie

fromthedeskofstephanie — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:11:23 +0000

Great post! And great replies! It makes me feel better to know others have the same issue I have.

I swore off freestyle sessions yesterday.

One very good teen-aged skater kept cutting me off while I was having a lesson – as she always does, and she does it to every one.

Then she stopped me and asked if I could go do “that” on the otherside of the rink because she wanted to practice a jump in this spot. (I was practicing a jump, too.)

There were only 3 skaters on the session at the time. An elderly lady taking a lesson at center ice, me (a slow-ish adult skater) and her.

I told her “no.”

Does this happen to anyone else?

By: Traffic Solutions « Current Skate of Mind

Traffic Solutions « Current Skate of Mind — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:32:23 +0000

[...] last April’s installment, The Traffic Issue (click here), I wrote about an ever-present and perilous issue in Figure Skating Town: crowded freestyle [...]

By: chrissy

chrissy — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:22:52 +0000

what’s worse is when skaters on the same synchro team are on a freestyle session together and decide they want to practice their program. I feel like I have to wait til their done in order to practice anything….not easy to try to jump when a whole herd of skaters are coming at you.

By: Terri

Terri — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:45:29 +0000

Oh, and pity us lefty skaters too – it’s like swimming against the tide. I always thought since I only got in half the jump attempts I should only have to pay half as much for the session. Rink owners disagreed. Sigh, now that I’m an adult I ice dance instead, and that has its own frustrations. Not only am I one of “those #@$%@! ice dancers,” I’m also viewed as one of the “old ladies taking ice space away from kids.” Both categories very frowned upon on freestyle sessions, but it still beats trying to jump clockwise as I did in my youth.

By: Ice Mom

Ice Mom — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:13:08 +0000

This is so timely, Jocelyn. Ice Girl just got smeared while she was practicing spinning. The other skater didn’t slow down to check on Ice Girl, she just scowled and kept moving. Ah, well. Ice Girl’s fine and you get all sorts in figure skating, just like in all areas of life!
Great post.

By: Survival of the Fastest

Survival of the Fastest — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:49:48 +0000

[...] was reminded about the perils of free skating sessions last week when I read this wonderful short essay from Current Skate of Mind about surviving a busy free skate [...]

By: sony

sony — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:49:11 +0000

there aren’t as many collisions because its all a process. skaters eventually have to brave the waters to improve their skills. ultimately these aggressive yet defensive mechanisims help when you finally get your drivers permit; recalling how i was not remotely intimidated by merging onto the highway the first time i had to drive myself to the rink!

By: Mai

Mai — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:04:22 +0000

Yes, and then there are the falls… How do you navigate around a fall that happens in a spot that was supposed to be vacant a split-second before you were supposed to be on it?

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:20:53 +0000

All of this is so very true. Loved Stars on Ice this season, they had a whole group number dedicated to this very topic!

Loved how everyone got mad when the Ice Dancers took the practice ice!

By: platogrande

platogrande — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:53:00 +0000

spicedaddy, as a math person, I find your theory pretty cool. Thanks for pointing it out!

The “traffic issue” reminds me of two things.

First, I think of Jane Jacob’s notion of the “ballet of the streets”, where a busy, vibrant city is characterized by all sorts of different people engaged in commerce, recreation etc in a complicated, beautiful weave of activity. Mixed use FTW!

Second, I think of the Hudson Greenway, and more generally MUPs around the world. Multi-Use Paths are paths where motor vehicles are forbidden, and where cyling, walking, Rollerblading (see, trying to get skating into this post!), etc all take place at once. As a regular bike commuter, I love the Hudson River Greenway MUP in the cold months. These days, with warmer weather and longer days, they become dangerous, much like a busy rink at practice time. No0bs abound, and no number of “on your left”, “heads up” etc calls will prevent bone-headed maneuvers by the clueless, the iPod Zombies(TM) and the otherwise selfish MUP users. I’ve seen cyclists collide head-on. I’ve been sideswiped (no joke), while on my bike, by a jogger (mad skillz on my part kept us both upright). Worst of all, I regularly see unsupervised toddlers, toddlers! let loose on the busiest bike path in the USA. It’s at times like that that I begin to think that the subway isn’t such a bad option.