Today I had a lovely conversation with one of the best skaters at the rink (11 years old, landing doubles). She told me she thought it was brilliant that some adults do tests (I'm not in for any yet, but definately will take them when I'm ready, and I pointed out another adult who has a field moves test next week), as a lot don't. When I jokingly asked what she thought of adults who do competitions, she thought it was really amazing, and told me the special rink cheer for our skaters, and promised to cheer for me.
When I told my coach I wanted to compete in the Open against the kids, I think she anticipated opposition. But I've had overwhelming support from the skaters and their parents. Coaches have been slightly mixed (one asked my coach "does Turnip know she's gonna be skating against kids?!" my coach said I did, and a different coach added "good on Turnip!"). The ones who's opinions matter at all to me have all been positive though. The committee organising the competition have been supportive, and apparently the referee was excited that adults had entered.
My rink has it's ups and downs and not always the nicest atmosphere (as I'm sure do most places), but such a positive attitude towards me and my skating really makes me feel good! We'll see how parents and skaters from other rinks who don't know me react, but it's not like I'm a former champion skating down, I'm more of a beginner than a lot of the kids I'm skating against. I hope once they see I'm not a threat to their little darlings, they'll embrace the idea of adults competing. But if not, I don't really care!
It's eleven days til the competition and I realised today I'm probably never gonna feel like I'm ready for it. Me and my coach just want me to skate my program nicely, with two salchows, a toe loop and an upright spin all counted. Some days this is by no means a sure thing! But no matter how bad I skate, I'm sure I'll get cheers during and hugs afterwards. And I'm betting I'll still be proud of myself for going out there and doing it!
I know this is now quite an old post but I just found your blog and have read through the whole thing (it's very interesting!) And I wanted to say that I think it's amazing that you do opens, I don't see why you shouldn't do them. I think it was very brave for you to compete in a non-adult competition and that regardless of placement you should be very proud of doing that, not a lot of people would have.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're skating is going well and I'm looking forward to new posts :)