Julie wonders "What would I do if one of my daughters wanted to pursue figure skating or something similiar?"
We tried all kinds of athletic endevours as the girls were growing up.
We tried Ballet, Gymnastics, Soccer, and living in Florida there is the
requisite swimming lessons. As I remember it and Cindy isn't here to
correct me :( but we tried skating with our youngest as an attempt to
fix our view that she was walking "funny". I think she had a tendency
to walk with her toes pointed outward and someone told us that we
should put her in skating lessons as that would force her to keep her
feet pointed straight. It didn't take long for our older daughter to
join in as she was tagging along anyway and skating looked to be more
fun than sitting on the bench.
I think one of the things that attracted our girls to skating was that
it focused on the individual. When we were playing soccer we had
troubles with the team aspect. Lindsey in particular would pay close
attention to all the instructions of the coach and do her best to do
exactly what she was instructed to do. When the coach said don't go
past the 40 yard line when you are on defense, you would see Lindsey
standing alone back on the other side of the field as this swarm of
kids followed the ball all around the other end of the field. Several
of the boys on the team were less focused. I think that Lindsey
developed a certain amount of internal stress because of her fear that
the coach would be angry with the team because of the behavior of her
teammates which she had no control over. Chelsey was on a team with a
superstar, the coach's daughter, who got all the attention and playing
time. So the team sports didn't seem to apeal to the girls.
Figure skating was a way for them to excell at their own pace. There
were some skaters that were better than they were and others that were
not as accomplished as they were yet. But it didn't affect the way the
girls skated. They were able to work hard on their own to get to the
next level and it didn't matter what the other skaters were doing. As
long as they did what the coach asked and were able to improve they
were happy.
I personally like figure skating for the girls. As a discipline figure
skating requires plenty of physical effort. They constantly work on
endurance, strength, flexibility, balance, and plenty of falling with
style. For a sport that looks like ballet on ice it sure is ugly and
painful while they learn to do it smooth and graceful. Then there is
the whole performance aspect of the sport. As a individual sport it is
like few others in the way each competition is also a performance. An
attmept to make a very physical and demanding routine look effortless,
graceful and beautiful. I can't imagine a sport that I myself would be
more terrified of. But Lindsey seems to thrive on the discipline, and
really enjoy the performing.
One last thing, there are a few cars in the parking lot at the rink
with the following on the rear windows, "Driver has no cash - daughters
are figure skaters".
9:56:52 PM 
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