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Cynthia Ann Jones Kratochwill 1957 - 2002
        

Saturday, March 26, 2005

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    


© Copyright 2006 Rod Kratochwill.

 

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