Figure skating is an extremely demanding sport, as skater’s perfection is expected of us. Every single movement, every jump, every spin has to be precise, strong, gentle and well presented. Endless hours are spent every single day training with the best coaches or off-ice instructors trying to perfect the technique necessary in order to compete at high levels. Dancing around with choreographers stretching and doing ballet to attempt and appear flawless on the ice, even personal trainers are required to help skaters build the power and endurance it takes to get through a long program and look perfectly fine while skating through it. I’ve been skating for almost ten years now, and it’s been one hell of a tough ride, my story began at the age of eight after my dad brought me to a rink which had just recently opened. I’d been on rollerblades before, but it was nothing like being on the ice, the way that the blades could just smoothly glide over it, the sound of crisp edges as you went along. It was amazing. That’s when I saw her step onto the ice, the girl with long black hair tied tightly into a bun and a glistening costume which shone brilliantly in the rinks harsh light. I saw her spin, and that’s all it took, that was the moment that I decided that skating was something I wanted to do, no, something that I needed to do. I asked my dad if I’d ever be able to do what that girl had just done and less than a week later, I was stumbling into my first figure skating lesson, it was a group of about ten kids, nine girls and myself. I loved everything about it, and to this day that group of girls all remain close friends of mine.
Two years later, I win my first ever competition, and my coach and parents have a long talk. Could this be more than just a hobby? Driving home that day my dad asked me if I wanted to continue skating and if id enjoyed the competition, of course, my answer was a big fat yes, and so my private coaching began. It was around this time that I started to practice the harder elements of skating such as double jumps but me being me, I enjoyed every bit of it, even the harsh falls. That’s what skating’s all about at the end of the day. Picking yourself up no matter what. With every single thing I did, it felt like I was one step closer to that big gold trophy whether it be complex step sequences or experimenting with new spin positions. This is actually around the time I learnt how to do one of my favourite spins, a camel into a sit spin.
At about 15 I hit a rut in the road. My coach has been trying to get me to land a double Axel consistently for about a year now, yes, an Axel, the jump that makes all skaters cower with fear. It is figure skating’s oldest and most challenging jump, the only jump that begins with a forward take-off, which also makes it the easiest jump to identify, day in day out all I did was that jump over and over again. I think it’s safe to say that not getting this brought my self-esteem way down as I usually caught onto things quite quickly, I just couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong. Was I not good enough? After all the other boys my level seemed to cope with it just fine. A competition was approaching, and I needed this jump if I was going to have any shot at winning. Before I knew it, I was warming up and running through my program, when skating at a competition, skaters have a few minutes on the ice allocated to practice, but still, when I attempted the double Axel, I fell. I couldn’t believe it, this was going to throw me off my game, after all, I’d just experienced the most embarrassing fall of my life right in front of the judges. My coach pulled me to the side and told me to calm down, everything was alright, we’d just change the double to a single.
My name was called. I took a deep breath, hugged my coach tightly and got back onto the ice. My body knew what to do as soon as the music started, it was easy enough, this program had been engrained into me after countless hours of practice, halfway through I made a decision that would win me the competition, I built up speed and flung myself into a jump, I took off in what seemed like the right position, and as I leapt off the ice, my body snapped into a rotation. Thanks to the height of the jump, I managed to fully get through the two and a half rotations required in order to make it a double Axel. I won’t ever forget the feeling of my feet touching the ice that day or the sound of my coaches’ cheers as I ended my program with a broken leg spin.
Now I’m 18 years old and studying at university, so my skating career had to be put on hold. I still train whenever I can but it’s not nearly as much as I used to, and truth be told I miss it tremendously, but if all goes well, soon enough I’ll be back on that ice, on that podium holding a big gold trophy, and I can’t wait.
