Adult National Figure Skating Championships

The Adult National Figure Skating Championships are taking place in Grand Rapids, MI this week. What is that you may ask? Those are the championships for old farts like me who like to figure skate. You might see a triple or two from the younger men in the category of adults who skated as kids but triple jumps is not what it is about for the most who are there.

Most of the competitors are people like me who learned to figure skate when they were adults. Figure skating is very very very difficult. The skaters you see on TV (oh wait that you USED to see because you never get to see skating on TV anymore) started when they were like 5 before they learned to fear hurling themselves into the air and landing on less than a fourth of an inch of the edge of their blade on ice.

But some of us crazy old people decided we wanted to try it. And so US Figure Skating created a category for us so we could compete against other adults who started as adults. We even have our own test structure. These championships are not so much about beating the competition but challenging yourself, getting the ice to yourself and showing everyone what you can do and cheering on your friends. I've only been to one all adult skating competition and it was amazing. Very different from the competitions I would take my daughter to - who also skates. I took my daughter along as my coach and she was amazed at the comradre and to see adults in the locker room that were not freaking their daughters out. One of the ladies that I competed against brought stuffed animals for her friends to throw to all her
competitors!

About a year ago I was going to go because they added an event - solo dance that I can qualify for. Oh that's another thing - anybody can go to Nationals if you have passed the right tests. I'm not skating at a high enough free style level to compete, but I could qualify for solo dance. (That's ice dance without the partner) But it was in Michigan and seemed a little expensive. And I'm doing a feature spot as Auntie Em in our Ice show and I would have missed a lot of rehearsals. But it's in Minnesota next year and I'm definitely planning on going next year. If I can pass my Swing Dance.

Adult Figure Skating