Inspired to blog again

After recently reading speedskatingmom.com, I have been inspired to start blogging again. This time, instead of blogging about me, I am going to blog about my kids activities. At the moment, my oldest daughter is involved in dancing (ballet and tap), my other daughter (middle child) is involved in speed skating, while my son (youngest of the 3) is involved in hip-hop dancing. All three take swimming lessons and all three, including myself, are involved in Karate. My son talks about how he wants to play football when he’s old enough, but that is not for another 4 years, so we will cross that bridge when we get to it. During the summer months, all three are involved in soccer. For this post, I will focus on the middle child and speed skating, because that is not your typical kid sport

A brief history on how my daughter, and eventually I, became involved in speed skating. First off, my daughter just celebrated her 7th birthday, so the fact that she wants to do speed skating blows all our minds.

Back during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC, speed skating was on TV a fair bit. I, being the athletic type, was very interested in all of the Olympics, but speed skating really caught my attention. Because of this, I made a point to watch as many of the races as possible, and having only 1 TV in the house, my kids also sat through many events. At some point during one of the events the idea of her (and her brother and sister) doing that came up.  I’m not sure if she said she wanted to try it or if I suggested it to them. Either way, she seemed interested, even though she had barely been on skates to that point in her life (she was 5 at the time).

The fact that she was interested stayed with me after the Olympics were done and I began researching speed skating in general and what option we had in our area. It turned out that within 1.5 hrs there were 3 clubs that offered speed skating for all ages. With the end of skating season almost over, I let that information go until after the summer months (really, who wants to think about skating when it’s sunny and warm outside). The following fall, my wife and I registered all 3 of our kids into the local CanSkate program (geared towards basic skating technique all the way to figure skating techniques) so that they could all learn to skate properly. It wasn’t speed skating, but it was skating none-the-less.

On the first day of the CanSkate program, my daughter (the one who said she wanted to speed skate) refused to go on the ice. My wife (I was already on the ice with our youngest son in his program) spent about 15 minutes (out of a 30 minute class) dealing with her crying and refusing to go. Through much of my wife’s frustration and finally physically putting her on the ice, she finally began skating with her group and by then end of the session was grinning from ear to ear (which we figured she would do). Keep in mind, this wasn’t my daughter’s first time on the ice as I had taken them several times during the winter months before to public skating events, so nothing should have upset her. Then again, she is a little girl, and girls have a tendency to be over-emotional (just my opinion). From that point on, there never was an issue getting her on the ice, and with each passing week, she became a better skater. By the time the mid-season progress reports came out, my daughter had already achieved her Level 1 AND Level 2 badge, while her older sister and younger brother had not yet reached Level 1. She was starting to show some skating talents and a month later, she received her Level 3 badge, while her older sister finally received her Level 1 badge. Progress was being achieved all around.

During each skating lesson, I was on the ice with my son who was in the Parent and Tot program. This program was taught by the club’s head coach, so I had plenty of opportunity to talk to her and at various times, she would approach me and comment on how my youngest daughter had great form, always wants to go fast, and how I should look at getting her into speed skating. Now, as parents we all think our kids are the next best thing at what ever they do, but in reality, that is not always the case, so we don’t always act upon it. When an impartial person suggest something other than their program (or something that benefits them), it is something to consider.

With this new enthusiasm about speed skating and talking with my wife and daughter about it, I restarted my search for a club for her to try it out. As it turned out, all the clubs in our area offered some type of try it out session (for a minimal fee) and the club we were interested in was having a upcoming race meet (competition), so we (the whole family) decided to go and check it out to see what it was all about. At the time, our Saturdays were already busy with all 3 kids involved in some sort of dance class, so although we wanted to go, we knew we would be limited for time. On the day of the event, we all woke up early and made the 1 hr drive to the club/arena to watch the race. We arrive shortly after it started and only had time to stay for 1 hr before heading home and getting the kids to dance lessons. During that time, my daughter could not keep her eyes off the ice and my wife and I decided right then that we would look into signing her up as soon as possible. After talking to the club secretary, we were able to register our daughter for 4 try-it-before-joining classes, that included skate rentals. All we needed to purchase/pick-up were cut-resistant gloves, glasses, helmet (we were told her other skating helmet would do fine), knee and shin pads.

After trying on some skates, she got dressed and made her way to the rink. On the way there, she commented on how the skates hurt her ankles, but she would still try it out. For the next 45 minutes (out of a possible 60), she slowly moved across the ice smiling from ear-to-ear. There was also two very proud parents in the stands smiling from ear-to-ear. As the class progressed, although still smiling, you could tell she wasn’t happy. As it turned out, the skates were causing a blister on one of her ankles. So here you had a girl crying due to pain and smiling due to the sheer enjoyment of being the only person her whole family knew on speed skates. She almost made it to the end before finally giving in to the pain and getting off the ice. Although her first experience wasn’t the best, she wanted to come back the next week, so I spoke to the equipment manager and we picked up another pair of skates. The next 3 sessions were awesome and without pain compelling us to sign her up for another 4 more sessions, taking her to the end of the season, while still working with the CanSkate program. Her ice time went from 30 minutes a week to 90 minutes a week. During this time she managed to achieve her Level 4 CanSkate badge and was selected as “CanSkate Skater of the Year” for being the youngest to work through 4 Levels during one season. At the same time, she managed to complete the first 2 levels of the Speed Skating program. That is quite an accomplishment for someone who was 6 years old and only learnt how to skate within the past year. Now don’t get me wrong, she may never become the next Marianne St-Gelais, Kristina Groves or Christine Nesbitt, but this girl loves to skate and everybody comments on how she is always smiling when she is on the ice. As a parent, when your kids find something they are passionate about, you let them follow it and see where it takes them.

Fast forward to September past and we are back on the ice. This time she is registered for the full year, has a new proper helmet, gloves that fit, and better shin and knee pads, to make everything look and feel right. The only thing she doesn’t have is a skin suit, and one has been order (albeit too big because she is small, but it will hopefully last her 2-3 years). Right from the first class you could tell that this year would be different. Gone was the slow moving girl and found was a girl who was showing skills at this sport. What wasn’t lost was that huge grin. It is amazing on how just a few months of natural growth can make a difference in a person’s ability. Add to that the fact that I convinced both my girls that training for and running a 5k race will help them with their other activities (the oldest does ballet and tap dancing, while this one chose skating over dancing). For a 6 and 9 year old, running (and partly walking) 5k with 11 thousand people is an accomplishment, and when you do it in 43 minutes, it is a big accomplishment (I did get a little chocked up when we crossed the finish line together)! Her potential to do well this year looks promising and that makes me happy that she decided to commit to it.

A few weeks into the season and the coach sends out a request for a parent to help out on the ice with my daughters group. Now even before my daughter became interested in speed skating, I wanted to try it out. Having spent many years of my youth playing competitive hockey as a goalie, I figured I could pick it up quickly, despite all the comments I have heard about how different a skating motion it is. In reality, goalie skates are not much shorter than speed skates and they both use a crosscut pattern to sharpen. This opportunity was exactly what I was looking, so I contacted her and have been skating with the club for over a month and a half now. For the record, the motion is different but I have yet to fall, and I can maintain a decent pace while doing crossovers, so all is good. Maybe in a few years, I may actually become a club member and compete, but for now, helping out the coach on the ice is fun for me, especially when I’m already at the rink.

So that is how my daughter, and I, have become involved with speed skating. In the posts to follow I will talk about her first meet and any other interesting things that come up.

Here’s a video I made of her speed skating. The first few clips are from her 1st session (before the crying started), while the remaining are from a month and half ago. Ignore the iMovie comments, as this was originally made to share with family members. Notice the improvements she made over the summer. I would say she is even faster now.