Skater In Residence – Beauty in the Annoyance of Skating
Skating is such a unique sport. It mixes athleticism with art. It mixes strength with grace. We make it look easy and effortless, yet it is so difficult: the easier it looks means we are doing our jobs right. We work so hard every single day. Numerous hours spent on and off the ice, pushing our bodies to their absolute limits, and then it comes down to two days and a total of 7 minutes, where anything can happen.
When I competed, I dedicated my life to skating. I tried to create a balance in my life, focusing on school, friends, and family, but in the back of my head, I had to be sure anything I did wasn’t going to interfere with my training. From Monday to Friday, I spent three hours a day on the ice. I went to the gym with a trainer twice a week. Did ballet twice a week. Worked with a sports psychologist, had massages, and went to physiotherapy at least once a week. From 7:00am to 5:00pm, my brain was solely focused on the sport, on improving myself, and being the best me that I could be. Thankfully I had an amazing group of friends that understood everything came second to skating. All those hours spent training, were the only way I knew I could compete at the level that I wanted.
This is the annoying thing about skating… it has a way of throwing you insane curve balls. You can be in the best shape of your life and one wrong wrong step and a major injury could happen and set you back a couple days, weeks, or months. You could be skating clean programs for weeks, show up at a competition and completely fall apart. It happens. You could have the skate of your life at a competition, be over the moon excited, until you get your scores. What you felt might not be what the judges saw that day. Or everyone skated perfectly all day and you didn’t place where you wanted. It’s tough not being in control of the outcome. It takes a lot of mental strength to come back from an upset. But this is where the beauty in that annoyance comes from.
In my experiences, there is an uneven scale of good competitions versus bad. Heavily weighing on the side of outcomes I didn’t necessarily want. It felt like every time I reached a new peak, an injury came tearing me down. It felt like no matter how good my training was going, I was always upset and not improving at competitions. I entered every single competition, whether it be the first summer event or the Olympics, with the same mentality. I wanted to prove to the world how much I could worked. I wanted to show off and be proud of the hours I spent improving my abilities. When I never got to do that, I took it to heart. I was leaving everything out of the ice and not getting what I wanted in return. Though with the strength of my team around me, I could pick myself back up and try again. And eventually, I had those skates that filled my heart with absolute pride and joy. I left nothing behind and everything aligned on those days that my training showed. I was rewarded for what I lived for. It was always the best feeling in the world, that it made all the downs vanish.
Placements I could never control. How I felt each day was uncontrollable. What the ice was like was out of my hands. I went in to each competition with the trust of my team and my training behind me. I went in with the hope it would actually work out that day. I focused inward, taking note on what I felt, knowing my limits and where I could push beyond them. Every competition was a new experience, a different adventure, with another obstacle to keep me on my toes. Everything was a challenge.
When people ask what my favourite and least favourite thing about skating is, I have the same answer for both. It’s the unpredictability. It is what makes skating unique and special. It is a terrible feeling when it doesn’t work out, but those downs are what makes the rewards so much more incredible. The disappointment after a rough skate, makes the relief so much more special when you finally put it all together. This sport is incredibly annoying and tremendously frustrating, but it is what makes it so downright beautiful.
