Figure Skating in Vancouver

Yesterday I went with Annabelle to a skating rink in Vancouver. I expected to walk into a rink with a public session filled with people of all ages and skating levels, but was I in for a surprise!

Here's what happened and how it came about:

Karina Tjew is a twelve year old pre-novice (US equivalent intermediate) level figure skater. Her mother, Jessica, wrote me just before I left for the Olympics. She is one of my About.com Figure Skating readers. Jessica had a question for me related to sports injuries. I replied that I could not answer now, since I was preparing to leave for Vanouver.

Jessica replied that she lived in Vancouver and invited Annabelle to skate, swim, and play with her children! It also turned out that the Tjew family had spent a summer training at the World Arena in Colorado Springs! Even though they'd been there, we were not sure we had met at the World Arena, but felt like old friends.

Anyway, Annabelle has spent a few days with the Tjew's. She's been skating, playing, swimming, and having fun. Yesterday, was my turn to join them.

We visited two different rinks yesterday. One had six ice sheets and the other had eight! Can you imagine?! I didn't know ice facilities existed with 8 rinks in one building!

I learned some things about the Canadian figure skating programs. Did you know that figure skaters are called Senior B (kids that can't do double Axels yet) and Senior A (kids with double Axels)?

At some training rinks, a black curtain is put across the observation area that looks into the rink when the skaters train, so the parents can't watch! I got to see the curtain at the rink with 8 sheets. The actual training ice sheet there is called Skate Canada Academy of Excellence.

Kids that are not quite that advanced, skate in something called "Junior Academy." Junior Academy skaters skate three days a week, for three hours, and are taught in a group type format, with private lessons also available. At that level, there is no black curtain.

At the rink with 8 ice sheets, I got to observe Junior Academy kids practicing. In the U.S., those type of kids are usually on public sessions doing basic skills or ISI routines, and they are playing and talking and eating snacks, etc. In Canada, these same kids were working hard. They were serious and at work. I'd never seen anything like that before.

The Junior Academy skating program may be similar to US Figure Skating's Bridge Program, but seems to be much more established. U.S. rinks can't devote three hours a day, after school, to children of just one level, but a rink with 8 sheets can have hockey, low level figure skating, beginning group lessons, and advance training all going on at the same time! Wow!

Some of the other ice sheets had a few hockey skaters practicing. No games were going. One rink had someone working on skating skills, others seemed to be doing drills, and in another rink a goalie was at practice.

There was open freestyle sessions going on at both the rink with 6 ice sheets and the rink with 8 sheets. Annabelle and Karina skated at the rink with 6 ice sheets on the open training session.

The open training session, in the rink which looked like a freestyle, had a limit of ten skaters allowed on it. It was two hours long, and the figure skaters that were training on it were at work the entire two hours. Annabelle is not used to skating two hours in a row without a break, so she got off for a bit. She got a lot done though and landed some good double Salchows and double toe loops.

Most of the coaches did not have their skates on. They taught from the rail. There was a little boy who was more at the Junior Academy level, being coached by someone who was wearing skates. Jessica told me that when a session is limited in size to ten kids, and is full, that the coaches can't be on the ice, and must teach from the boards.

Karina Tjew is such a good skater! I was so impressed. She is so consistent. She did double Lutz combinations over and over and never missed any of her double jumps, but her double Axel is not consistent yet. Her Bielman is gorgeous! In the two hour training session, she must have run through her program two or three times and she also did her short program. Her programs were perfect.

In Canada, there are no Moves in the Field, so one thing that was missing from the session, was seeing kids warming up with moves or doing moves at all. Annabelle, practiced the few Novice moves she knows, but everyone else was jumping over and over.

Jessica mentioned to skate, that all Canadian clubs require figure skaters to provide a Canadian or US Figure Skating number. I am glad I brought Annabelle's number with me!

After visiting those rinks, I truly felt that Canada is a foreign country! The way figure skating is approached is so different there.