Wrong ideas you used to have about figure skating... | Page 3 | Golden Skate

Wrong ideas you used to have about figure skating...

energywithin22

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 6, 2019
Oh, and I also had the illusion that I could just step on the ice and do pretty much the same thing as them skaters I saw on TV - until I stepped on the ice for the first time and discover with horror how actually slippery the ice is :eekn:

Oof, that is THE misconception I probably hate the most. I hope you won't see it as an attack or anything, I don't mean it like that. Just, people and their "FigURe sKATinG iS EaSy" is my biggest pet peeve. But I have to say that public skaters attempting spins, jumps etc. with their "look! I can do that too!" and failing miserably everytime does give me a good laugh :D
 

macy

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2011
can't speak for myself because i was a skater, but many of my friends called all jumps axels or always asked me if i could do a triple axel :laugh: and that skaters make up their programs as they skate! that was the funniest to me.
 

sk8kirsty

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
To tell the truth, I still don't know how to pronounce Salchow. The "w' is pronounced as an English "v," right? So the last syllable is "kov." (Ulrich Salchow was Swedish (though actually born in Denmark, IIRC)).

I don't know how to pronounce the first syllable. But I am pretty sure that the following is dead wrong (in both syllables, plus the ch sound). :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CoiQr6Pl-k
I am English and I say 'sal-k-oh'
 

sk8kirsty

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
I thought all jumps were called axels...don’t ask me how I thought of something so stupid :cry:

The first competition I watched was the 2010 Olympics and I literally thought “Wow! Yuna Kim landed 11 axels!” [emoji23]
Lol
 

sk8kirsty

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
What annoys me most is when I tell someone I'm a figure skater and they say 'oh, I'm really good at that, I can skate round for a whole lap without having to hold onto the barrier, and I hardly ever fall'
 

LauraV

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
When I was a child and first saw figure skating on TV, all I could hear was the music during the skating. On the older TVs of the time, it didn't seem like the skates were making any noise on the ice. So I developed the goofy idea that competitive figure skaters were able to skate silently, their blades making no noise whatever when they skated.:palmf: It wasn't until I first saw figure skating in person that I realized how wrong I was!
 

Vandevska

U don't have to build the end of the world out it.
Medalist
Joined
Dec 18, 2017
When I was really little I thought that all jumps were the same, and that the men jumped but women just skated around. :drama:
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
When I was a child and first saw figure skating on TV, all I could hear was the music during the skating. On the older TVs of the time, it didn't seem like the skates were making any noise on the ice. So I developed the goofy idea that competitive figure skaters were able to skate silently, their blades making no noise whatever when they skated.:palmf: It wasn't until I first saw figure skating in person that I realized how wrong I was!

The fun thing many don't realize is deep and/or good edge control and so on sounds different than those who skate shallow and more on the flat of their blade. :coffee:
 

fishing

Rinkside
Joined
Mar 6, 2004
I have been watching figure skating for 40 plus years and it wasn't until the advent of the Internet and finding "Results" pages when I realized there was more than one flight and six athletes per competition. Mind blown! I'm still thrilled to 'watch' a competition online and See Them All!
 
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TontoK

Hot Tonto
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 28, 2013
Country
United-States
I was quite young when I first became enthralled with the sport, and I assumed that all pairs were boyfriend/girlfriend who just decided to skate.

"One day when I have a girlfriend, we can skate together at the Olympics."
 

Ykai

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 6, 2019
The fun thing many don't realize is deep and/or good edge control and so on sounds different than those who skate shallow and more on the flat of their blade. :coffee:

I remember I was practicing stroking and I heard that sound of deep edge, and I thought oh boy did I just make that sound, then I saw my group class coach was demonstrating for another student just behind me......

I used to think the skaters have some sort of gimmick to not feel dizzy while spinning, but it turns out that there is no such gimmick at all, just practice.
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
I remember I was practicing stroking and I heard that sound of deep edge, and I thought oh boy did I just make that sound, then I saw my group class coach was demonstrating for another student just behind me......

I used to think the skaters have some sort of gimmick to not feel dizzy while spinning, but it turns out that there is no such gimmick at all, just practice.

Practice, practice, practice! :cool: Actually, training opposing eye movement does help with not getting dizzy from spins. ;)
 

lariko

Medalist
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
Country
Canada
When I first started watching (Vancouver Olympics) I thought it was a female-only sport like Rhythmic Gymnastics :eek:: I soon learned that shock and awe, not only were there men, but also pairs and ID where a man and a woman form a team! I blame our TV channels, they didn't bother to mention the other diciplines during the Olympics (because no Koreans means not noteworthy) :eek:hwell:

On a tangent, am I being annoying by ranting about how our skaters' names get butchered? I had just made recordings to send to Ted for this week's JGP... :slink:

I might had been vaguely aware gentlemen existed outside pairskating, but I can’t remember watching them skate till 2018 for the life of mine (and, bear with me, my last identifiable memory of FS prior to 2014 dates to Irina Rodnina & Alexander Zaitzev). Boy, was it a pleasant surprise...

Also, after reading how they help themselves to jump with a pick on toe jumps, I kept expecting the sort of a pick-axe swing and a jab there. Well, they keep using these active, aggressive verbs to describe it, not ‘subtle, barely identifiable gentle touch of a pick on ice to float up..’

So, yeah, took me many squinting hours...
 

BravesSkateFan

Medalist
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
When I was a child and first saw figure skating on TV, all I could hear was the music during the skating. On the older TVs of the time, it didn't seem like the skates were making any noise on the ice. So I developed the goofy idea that competitive figure skaters were able to skate silently, their blades making no noise whatever when they skated.:palmf: It wasn't until I first saw figure skating in person that I realized how wrong I was!

When I first started following skating and learning I saw someone post on one of the boards how a skaters blades made a scratchy noise on the ice and how that was bad etc. For quite sometime after that I thought that blades were not supposed to any sound at all
 

SarahSynchro

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2014
Country
Canada
Great thread, some of these posts are pure gold. :laugh: :agree:

I wish I could contribute something here, but since I’ve been involved in figure skating in some capacity ever since I learned to walk, nothing for me to contribute is ringing a bell thus far.

Hmm, there was that one time, about four years back, when a certain child of mine thought Yuzuru Hanyu competed for Canada... :rofl:
 

TallyT

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Country
Australia
My very earliest very very dim recollection is my mum watching Torvill and Dean's Bolero... for years I vaguely thought all figure skaters were that good.

Coming into the sports fandom last year via a search for a piece of music that led me youtibe videos and to Yuzu and Javi didn't do a lot to initially disabuse me of the idea, noooo.......
 

SmallAminal

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2016
Great thread, some of these posts are pure gold. [emoji23] :agree:

I wish I could contribute something here, but since I’ve been involved in figure skating in some capacity ever since I learned to walk, nothing for me to contribute is ringing a bell thus far.

Hmm, there was that one time, about four years back, when a certain child of mine thought Yuzuru Hanyu competed for Canada... :rofl:
My skater was watching some fluff retrospective piece during the World Championships on Brian Orser and the Battle of the Brians and when I pointed out "Look, that's Yuzuru's coach!" during a clip of his skating, he looked confused and said "Yuzuru's coach is competing too?" [emoji23]
 

SmallAminal

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2016
When i was little (even after I started skating)
I used to think that figure skates had blades with just one edge....like a knife. I guess it took me a while before I bothered looking at the blades on my skates that first year.

My dad also thought he could sharpen them himself....thank god someone told him it wasn't something he could do with his sharpening stone!
 

Vandevska

U don't have to build the end of the world out it.
Medalist
Joined
Dec 18, 2017
My skater was watching some fluff retrospective piece during the World Championships on Brian Orser and the Battle of the Brians and when I pointed out "Look, that's Yuzuru's coach!" during a clip of his skating, he looked confused and said "Yuzuru's coach is competing too?" [emoji23]

I was quite young when I first became enthralled with the sport, and I assumed that all pairs were boyfriend/girlfriend who just decided to skate.

"One day when I have a girlfriend, we can skate together at the Olympics."

:laugh2:
 

CarolPooh

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 13, 2019
I didn't know there are elements such as jumps and spins in a programme and I thought the skaters just skated around.

And somehow I thought crossovers were very difficult.
 
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