The Case for Adults Only Ice

I'm a big fan of Adults Only Practice Ice. Adults get very few safe spaces in which to work on their skating, without the eyes of judgey skating parents and careless kid skaters. I have kicked kid skaters off of Adult Ice, ignoring the cries of parents, "But she neeeeeds it..." This was on the Shoebox Studio, where high level skaters attempted to barge in to get one last run of their competition routines amidst Delta level Adults.



Tough cookies. This ice is rare and and valuable, so shove off.

There was one Dance Practice Session where we had a kid visit for some reason, I think it was something about a grandparent visiting who wanted to see Pweshus skate... and what followed was pretty indicative of why I am a staunch advocate for NO KIDS on adult ice.

All us adults were skating fine, practicing things and involved in ourselves, and then here comes Pweshus. She's got on her pink Chloe Noel and matching pink hair bow, and mom and elder relation are in tow. All the adults, who had not five seconds earlier been skating around, suddenly began moving to the wall. Pweshus starts warming up, zooming around, and as she did so, I was watching all the adults. They kept their eye on her, and watched as Mom and Elder Relation began the Coofest that universally surrounds a very young cute skater.

Ugh

I kept skating. Pweshus kept glancing at me, and Mom kept glancing at me, and the message I was receiving was, "Why are you still here?"

Well, I paid for this ice, so I will be skating on it, thankyouverymuch.

 

Yeah, Imma skate on ur  mah ice!

 

But all my fellow adults had retreated to the boards, chatting and talking, watching Pweshus dutifully perform with the Coach for Elder Relation, on command from Mom.

When the show was over and Pweshus left, the Adults crept back from the boards and continued skating. They had lost about twenty five minutes, but at least they didn't have Mom glaring at them like I did.

I'm not placing the blame squarely on Judgey Parents and Kids. Adults need to get some cajones and skate on the ice they paid for, regardless of who is watching and what they think. (Protip: No one is a great skater overnight, and no one gets better without skating! So LET US SKATE!) But a safe space helps, even if it's something you get just once a week. (For very new skills, I actually like to practice those on Public Sessions. No one cares if you look awkward and slow on a Public.) But don't think Adults Only ice is all slow skaters. There are plenty of fast adults doing high level jumps and spins, but they have the grace and courtesy that is sorely lacking in most kids.

The Adults Only ice has only a few weeks left, and already the laments of, "Why can't we have this all year," and "Who can we talk to... This is so nice, how can we keep this," have started. We've petitioned Rink Management, but it's always fallen on deaf ears. In the meantime, I will be skating on my beloved Adult Only ice, treasuring it while we have it.