What's So Great About Figure Skating?

Right now Ryan at MySkatingMall.com is having a contest. And there is a prize!!!

Click here to go to You Tube to and here from the man himself.

It is hard for me to articulate why skating's great(and sometimes I would argue otherwise) but last night I saw a car commercial where they think it's great.

You know how Miss Ice Charades is always ranting that they never show skaters in the cruise ship or amusement park commercials for cruise ships or amusement parks that have ice shows? No, oh, welcome to my blog, then.



Anywhooo, finally a commercial with skating in it!

It starts with the typical stock footage of car driving near the ocean or car frolicking in the snow with happy people inside looking like they just finished a photo shoot for the Gap. Then spliced in for only a second at a time were the following clips in this order:

woman riding a horse
girl swinging on a swing
guy doing a trick on a snowboard
businessman loosening his tie
figure skater landing a jump

and

person standing on the top of a mountain

The ad is saying all of these things are great feelings.



Of course, driving a Suzuki will get you there too.

My hunch is that someone writing the commercial had to be a skater. Why? They didn't show a figure skater doing a pretty spiral or fast spin or split jump or some other move that plays well for the camera. They showed someone landing a jump in slow motion, which isn't the prettiest move when viewed in that clip.

But it's one of the sweet spots in skating.

The point where you haven't landed the jump, but you know you will. You've cleared enough rotation with some air left to go and all things are good now. And that moment in the air is an amazing feeling.

I imagine for your A-list skaters when they hit that spot in competition, they have already started to think about the next jump or difficult maneuver coming up in the program. If it's an ice show skater, when they hit that moment, they move on to thinking of where they'd like to go for dinner that night.

So, while this isn't an official entry for Ryan's contest, take a look at the commerical itself. Here's the link if you want to see the commercial.

Pssst. I think skating's getting a little respect again!