AQ: Hi, I’m Alexandra Qiu.
MD: And I’m Maahi Dev. Welcome to episode 37 of Time Out!, where we explore the MVHS sports scene to learn more about the journeys of our very own athletes from various sports.
AQ: Today, we are joined by sophomore Luna Lee as she reflects on her journey through figure skating. Let’s break the ice!
MD: When did you start figure skating?
LL: I started skating at the age of three, but up to this point in my life, it’s always been inconsistent, and it’s been on and off.
AQ: Why did you decide to start figure skating?
LL: Part of it is due to my mom’s influence. Around the time when I started to skate, my mom was really into speed skating on ice, so part of her interest was put onto me. I started exploring my options on ice. Towards, I believe, first grade, around that time period, it was the height of Yuzuru Hanyu’s career, so that’s also why I went back onto the ice again. It was partially because of the very cool videos I saw. I kept going back to the ice because it was something I was very familiar with, and it was something I really wanted to do and get better at.
MD: You mentioned that your mom was into speed skating. Does anyone else in your family do any sports related to figure skating?
LL: It’s more or less where, for members of our family, we all go under the umbrella of skating, but we just specialize in different kinds of skating. They went into inline skating. There’s also inline figure skating, on-ice speed skating and off-ice figure skating. We all just specialize in our own different groups. They previously did do figure skating, but they didn’t really enjoy it all that much. My brother was really into skating on roller skates, particularly inline skates, so that’s what he got into. I just stuck with figure skating all the way through. While I did try inline skating, it wasn’t really for me, and I just didn’t really like this focus placed on speed and just technically refining the same element over and over again. I found it quite repetitive, and there wasn’t really any point for me there.
AQ: By the way, what exactly are elements?
LL: An element, at its base, is where you take a position — spin or jump. There’s usually a score point, and that alone would be an element.
MD: What are the physical demands of figure skating?
LL: Depending on the element you do, I would say if we’re talking physical demands in just the beginning, where you start doing singles, there’s not much physical demand. But once you start heading into doubles and triples or even quads, your body needs a lot more strength apparent, specifically in the leg so you can achieve the jump height, or if you can position yourself at a very low squat.
AQ: What challenges have you personally encountered so far?
LL: I think the biggest challenge for me is edge control. So, in figure skating, there is this one single blade, and depending on where you lean and how you shift your weight on the blade, it can go on either the inside edge or the outside edge. I think being able to control which edge you’re on is probably one of the biggest challenges I faced so far.
MD: Do you ever feel scared when you practice?
LL: Generally speaking, mental blocks are things that are associated with jumps — and rightfully so, especially with the axel. For other things, I’d say the only scary spin that I really know about is any camel variation or the camel itself. It’s pretty scary in the fact that you have to dip half your body forward while balancing on one leg and spinning. Any extreme variations of spirals is also pretty challenging to start with, but always something that you slowly have to lean into.
AQ: How have these mental blocks impacted you personally?
LL: It has caused me to end my jumps earlier than I should and not get as much of a tight rotation as I normally should. It also just prevented me from properly taking off. The tricky thing about the axel is it takes off on a weird edge where you just sort of jump into it. Specifically with that, having that mental block and fear beforehand has actually messed up my rotation and take off many times before, where I just sort of take off. Because of the messed-up take off, I just can’t really complete the full rotation, or I have a really weird position in the air. So personally, that has stalled a lot of progress for me, it has just caused a lot of technical difficulties.
MD: How did you learn to overcome these and other challenges?
LL: Part of it is dragging yourself through practice. There’s no other way. And also, if you’re not necessarily injured, where you can’t, say, jump on the ice, where it actually causes your injury to get worse, then I would say there’s not much stopping you. I don’t think this really counts as a major injury, but because of how my skates are and just repeated friction inside the skate itself, in the past, I’ve had sessions where I’ve had blisters on my feet, or where it’s just straight up bleeding into my socks and I just had to skate through it.
AQ: What are some of your biggest accomplishments?
LL: Biggest accomplishments in terms of technical elements learned, I think so far, it’s definitely the lutz and the sit spin. In my smaller friend group, I was pretty well known for being able to get my sit spin to a very low position on ice before I took a break off of ice for a while. So, I’d say my sit spin is definitely something I’m very proud of. I’m still in the process of trying to reclaim that position. For my lutz jump, I’m able to take off fully on a very clear outside edge, while many other skaters struggle with that.
MD: You mentioned your friends, how have they helped you through your figure skating career?
LL: Part of it is just if somebody else is learning the element that you struggled with before, or you’ve learned before — we call this peer tutoring — where we just try to help each other. And if something has helped us in the past before, then we recommend it to others, and we see if that could help them try and get through the process of just trying different things and seeing if it works faster. So, it’s part of the support system. Another support system we often do in my friend group is where if we see someone attempting an element, then we give them an air high-five across the ice, a thumbs-up across the ice, or we just smile across the ice to them, that’s another way of support we do.
AQ: What are some of your favorite memories associated with figure skating?
LL: When I was three or in first grade, when I went and stepped on the ice, and then I fell. A weird memory to choose, but I guess it’s really ironic in the sense that falling was my first reintroduction to figure skating, but I still really enjoy it to this day. Skating has been sort of like my secondary way of walking.
MD: And finally, do you have any advice for newcomers?
LL: I’d say for newcomers, the best advice I’d have for any age range really is to just have fun until you get to crossovers. That’s when you really, really need to practice more. But I’d say the best way to learn skating is to just have fun and mess around with your friends because you learn a lot in that process. For newcomers specifically, especially for adults, because of skating and boots and how it’s designed to handle impact, I would say definitely find an actual skate tech instead of some 16-year-old working in a hockey shop that would give you a skate that would not properly be able to handle the amount of pressure and bending you put on your skate. You should get proper equipment. If you can, get gloves. I would say don’t wear jeans on the ice, it’s a terrible idea unless it’s loose jeans, but don’t wear tight jeans. If there’s volleyball knee pads in your house, wear them. It will save your life, and your knees will thank you.
MD: That’s it for Episode 37 of Timeout. Thank you Luna for joining us. I’m Maahi Dev.
AQ: And I’m Alexandra Qiu. Thanks for tuning in!
