Do Artistic Skaters Have Any Identity?

[sk82day]

As all who read this forum know I am very outspoken about what is occuring in Roller Sports and the Governing Bodies. What is occuring in Roller Sports is very disheartning, not just in Art but all disciplines. Sailor's thread on USARS and IOC made feel I had to post this.
Lets look at some things that have occured in the past year:

The World Championship floor disaster and really no explantion of why it happened.

Then the USOC says that some restructuring needed done within USARS, but yet members have no clue what they were told to do.

Jane W leaves the Board and takes a job at the National office, does anyone really know what her job is or what she is to do? And I am worried that this was only done to get a person off the Board who would stand up for Artistic skating.(I will explain why I am worried later in this thread.) Will the Board allow her to do anything or will they micromanage any plans that come forth from her, now that shes off the Board can she have the same power?

Is it Artistic Skating, Figure Skating?? I know its supposed to be Figure now but why was this change needed? I mean if your not going to publicise the change to more than just the members of USARS in a little blurb in Board minutes and maybe a couple of sentences on the website, what was the point? This change should have been an opportunity to gain some publicity for the sport, but the change has done nothing more than add to the confusion of when saying figure skating people think ICE, or is that the idea of the change?????

People who have been involved with competitive skating for say the last 25+ years will know what I am talking about here. Years ago the 3 disciplines of skating, speed, artistic and hockey. The speed skaters got along with the hockey players, the speed skaters got along alittle bit with the art skaters, and the art skaters didnt like the hockey players. The Board and others in power at the R or USAC/RS looked upon the hockey discipline as the ugly stepchild, they cared about the speed and art. Over the last 5-10 years suddenly anything with Quad Skates is looking like the ugly step child.(I mean no offense to ugly step children)
Are we seeing the takeover over Roller Sports by Ice happening right in front of our faces?? We see many Ice coaches and members of the Ice federation coming into Roller Sports, and not just on a coaching level we see it in meet directors and committee members. In Speed our Board is fine with having an inline to ice program? Matter of fact the person running it Derek Parra works for the ice fed as DIRECTOR OF INLINE TO ICE PROGRAM.
Now I know Roller Sports wont be completely gone, but if all the inline programs go to ice what will be left? Quad Speed, that has around roughly 200 participants at their Nationals, Hardball Hockey (or Rink Hockey another Quad discipline that is left with no identity after a name change) that has about 13 clubs left in the country and had a whole 13 men show up for 10 spots at a World team tryout a couple of months ago and Artistic Skating that is on the verge of being an open National. People whom are in the business world can see what is occuring, downsizing until there is the excuse that a takeover or buyout is needed. And if this were to occur to me one of the biggest opponents of something like this occuring, Jane W, who is no longer on the Board to fight it is now at the National office and would have exactly zero say so about it.

Now I know we can sit here and say were not worried about what the Board does, but I would hope some of you seriously think about what is occuring and decide should I just sit here and not worry about or start speaking up about it.
Just a little food for thought, hopefully some of you will add opinions.

[TerryL]

I believe the name changes you are referring to were put in place during Lou Marciani's tenure as executive director (2000-2003).

http://www.travelnewslog.com/organiz...20000815pr.htm

[Sailor]

I am on Twitter (Saltydog806) and the last three tweets I received from USARS had to do with girl’s roller derby. Then I receive the one with the link to the blog about the IOC. (Thank you Terry for giving the entire site to read.) When I send a tweet directly to the UASRS, I never receive a reply. Now they could have all the people that follow them blocked but that just proves my point in my next sentence.

I don't think they give a damn about what we have to say! They have an agenda and they are going to stick to it no matter what. As Artistic (Figure) Skaters, our ship is sinking fast.

[sk82day]

Originally Posted by TerryL

I believe the name changes you are referring to were put in place during Lou Marciani's tenure as executive director (2000-2003).

http://www.travelnewslog.com/organiz...20000815pr.htm

Thanks for that info Terry, doesnt it prove my point though? I will always consider it Artistic skating. I still think though that these moves have differnet reasons for occuring than what we have been told. look at what is occuring in Inline Hockey, USARS is now in partnership with AAU with the Inline hockey, basicly USARS is subbing out the Inline hockey program. Just another way to give up control of a discipline.

[jkaplenk]

I agre that the name Artistic should never have been changed. In fact, as I've been told, ice figure skating is only call this in the U.S. Elsewhere it is called artistic or some variation of that, but not figure. For the public guys doing figure skating leads to certain stereotyped thoughts. I don't think Artistic gives the same impression.

Jane will lead by the power of example and her strong influence. She is still quite involved and everything artistic funnels through her. My experience is that the response from USARS has been tremendously improved with her in that role and this is a great first step.

I think this just brings back the point that if people don't like the situation then they need to take action to make changes. There were recent board openings and I'm sure many of the people in this forum were quite qualified, but some of the postions were quite uncontested. This is where you need to bring about the changes. Talk is good to solildfy your ideas. It's action that gets results though.

Joe

Originally Posted by sk82day

As all who read this forum know I am very outspoken about what is occuring in Roller Sports and the Governing Bodies. What is occuring in Roller Sports is very disheartning, not just in Art but all disciplines. Sailor's thread on USARS and IOC made feel I had to post this.
Lets look at some things that have occured in the past year:

The World Championship floor disaster and really no explantion of why it happened.

Then the USOC says that some restructuring needed done within USARS, but yet members have no clue what they were told to do.

Jane W leaves the Board and takes a job at the National office, does anyone really know what her job is or what she is to do? And I am worried that this was only done to get a person off the Board who would stand up for Artistic skating.(I will explain why I am worried later in this thread.) Will the Board allow her to do anything or will they micromanage any plans that come forth from her, now that shes off the Board can she have the same power?

Is it Artistic Skating, Figure Skating?? I know its supposed to be Figure now but why was this change needed? I mean if your not going to publicise the change to more than just the members of USARS in a little blurb in Board minutes and maybe a couple of sentences on the website, what was the point? This change should have been an opportunity to gain some publicity for the sport, but the change has done nothing more than add to the confusion of when saying figure skating people think ICE, or is that the idea of the change?????

People who have been involved with competitive skating for say the last 25+ years will know what I am talking about here. Years ago the 3 disciplines of skating, speed, artistic and hockey. The speed skaters got along with the hockey players, the speed skaters got along alittle bit with the art skaters, and the art skaters didnt like the hockey players. The Board and others in power at the R or USAC/RS looked upon the hockey discipline as the ugly stepchild, they cared about the speed and art. Over the last 5-10 years suddenly anything with Quad Skates is looking like the ugly step child.(I mean no offense to ugly step children)
Are we seeing the takeover over Roller Sports by Ice happening right in front of our faces?? We see many Ice coaches and members of the Ice federation coming into Roller Sports, and not just on a coaching level we see it in meet directors and committee members. In Speed our Board is fine with having an inline to ice program? Matter of fact the person running it Derek Parra works for the ice fed as DIRECTOR OF INLINE TO ICE PROGRAM.
Now I know Roller Sports wont be completely gone, but if all the inline programs go to ice what will be left? Quad Speed, that has around roughly 200 participants at their Nationals, Hardball Hockey (or Rink Hockey another Quad discipline that is left with no identity after a name change) that has about 13 clubs left in the country and had a whole 13 men show up for 10 spots at a World team tryout a couple of months ago and Artistic Skating that is on the verge of being an open National. People whom are in the business world can see what is occuring, downsizing until there is the excuse that a takeover or buyout is needed. And if this were to occur to me one of the biggest opponents of something like this occuring, Jane W, who is no longer on the Board to fight it is now at the National office and would have exactly zero say so about it.

Now I know we can sit here and say were not worried about what the Board does, but I would hope some of you seriously think about what is occuring and decide should I just sit here and not worry about or start speaking up about it.
Just a little food for thought, hopefully some of you will add opinions.

[sk82day]

Joe just wanted to touch on a couple of things you have stated.

Originally Posted by jkaplenk

Jane will lead by the power of example and her strong influence. She is still quite involved and everything artistic funnels through her. My experience is that the response from USARS has been tremendously improved with her in that role and this is a great first step.

Not saying I dont agree with you on that but I question this, "My experience is that the response from USARS has been tremendously improved with her in that role and this is a great first step." Jane has pretty much had controlled Art for awhile while being on the Board and able to push things through, what I am saying is I dont see how by basicaly doing the same stuff in a different postition has tremendously improved. Before anyone says anything Jane is the right person to fit this role I just dont see how it will really change anything.

Originally Posted by jkaplenk

I think this just brings back the point that if people don't like the situation then they need to take action to make changes. There were recent board openings and I'm sure many of the people in this forum were quite qualified, but some of the postions were quite uncontested. This is where you need to bring about the changes. Talk is good to solildfy your ideas. It's action that gets results though.

For most of us that have been involved with Roller Sports for 20+ years we already know how the election process unfortunatly works in USARS. Many, MANY members lost faith in the USARS election process years ago. Its a situation where very few get to vote because of the criteria to be able to do so. The major problem is eligible voters never receive ballots. In 20+ years I have yet to meet more than 1 or 2 people that have actually received ballots. Then the people running for Board have to pass the Nominating Committee which consists of many people who are already on the Board and in positions where they did not get elected to the Board they are appointed by other members of the Board. So many ask are the low number of eliglible people running for Board spots because no one else applied, or were there others who did not pass the Nominating Committees decision if they want them to be able to run? So basicly most of the eligible people running for Board are selected by the current Board, so in essence the people eligible are ones the the Board wants, not neccesarily who the members want. Am I saying its corrupt? No, but is very seriously FLAWED.

Joe I appreciate your comments and enjoy reading your comments on your thoughts.

[jkaplenk]

Thanks for sharing the experience. I haven't been involved in the USARS process very long and so this is good to know. It is like a lot of organizations whose sole purpose is to perpetuate themselves, not necessarily to the members benefit. Wasn't Thomas Jefferson who said that we need a revolution every so often to shake things up?

I found that in the past I could not get a response to most emails I sent and found it quite frustrating. I do find a much better response now with some intelligent content. This is independent of whatever other issues there might be. If someone wants to get on my bad side just ignore my emails. The least a person can do is acknowledge it was received. This happened much less frequently in the past.

I do notice that at the top also there are several people that remain in the same position for many years or just move around or get to be non-voting members of various committees or may be on several committees. I find this would seem to perpetuate the problems instead of bringing in new blood and new ideas. If anything it stagnates your thinking.

I guess the thing that gets me, besides the lack of ballots being sent, is only elilte athletes get to vote. This is also true on ice, BTW. But the board should represent everyone and you're right there are just a few people that have the right to vote. This probably is what leads to the lack of interest and then gives us what we have now.

Joe

Originally Posted by sk82day

Joe just wanted to touch on a couple of things you have stated.



Not saying I dont agree with you on that but I question this, "My experience is that the response from USARS has been tremendously improved with her in that role and this is a great first step." Jane has pretty much had controlled Art for awhile while being on the Board and able to push things through, what I am saying is I dont see how by basicaly doing the same stuff in a different postition has tremendously improved. Before anyone says anything Jane is the right person to fit this role I just dont see how it will really change anything.



For most of us that have been involved with Roller Sports for 20+ years we already know how the election process unfortunatly works in USARS. Many, MANY members lost faith in the USARS election process years ago. Its a situation where very few get to vote because of the criteria to be able to do so. The major problem is eligible voters never receive ballots. In 20+ years I have yet to meet more than 1 or 2 people that have actually received ballots. Then the people running for Board have to pass the Nominating Committee which consists of many people who are already on the Board and in positions where they did not get elected to the Board they are appointed by other members of the Board. So many ask are the low number of eliglible people running for Board spots because no one else applied, or were there others who did not pass the Nominating Committees decision if they want them to be able to run? So basicly most of the eligible people running for Board are selected by the current Board, so in essence the people eligible are ones the the Board wants, not neccesarily who the members want. Am I saying its corrupt? No, but is very seriously FLAWED.

Joe I appreciate your comments and enjoy reading your comments on your thoughts.

[sk82day]

Originally Posted by sk82day

Are we seeing the takeover over Roller Sports by Ice happening right in front of our faces?? We see many Ice coaches and members of the Ice federation coming into Roller Sports, and not just on a coaching level we see it in meet directors and committee members. In Speed our Board is fine with having an inline to ice program? Matter of fact the person running it Derek Parra works for the ice fed as DIRECTOR OF INLINE TO ICE PROGRAM.
People whom are in the business world can see what is occuring, downsizing until there is the excuse that a takeover or buyout is needed. And if this were to occur to me one of the biggest opponents of something like this occuring, Jane W, who is no longer on the Board to fight it is now at the National office and would have exactly zero say so about it.

Now I know we can sit here and say were not worried about what the Board does, but I would hope some of you seriously think about what is occuring and decide should I just sit here and not worry about or start speaking up about it.
Just a little food for thought, hopefully some of you will add opinions.

I do not like to quote myself but in this situation I feel it was needed. That was an excerpt from my opening statement on this thread. Now I think everyone should read this reguarding USARS and the USOC:

"Roller Sports has been aligned with ice sports because their "synergies" are the same, meaning that they have some of the same basic movements, and share some mental and physical training needs. There is a fear that being included in a Sports Partnership group with Olympic Sports may mean that our own Pan Am Sports will receive less attention and support."

The first 7 words need to be heard again, "Roller Sports has been aligned with ice sports," This was done by the USOC, sorry but screw worrying about the Pan Am games, how long before we see "Ice Sports" controlling more and more. If anyone thinks Roller Sports are going to be able to gain control of Ice you are dreaming. But the way Roller Sports are going to me it is not inconceivable that Ice getting more say as to what Roller Sports get.

I am sure I will add more I just found this statement very interesting and thought some discussion could be jump started.

[TimeKeeper_CYMRU]

Hi All,

As a non-resident I'm not too sure what Added Value, if any, a contribution from the UK would have, or even if such a contribution would be appropriate, to a topic which so clearly concerns your National Governing Body.

However, I wonder if I may be permitted to to intrude on your valuable time.

Originally Posted by sk82day

.. .. .. .. Is it Artistic Skating, Figure Skating?? .. .. .. ..

Looking at the Home Page of the International Governing Body (FIRS) website today, I see that the discipline is being promoted to over a hundred countries across the world as "Artistic". Could your National Governing Body, the USARS are attempting to set a trend?

Tails and wagging dogs, come to mind.

Originally Posted by sk82day

Hardball Hockey (or Rink Hockey another Quad discipline that is left with no identity after a name change)

In this instance I think your NGB may have done right. At international level the discipline is managed by "Comité International de Rink Hockey" It is my understanding that apart from a couple of English speaking countries (GB, AUS, NZ) where "Roller" is used and the USA alone where "Hardball" (was) used, everwhere else "Rink" is used. So it could be commented that the USARS are bringing themselves into alignment with the bulk of the rest of the roller world.

The USARS do not appear (in this instance) to be aligning themselves with Ice Hockey, conversly by the use of the word "Rink" they are (IMHO) clearly defining the difference.

Originally Posted by jkaplenk

.. .. .. .. Elsewhere it is called artistic or some variation of that, but not figure.

Sorry ~ not so here in the UK ~ from looking at the UK's NISA website it is clear that here in the UK "Figure" is used.

As I said above I'm not too sure what, if any, added value this post has, other than to show that posts concerning the administration of the various roller sport disciplines, by your NGB are read outside the USA.

Regards, John,
South West Wales, UK.

[sk82day]

Thanks John for your comment. The part about USARS changing "hardball hockey" to "rink hockey" I totally agree that the change might have been needed, but when a name change is done there needs to be some publicity done with it. If your not going to publicize the change to let people know what the sport even is why even change it to begin with? I also agree that US rink hockey is not aligning themselves with ice because of the change, but with the former name it was not aligned with ice either.

My comments about Roller Sports being aligned with Ice Sports by the USOC is the first move to get anything with inlines to be controlled by the Ice Federation. The Ice hockey Fed has wanted control of Inline Hockey since the sport began, now USARS Board has pushed Inline Hockey toward the AAU for them to control basicly it wont be long until we see that sport faling under the control of Ice Sports instead of Roller Sports. Inline Speed is going the same way. The push for Inline Art is the continuation of this move by Ice to gain control of a majority of Roller Sports disciplines. It wont be long 1-2 years before the only thing left to be controlled by Roller Sports/FIRS are going to be quad skates as all the inline will fall under control of Ice Sports. Heck its already beginning, read what James Pollard Sr said at the Spring 09 USARS Board Meeting, http://www.usars.info/notice/MINUTES...09%20-%20B.pdf
"Pollard, CIPA Presisdent made some observations on our international status, noting that in some countries there has been a problem when ice skating and roller skating have been grouped together by their Olympic committees. ICE STARTS TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE NGB FOR ROLLER"

How long before USARS is left with just Quad events? And while this is going on the USARS Board is doing nothing to try and build up quad roller events.

[Footwork]

I was around for the second coming of roller hockey back in the 1960's, my uncle played simi-Pro roller hockey, on the detroit Roller RED Wings, in Detroit back in the late 1940's..

In the 1960's we played ice hockey style hockey, same sticks, but a much lighter softer puck, to save the rink walls and leave the teeth in the spectators mouths, and our own too. We used heavy regulation Ice Hocley uniforms, and pads and gloves and sticks. And although the then power the RSROA mandated, NO Checking and absolutely NO Fighting, it was certainly a rough game, bloddy noses and blackened eyes.. Then of course we were in what is now known as HockeyTown, Detroit Michigan. Many of the big rinks in town had teams, the Arcadia Wildcats were National champions, I played for the Motor City BullDogs, Pomtiac Rolliadum had a team, and there were a couple of othe rinks involved. I believe it was after the 1964 national championships that the RSROA mde the decision that our triditional style of play was a bit to rough and tunble, for them, and oppted for the sitck and ball game.. Triditional style Roller Hockey was and I beleive is still played in may rinks in the Northern states, if not elsewhere, but now days Ice Hockey is more widely known..

Back in the day we played a tournament in St Louis and when the teams from Detroit showed up, and started lifting the puck and doing slap shots, and crashing the boards in the corners diging the puck out, the other teams and referees went to te rule books, they all thought the puck had to stay on the floor, and that bodily contact was strictly forbidden.. And I won't go into how those other guys wearing soft ball uniforms, no padding and no hockey gloves suffered in the corner scrums for the puck!!!!

Ah History

Originally Posted by TimeKeeper_CYMRU

Hi All,

As a non-resident I'm not too sure what Added Value, if any, a contribution from the UK would have, or even if such a contribution would be appropriate, to a topic which so clearly concerns your National Governing Body.

However, I wonder if I may be permitted to to intrude on your valuable time.

Looking at the Home Page of the International Governing Body (FIRS) website today, I see that the discipline is being promoted to over a hundred countries across the world as "Artistic". Could your National Governing Body, the USARS are attempting to set a trend?

Tails and wagging dogs, come to mind.

In this instance I think your NGB may have done right. At international level the discipline is managed by "Comité International de Rink Hockey" It is my understanding that apart from a couple of English speaking countries (GB, AUS, NZ) where "Roller" is used and the USA alone where "Hardball" (was) used, everwhere else "Rink" is used. So it could be commented that the USARS are bringing themselves into alignment with the bulk of the rest of the roller world.

The USARS do not appear (in this instance) to be aligning themselves with Ice Hockey, conversly by the use of the word "Rink" they are (IMHO) clearly defining the difference.

Sorry ~ not so here in the UK ~ from looking at the UK's NISA website it is clear that here in the UK "Figure" is used.

As I said above I'm not too sure what, if any, added value this post has, other than to show that posts concerning the administration of the various roller sport disciplines, by your NGB are read outside the USA.

Regards, John,
South West Wales, UK.

[Sailor]

Originally Posted by Footwork

I was around for the second coming of roller hockey back in the 1960's, my uncle played simi-Pro roller hockey, on the detroit Roller RED Wings, in Detroit back in the late 1940's..

In the 1960's we played ice hockey style hockey, same sticks, but a much lighter softer puck, to save the rink walls and leave the teeth in the spectators mouths, and our own too. We used heavy regulation Ice Hocley uniforms, and pads and gloves and sticks. And although the then power the RSROA mandated, NO Checking and absolutely NO Fighting, it was certainly a rough game, bloddy noses and blackened eyes.. Then of course we were in what is now known as HockeyTown, Detroit Michigan. Many of the big rinks in town had teams, the Arcadia Wildcats were National champions, I played for the Motor City BullDogs, Pomtiac Rolliadum had a team, and there were a couple of othe rinks involved. I believe it was after the 1964 national championships that the RSROA mde the decision that our triditional style of play was a bit to rough and tunble, for them, and oppted for the sitck and ball game.. Triditional style Roller Hockey was and I beleive is still played in may rinks in the Northern states, if not elsewhere, but now days Ice Hockey is more widely known..

Back in the day we played a tournament in St Louis and when the teams from Detroit showed up, and started lifting the puck and doing slap shots, and crashing the boards in the corners diging the puck out, the other teams and referees went to te rule books, they all thought the puck had to stay on the floor, and that bodily contact was strictly forbidden.. And I won't go into how those other guys wearing soft ball uniforms, no padding and no hockey gloves suffered in the corner scrums for the puck!!!!

Ah History

The lighter and softer puck you mentioned was made out of layers of the covers of the old “float” drinks. These were flat with a little tab and the cover fit into a groove in the container. We would trim off the tab and put many of these together to make up the thickness of a puck (around ½ inch) and then drill a hole in the center and hold them together with a ¼-20 threaded bolt. Light, soft and flew like hell.

[Footwork]

The ones we used had leather disks, that were about a 1/2 inch smaller the the plastic soft drink lids.. The big issue was the screw that held it all together.. All the sharp edges had to be softened.. And even then the puck still caused damage.. That was back in the days before goalies wore masks!! I played goal in ice hochey back in those days and I never wore a mask either.. Any way our goalie took a shot to the eye from the "Softer" roller hockey pucks, off a slap shot. The goalie was a former Golden gloves fighter, tough as nails. He iced his eye up and went back out to play, getting back on the horse that threw you, so to speak.. He made the guy that hit him shoot some shots at him again, and GOT another to the same eye.. :-( We ended up having to find another goalie :-O

But you are right those pucks really flew, you had to ark you shots on goal :-)

Originally Posted by Sailor

The lighter and softer puck you mentioned was made out of layers of the covers of the old “float” drinks. These were flat with a little tab and the cover fit into a groove in the container. We would trim off the tab and put many of these together to make up the thickness of a puck (around ½ inch) and then drill a hole in the center and hold them together with a ¼-20 threaded bolt. Light, soft and flew like hell.

[jkaplenk]

Even the ice figure skating folks are not happy under the ISU, the ice world governing body. The ISU controls both speed and figure skating on ice and has an interest in ice hockey. Their governing folks have their own political interests and they don't necessarily coincide with with the NGBs.

In a recent Professional Skaters Magazine, the ice coaches magazine, there was a quite extensive editorial from the President of the PSA as to why ice figure skating should break away from the ISU. This was quite a bold statement to me. There was also the attempt by several prominent ice skaters, coaches and officials to form the World Skating Federation several years ago and get USFSA to join and pull out of ISU. That effort failed because it didn't gain enough support, or perhaps enough courageous people, and resulted in lifetime sanctions for many of those involved by the ISU.

But I also think that inline artistic skating has not fared well under the current FIRS structure and every year the number of competitors has descreased along with the number of events. On the other hand non-FIRS based events are growing in numbers. In slalom the WSSA is much more intune with the skaters in my opinion than FIRS/CIPA. So skaters and coaches are developing their own structures. I think the reality is that when you have an organization going in many different directions some groups and interest get shortchanged.

It appears from the Board minutes that USARS is looking at a deeper relationship with AAU. This would mean a major change in how the sports is governed based on the AAU way of running sports unless USARS works out an exception.

I really don't see ice taking over roller sports in general as the ice folks don't have an interest in quads. Actually several times in history roller and ice were under the same organization only to break up to separate sports.

But if USARS is to attract skaters and hold their ground on inlines they need to make it convenient for the skaters to stay in the organization and encourage growth. They struggle with this on quads, which is their primary interest. But I think the ice organization is not a good answer either with their current format and may never be good for inlines. If it were to happen the end product could just be a dedicated organization.

A good example is the annual national bike race in Downers Grove, Illinois, I think it is called the Criterium. It used to include inline speed when it was under IISA (International Inline Skating Association), which folded around 2005. It used to be well attended. but when IISA folded the sanctions were provided by USARS but didn't have strong national support and a strong organzation behind it and it withered away very quickly.

It's also true that in some rinks and various parts of the world some rinks don't allow inline skating, in particular artisitic skating, and so the skaters and coaches are looking at alternatives. If inline skaters are forced to skate in gyms and outdoors then FIRS/CIPA/USARS becomes irrelevant and it opens other doors for involvement of other groups.


Joe Kaplenk

Originally Posted by sk82day

My comments about Roller Sports being aligned with Ice Sports by the USOC is the first move to get anything with inlines to be controlled by the Ice Federation. The Ice hockey Fed has wanted control of Inline Hockey since the sport began, now USARS Board has pushed Inline Hockey toward the AAU for them to control basicly it wont be long until we see that sport faling under the control of Ice Sports instead of Roller Sports. Inline Speed is going the same way. The push for Inline Art is the continuation of this move by Ice to gain control of a majority of Roller Sports disciplines. It wont be long 1-2 years before the only thing left to be controlled by Roller Sports/FIRS are going to be quad skates as all the inline will fall under control of Ice Sports. Heck its already beginning, read what James Pollard Sr said at the Spring 09 USARS Board Meeting, http://www.usars.info/notice/MINUTES...09%20-%20B.pdf
"Pollard, CIPA Presisdent made some observations on our international status, noting that in some countries there has been a problem when ice skating and roller skating have been grouped together by their Olympic committees. ICE STARTS TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE NGB FOR ROLLER"

How long before USARS is left with just Quad events? And while this is going on the USARS Board is doing nothing to try and build up quad roller events.

[pastskater]

I am off on the side asking about another issue that is getting to me.

When I see many of the skaters, and the size of the routines, or patterns with their skating...I notice at times their unable to adapt to the change of the floor(s) size. Is this often a problem?

What is the situation with the practice for the skaters with regards to their regionals and nationals; I mean do they, or are they able to get a full spectrum with their patterns and routines with the floor(s) sizes used in such meetings and competitions? It seems to me that most are able to practice outside of the competition floors, but are they the same size? How do you expand or retract your routines for the size difference?

[starturtle]

Originally Posted by pastskater

How do you expand or retract your routines for the size difference?

Speaking as an old freestyle skater, for larger floors we were always told to skate wall to wall and if we were going to skate a competition on a smaller floor our coach would put out cones to make our floor smaller.

[Poobah]

As a non-skating official, I'm not terribly up on everything USARS does. I do know that they added a roller derby seat to the board a year or two ago. A wise move given how many of their members are/were derby skaters. That's another solidly quad discipline. Roller derby only allows referees to skate on inlines.

WFTDA, the single largest national association of derby leagues by and large left USARS about nine months ago, apparently to go their own way insurance-wise. I don't really see that as a major problem for USARS, though they probably lost a few thousand members as a result. The sport continues to grow rapidly, and as such so does USARS membership.

On the downside, as more experienced leagues join WFTDA, get their coverage and drop USARS membership (though sometimes getting "day passes" to bout USARS league hosts) that could mean a greater concentration of high-claims leagues and do ugly things to the membership fees and medical claim deductibles.

By and large roller derby leagues just see USARS as a source of event liability coverage. As I'm sure you know, the accidental insurance coverage it offers members is a bit less than ideal. The discounts it offers members do come in handy, I suppose.

It's my vague understanding that USARS didn't know for a few years that roller derby was being skated on flat tracks and banked tracks, nor that there was any difference between the two. They were a bit slow on the uptake to the idea of men's roller derby. Recently they started sanctioning youth leagues. As far as I know, they don't yet sanction co-ed derby events (men and women's squads skating alternate periods or jams, not skating competitively against one another). I should suppose that each "new" wrinkle they discover means something else to sell to their insurance provider.

I understand they offer a bit of coverage to derby in their magazine and at some point are planning to put on tournaments for member roller derby leagues. The latter will be a good development for USARS. Some more hands-on experience with roller derby, and an additional incentive for leagues to get and retain membership with USARS.

[Footwork]

Zactly only I skated at a smaller rink, and our issue besides adapting to a larger floor was getting enough push to cover the larger floor, and building the stamina to do it for the whole judging period!! For dance my partner and I would regularly skate at what at the time was the largest rink in the area, Riverside Arena in Livonia, Michigan. Which was a hike from our home rink, Motorcity, in Warren, Michigan. We skated both practice and regular sessions, but back then most rinks ran dance specials with their sessions.. For freestyle and pairs we never got to skate our routines on the larger floors until w went to the meets, but it never seemed to be much of a problem with freestyle. Opening up a dance pattern and getting the stamina, and enough push to cover the floor in dance was always the bigger issue for us???

Originally Posted by starturtle

Speaking as an old freestyle skater, for larger floors we were always told to skate wall to wall and if we were going to skate a competition on a smaller floor our coach would put out cones to make our floor smaller.