Figure Skating for Boys
Performing on ice an alternative winter sport for guys
The excitement of figure skating is lost on most boys. But for those who take up the challenge, there is athletic opportunity, unrivelled competition and...girls.
Thirty girls and one boy. Ben Tobali likes the odds. But that’s not why figure skating is his sport of choice.
In fact, tweny year old Ben Tobali would like it if more boys would give skates with “picks” a whirl.
“If I could I’d tell them to just go for it. Don’t listen to what anyone else has to say, like your friends, just try it for a few years and see how you like it. Once you’ve been in it for a while you’ll never go back.”
He means go back to hockey. But he doesn’t say it because he doesn’t have anything against Canada’s favourite team sport. For many years he was both a hockey player and a figure skater. But in the end, the University of Ottawa student says, the excitement of figure skating won him over.
The technical aspects of jumping, the science behind spinning, and the uncertainty of blade against ice were challenges he just couldn’t resist.
“Figure skating changed me as a person,” says Tobali who claims he was once a shy performer. “It definitely taught me how to lose graciously. And to be more comfortable with myself and what I did. Performing in front of bigger and bigger audiences helped me with my self esteem.”
Patrick Sachsalber understands.
The moment the eleven year old steps out onto the ice it’s as if he is flying. A combination of speed, confidence and fearlessness propel him through his stroking exercises and into an intricate footwork sequence.
“All my friends play hockey,” he says. “They use to care that I figure skate but they don’t any more.”
“Just don’t ask me about dancing,” he says. “I hate dancing.”
Skating at the Juvenile level, Sachsalber’s competitive figure skating career has only just begun, while Tobali’s has transitioned into a lucrative job as a skating coach and dance partner.
Both young athletes expound the rewards of the sport.
“I like being able to do my own thing on the ice, to play around and to practice,” says Sachsalber, a Goulbourn Skating Club member. “And it’s good to have a coach to work with me.”
Figure skating is one of the few sports that combines athletics with artistry. It is a sport where individuals rely on intense training to gain the conditioning and finesse necessary to succeed within a complicated judging process.
Tobali says he has learned to accept the subjective judging process as part of the sport. “You can’t control what the judges do and they make mistakes, I guess, sometimes. You just have to accept whatever decision they make and move on from there.”
Skaters are judged on their basic skating skills, their technical skills and their presentations skills.
Whether a skater chooses the less competitive recreational route or the road that leads to the nationals and, ideally, the Olympic games, there is no denying that they are both athletes and performers.
Originality, expression, style, carriage, speed and use of the ice surface all factor in to a good performance.
If they choose to train with a partner in dance or pairs the specific requirements increase.
Depending on their level of commitment and motivation some skater’s top up their on-ice practice with dance or gymnastics lessons. Others prefer to cross train with weights or by playing a team sport such as soccer. Patrick is an avid mountain biker.
Unlike most other amateur athletes figure skaters learn the complexities of their sport from paid coaches. While clubs are run by volunteers, figure skating instruction is provided by certified professionals in one-on-one or small group sessions. They are paid directly by the parents.
For Tobali the transition from hockey to recreational and then competitive figure skating was a natural one. His mother Janet and his aunt, Margie Hill-Carty, are both professional skating coaches at his club.
“I had to be grounded,” he chuckles. “My mom grounded me.”
Today he has a large number of his own students and says he enjoys working with kids. But among the several hundred members of his club there is not one male figure skater. Still, he speaks about how difficult the decision was to stop competing. “I never actually planned on quitting. I always wanted to go to the Nationals and I always came really close. But with all the expenses piling up and university and working it just seemed like the time to move on.”
Both Sachsalber and Tobali are confident that if more boys had the opportunity they would feel what they feel when they lace up their figure skates and step onto the ice.
Excitement.
