The Happy Sweat Life

Skating Through the Ages: A Lifelong Journey in Figure Skating with Esther Horwich

• Lisa Rung • Episode 13

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Episode 13:  Join me for an inspiring episode as we hit the ice with Esther Horwich, an enthusiastic figure skater who embarked on her journey at a young age.  Esther's story is a testament to the enduring power of dedication and love for a sport that has been a part of her life for over fifty years.

From her beginnings to founding the MIT Figure Skating Club and beyond, she's continued to adapt and find joy in the sport, all while offering valuable advice for beginners who may be taking their first steps onto the ice.

Through Esther's experiences, we'll explore how figures skating can be a lifelong source of community and enjoyment.  Her story is an inspiring reminder that with dedication and passion, anyone can embark on a lifelong journey of skating and find  joy on the ice, no matter where they start.

Links:
Cookes Skate Shop
Home Ice (I said Ice House but Home Ice is the correct name)

Sharpenings Must Know
Help Me I'm New
Fitting Skates

MIT FSC  (if you are a MIT student, alumni, staff or faculty)

Contact me at happysweatlife@gmail.com for questions, suggestions, or to be put on the email list and be notified of new episodes.

Find my World Groove movement zoom class on Thursdays, under my name, at: https://theworldgroovemovement.com/virtual-search/

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Lisa:

Welcome to the Happy Sweat Life podcast. My name is Lisa Rung, and today I'm very excited to be speaking with Esther Horwich, who has done skating through most of her life. She actually founded the MIT Figure Skating Club. And she lives in the Boston area and we skated together back when I lived in Boston. So it's been nice to see Esther again and connect with her. But Esther, I'm going to ask you first, just how did you start skating?

Esther:

Well, when I was a kid, my parents took me to a skating rink. I immediately fell in love with it. I wasn't particularly talented at it but it was an enjoyable thing to do. It was outdoors in those days. And I love feeling the wind in my face and even indoors you can still feel have that feeling if you skate fast enough

Lisa:

So how long have you been skating how many

Esther:

years oh my goodness she about I would say about 50 or more. Wow. It's been a long time.

Lisa:

And I know there are different styles of skating. What, what styles have you

Esther:

done? Well, the only one I've done really is figure skating with some rollerblading tossed in. There are multiple areas of interest in terms of skating. They now have adaptive skating if you are disabled. Yeah, they have like hockey sleds that you can even play hockey in. It's, it's, it's impressive what they have. They have figure skating for those people who are interested in spinning or jumping. Or just skating around in circles, that works fine too. And the same is with hockey skating and you have the option of playing hockey if you like that as well. There's speed skating, but it's much harder to find rinks that, are available to speed skaters in this area I think they're more in the Midwest, and there's, again, rollerblading for when it's, you just can't make it to an ice rink, and roller skating, which is four wheels versus the straight line of Rollerblades.

Lisa:

Oh, yeah. Thanks. I I wasn't thinking actually about all of those different Types of what you would call skating. I was thinking more of the ice dancing and stuff, but that's so helpful to hear You know all those kinds of options. I hadn't thought about so thank you for

Esther:

Well in figure skating you do have a lot of options because you can either just skate around and socialize and talk to people and Just get some good aerobic exercise or just socializing. Or you can do ice dancing, which are patterns in ice. You can do freestyle skating which is jumping and spinning. So there's a lot you can do with, with a pair of skates. This is really important though, if you do decide to start, or even if you're involved more, that your skates fit you well. Because a lot of people, when they start, say, Oh, my ankles, it's just so hard. My feet hurt. And when you're just starting skating, your feet are not used to being in a, in a rigid boot. And so, It's not uncommon for you to have a little soreness under your arch, but that goes away. If your ankles are hurting, it means that there's something rubbing or you don't, if your ankles are tired, you don't have the support in your boot. It's like, it's a very cheap rental or something. So it's really important that you don't give up and if you're starting out and you just try skating with, with the appropriate equipment. You wouldn't drive a car with no brakes. You really shouldn't skate with bad skates.

Lisa:

How would somebody know if they were bad skates?

Esther:

Well, you want to have, the support comes from the boot, not from your ankle. I mean, no one can balance over a tiny little blade. you have to have that extra support of your boot. And so if the boot does not feel supportive, in other words, if you can take the top of it, hold it in your hands and twist it around, that's not a good boot. It's not supportive. And you want to usually wear thin socks because you want the support to come from your boot and you don't want anything sliding around. If you start to blister, before you blister, put a band aid on or use sleeves called bunga pads. And those will keep you from hurting. So there are things that you can do While you're breaking in your skates getting them getting used to them that will avoid hurt also don't buy skates over the internet If you do they may not fit they're hard to return It it's worth it to pay the extra money to go to a skate shop Have them fit you make sure that these stuff fits because if it hurts you're not going to do it, right?

Lisa:

Right, that's so true Yeah, I'm thinking too, like a various ice skating rinks and the skates they have there where maybe the blades are dull.

Esther:

Yeah, if you're sliding all over the place, a lot of rinks don't take care of their equipment. And so usually they buy new stuff at the beginning of the season. So you get a better chance of having decent skates at the beginning of the season. And they don't always sharpen their blades. And you may say, well, I don't want to skate with sharp blades that might hurt. But no, the sharp blades are what. Catch the ice and keep your feet from sliding out from under you. Sideways at least. And while you're learning, you want to have the right equipment. You don't have to have the equipment that the Olympic skaters use. In fact, you don't want that because that's too stiff, but you need something that gives you the support so that you can enjoy the sport.

Lisa:

And where would somebody go to find some good skates?

Esther:

Well, the best place is a skate shop or A skating rink can often recommend where to buy skates. It depends upon where you live. There are not that many skate shops even in the bigger cities. But you want to ask your rink, where should I buy skates? Who is knowledgeable? Who, who can help me through this? And then beginner skates, you should plan to spend about 150 on a good pair of skates. And you may say, well, I can find skates for 40. And you can find things that look like for 40, but if you want a decent pair of skates, I mean, look what you pay for shoes these days. I mean, this is a boot, this is a boot. It has a blade. You really can't do anything for less than 150 that's going to. support your feet.

Lisa:

That's true. I hadn't thought about the comparison to the, like the shoe prices, you know, it feels like it's expensive, but

Esther:

these days, you know, you go, you go and if you want a good running shoe, you're paying 130 for, for a shoe. And it's like, well, this is, this is a boot. And I used to say it's a leather boot, but these days they're made out of various composite materials, but you do have a blade on it. You do have metal, you know, it's a lot more workmanship. Than your typical shoe. So just be prepared to spend what you need to get what you need.

Lisa:

Right. And the other thing I was thinking about is just that there are so many different manufacturers of boots that might fit you all a little bit

Esther:

differently. Yeah. The last are different, you know, different feet shape take different. Type boots and there's a, a boot shop called Home Ice and if you look them up, they're in Norwood, Massachusetts, and they have a nice article on different boots for different shaped feet. And if, if you look them up, you get an idea of what there is. available. And that person can really fit skates, but again, you have to be there. So if you're in the Boston area, that's, that's one place to go. Cookes is another place to go. But if you're not in the Boston area, then you need to talk to your skating rink professional. And again, if you're a hockey player, I would talk to. I wouldn't just call up the guy who's sitting at the desk for, for information, but you want to talk to, you know, ask for someone who's a coach either hockey or figure skating and say, well, where should I get boots? They'll know.

Lisa:

Oh, that's a great advice. Yeah. Perfect. I'm, I'm kind of curious this going back to when we did your introduction, how did you end up founding the figure skating club?

Esther:

Well, when I got into MIT, they didn't have a figure skating club. They didn't have figure skating time. They didn't have anything but general time. And I thought, wouldn't it be nice to have a time where we weren't bumping into people trying to practice things because it's better for the figure skaters and better for the general skaters. And in those days, MIT was purely a hockey rank, and it was predominantly male dominated, which was very unusual. Well, not, I guess, not for hockey in those days. Nowadays, hockey is very co ed, but in those days it was almost... Exclusively men. And in order to get time, there was no internet. They, the coaches didn't have phones. You'd have to walk through the men's locker room to talk to the person in charge of assigning time. It was, it was really a very, you know, thinking where we are now versus then it was quite a difference. But they gave us time. But the only time they would give us was when people didn't want. And that was... Saturday morning, because everyone was, took Friday night off and had a good time and, and they gave us Sunday morning for the same reason. And also in those days, people were a lot more church going and were less likely to skate on a Sunday morning. So we had these awful times. And my job was to, we had four members originally, and my job was to wake them up in the morning and say, you have to come skating no matter how tired you are, because I don't want to lose the ice. They were very, very good about it. And later we built it up. And now our club's about 90 people. That's amazing. They all don't come at the same time, but we have multiple days, again, morning times. But we have seven days a week now and it's, it's a big club. And when that shuts down, when the season's over I like to go to the local rinks and I'm an adult and having graduated many, many, many years ago. And it's nice to see all the adults there. There are there are of course children who enjoy it, but in the summer they, they seem to be less interested. And You get adults that like to just skate for aerobics, adults that just like to socialize, adults that are working on various tricks at various levels. Like, there are some adults that are in their upper 80s, and they, you know, they've lost a lot of what they had, but they're still enjoying being out on the ice. It's just a wonderful feeling just to be out to exercise, to get a little fresh, well, I'd say fresh air, but it depends upon what rink you're in. But it's nice when it's 90 degrees outside to come into air conditioning and be able to exercise and Not be covered in sweat when you're done. I

Lisa:

love all the variety of ways that you can do skating. So, you know, depending on how serious you are about it or not serious about it. Yeah, that's great. whether you want a social aspect or you want to really seriously pursue, you know, mastering your, your

Esther:

skills. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's one, it's a wonderful social thing. Ice dancing is a little esoteric but I find there are a lot more women interested in it than men. And I always say to myself, if you were a guy and wanted to meet women, that's the best way to do it is to take up ice dancing. But there are a lot of guys who love figure skating. Of any persuasion and it's just, it's just a nice, nice mix of people.

Lisa:

So for you personally, what have been the benefits of skating and why have you stayed with it for so long?

Esther:

I like, I like the feeling of it. I like, I, I'm not a big exercise fan and this is a way to exercise without feeling like I'm exercising. I mean, to me, it's, it's, it's a lot of fun. There's some people that enjoy, my husband enjoys running and he can run forever and I'm so bored. But I can ice skate, which is essentially going around in circles doing the exact same thing that he's doing. But it's a lot, to me it's a lot more enjoyable. I could not tell you why because at least he gets to see scenery. But, but, I find that, you know, just getting, I like to do a little exercise, a little socializing, a little working on new tricks. Or trying to regain old tricks, whatever, whatever there is. But. That's what I enjoy doing. And so, you know, it, it provides entertainment to me, as well as to a lot of other people who enjoy skating for various different reasons.

Lisa:

And I know the club has had an annual show. Are you still participating in that?

Esther:

Well, I did a number, it was supposed to be pre COVID, but COVID shut us down. It was when we did it to When I'm 64, where we got all the older club members. To skate out with canes and it was a, obviously a comedy routine, but it was amazing that people could, you know, 64 plus, I mean, we had some 70 year olds in there and they're still skating and it was lovely to see. And our younger members kind of got a kick out of seeing the older folks participating on the ice. I still do a lot of ice dance. I don't do solo routines anymore but I'm thinking if I ever do a comedy one, I choreographed comedy routines. And just encourage people to get out there. We have a lot of first timers who've never skated in a show. We have people from countries that don't have ice rinks, who are out there just to, you know, they think it's just a unique thing to do. So they're out there having a great time. No one really cares. It's just, it's very, very social. That's wonderful.

Lisa:

What do you find is the most challenging part of the skating?

Esther:

It used to be the morning hours. But I think for me getting older, I, you, you lose muscle mass. And so things that were easier to do when I was much younger are much harder, but that's okay. I mean, you can age gracefully skating. You know, as long as you have the basics, you can, there's still something to enjoy. There is a, an 80 year old skater who could use, used to be able to, to spin, to jump, to do amazing things. And she can't really do that anymore. She's in her upper eighties. So what she does now is she skates around. She finds the little hockey circles on the rinks and does little two foot spins in them and make sure that before the session's over, she's done a spin in every little circle. And she enjoys that. I've seen skaters who just like to practice figure eights on the ice. To them, that is, tracing over their tracing is amazing fun. I don't see it personally, but I can certainly see them enjoying it, and that's all that matters.

Lisa:

Right, absolutely.

Esther:

There's so much you can do, you don't have to be constrained by, I mean, it's not like running where you have to be the fastest, or you have to, you know, if you're content finishing, then that's a great run. You know, in skating it's the same way, you can just be content to be there. And you're, you're out of the house. You're not in front of the computer, you're not, you know, doing the laundry. You're just having a good time in a nice, comfortably cool or freezing environment and and, and enjoying yourself with friends.

Lisa:

Yeah, that, that's such an important point about like, not being in front of your computer or on your phone, like really having that time when you're just with yourself, with other people

Esther:

enjoying sport. Obviously, Lisa, you enjoy exercising. it's always been a part of you and it's you know, it's nice to see you're sharing that joy with others. Oh, thank

Lisa:

you. I was gonna ask you I know we talked about the skates, but any other advice for somebody who's you know, maybe interested in trying it

Esther:

out? Yeah skating can fit your personality. There are some people who enjoy. the thrill of careening around the rink. But there are others and I've become one of them. And I used to, I used to be a, I will throw myself into any sort of jump. I don't care. You know, I will land any splat, you know, it doesn't matter. I've become more cautious as I've gotten older. And so I found that skating can accommodate me. I skate within my abilities and my means and I don't push myself to the way I used to. So if something is if I'm feeling kind of unenergetic, I'll skate around, just skate around the rink a little bit. And usually that perks me right up. If I'm not feeling particularly balanced one day maybe I won't try tricks that require balance. I see a lot of adult beginner skaters and they hang onto the boards for a long period of time. And that's perfectly fine because until you get the confidence, until you train your body, where your balance point is. It's a lot more comfortable and therefore enjoyable to hang on the sides of the rink where you can hold on if you get a little off balance. So I find in skating, you can, make it accommodate you. rather than having to accommodate it. It's like when you're running races, they have divisions that are, the fastest, but they also have a lot, many of the local races have divisions for, you know, 40 to 50, 50 to 60 year olds. And so those people can, you know, enjoy, they don't say, I have to be the fastest in order to enjoy it. I can, be the, you know, I've run as fast as I can in my age group and see how I'm doing. And they can also run because they just enjoy being outside and being with a group of people. And the same is true with skating. You can do what you want in it and not be constrained to do everything.

Lisa:

that's great.

Esther:

But again, I'm speaking towards figure skating, hockey. You, if you're a team sport, you better be up at team level. I think the same is with synchronized skating. That's a, that's where, you know, 15 to 30 men and women will try to match each other. So you bet you have to be at the same level. But if you're, if you're just in general skating, you don't have to do that. Right.

Lisa:

Right. I was sort of thinking too about the running versus skating. You definitely can go a little faster with skating.

Esther:

Yes, you can. So learning to stop is always an important thing. In terms of the impact on your body, you have less. thudding normally, but you have more twisting. So you know, your body type may prefer one versus the other. Because every sport has its strengths and weaknesses and, pressure points. And for skating, you end up using your knees a lot. it's a low impact sport, which is well, assuming you don't fall which happens, but Most people, you know, it's, you're not falling from a huge height. And usually it's a controlled fall. You feel yourself going down and you can like try to land on the most padded part of you. But, but it, it generally is a low impact sport. So I enjoy that because that, you know, if I were running, my knees would say no way. Whereas skating, yes, it's twisting, but I can, I can do it without. As much impact.

Lisa:

Do you do any, or would you recommend any off ice exercises or training?

Esther:

A lot of people do it. If, if you're a competitive skater, you have to do it. Mm-hmm. you have to build your upper body because when you come in for jumps, when you pull in, you need the strength, you need the speed. And the same is true with a lot of the, the spins. You need lower body strength. So when I was skating a lot, when I was doing a lot more tricks, I would often do legs, strengthening exercises, stretching exercises. I didn't really need aerobic exercises cause I was getting that during skating. And I did some upper body exercises the stretching primarily, because you do need, to do good figure skating, you need a lot of flexibility. If you're just social figure skating, no, you don't. So it depends what level you are. I, I don't think cross training ever hurts. So you know, I've never enjoyed exercising for exercising sake. Whereas a lot of people do enjoy it, they do like the, the feel of it, and I've always admired, my husband's one of them, and I've always admired him for that, because he stays in great shape without effort. I mean, to him, it's, it's his life. he is exercise. Whereas for me, it's like, I love skating, but doing anything else, no. Well,

Lisa:

skating is wonderful, and it's great that you've kept it up and are still doing it.

Esther:

Yeah, no, it's, it's a lot of fun and you can do it at all ages. And I, there, I know a number of adults that have started it as adults cause they, they did it maybe once or twice as a kid and they never had the opportunity to, to, to really do it. And now as adults, they are trained doing it and it takes longer to learn as an adult for most people. It's, it's not. It doesn't come as naturally as it does for kids, but that's okay. There's no, there's no time clock. There's no rush. You learn at your own pace and that way you enjoy it. If you set artificial goals for yourself you can lose the joy of it. But as long as you say, I, I come, I'm going to practice, I'm going to try to be better and maybe I'll have a bad day among the others, but most of my days are going to be good days. And I'll have a good time, then you can't help but enjoy.

Lisa:

that's great advice. I was going to ask you too about the teaching. So you, you're still teaching,

Esther:

right? Yeah, I volunteer teach. I never wanted to get paid for, for teaching because to me that might take the fun out of it. I might feel obliged to take students I don't like. And when you're choosing a teacher, you want to, you can either take group lessons or private lessons for skating, or you can do what some people at the rink do is they just skate around and say, how do you do that? And ask people. or they watch and they try to pick it up. I recommend lessons. Now group lessons are wonderful introduction, but your teacher does not have the opportunity to individually critique you and can't always say, okay, you need to be more on this foot than that foot. In other words, they don't have to, they have to teach the tricks. and not the form as much. And so if you can afford it, I always suggest taking private lessons and you want to find a teacher that works. Cause there are a lot of people that know how to skate, but might not be the best teachers or might not be the best teachers for you. Learning should be fun. It shouldn't be a chore. You want a teacher that encourages rather than demeans. Most teachers are aware of that. That, you know, they need to encourage rather than say, you're doing this wrong, you're doing this wrong, you're doing this wrong. You know, it's like, oh, there's an improvement. You want to look for the positive. And if you're taking lessons and they're not fun, then it's time to switch teachers. But if you're, you know, usually most, most of the skating teachers I know are pretty decent. And they enjoy it and their students enjoy it, because they couldn't, they couldn't survive as teachers if they were terrible. Right. Yeah, I mean, it's not like this is a union job and we have to fill up. There are a lot of people that know how to skate. And all of them could be teachers except for the fact that maybe they're not good, they, they wouldn't work out well with someone or they, they don't want to. So it's a limited market for teachers. So most of the people that teach are decent. And how to find a teacher, you just go to a local rink, look around, see who's teaching, and then go up to them and say, hey, do you teach? Now, the cost of lessons it can vary. it's usually anywhere from, you know, group lessons are 15 to 25 a half hour. Private lessons are anywhere from about, 20 to about$50 a half hour. And with a group lesson, it usually includes practice time as well. So it's not just the lesson, it you get to practice includes the practice ice, whereas private lessons don't. So, you know, finances can be a, an issue, but I was just talking with a woman who was so excited because she's learned to skate on pond ice. She skates at a rink. And she was signing up for the first time for group lessons, and she was just terrifically excited. So people were finally going to tell her the right way to do things. And, and she was very happy. So I'll find out in a few weeks how the group lessons went. Oh, yeah,

Lisa:

that'll be interesting.

Esther:

But, you know, they're available of all age. I mean, you can no matter how good you are, it never hurts to have another set of eyes looking at you and saying, Hmm. I bet if you do this, this particular move will be easier or, you know, less difficult. So, so I, I usually recommend lessons. I recommend that you don't take them when you first start the ice. It's not like skiing where they try to put you in a lesson initially so you don't kill yourself. In skating, you want to, your body needs time to adjust to balance because when you're walking, your center of gravity is generally in the middle of you and it kind of shifts side to side as you walk. In skating, it has to be over the leg that's on the ice, because if it's not over the leg that's on the ice, you're going to go tilting one way or the other. So, I always say, you know, go a couple of times before you even think about taking a lesson, because you want your body to get used to the different balance point.

Lisa:

Oh, that's great, I hadn't thought about it that way, but, That's really interesting. Yeah, I know I got started at the Boston Figure Skating Club doing group lessons.

Esther:

Oh, great! And you became quite a skater.

Lisa:

I did okay, but it was, but it was very enjoyable, just, you know, challenging myself and trying to improve and...

Esther:

And I remember you put dance moves into the skating, so it wasn't just, you know, doing skating, skate, skate, skate, do a jump, skate, skate, skate, do a spin. You actually choreographed, you danced to the music, and that was lovely to watch.

Lisa:

Oh, thanks. Yeah, I had some Good coaches that were good choreographers too, you

Esther:

know, that could help you with that. Yeah, definitely. You know, some people, they have adult competitions now and adult tests. And in addition to all the kid tests that they have, so for figure skating. So it's not uncommon for people to, I mean, I know people that have competed nationally as adults and, you know, it's not the same level you see in the Olympics. But they're having a fun time and it's, it's a lot more social. They just want a chance to, to show what they can do.

Lisa:

And it seems like a very supportive community.

Esther:

The adult figure skating community is very, very, very supportive. I think the competitive skating community is less so. But, but I mean, the younger, the kids, because it's only one person can be first and that's their goal in life at that age, whereas an adult has other things going for the adult and skating is just a fun, fun thing. So there's a lot less pressure and also adults realize that judges, it's subjective, so you can do a great job, but it might not impress someone. But as long as you're happy with it, really, that's all that matters. Yeah, that's may not understand that.

Lisa:

Mm hmm. Yeah, definitely. So any final words, anything else you would say to somebody that's thinking about trying figure skating in any of its forms?

Esther:

I've always loved it and you know, it's, it's a great way to meet people. It's a great way to have fun. It's, it's good exercise. And it's something to do in the summer to impress your friends. You may have gone to the beach, but I went ice skating. Thank you for the opportunity of speaking with you.

Lisa:

Oh my gosh, Esther. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. I really appreciate it.