How to Become a Professional Figure Skater

     So you want to become a professional skater, eh? Figure skating is all about glitter, glamour, blood, sweat, and tears. First of all, you’ll need lots of money to pay all the club fees, icetime fees, testing fees and coaching fees necessary for your training. I suggest that you win the lottery or inherit a large amount of money from a long-forgotten rich great-uncle. If that doesn’t work, you could rob a bank. Second, gain charisma. It is essential to becoming a professional skater – charisma will make you a better skater and eventually famous and popular as well.
     Now you are ready to start skating! Find a really good coach who will make you work hard and push you to succeed, then practice, practice, practice! If you want to be a professional, you’ll need to practice almost every day. Start out by doing both freeskate and dance. Eventually you and your coach can figure out which discipline you’re most likely to succeed in. You can continue in freeskate if you think you’ve got what it takes to land triple and quadrupal jumps, master tricky spins, and perform intricate footwork. If you decide to go into dance, you will need to be able to perform beautiful, elaborate dances with your partner, interpreting the music and doing lifts, spins, and twizzles together. There is also the discipline of pairs, which has throw jumps, overhead lifts, and scary deathspirals. It isn’t for the faint hearted. Choose wisely!
     Now you’re practicing every day and training hard. Good job! Soon you’ll be getting better rapidly and progressing quickly up the levels. What, you don’t know the levels? Well, let me tell you. Here in Canada, competitive skating starts at Pre-Juvenile. Sounds pretty low, doesn’t it? Then you can move up to Juvenile, then Pre-Novice, then Novice, then Junior! Once you’re good enough for the big leagues, you can move up to Senior. Once at the Senior level, you can go to Nationals! I recommend that you win it. But in order to skate at any level you will need dedicated, trustworthy people behind you – your parents, coaches, choreographers, and even seamstresses! Trust them and take their advice.
     You will need to travel all over the country to skate. There is fierce competition at all levels. Everyone will be trying to defeat you. To get to the top, you’ll have to be determined and perseverant, battling through injury and disappointment, all while keeping up a good public image, of course. Many skaters try, but only the greatest will succeed. Good luck, I hope you’ve got what it takes!
     So now you’ve advanced to Senior and won Nationals? Good job! You’ve come a long way! You’ll be on your way to Worlds and the Olympics soon. As a National Champion, you already can enter professional skating, but getting some medals at the Worlds or Olympics will really secure your career as a professional skater. As a World Champion, everyone will know your name at all the big professional ice shows. I think you should work on your signature – you will be asked for it a lot! Another good thing to develop would be some signature moves – like Shawn Sawyer’s trademark Y-spins or Virtue and Moir’s Canadian Goose lift. Then you can finally join the ranks of the elite professional skaters, traveling around the world showing off your skills at ice shows!

Painting by Kari Fell