On the great of greatness

Aracely Brito

Jessica Doyle, WSS Intern

While many of us spent summer 2k13 grooving to Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and Bruno Mars’ “Treasure”, Frances Dai ‘19 was just beginning to lace up her leather-layered figure skates and inch her way out onto the frosty, rock-hard surface at the Coral Ridge Ice Arena.
“I think originally when I started [I] was [in] an ice skating camp that my mom found…[my friend’s] family introduced it to us because they knew private coaches as well, and they suggested the camp because it helped us improve before we take lessons.”
It seems as though the camp might have done the trick, as Dai was over the moon with the results of her first session.
“After my first lesson, I remember just being super thrilled to not have to hold the wall after getting on the ice…[before] I’d have to go at least two times around on the wall before I could actually skate.”
Just two and a half years later, Dai is continuing to make strides in the sport. She currently stands at a “freestyle level,” and is working to improve her “jumps and spins.”
However, Dai doesn’t consider herself to be a natural skater.
“[I’m] probably not a natural ice skater because [my brother and I] don’t skate as often as I would like to. It’s kind of hard to improve at a dramatic rate if you don’t practice as much. We do pretty well for the time that we’ve been skating.”
As for how often she practices, Dai said she practices at least once a week for an hour, but aims for two times a week. Her practice routine starts out similar to that of many other sports, with stretching, but then spins into something called “stroking.”
“Basically it’s strong skating–it’s where you try to hold one foot up for a length of time, it doesn’t have to be super long, but it’s supposed to be smooth, it’s kind of just to get warmed up for practice,” she said. “Then we go into whatever we’re learning for the day. Usually after stroking, we’ll do some cross-overs to warm up, and then we’ll go into jumps or spins that we’re practicing.”
As she’s continuing to polish her jumps and spins, the thought of competition doesn’t sit too far in the back of her mind.
“I don’t participate in competitions, but I’m hoping to soon. I’ve been seeing some of the other [ice skating] students participate, and I’m just waiting until after I [master] some of the jumps that I’m doing. Maybe then I can participate in competition[s],” Dai said. “I just got new skates that are a lot better than the ones that I was using before. [These] are competitive level skates [and] I’m hoping to be able to use them soon.”
Competing isn’t Dai’s only aspiration, though.
“My goals for ice skating are probably just to do my best, be able to learn jumps and spins,” she said, “and be able to perform them for an audience.”
Even though she isn’t currently competing, Dai still faces the horror that many athletes face–nerves.
“At this point, the thing that makes me most nervous is probably my mom, because she kind of wants to see me do certain movements that [I’m] not quite capable of. So when I’m working at them, she kind of pressures me to practice them and she pressures me to get them more [accurate]. So it’s kind of satisfying when I get them right…I can’t really do anything but practice.”
Although her mother isn’t an ice skater, Dai said it doesn’t change her ability to judge one’s technique.
“You don’t really have to know how to [do the moves] to know whether somebody is doing [them] right or whether it looks good or bad. Ice skating is just kind of whatever appeals to the audience.”
As for Dai’s biggest skating struggle she said, “Ice skating’s kind of frustrating because you can do it over and over, but if you don’t have the concept right, you can’t really do the movement or the jump/spin that you want to do.”
But she has learned to overcome this.
“I guess what I’ve learned is to try over and over and kind of not give up. Stuff comes with time. You have to practice and it’s really satisfying when you can complete a move,” she continued.
And at the end of the day, Dai isn’t a quitter.
“I don’t really ever feel like giving up, because I know it’s possible. It’s just kind of frustrating when you ask to see how it’s done, you see it done, but you just can’t seem to like actually make the move…before [I took lessons], I couldn’t even get off the wall. Now I can do so many things. Like I can easily lift my leg higher [on ice] than I probably can on land. I can also do spins and jumps that were really frustrating around a year ago.”
Now while Dai’s persistence and attitude allow her to succeed, she also accredits some of her success to other sports.
“I did volleyball this year, and the funny thing is, is the move for volleyball is really similar to falling, because we have to dive, and the dive should do as little damage as possible. When I learned how to dive better, my coach was kind of impressed, because I had this really scary moment where I fell trying to do a spin or a jump–I can’t even remember–but instead of actually falling, I kind of did like a volleyball slide, and it was safe. It was actually really funny.”
Dai also participates in tennis, but said skating helps tennis more than tennis helps skating.
“[Skating] kind of gives you the postures that you would use in tennis.”
Dai also gives credit to her coaches for much of her success.
“My coaches kind of help me understand and feel ice skating. They’re also really encouraging. I guess they’re more like mental coaches than actual physical coaches, in the sense that they tell you things like ‘I know you can do it because you’re doing this correctly.’”
Dai’s current coach, Carlos Vic Walker has been with her for about one and a half years, and can see her dedication and hard work ethic.
“She usually is very careful about her safety, and that’s good. She takes care of herself well and makes me feel that she is not only learning to be an athlete, but also she’s learning to be a coach. I have noticed she likes to teach.”
As for Dai’s strengths in the sport, [her coach] offers much appraisal.
“Everything she does is very difficult. When [other coaches and I] coach the kids, we push them as far as they can respond. She’s [a] good listener, she’s [a] good learner, and since she responds well, of course the challenge is higher. So we’re teaching her constantly more and more difficult elements. So, we keep her pushing and she keeps learning, and that’s exactly the way it has to be done.” Walker said.