Austin Figure Skating Club<\/a>. An organization that celebrated it’s 50th anniversary in 2025 and has attracted over 400 skaters to the club. Current Olympic figure skater and Texas native, Amber Glenn has even competed in previous years of the Skate Austin Bluebonnet open which is hosted evert spring.<\/p>\n\u00a0I made it five feet, I realized something important: This sport is hard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before I even pushed off the wall, I asked the real experts for advice \u2014 the young skaters who glide across the rink like it\u2019s second nature.<\/p>\n
Six-year-old Norika Kimura said, \u201cIf you\u2019re not so good with skating, you should start slow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you need to hold the wall so you don\u2019t fall,\u201d seven-year-old Lillyanna Hereford added.<\/p>\n
And perhaps the most honest warning of all: six-year-old Taehee Duong said, \u201cThat means you might fall a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
With sectional champion Christopher Chapa guiding me, I learned the basics \u2014 how to stop, which includes moving your skates to look like a pizza. I also learned how to bend my knees so I wouldn\u2019t crash straight down, and how to attempt skating backward without panicking.<\/p>\n
To my surprise, I didn\u2019t fall. But I was learning from Austin’s best.<\/p>\n
I learned some choreography on the ice, which is a mix of dance styles on the ice. Suddenly I was thinking about arms, turns, rhythm \u2014 all while trying not to lose my balance.<\/p>\n
Then came the spins. With assistance? Not terrible. Without assistance? Let\u2019s just say there was a lot more wobbling than elegance.<\/p>\n
And finally \u2014 a jump. Or at least, the beginning of one. Not quite a triple axel. But we all start somewhere.<\/p>\n
By the end of the session, my feet hurt, my legs were tired and I had a brand-new appreciation for every skater I\u2019ve ever watched on television.<\/p>\n
What looks effortless is anything but. Behind every glide across the ice are years of repetition, falls, bruises, early mornings and relentless practice.<\/p>\n
The Austin Figure Skating Club isn\u2019t just building routines \u2014 they\u2019re building resilience. Confidence. Discipline. And future Olympians.<\/p>\n
And if there\u2019s one thing I learned, it\u2019s this: The next time I\u2019m watching the Olympics and think, \u201cI could do that\u201d \u2014 I\u2019ll remember the wall.<\/p>\n
To learn more about the Austin Figure Skating Club click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Olympics have a funny way of raising confidence and making their sport look easy. So KCEN’s Sydney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-173706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}