A word about my home rink

Over the course of my career, I have taught at five different rinks, skated at another 3 or 4, and have worked with coaches from another 10.

This blog is a reflection of my experiences at all of those rinks. While my home rink necessarily has a strong influence on this blog, unless I specifically say that "this is my home rink" (for instance the Nutcracker posts), no single post is EVER about my rink only, and sometimes it's not about my rink at all.

I believe that there are problems and issues at my home rink, but having managed other recreational programs (not skating) I try not to speculate, especially in such a public forum, the reasons behind specific rink problems that I do not see being addressed. I try not to criticize my colleagues, who represent an amazing well of skating knowledge, although I know that sometimes my frustration will shine through. Sometimes I bring up problems from my rink where I am perfectly well aware of why that cannot be addressed in that context. However, as the blog is meant to have universal appeal, I figure you don't want to hear about our little issues, you want to hear about big issues.

More often, I bring up more universal problems that don't exist, or aren't critical, at my rink, but that I have observed elsewhere, or that a parent or skater has emailed me requesting that I address it.

The especially snarky posts are almost always meant to be humorous, although sometimes I strike a nerve. You can tell, because they will be tagged "humor."

I've worked at my home rink for more than 10 years. If it was all that bad, I'd have left.

UPDATE: It got bad. I left.