It’s never too late to skate, ice-gliders age 70-91 declare

STAFF PHOTO ANTHONY REYES
Elizabeth Reagan, 91, left, skates with Marcela Taylor Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013 at the ice rink inside the Jones Center in Springdale. Reagan learned to skate as a child in St. Paul, Minn., and took it up again several years ago when the Jones Center opened up the ice rink. She skates at least once a week, wears a helmet since a past fall bloodied her head and usually skates with a partner for balance.
STAFF PHOTO ANTHONY REYES Elizabeth Reagan, 91, left, skates with Marcela Taylor Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013 at the ice rink inside the Jones Center in Springdale. Reagan learned to skate as a child in St. Paul, Minn., and took it up again several years ago when the Jones Center opened up the ice rink. She skates at least once a week, wears a helmet since a past fall bloodied her head and usually skates with a partner for balance.

SPRINGDALE - Elizabeth Reagan of Fayetteville donned her first pair of ice skates more than 80 years ago in her hometown of St.

Paul, Minn. Eschewing the twirls, turns and jumps of figure skating, little Elizabeth skated laps as fast as she could.

“I was a speed skater when I was young and good,” Reagan, now 91, says. “I skated fast.”

As she got older, her interest in skating waned. She moved away from Minnesota - first to Albuquerque, N.M., where she gave away her ice skates, and then to Northwest Arkansas in 1956.

The area had no skating rink at the time, and would-be ice skaters traveled to Tulsa or elsewhere to get on the ice.

“I didn’t skate for a long time,” she says.

Today Reagan spends one hour every Thursday making slow laps around the Joel Carver Ice Arena at the Jones Center in Springdale - a ritual she has practiced for 17 years since the ice rink opened.

The adult skating program Reagan participates in began the same year and included at its peak about 25 skaters, many of whom were older like Reagan and her skating partners Marcela Taylor, 72, of West Fork, and Libby Wheeler, 70, also of Fayetteville.

Wheeler began skating about 10 years ago after her husband died; but Taylor, who fled her native Czechoslovakia to escape communism, began skating as a girl. Both come to the ice rinkfor companionship as well as the physical activity.

“Marcela’s a wonderful person, and we have a good friendship,” Wheeler says. “And Elizabeth has some wonderful stories.”

Nowadays, six is the average for the group, which used to hold a Christmas show and two-hour skating sessions every Tuesday and Thursday. Taylor says many of the regulars have dropped out - either because of ailments as they aged or because the Jones Center increased its fees.

The dwindling numbers haven’t deterred Reagan. Neither did a fall on the ice several years back that left her with a bloody gash on her head. “Getting back on the horse is the way you should do it,” she says. “Or the fear factor will really hang over you.”

She simply skates with a helmet now - in addition to fanny pads, wrist guards and knee pads. She also doesn’t skate alone anymore, and she doesn’t try to speed skate.

“I noticed when we first started skating that I was trying to go fast, to go good, but it just wasn’t feasible,” she says.

Now she takes her time with Wheeler or Taylor in tow, telling them stories or talking about whatever strikes their mood. She even takes breaks whenever she gets tired, leaning up against the rink’s blue skate-rental counter.

And even though she says skating helps her physically, the rewards go beyond that. “It’s combined with so much fun,” she says. “I know I reach back to my childhood and how much fun skating was then.”

“It was good, and it is good,” she says. “It’s very valuable to me. It’s a benefit in itself. We’re just in heaven.”STARTING OUT

Reagan says it’s harder to find skaters or even people who will consider ice skating in the South. “It’s really hard to teach people and interest them in skating,” she says. “Up North, you got into your skates when you were 5 or 6 years old, but here you wouldn’t do that.”

For one, skaters can’t be afraid to fall. They also have to have strong core and leg muscles, says Traci Huffman, a member of the Ozark Figure Skating Club.

“Skating works most of our muscles,” Huffman says. “It works muscles you wouldn’t believe.”

“You can go to the gym and work muscles there, and then you can get on the ice and it will work different muscles,” she says.

Ice skating is also good for balance and posture. “When I skate is the one time I’m aware of posture,” Wheeler says. “Marcela will tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Stand up straight.’”GLIDING LESSONS

Here are some other tips Huffman offers for novice skaters:

Don’t be afraid to fall. “Falling is part of skating,” she says. “Falling means you’re learning.”

Learn to fall without hurting yourself. You don’t want to fall forward onto the face or hands. The rear end is the best part of the anatomy to land on, Huffman says. But “If you’re starting to fall, grab your knees,” she says. This restores balance.

She also suggests tucking your arms so that you don’t instinctively put out your hands to break a fall, an action that can lead to wrist injuries.

Bend your knees. “When you first get on the ice, it’s really important to bend your knees,” Huffman says. “That way you’re putting more weight in front of you.” Standing up straight with stiff legs causes weight to rest on your heels, making it easier to slide off-balance.

Pick up your feet. Scooting is bad in any form of ice skating. That’s because it causes your weight and balance to shift back and forth.

Make like an airplane. “You want to keep your arms out for balance,” Huffman says. “I tell my little ones to pretend like they’re airplanes.”

ActiveStyle, Pages 25 on 12/30/2013

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