She inhales the cold waves of air that fill the room and she lets go of her nerves through every spin she makes. Freshman Bailey Wall does not fear the ice, but lives for the adrenaline that overtakes her as she skates through the rink with grace and determination.
Wall started practice on the rink in Aug. 2018 at the Mansfield StarCenter alongside her younger brother. Their mother, a former figure skating competitor, coaches the siblings on the weekends for two hours.
“I wanted to feel closer to mom and I have a friend who’s a speed skater in Canada and she mentioned skating once or twice so I decided to try it,” Wall said.
Although Wall classifies under beginner and does not compete yet, she hopes to compete by next year when she learned the basic glides, crossovers, and jumps of figure skating.
“It depends on how fast I accelerate,” Wall said. “I’m moving faster, it took my mom about a year to get to an intermediate level and I’m almost becoming a novice with only a few months of training.”
Both siblings practice for an hour and thirty minutes and receive feedback and corrections from their mother during the next thirty minutes.
“She’s not an official coach because we’re not paying her, but once we pass her and get into a junior level then we’ll need to get a formal coach,” Wall said.
Wall admits figure skating started as a hobby but molded into a passion that consumes her will to skate every week.
“I’ve considered [becoming a professional], but it depends because that’s a lot of time and effort that I might not be able to put into it but maybe,” Wall said.
Even with her mom with her on the rink, Wall does not feel pressured to live up to any expectations. Wall focuses on herself and the type of figure skater she wants to become.
Yes I want to pass her (level of skating) I want to become better than her, but sometimes I put pressure on myself to become better, Wall said. “But it’s just a sport that I do to release stress.”
