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The Arizona Skate Champs Artistic Team is an Artistic Roller Skating club. The club participates and competes in Team Dance, Solo Dance, Freestyle Pairs, Freestyle Singles, and Figure Skating. It is a member of the Arizona / Nevada League of the Southwest Region of USA Roller Skating (club AZ037). Club membership is available to skaters of all ages. The current youngest member is 5 and the oldest is in excess of 80. The Skateland Chandler Artistic Team is family oriented. Currently there are several families where both the parents and children participate in skating. |
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There is a plethora of activites to get your children involved with. Soccer, gymnastics, T-ball, basketball, little league, and so on. The choices are almost endless. What makes artistic skating stand out? In a word, participation. In most youth activies, the parents are observers, or coaches, or referees. There are adult softball leagues and basketball leagues and such, but they tend to be separate from the kids leagues. In skating, you and your children practice together, on the floor, at the same time. You get to be team mates. You won't hear, "Dad, you don't know what it's like." That's because you are mastering the same figures and dances as your child. When you go to a meet, you will cheer on your child when they are on the floor and they will cheer you on when you are on the floor. Everything you see done on ice skates can be done on roller skates with a significantly smaller monetary investment.
Roller skating is also something you can do your whole life. We have
club members who skate with their parents and with their grandparents.
We have club members who are 5 and club members who are 80+. When I
am 80, I would like to be still be able to dance on skates. It beats
hobbling along in a walker all to pieces.
Roller dance is a good, no impact (occasional impact?), aerobic exercise. Also,
team dance (dancing with a partner) is very addictive. Most of us are not quite as skilled as
the world class dancer, but the dances still feel good to do. Exercise
that feels good to do, there's something to think about!
| Roller skating is also known for health benefits. Our governing body, USARS has published an article showing that roller skating is equivalent to jogging as an aerobic exercise and is a non-impact aerobic. While the article is accurate for outdoor inline skating, your level and type of exercise in figure skating will vary with what you do. | ||
 The circle figures are isometric exercise, muscles against muscles. Being firm and still is what it is about. Figures will give you those "buns of steel" you see in the workout videos. It is also very meditative. It is you and the line and the rest of the world goes away. If you get tired of one figure, there are always more challenging figures to try. |
 Dance can be a strenuous form of exercise or you can take it easy. You have to be physically fit to last 3 minutes at competitive speed (about 5 laps of the rink). This is true even with the less complicated adult and beginner dances. You do not start out lasting the full three minutes or skating at competitive speed, but you will see your endurance grow as you spend time with dance. |
 Free style is very demanding, but is reserved for the young or the young at heart. The jumps, spins, and lifts require excellent coordination, strength, balance, and endurance. You also fall a lot, so adults beware. |
Members of the Arizona Skate Champs were on Channel 3 Phoenix (KTVK) on April 4, 2007.
 You can view the preformance here (4 Meg)
You can right click the link and choose "Save Target As" to save a copy. |
Members of the Arizona Skate Champs performed the Starlight Express at the Sanctuary at Camelback Mountain on
March 30, 2007.
You can view the preformance here (15 Meg)
You can right click the link and choose "Save Target As" to save a copy. Better copy (36 Meg) |
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The Arizona Skate Champs were featured on Channel 12 News (NBC) on December 6, 2006.
You can view the interview here
Note: takes a while to load (10 meg file). You can right click the link and choose "Save Target As" to save a copy. |
Members of the Skateland Chandler Artistic Team appeared on Good Morning Arizona, Sept 15, 2004 (KTVK Channel 3 in Phoenix).
You can view the presentation here (1.7 Meg)
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Arron Rosko and Erin Ovens took 3rd place at the 2005 World Championships in Rome.
See their free dance at Nationals (FreeDanceWeb.mpg 23 Meg)
Small Version (FreeDance.wmv 2 Meg) |
The Arizona Skate Champs was formerly the Skateland Chandler Artistic Team (AZ037)
Before that the North Phoenix Artistic Team (AZ040 and AZ041).
The coaches and members of the Surfside Skateland Artistic Team are now part of the Arizona Skate Champs.
This page maintained by Bob Styma (Home Page)with input from the rest of the team.
Last Maintained: Saturday, 15-Nov-2008 13:00:00 CST
