Skating's Got Apps!

Rink Tank Freestyle App

Going through some old skating stuff the other day at my parents' house, I found some cassette tapes of my old program music. Maybe I'm dating myself, but when I first started skating, we still used cassette tapes at competitions. That was before ice rinks—which are perennially stuck in the 70s and 80s—finally upgraded to using CD players sometime in the mid 2000s.

The sad part is that I couldn't even listen to the tapes, because I don't have a tape player. I wouldn't even know where to find one these days.

Anyway, it reminded me that I wanted to explore more of the technological advances in the sport of figure skating. Namely, skating apps! A friend posted a link to the new Elite Sk8 app the other day and it was the first I'd ever heard of a skating "app." I must confess, in my head I didn't really understand how an app could be helpful, but after reading about it, it seems pretty awesome. And like something I could have used back in my amateur days.

Developers Rink Tank are behind the most popular ones, it seems. Legit skating greats like Michael Weiss lend their expertise to it, and the developers worked with US Figure Skating to develop a neat series of coaching apps.

Since I found myself checking my email on my smartphone at the boards during practice last week, I figure it won't be too much of a stretch to download some and try them out. I'll report back on how it goes!