The Winter Alternatives : Carlson Managing a Fine Balance Between School Figures and School

Jennifer Carlson skated slowly, carving figure-eights in the ice. Every few seconds, she spun but kept her blades on track, trying to make that perfect arc.

When finished, she began again. A quick turn, then circle, spin, circle, spin.

Figure skating practice generally goes this way at Iceland, a rink in Paramount that looks like an old airplane hanger. Carlson, 15, spends five days each week working to perfect those figure-eights.

Some think her specialty, the school figures--separated from the more-popular freestyle in Olympic competition after 1988--can be about as entertaining as watching snow melt. But out on the ice, Carlson is smiling.

“I know it’s boring to watch, but it’s not boring when you’re out there,” Carlson said. “Each position is important. Every turn has to be just right. That’s the challenge. That’s the fun.”

And that’s the bottom line.

Carlson, a sophomore at Bolsa Grande High School, competes in a sport that seems unusual to her classmates. After all, frozen ponds are not a Southern California staple. Around Bolsa Grande, skating is sometimes done in the classroom, and ice is for soft drinks.

But for the past 10 years, Carlson has been a competitive figure skater and a good one. Three weeks ago, she finished second in the junior ladies figures at the national championships in Orlando, Fla.

But for all her talent and success, Carlson prefers to keep her skating career in perspective.

“I’ve been serious about skating, but not to the extent where I become overly involved,” Carlson said. “This is more like a hobby for me.”

Skating came almost naturally to Carlson. She took her first glide at age 4, after begging to try the sport because her 7-year-old sister, Mitzie, was taking lessons.

“Jennifer was this chubby little kid then,” said Karen Carlson, her mother. “She kind of wobbled out onto the ice, looking like Little Miss Priss. Mitzie gave her a little help, then, all of a sudden, Jennifer took off.

“I thought, ‘Oh no, two skaters. I’m in trouble now.’ ”

Carlson, neither chubby nor prissy now, was hooked from the start. At 6, she began skating in competitions, and she has been climbing the ladder ever since.

“I had no idea what it would lead to,” she said. “I never had any dreams of going to the nationals. I never watched the Olympics and thought, ‘Some day, that will be me.’ ”

Still, Carlson has excelled.

Last year, she reached the nationals for the first time and finished 10th. This year, she improved on that.

In December, Carlson finished second at the sectionals in Tacoma to qualify for the nationals. The previous year, she had been nervous, almost scared at the nationals, but this time around, she was more focused.

“Last year, her eyes got as big as saucers when we got to the nationals,” said Karen Cahill, one of her coaches. “We wrote last year off to experience. This year, she was calm, collected and determined.”

And she came home with a second-place finish.

“When I found out, I was overwhelmed,” Carlson said.

Carlson finds excitement in an event many consider dull. The school figures, a succession of eight tests, don’t have the glamour of the freestyle event.

The two were once combined, but the importance of the figures gradually decreased over the years, until they were separated.

But Carlson found she not only enjoyed that event, she was good at it.

She also competes in the freestyle events, in which she finished 10th at the sectionals this year, competing in the senior ladies.

“It really takes as much work to do the figures as it does to (do) freestyle,” Carlson said. “Each level gets more complicated. But people only know the freestyle because it’s on television.”

Which makes it difficult for Carlson to explain what she does to friends at school.

“There first reaction is, ‘You skate,’ ” she said. “Then when I tell them I skate figures, they don’t understand. I usually end up drawing a diagram.”

Carlson has achieved this success without devoting all her time to her sport. Usually, a skater of her talent will train up to eight hours a day and work at their education through correspondent school.

Carlson not only has stayed in school, she has a 4.0 grade-point average.

It’s all a matter of priorities for Carlson. She said her future is college, not skating.

She studies in the car on the way to practice and on the ride home, where she eats, then studies some more. As a result, Carlson has had a perfect GPA since she was in the sixth grade.

“Sometimes it’s difficult doing both,” she said. “Every now and then I’ll think, ‘If I had practiced more, maybe I would have been better.’ But I want to go to college.”

Her schedule is difficult. She gets out of school at 1:40 p.m., then her mother drives her to Paramount for practice. She works out until 6 p.m.

Twice a week, her training schedule coincides with public skating time at the rink and Carlson has to practice in a crowd.

Still, her training has been sufficient.

“The thing is, Jennifer is very bright and very focused,” Cahill said. “She probably gets more out of her four hours then someone who might be on the ice for eight hours.”

Carlson is also more active in school. She belongs to the Latin Club and attends several school events. On weekends, she takes a break from the ice and hangs out with her friends.

Her accomplishments have become news at Bolsa Grande. At a recent assembly, the principal presented her with a letter of commendation from the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. for her second-place finish at the nationals.

“She loves the sport, but she doesn’t want to make it her whole life,” Karen Carlson said. “She enjoys school and her friends. I think it’s important for a kid to be a kid.”

In the long run, Carlson said it has made her a better skater.

“I know a lot of my friends who are burned out at my age,” she said. “But I’m still having fun.”

And that’s her bottom line.