For Tot Skaters, It's All About the Fun

After nearly 25 years as a skating instructor, Barbara Pomykalski knows one thing: Learning to skate is all about the fun, especially for the tots, the 4 to 6-year-olds, taking beginning lessons at the Culver Ice Arena. 

''That's what we're about at Culver City, about provding fun all year 'round with this sport,'' Pomykalski said. ''For the little ones, it's all about having fun and when they're having fun, they're learning, because there's that whole new discovery of their ability to skate, and the joy.

''I always tell the parents, enjoy the process, always enjoy the process because you'll never again see your kids at this point when they're first starting out. It's a keepsake, and I always encourage them to videotape it. And it's also a nice gauge of how they're improving.''

The professional staff at the arena on Sepulveda Boulevard offers beginning skating classes for tots, for children 7 to 14 and for adults. There are also intermediate and advanced skating classes, as well as beginning hockey classes and in-house leagues for children and adults.

For the youngest skaters on the ice, there are fringe benefits to that fun--a nice cool arena on a simmering afternoon.

''I find that when kids feel confident physically, that confidence permeates in other areas of their life, because I have parents come up to me and say, 'Ever since my child started skating, they have so much more confidence.'

"And it's not just in skating, but in other areas of their life,'' Pomykalski said. ''In school, their schoolwork gets better. They just have this sense of confidence that they never had before.''