Skating Coaches Blog

Latest Figure Skating at About.com Headlines

2006-12-04T20:16:00.000-08:00

How to Choose a Figure Skating Coach

2006-04-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

Choosing a Figure Skating Coach

By Jo Ann Schneider Farris

Unlike ballet, dance, or gymnastics, where learning occurs in a group lesson format most of the time, figure skating is mastered through private lessons.

So….if your child is really interested in mastering figure skating, your first step as a skating parent is to select a private lesson coach. Who you take private lessons from should not be decided in haste; your private lesson instructor will be more than just a teacher: he or she will be your child’s mentor, guide, and role model.

There are so many individuals giving skating lessons these days, so choosing the best coach for your child can be confusing, so take your time before making a commitment to one particular coach.

What Kind of Skater Does Your Child Want to Be?

First decide what kind of skater you wish your child to become: does your little one want to be a serious competitive skater, a semi-serious recreational skater, or just skate for fun? A coach that fits in with what goals you chose can be found, but may take time – yes, it is possible to make “a perfect match!”

Serious Competitive Skaters

Competitive skaters have made the decision to put many, many hours into practice on and off the ice, commit to several private lessons each week, and do give up “a normal life” to achieve the skating goals they desire. Champions are not produced by talent alone. Do you have the time and money to make your child a competitor?

If that is the route you choose, plan on being at the rink for two to three hours a day at a minimum. This will include at least two 45—60 minute intense practice sessions which are called “freestyles.” Freestyle sessions are more expensive than the public sessions that beginning skaters usually practice and have fun on. It is not necessary to have a private lesson on every freestyle session your child skates on, but normally, competitors have at least three to four lessons a week on these sessions. It is not unusual for competitive skaters to have at least one private lesson a day.

Are you willing to take the time to make sure your child is on the ice five to six days a week for at least two to three hours a day? Are you willing to commit to at least three to four private lessons per week? Are you willing to trust a competitive skating coach to make decisions regarding your child’s skating? Do you have the money to make such a commitment?

Serious Recreational Skaters

If not, it may be easier to commit to the lifestyle of a “serious recreational skater.” Your child will still master many wonderful skating skills, have opportunities to take part in recreational figure skating competitions, perform in shows, and take skating tests. A serious recreational skater can skate 2 to 4 days a week, take one or two private lessons a week, and practice on either public skating sessions or freestyle sessions.

If you decide to keep skating fun and recreational, your child will probably not progress as fast as a competitive skater, but he or she will make steady progress and have a lot of fun. Also, this route is also much easier on the budget!

The “Serious Just For Fun” Skater

What if your child may just wants to skate for fun, but also master certain skills? There is nothing wrong with continuing in group lessons or supplementing group lessons with private lessons on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

How to find the coach that fits the needs of a recreational, but somewhat serious skater

Once you make this important decision between serious recreational or serious competitive skating, then begin your search for the coach that fits your needs.

If you decide on recreational “just for fun” skating, your decision can be quite easy. Perhaps the instructor that has given your child group lessons already seems to inspire your child and make skating fun? Feel free to approach that instructor directly and ask if he or she has time to take your child on.

Once a schedule has been set for lessons, plan on supplementing the time between lessons with some practice time. Piano teachers usually require daily practice and tell parents that no improvement will occur without practice; the same goes for skating. Plan on at least one practice session between each lesson, but if you can squeeze in two practice sessions, that would be better – do what you think you can handle at first.

As your child begins to enjoy his or her lessons and begins to skate more often, it is very likely that your coach will suggest he or she consider taking part in Basic Skills competitions and skating school exhibitions or shows. You may find yourself “naturally” becoming a serious recreational skater and want to increase your child’s practice and lesson time.

Understand that your coach’s time is valuable. Stick to the schedule you’ve set. Don’t cancel lessons often and don’t skip practice time. Listen to your coach’s suggestions and allow your child’s skating to develop into something that makes both of you proud.

Finding a coach for a serious competitive skater

It is rare for a skater to just jump immediately into competitive skating. Usually a child has found group lessons, Basic Skills events, and recreational skating quite enjoyable, and then has a desire to be the best and do more. Watching skating on television can really excite a child and may light a “spark” that gives your child a reason to wish to excel at skating. Don’t let this spark go out if possible, but be realistic and be sure you and your child understand that success won’t happen instantly.

Now, once you desire to join the world of competitive figure skating, first ask your existing coach if he or she can “take your child all the way.” It is not uncommon for skaters to make “a switch” in coaches when the time comes to enter the competitive skating world, but it is possible that even someone who has just begun to coach can train champions. 1988 Olympic Champion, Brian Boitano, was trained by the same coach throughout his skating career.

It is not necessary to make a “drastic switch” or change rinks or change everything immediately. Taking your time is perfectly okay. You may find that staying with the coach your child first began lessons with for recreational skating is the best route to take, especially when you first enter the competitive skating world.

How to Switch Coaches

Parents need to be aware that there are some guidelines all skating coaches follow. The most important guideline is that coaches DO NOT teach a private student that is already working with another coach without permission. It may seem sensible to you as a parent to try out another coach before making a complete break from your existing coach, but that is just not acceptable in the skating world and will cause problems for all parties involved.

There are many “don’ts” when the time comes to make a switch. Don’t start working with someone else before telling your existing private lesson coach that you are going to make a switch. Don’t tell your existing coach you are going to take a break from lessons and then start working with someone else. Don’t leave a message on an answering machine or send an email saying you are changing coaches; you must make the effort to notify the coach you are leaving either by phone or in person. Once you do make personal contact, don’t make your coach feel bad by trying to explain or justify the reasons for making a change; that is not necessary.

Be aware that your coach may be very hurt and may not take losing your child as a student lightly, so thank your coach for all they’ve done for your child’s skating so far. Make sure all bills are paid before beginning lessons with someone else.

A true story about a family that made a switch to a competitive skating coach

Once upon a time there were three children skating happily at a recreational rink. They skated every day after school for an hour or two and took one or two private lessons a week and group lessons with other skaters at the rink on Friday night. They passed some skating tests and entered some beginning competitions and took part in the rink’s ice shows. They earned awards. The children loved to skate and they loved skating at that little recreational ice rink.

As time went on, they visited other rinks where very advanced competitive skaters trained. Their parents observed the coaches of these skaters in action. The entire family decided that they wanted to be serious competitive skaters too.

So, after some serious thinking and observations, the children’s father decided to approach a coach who had been highly recommended by the parents of some of the advanced competitive skaters he met.

That coach did have the time to teach all three children. He explained that before beginning instruction, that the children’s parents would have to go to the recreational rink in person and tell the children’s existing instructor that the children were now making a switch to a new coach and a new rink.

The children’s life changed quickly after that. Soon, they were skating before and after school and on Saturday mornings for several hours. Soon, each child was taking three private lessons per week. The children no longer played on the ice while they were at the rink; there was no time.

What was great was the children did improve at their skating and did turn into really good skaters. Two of the children went on to compete at the United States National Championships and all three children won many competitions and earned many trophies and medals.

Jo Ann Schneider Farris, the author of HOW TO JUMP AND SPIN ON IN-LINE SKATES, is a professional figure skating coach in Colorado Springs who has skated for over 30 years. She put on her first pair of ice skates in 1964 and her first pair of in-line skates in 1985. Jo Ann is a United States Figure Skating Association Gold Medalist, a United States National Medalist, a Certified Advanced Level 4 Coach with the International In-Line Figure Skating Association, and has coached figure skating since 1983.

Dealing with teenage skating students

2005-09-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

Today a teenage student asked me to switch her lesson to a different day.

Her reason was that the day I gave her a lesson was not good because the session was short on her lesson day.

She then told me her family had to cut back on expenses in order to get by and she needed to do her part by giving up one day of practice time. She wanted me to put her lesson on a long public session so she would not have to return to the rink just for a lesson on the following day.

I told her she would not progress if she cut down her skating practice, but she explained that in order for her family to buy food, she had to do her part.

I called her parents later that day to discuss this and found out she had told me things she shouldn't have told me and she really had not been permission to reschedule her lesson at all.

She had also told me that her family could not afford to pay for a test we'd been working for and the test had to be put off for another month. I found this not to be true either.

How should I deal with this student who seems to wish so very much to be in control of her skating?

Concerned Skating Teacher in Chicago

Registered Ratings

2005-06-04T22:16:00.000-07:00

Share tips on any of the registered ratings for PSA.

Ice Dancing Tips

2005-05-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

Ice Dancing tips link can be found at:

http://www.skatepro.f9.co.uk/tips.htm

PSA Conference! Please share!

2005-05-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

Please share what you learned at the 2005 PSA Coaches Conference!

History of Closed Rinks in Southern California

2005-05-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

I just stumbled on a wonderful link called "Bygone Rinks!"

Does this bring back some good memories!

http://users.mo-net.com/nixit/scalrin1.html

What jumps are Pre-Juvenile skaters doing?

2005-05-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

What jumps are Pre-Juvenile skaters doing these days? Do they have all their doubles?

Has ICE PRINCESS helped?

2005-05-08T07:01:00.000-07:00

Just curious...has the Disney movie ICE PRINCESS helped your business?

Some argue that showing a teenage girl turn into a champion figure skater will give false dreams to children.

Any thoughts?

Personally, I love the movie!

Spin exit

2005-05-08T06:12:00.000-07:00

Please share how you help students exit from spins.

So many kids "keep spinning" as they finish a spin.

Any ideas on how to help them?

How do you help an overweight skater lose weight?

2005-05-08T06:10:00.000-07:00

I recently had a student express the desire to lose weight. She needs guidance and is not getting it from her family. Is it proper for a coach to get involved with teaching a child how to diet?

How many hours a week should a skater train?

2005-05-08T06:08:00.000-07:00

How many days per week and how many hours per week do your skaters train?

How many lessons do they take?

Do you recommend off-ice supplements. Please share.

Ice Theatre?

2005-05-08T06:06:00.000-07:00

Has anyone been involved with Ice Theatre? Has the experience helped your coaching or your skaters?

New inline skate for figure skaters!

2005-05-08T06:04:00.000-07:00

A new outdoor recreational skate will now be distributed in the United States that figure skaters may especially enjoy.

Go to http://jumpspin.com/skate/ for more info!

Are you going to the PSA Conference in 2005?

2005-05-08T06:03:00.000-07:00

Is anyone going to the PSA Conference in 2005? What do you hope to learn there? Please share!

What are the advantages of having a PSA rating?

2005-02-20T09:05:00.000-08:00

It may be interesting to share the advantages of having a PSA rating here. Everyone, please post your thoughts.

Promoting Ice Dancing

2005-02-02T06:35:00.000-08:00

Ice dancing has never been as popular as singles skating. Skating is expensive and parents and skaters have to cut corners somewhere, and so, fewer and fewer skaters take up ice dance these days.

Also, ice dancing can be more difficult than jumping and spinning. Some skaters can't remember steps; some skaters will only try ice dancing with a partner.

I think one of the reasons many children don't begin to ice dance is that the discipline is not promoted by their coaches or that it is the part of skating one must consider if the skater is not a jumper.

US Figure Skating Basic Skills competitions do include ice dancing, but the events allow skaters who have PASSED the Preliminary Dance Test (which is really a difficult accomplishment) to compete against those who have not tested! This must be changed if new skaters in our sport want to give competing a try at the beginning level, in my opinion.

Does anyone have some ideas on promoting ice dancing? How can we coaches get more boys to try ice dancing?

Rink management and skating coaches

2005-02-01T11:11:00.000-08:00

Rink management and skating coaches seem to have many conflicts these days. Why? Is it because we make a lot of money per hour than they do? Is it because we are usually independent contractors?

We both need eachother, but it seems in recent years that rink management feels good coaches are needed less and less to make a successful business. This lack of respect is shown by loss of figure skating ice time, by hiring unqualified instructors, and by less and less help from the rink's main offices in suggesting private instruction with qualified coaches.

Rink managers are not to blame; they need to run a business, and we skating coaches are not the star players in this business anymore. We need the rinks a lot more than the rinks need us.

Boys in figure skating

2005-01-31T20:14:00.000-08:00

Why is it so difficult to get little boys to look coordinated on figure skates?

Boys look just fine in hockey skates, but put figure skates on them, and they look uncoordinated at times.

For example, I have a boy student who finally has a good spiral, but his body position still looks "off." It is very difficult for him to straighten his free leg or point his toe up.

His jumps and spins are coming along though.

Any suggestions on how to make little boys look "good" on the ice would be appreciated.

Scratch spins

2005-01-31T08:06:00.000-08:00

Any suggestions on how to get a skater to control her scratch spin? This skater does a good spin most of the time, but as soon as she pulls her arms in the spin moves too fast and goes out of control.

Should parents and/or recreational skaters teach skating?

2005-01-30T14:48:00.000-08:00

Today parents are encouraged to spend time with children. Homeschooling is a norm. It is a good thing to see parents taking time to be with their children.

Ice rinks are full of fathers teaching their little boys skating skills as they prepare to play hockey.

It is common to see mothers following their child with a tape recorder as they practice Basic Skills and ISI routines and drilling their child on moves.

With the cost of skating lessons rising, parents are taking on the role of coach, and cutting corners on lessons. Sometimes they do a better job or know more than those who "say" they are qualified to teach skating.

Some may say that a parent can only take a child to a certain level before passing "Little Susie" on. Some say a recreational ice dancer can only take an adult who wishes to enjoy ice dancing so far.

But...these skaters are not being passed on. "Little Susie" does not take enough lessons with a paid professional and "Adult Ice Dancer" learns a lot of steps, but never learns to do dances properly.

This is okay, but....how can we keep coaches in our profession working when the clientele thinks it is okay to cut corners?

Going "Fishing" for students

2005-01-30T10:43:00.000-08:00

It's hitting me that teaching Learn to Skate to gain private students
is like GOING FISHING.

We all get to go to this "big skating school fishpond." If we get a
particular good pond full of lots of "fish" or several good "little
ponds," there is a chance we might catch a really GOOD FISH (a good
private student).

Now, my opinion: The problem is that more and more "fisherman" are
"fishing" these days. Even if there are enough students to go around,
sometimes the only the most aggressive "fisherman" (coaches) seem to get any "fishes" (students) these days.

There has to be new ways for those of us who love teaching (and also
need to make money) to develop AND KEEP a clientele. Rinks do try to help with referals, but there has to be other ways to keep us all in business.

Now for some humor:

Imagine if you went fishing and catch a really good fish. Then you
find out that the fish you just caught really belonged to another
fisherman since he caught the same fish a week earlier. It turns out
you have "solicted" his fish away and you apologize. You see, THAT
FISH IS OFF LIMITS; you have to try to catch another fish and none of
the other fish want to be caught by you.

Happy Coaching!

Teaching power pulls

2005-01-30T09:34:00.000-08:00

Does anyone have any fresh ideas for teaching the power pulls? A coach's student is struggling with the forward ones despite several attempts to break it down. She is having a hard understanding the shoulders/hips concept.

Entry in both axel and waltz jump

2005-01-30T04:57:00.000-08:00

Let's share some opinions on the entry technique for both the axel and waltz jump.

Is anyone aware of a different method used with a skater who jumps clockwise vs. counter-clockwise? Here's the situation:

A coach struggled with a student (who jumps clockwise) for three years on an axel. She had a very nice lift into the jump but would always under-rotate by 1/8 turn. She also landed the jump flat footed and the coach always felt like she didn't get the maximum push off her toe when taking off.

The coach taught her to use the traditional method of looking back on the back outside edge just before stepping up into the jump and also had her arms/shoulders facing outside her edge.

The coach eventually dropped her as a student and she started to work with another coach; then she started landing the axel within three lessons.

The new coach changed her entry method by not having her rotate her shoulders and not having her look back until right at the point of stepping forward.

Has anyone else changed methods because a skater jumps a different direction?

Too Many Coaches, Not Enough Skaters

2005-01-30T04:50:00.000-08:00

If there are too many people teaching skating, how can anyone make a living anymore in our business?

US Figure Skating Basic Skills competitions

2005-01-30T04:45:00.000-08:00

Why in Colorado do so many rinks/clubs NOT follow the US Figure
Skating format for Basic Skills competitions?

Welcome

2005-01-30T04:33:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Skating Coaches Blog.

This Blog is a way skating coaches can communicate and share frustrations, teaching techniques, student achievement, etc. New or prospective coaches are encouraged to participate.

This Blog was created so that skating coaches would have a place to "talk."

Example subjects to discuss:

Teaching the basic skating skills. Dealing with parents. Dealing with other pros. How to react when a student changes to another coach. What to do with that crying tot! Tips on teaching jumps, spins, field moves, and dance.

This Blog can be a place where we can feel free to talk about that hard day at the rink!