October 2008

Early to Mid-October 2008
What’s the Deal with Turns?

I have been teaching the higher basic skills levels at Ice Castle since last season and have taught (or attempted to teach) a lot of kids various turns. These turns range from a basic two-foot forward to backward and backward to forward, forward outside three-turns (FO3), forward inside three-turns (FI3), and mohawks. I have noticed certain trends.

1. Kids still do not know right from left!
2. Feet separate to complete two-foot turns. Shoulders against the hips motion is initially absent.
3. Rotation of a two-foot turn may continue in the form of a barrel spin (feet wide).
4. All motion ceases after completing the turn. Students struggle to continue to skate, glide, or reinitiate motion.
5. Tendency toward unidirectional rotation is so strong, students will perform bracket-like turns before turning the opposite direction.
6. Inside and outside edges continue to elude students even after drilling them with gliding edges on the circle.
7. Students change feet but not direction in a mohawk. They essentially just step to the other foot.
8. Students have no idea what their arms are doing.
9. Knee bend is still a foreign concept.

I could probably go on, but I won’t. The major problems can be quickly summarized as wide-stepping, unidirectional tendencies, and lack of edge knowledge. I won’t even touch the right from left issue. I have thought about methods to establish understanding of edges. So far, I have taught the kids that their inside edges can be clapped together. I do this by jumping up and smacking my feet together. The students love this and most at this level can master it for themselves. “You can’t clap your outsides.” I also clap my hands to drive the point home. The kids hopefully will digest the difference between inside and outside edges, plus they enjoy a bonus of learning to pull their feet together in the air, something that will come in handy later.

Yet the edge battle is not won. Kids seem so intimidated by turning in the opposite direction that they will do an inside three turn properly, then do an outside in the same direction rather than an inside on the other foot. I am not sure if this results from not knowing their edges or from directional limitations. I think it is a combination of both. So many times I will tell a student to stand on his/her left leg and the kid pushes off on the right. I will even tap the proper leg and the kid pushes off on the other. Many people may be so one-side-dominant that they have trouble even consciously realizing the other side of the body. I want to label each skate and hand with a color-coded boot cover or glove. I know some coaches actually do this. I have not gotten that desperate yet. I’m close.

Perhaps the most interesting turning faux pas is independent discovery of a more difficult skill to replace a basic turn in the opposite direction. The inventor of the bracket was probably some kid who refused to turn clockwise. Rotating outside the circle is an order of magnitude more difficult that continuing to rotate with the direction of travel. I first saw this a few years ago while teaching at another rink. At the time, I was fascinated. Now I am frustrated. Yawn, another bad bracket. To overcome this problem, I take the student by the shoulders and manually turn him in the proper direction. This usually works, for a while at least.

Why are mohawks so difficult for so many people? I have heard horror stories about adult skaters who practice for months/years and can’t get the mohawk. A mohawk turn involves a change of foot and a change of direction. Forward inside mohawks are the easiest. The skater glides forward on an inside edge, brings the free foot close to the skating foot, turns the free foot out as the shoulders rotate, the foot takes the ice, and the skater glides backward on an inside edge. As a preparatory exercise, I ask my students to hold a forward inside edge as long as possible with the free foot in the correct position to take the ice backward. I glide from pupil to pupil adjusting their feet and showing them my turnout. Still they step forward or complete a now familiar three turn before changing feet. Forget about the opposite direction.

Then once in a while I get a student who can do everything. I have one of these now. I gave her mother my card. She passed Basic 6 and 7 in one eight-week course. Actually, she passed in seven weeks. And it was not a questionable pass. Her skills are strong. She can do the three-turns at speed, which is very rare at this level, especially since the test only requires a push-off entrance. Talent? Lack of fear? I don’t really know. Probably a combination of both.

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Week of October 19, 2008
The Truth about Teaching Tots

Each time a set of classes ends, the manager asks the coaches when they can teach for the next set. Often days and hours change, so availability also changes. A colleague asked if I had requested a schedule yet. I told her I had not decided. I preferred to teach certain days because more classes were available which translated into more money. However, higher level classes were offered other days. I doubted I could do both, so was debating more money versus better classes. I don’t mind teaching lower level classes as long as the classes are not designated for tots. Some people like teaching tots. Usually beginning pros teach tots, and I have done my time in that department, especially at Elite Arena. Even for experienced pros, tots are part of the deal. Rinks often enroll more tots than higher level group skaters. I have gotten spoiled at Ice Castle and have not taught tot classes since last fall.

I glanced at my copy of the new schedule and explained to the other coach that although I could use the money, I was not anxious to teach three tot classes in a row. She looked at me sharply. Picking up little kids and trying to keep them on their feet kills my back. She continued to look at me sharply. I must have sounded like a snob. “Come on, be honest. Do you really want to teach tot classes?” She confessed she did not.

Teaching tot classes can be a lot of fun and very rewarding. Playing games with the kids is enjoyable. Their enthusiasm is contagious. I use all the tricks: stuffed animals, drawing on the ice with colorful markers, games that engage the imagination, etc. However, I find making a steady diet of teaching young children very exhausting. In addition to the difficulty of helping them repeatedly to recover from falls, my feet get cold from not moving much and my muscles become stiff. The little ones simply are not very mobile. In higher level classes, I skate with my students and can break a sweat allowing me to consider my teaching time as exercise, killing two birds with one proverbial stone.

Recently Leslie, the manager of Ice Castle, asked the pro staff if any of us knew teenage coaches who would like to take on some of the tot classes during the busy season. Unfortunately I don’t. However, I am happy that Leslie prefers to give the senior staff more advanced students. We also stand a better chance of securing private lessons from students who are want to make faster progress through the test structure. I have taught plenty of private lessons to tots and beginners. They tend not to stick with it probably because they are too young to make a commitment or may be too physically immature to demonstrate talent.

Leslie tried to convince me to take all of the days. She promised to give me the better classes of the lot. I could not turn it down.

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