Off ice training

[LIskate]

Hi everyone,
It's been a while since I have posted. You were all so helpful back when my daughter started skating a year ago. Things have been going well. She still loves to skate as much as she did the day she started.
The time has come where she needs to do some sort of off ice training.
I know Pilates is quite popular with skaters. Is Pilates the best way to go, or are there other thinkgs we should be looking at?
She needs to work on flexibility, and core strength.

Thanks,
Bob

[Summerkid710]

Pilates, ballet, jump rope and other plyometric exercises, yoga, and basic cardio are all good supplements to skating. Not that you need all of them. Some are more age appropriate to younger and older skaters.

[Tennisany1]

I can't remember how old you daughter is, but if she is young (under 10) I don't think I would put her pilates. With pilates you need to be sure she is doing it absolutely correctly or she could get injured. A lot depends on the instructor, or course, but for young kids a ballet class is a great way to start. It will help her flexibility as well as her presentation and musicallity. Just make sure whoever you take her to is trained and qualified to work with kids her age (again particularly important if she is quite young.) Over stretching can be a big problem for the young ones.

[LIskate]

Thanks for the replies :)

She is 10 years old. She does have a jump rope which she doesn't use nearly as much as she should. I was thinking of getting a exersize bike as well. My wife and I could benifit from that as well.
She took ballet for a couple of years when she was younger. She really disliked it. Maybe when she is a bit older she will choose to take ballet to help her skating. At her age and level I dont think she is ready to make a commitment to do something she dislikes to improve something she likes (hope that makes sense). I do feel she would greatly benifit by taking ballet, but that is her choice.
We have been doing very little stretching at home in fear of doing it incorrectly. That is definately the area in her skating that needs work.
The other area is working on core strength. She does well with all she has learned so far, but they are going to be starting to work on her axel and possibly doubles. I am thinking that a scheduled workout routine would help her with the strength she needs to do such things.
I'm sure her coach will have some suggestions as well, but I have always received great advise from all of you in the past. I certainly dont want to get her into somthing that she wouldnt benefit from, or even worse cause her problems.

Thanks again,
Bob

[dooobedooo]

I'm no expert but ...

If she hates ballet, she might enjoy something like kickboxing or karate, which will help with core and leg strength and stretches for splits.

Yoga definitely helps - maybe there is a children's yoga class in your area.

Perhaps you could enroll both of you at the local gym, and get an instructor to give her a program that you could do side-by-side - some cycling, running uphill, stretches, sit ups etc. (NB. I definitely wouldn't leave a young child in a gym on her own, without a parent present !!!!)

Best of all, might be to join rink off-ice classes, if they run some.

[AW1]

My daughter is 5, and does gymnastics. I find it helps my daughter alot with her core strength, flexibility and balance.

Maybe if she is not so into ballet she might be more inclined to go for gymnastics?

[Mrs Redboots]

At our rink, my coach's skaters have the opportunity of up to an hour's stretching/flexibility/fitness classes with a qualified teacher at the ice rink each week in the fitness room (invariably known as "the stretch room"). I think under 10s probably only do 30 minutes.

Mind you, we are lucky to have a qualified gymnastics coach available who understands about skating as her daughters, and the elder daughter's partner, are all high-level skaters!

[sk8rmom2006]

Hi everyone,
It's been a while since I have posted. You were all so helpful back when my daughter started skating a year ago. Things have been going well. She still loves to skate as much as she did the day she started.
The time has come where she needs to do some sort of off ice training.
I know Pilates is quite popular with skaters. Is Pilates the best way to go, or are there other thinkgs we should be looking at?
She needs to work on flexibility, and core strength.

Thanks,
Bob

I totally can related with you. My daughter started skating 2 1/2 yr ago. We started it as recreation, but who knows we felt into trap :halo: - she felt in love with it. :twisted: Skating becomes reward for her. She knew that if she did not do good at school or behave well, she will have to stop skating. I have to work full time in order to pay for the skating bills. With only a few occassions I watched her skating, I noticed she did not have a graceful posture and not strong core. I talked with her coaches. But they did not want to give her too much off ice or on ice training because of her young age. Last year, I bought Carol Poe's Office Ice training book. I helped her doing the warmup part in the book 3 days in the AM, which including strech, jumps, and core and muscle tone work. Since she is so young, you don't want to go too heavy. Her body weight should be enough for her. She grew stronger. We found a very good pilates studio in West suburb of Chicago. She went there for 3 private lessons. Then the instructor told us she was good to take the group lessons. However, the studio moved farther away this year. We were lucky that we found a very good yoga studio that specializing on teaching kids - from toddlers to teens. Now she is taking private lessons from this yoga teacher. She said she felt so relax and was able to stretch out more. She loves her yoga instrutor. She helped her to get into good split, spiral and bielman postion. She used to feel middle back hurts when she did those moves. Our daughter has a very strong legs. But her upper body was weak. Her yoga teacher works with her in different postures to increase her upper body strength. I was surprised that our 9 yr old so looking forward to see her yoga teacher.
Our daugher did not like ballet. But she still takes ballet lessons. However, she loves jazz. I watched her new program this year. Her artistry improved a lot. I think yoga, pilates, ballet, Jazz and gymnatic are all good for skaters. You just have to find out which one your skater likes and let her learn from there.
Sorry for bubblly so much. Hope it would help.

[Tiggerwoos]

I don't do anything particular in the way of off-ice training, but I do make sure every day I get some sort of exercise.

I try to get to the rink 4 times a week, but I also go to karate twice a week and the gym a few times as well. At the gym I do a mixture of cardio, stretching and weights.

I'm purchasing a stretch machine today to help me get more supple so I can use that at home!

I'd second what dooobeedoo said about joining a martial arts class as it will give her a combination of strength, suppleness, balance and stamina, as well as grace. It's also fun too and the kicks will really develop her core and leg muscles.

[Lenny2]

Off ice training is critical to achieving any real, significant improvement in figure skating. If your daughter is serious about wanting to be a competitive skater, she will need to commit to training both on and off the ice. She cannot expect to be a competitive skater simply by skating an hour and a half or two hours a day. By the time a skater is doing double jumps, she needs to be working off-ice two or three days a week on core body strength, upper body strength, lower body strength, overall fitness, and flexibility. All of this is necessary to both achieving skills and preventing injury. Although some kids will get double jumps without doing much more than skating a couple of hours a day, the truly competitive skaters are doing much more. Most kids do not have the necessary lower body strength they need to get the height they need for clean doubles or the upper body strength they need to pull their body in for clean double. If you skating rink does not offer good off-ice programs, the absolutely best thing you can do is find a fitness training center in your area that is geared toward training young atheletes. There are many out there these days that train kids for all sports--soccer, volleyball, baseball, hockey, etc.--using speed and agility training, plyometrics, weight training, and flexibility. They will gear an off-ice program for skating for your daughter. You can try to start at home with a program, but we found this to be very difficult because kids generally don't want to listen to their own parents, and it's tough to really follow through at home. If you want to try, a great book to start with is Carl Poe's Conditioning for Figure Skating, available on Amazon.com. It will give you a good idea of where you need to begin.

I can tell you that, once our skater started working diligently off-ice three times per week (one of those days is pilates), everything improved dramatically.

[litigator]

ours now 14 had a similar problem to some of your's-upper body strength. and to some extent some core and upper leg strength b/c she's small.

she loves ice dance and is still looking for a partner, so to pass the time we put her into ballroom last sprin...which she was very good at and progressed quickly into pro-am events...

not sure if you're in an area where ballroom is offered-but ours took ballet for years, tried pilates (hated them), jazz ok, but not really turned on, and then found another love in ballroom...

I have enormous respect for what ballroom does-when they're teaching competitive kids ---(or even if you ask them to teach yours as competitive) what does it teach them? ---timing and rythm, knee and ankle bend, toe points and stretch in leg movement, musicality, adapting to routines, core abdominals, upper leg strength, (she's even got muscles in her behind!!!)ankle strength, lengthening spine and tighter posture, arm and upper shoulder control, head control (all important for jumps), works out the hip flexors, artistry, and flexibility. plus in the latins and the quickstep, I've certainly seen kids (and adults) panting after a class...or a private.... just another thought out there for the unconventional....I'd say it was honestly the best thing for ours-even if unusual...

[Sessy]

I just stretch after showering and after skating and I'm doing bielman spirals now... I also can grab my leg by the heel or toes and lift it, but not to shoulder level yet but I'll get there! I started stretching for the first time in my life at age 20, it's exactly 1 year later now, so that's not bad results, you'll agree!

I'm also doing ballet once a week now, which is also greatly helping! It's actually my BALLET teacher who fixed my camel spin and centered my scratch spin, not my figure skating teacher, go figure!!! Although, we have ballet classes from the figure skating club so the guy really knows what figure skaters need from ballet and only teaches what we need.

I'd say situps helped my spins too and I do some jogging with my roomies occasionally. They jog every week thrice, I just join them once in a blue moon but I'm amazed that I can keep up with them without a problem. Apparently, skating and jogging is using much of the same muscles and breath.

Oh yeah and I have roller skates for practicing some things on. They're really crappy ones, really cheap ones. That makes it difficult to turn on them and stuff, but, when I manage some steps on roller skates I can totally do them on figure skates easily!


I used to do ballroom dancing, I'd recommend against it for figure skating (for ice dance, I see where it might be very useful). For figure skating, more like belly dance or latin dance might help for performance and the way you look.


Also, FILM FILM FILM! Film the skating and look at it! It's a shock to see yourself skate at first, dance, whatever, cuz you've got a totally different image of yourself but it helps.

[peanutskates]

http://www.icextras.com/office.htm

It has 3 off ice programs for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced

[miraclegro]

Does Jazz or Modern dance help much for skating, i.e, core body or stretching?

[beegeemom]

http://www.icextras.com/office.htm

It has 3 off ice programs for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced

Hi, new here, just wondering if there are any more good sites for beginner off ice training? My dd is 5yo and I am trying to find some good things for her to do off ice. She takes gymnastics as well, but it's gone for the summer. I enrolled her in a kids yoga class, but would like some info on things I can help her with at home. She's still learning to jump rope.

[peanutskates]

try Google, "off ice training programs"

BTW, you should do all types of stretches and balance it (like; back stretch then abdomen stretch) so that you are balanced and don't injure yourself. don't just do skating related stretches

[Isk8NYC]

The USFSA has a number of documents on THIS PAGE (http://www.usfigureskating.org/Athletes.asp?id=224) related to off-ice training. Some of the pdf's are intended for trainers that aren't familiar with figure skating.

[blisspix]

Off ice training is critical to achieving any real, significant improvement in figure skating. If your daughter is serious about wanting to be a competitive skater, she will need to commit to training both on and off the ice. She cannot expect to be a competitive skater simply by skating an hour and a half or two hours a day. By the time a skater is doing double jumps, she needs to be working off-ice two or three days a week on core body strength, upper body strength, lower body strength, overall fitness, and flexibility.

I absolutely agree with this. When I was 14 my coach had me do ballet, jogging and a mat program with hand-held weights. Programs are much more sophisticated than this now but these could be a way to start.

Unfortunately, I never heeded my coach's words so I find myself coming to the realisation in my late 20s that skating alone does not make you fit or prepared for the rigours of the sport! I now do ballet, go to a gym, skip rope etc.

The book Conditioning for Figure Skating has some suggestions, featuring kids, as well.

[carmom]

If you can get her to perform straight up rotations for 10 to 15 minutes and then spiral stretch her and have her work on her splits and frog stretch you should be fine. Most skaters develop strength naturally as they progress. The real danger is rushing into doubles too soon before they really understand the jumps and of pushing too hard during growth periods-- that's when stress fractures occur from overuse. Stretching is THE BATTLE OF MY CHILD'S LIFE IN SKATING. God help us! Every day we battle over stretching. It's critical. Do anything you can to get her into a regular routine whether it's videos, or classes.

[Lenny2]

"Natural strength" is not enough for skaters to get double axels, triple jumps, change of edge spins with changes of positions, and the difficult spirals needed under the new system. In addition, off-ice training is important to prevent injury--it does not cause injury. Strengthening of the abdominal and back muscles is critical to preventing back injuries and hip injuries. "Just skating" wil not get the job done and is asking for injury down the road.

[cathrl]

Probably obvious, but I'll say it anyway - make sure whatever your daughter does is age appropriate, not just recommended for skating. For instance, little kids shouldn't lift weights.

[Lenny2]

There are reasonable, differing opinions on whether weight-bearing exercises are appropriate for children, but the absolute best thing you can do is find a responsible personal trainer who is knowledgeable about figure skating or who is willing to take the time to learn what muscles are involved in figuring skating and what type of injuries tend to occur. You'll have far more success this way than trying to patch something together at home. The skater will take it more seriously, you will be more consistent in your efforts, and you will see much better results.