Skaters coaching starter skaters.

[FSWer]

Say,this is basicly a follow-up to another thread. But I was just wondering if anyone here who first learned to skate,along side of being taught by a coach,was actually ever shown anything more by just a young advanced skater from the Rink?

[Skate@Delaware]

Whenever I get jammed up trying to remember something I ask someone. Which usually is a young one at the rink! They giggle and demo. If they know the move.

We have had tons of laughs over my bunny-hop attempts. However, some of the girls do NOT know how to do everything! You have to take certain things with a grain of salt....I would not expect my girls to know high-level moves (and only 2-3 know intermediate level stuff).

[jskater49]

My first learn to skate classes were at a newly formed club, started by a few skaters and the LTS was run by very inexperienced teachers....they would teach maybe only one level below what they passed. That worked fine for me for awhile and I thought I was hot stuff as I moved very quickly through the levels.

Then 3 turns happened. And I got advise like "try it again" Oh yea and when I couldn't glide backward on one foot they insisted I had scoliosis and would just not be able to glide straight until the one experienced old guy came by and said "Sit back on your skates more" and wallah my "scoliosis" disappeared and I glided straight back.

At back 3 turns (in those days you had to do back 3 turns in Basic 5! and there were only 6 levels) I changed rinks and began taking private lessons. I think once the other club had kids advanced enough to take (and fail )USFSA tests, they hired some professionals.

And I have found that I need experienced coaching even more than my daughter - because you can tell her something once and she gets it - I need someone who can think of a thousand ways to get through to me.

j

[Sessy]

Our coaches regularly pull one of the girls from the A-competitive group (the girls who go to nationals) to show something they can't show (our coaches seem to have lost the ability to jump yeaaaars ago, although their edges are extremely solid and I'm sure they know what they're doing). One time they pulled a girl to do a falling leaf and she had no clue how to do one... :lol: It's amazing anybody from our class passed that test actually (everybody did, although some on the 2nd try), cuz none of us in class ever saw a falling leaf done, and the coaches even had differences of opinion whether on the falling leaf the free leg goes loop-style at the front, or toeloop-style at the back... So basically we didn't know WHAT the freak we were doing. At some point I looked it up, found a video on google, made screencaptures and mailed it around to everybody whose email adress I knew... LOL!

[peanutskates]

I was shown 3 turns by my friends (back then) like 4 times, then I tried to work it out on my own. By the time I reached the level of learning 3 turns (in LTS), I pretty much had them.

and a 7 yr old girl kinda helped me with backward skating.

[Rusty Blades]

JS: That sounds like the backwoods club I skated at as a teenager! The area was poor and agricultural so everybody moved away after high school. Without a "for real" coach everybody learned from everybody else and the best coach was any figure skating that was televised. Not surprising that nobody from that area went very far until recently. (There is one Nationals level skater now from that neck of the woods.)

[*JennaD*]

My friends and I help each other with our jumps all the time...its not exactly coaching, but if we see each other jump and fall, we often give pointers to them (if we know what they did wrong lol)!

[flo]

Yes! I learned with a group of adults and we all helped eachother.

[WhisperSung]

jskater: I remember the days where there were only 6 basic skills levels! I failed basic 5 a total of 3 times before I got back crossovers! They were sort of the Novice moves of my beginning years. :halo:

When I was learning new jumps, my coach would have more advanced skaters demonstrate proper technique. Now I'm the one who demonstrates once in while. Usually, I'm asked to show a double salchow or a camel-sit spin or something of the like. I think it definitely helps to see what it should look like and not just be told.

Then again, my moves coach this morning showed me a bunch of times how to do the lollipops on the senior moves quick step, and I just didn't get how what I was doing was any different until he said, "they're mohawks, not 3-turns, you dork!" and then a lightbulb went off in my head and I did them just fine. I definitely need someone to come up with a different ways to describe something until one of the explanations just clicks! :P