Any young skaters here who have actually helped out with a Learn to Skate Program?

[FSWer]

Say,I don't know if I've ever asked this. But is there any young skaters here who have actualy helped out with a Learn to Skate Program? If so,please share your story.

[Skittl1321]

I'm not young in age, but I am young in years skating. After I finished Basic 8, the LTS director asked me to help teach the snowplow sam group because I have experience working with young children. I mainly would pick up fallen kids, encourage them to try to stand up on their own, encourage stragglers when the rest of the group was towards the other side of the rink, and they were still by the door- etc. I also helped get props so the teacher could continue instructing. I've been doing it since January, and have helped all the way up to Basic 3. I've told the LTS director i'm not comfortable going any higher- because even my 3 turns can be shaky.

I also helped the director with an adult 2 class, and from that experience she assigned me last session as the sub for the adult 1 class, and this session I am teaching adult 1. I'm a teacher by training, and from the feedback I've been given- I think I do a good job with the adults. Because I learned as an adult, I learned the basics in a very analytical way- and am able to teach them that way. So often with the kids we just show them and tell them to try- most adults can't do it that way! The older teens who help LTS often don't remember HOW they learned to do a one foot glide, or HOW they learned to do a swizzle- just that you DO it. Because i learned as an adult, if the adult I'm teaching wants to know the hows and whys, I can tell them. Even though it's "my" class- I frequently talk to the more experience instructors (especially those who have taught adults) to help me with new ideas of how to introduce things, or how to refine them when they aren't exactly right.

I'm really enjoying my experience as an instructor. My coach has suggested I get personal insurance (I just have insurance through the LTS program) and take on private lesson tots- as we have lots of parents who want that- and it pays great. But I don't think my year and a half of skating is enough to be advertising myself as a COACH.

[jskater49]

My daughter is 17 and has been teaching LTS since she was 14. She likes it. She likes the little boys. They drive me crazy but she can handle them. She taught a hockey class once and would race them and say "hurry up- or you are going to be beat by a GIRL!"

j

[CanAmSk8ter]

I've been teaching since I was 18, but I started out helping my coach with her LTS classes when I was 13.

[blackmanskating]

I did help out with LTS at one point because they gave you a discounted price on ice time. But I have a better paying job now. LOL It was fun teaching the little kids. I was amazed at how quickly they learn. But I don't have the time to dedicate to that anymore.


BlackManSkating

[WSkater]

I've been helping learn to skate and can skate since I was 10 I'm now 15... I really love it because its helping (hopefully ) the next generation of skaters... I especially love teaching preschool... and Advanced Canskate!!!

[SynchroSk8r114]

When I first started teaching group lessons, I was 14 at the time. I began as a helper in Alpha-level classes, and had passed up nearly all my MIF and was working on double jumps. That was 7 years ago and since then I've gone on to take on my own LTS groups (Tots-FS3 experience) and have coached privately (USFSA mainly) for 6 years helping my skaters pass MIF, dance, and freestyle tests. I was lucky enough to have some great mentors (mostly PSA Master-rated coaches) along the way that made sure I knew what I was doing and I received the appropriate levels to help out with. I don't see anything wrong with starting young as long as a skater's competent with basic skating skills, which are always vital to developing young skaters' potential, can deal with various situations/personality types (you get all kinds with these classes), aren't in over your head level-wise, and enjoy teaching.

[Virtualsk8r]

My daughter started working with the learn-to-skate crowd when she was in kindergarten....(about 4 or 5 and she had most of her badges by then).

The kiddie class - 2 & 3 year olds with parents, and the 3& 4 year olds without parents....needed someone to help out while I was teaching. So at age 4, there she was as a volunteer buddy picking up toys and 'playing' with the kids her own age to get them to skate on their own.

By the time she was about 8, my daughter was helping out on the Learn-to-Skate classes at our club basically on every session -- and by 10 or 11 often had her own group of little ones. Since she had all her Golds by age 10 then plus her novice competitive freeskate - there was no question about her ability and she loved to work with the little ones.

So the age of the skater shouldn't necessarily prevent a qualified volunteer from helping out! As long as the skater is mature enough and understands the skills - they can be utilized in toddler or first badge level groups. Even working with their peers can often prove beneficial as the skaters in the group want to work hard enough to be as good as their assistant!

[RinkRat321]

i help with the LTS program at my rink.

the kids are great and they learn really fast! it's kind of cool because they sort of look up to you lol. oh, and i get passes for a session of free ice time every time i help so that's really nice too :D

[itfigures]

Well, once in a while I would help the Basic classes mostly picking up kids and once in a while showing them how to skate backwards or showing them my spiral. I wouldn't usually help, it was when ever they needed me. I would love to be an assistant since I get along well with young children. (I would find myself getting more excited then they were once the learned how to do something new. I guess its the good feeling that I helped them learn it.)

[FSWer]

Say,do you have to be a curtain age and or level to help with a Learn to Skate Program? Or is it just BETTER to be at a cutain level,and you only need to know how to skate?

[jcookie1982]

I've only been skating for 2 years myself, but I have helped to teach a few Snowplow Sam classes.

[Skittl1321]

Say,do you have to be a curtain age and or level to help with a Learn to Skate Program? Or is it just BETTER to be at a cutain level,and you only need to know how to skate?

This completely depends on the rink. I think our "helpers" have to be at least 13 and in a freestyle level. They can't get paid until they are old enough by the standards of the state- I don't know if that's 15 or 16 here though.

[CanAmSk8ter]

It depends on a lot of things. The rink where I currently teach has higher standards than a lot of rinks in my area; helpers have to be 13 and I think they have to have passed their pre-pre moves. When they turn 16, they start out at the lowest of our five levels of coaching and move up as they gain experience and, in some cases, pass more of their own tests. You have to be at the second level (mostly 16- and 17-year-olds with fairly high tests and adult-onset skaters who have experience with kids) to start taking on private students. I'm currently at the third level and will probably request to move to the fourth this year; I'm a college graduate with Pre-Juv and Adult Silver freestyle, Prelim Figures, Intermediate MIF, and two Silver dances, and I've been coaching for eight years (not counting the helping I did in middle and high school). I also play a little hockey, which my bosses love because our rink has a huge youth hockey program and they do occasionally get requests for private hockey skating lessons for the youngest kids. We also have specific learn-to-skate classes for hockey, and with so many little girls getting into hockey I think it looks good to have a female coach or two out there in hockey skates.

We have high school students, most of them hockey players or skaters who have completed learn-to-skate and not much else, who work as skate monitors and help with classes when necessary, but they always have to work under the supervision of a full coach (level 3 or higher).

The most important part of teaching, to me, is communication skills. You can tell a skater what to do, but if they aren't doing it right, you've got to figure another way to explain it so that they can understand. Does she need to watch me do it? Should I draw the pattern out on the ice? Would it help if we used a hockey circle or a line so she has a visual? If I explain it this way, will she understand- does she know what that word means? For example, I have three students right now working on roughly the same skills- one is seven, one is eleven, and one is in her fifties. Same skills, very different ways of learning- and my job is to figure out ways to impart the same information to each of them.

[Muskoka Skater]

I helped out when I was 8 but it was to cold standing around helping and I didn't have time anymore.