My almost 9 year old daughter has taken 7 private skating lessons. Before she started lessons, she had only been skating 2 times in her life. After lesson 5 her teacher told me she had very high potential. Apparently she is progressing at a very fast pace, though at this early point her skills have not caught up with her ability yet. We are discussing what to do next. We increased her lesson time from 20 to 30 minutes, and plan to add a second private lesson a week on occassion. We are also going to add a group lesson once a week.

I know every parent thinks their child is the next olympic star, but it really does seem my daughter is athletically gifted. People are starting to take notice of her at the rink, saying she "has something special." I should add that my daughter was adopted from Russia and has only been in the US 6 months. We noticed almost immediately that she is atheltic and that she really could dance. When people ask her how she can skate so well in such a short time, she says..."because I'm Russian." A Russian skater I met at the rink put it perfectly..."She has the Spirit of America and the soul of Russia."

So, what do you experienced skating moms and coaches suggest? How do I know she is getting good instruction? How much is the right amount of skating now? I should add that my daughter LOVES it and would skate almost every day if the rink was open.

Sounds to me like you're doing fine. No matter how much potential she seems to have, it's way too early to predict what she'll be able to accomplish. All you can do is provide the opportunity for her to succeed by providing good coaching, decent equipment, adequate ice time, etc. The rest is up to her. Talent is only one part of the equation.

I'd say:

Give your daughter her head, but:

Keep it fun!
Don't make her a slave to skating, before she is old enough to make that decision herself. You don't want early burnout.

Plan a routine!
Once she improves, you may find she needs to skate and have lessons 4 to 6 times a week. Try to book consistent lesson times at the same time each day, so that there is no extra stress.

Keep a skating/life balance!
Don't neglect her schooling, character development, social skills and non-skating friendships. Think about keeping some family time free, maybe at weekends, or whatever is convenient. Don't take away all the decisions and personal responsibility from her - she needs to develop some independence for adult life.

Be careful about relationships!
Choose a coach with great care, and always put a priority on trust, both sporting and personal. Your daughter will learn about relationships through her coach.

Other activities will help her skating!
Don't end up with a onesided lump who can jump. Music, dance, gymnastics, pilates, cycling and horseriding, will all help the athletic and artistic side of her skating. Review her coaching and make sure that it is balance of edges, footwork, artistic, spins and jumps. Be alert to any body overuse signals that may indicate a review is due.

Keep a record!
She is old enough to keep a diary about her skating and her lessons, what she has learnt each day and what she is planning to work on. In conjuction with her coach, you could help her start a diary of this kind. Help her to practise intelligently - some young skaters never learn how to practise on their own, and therefore never reach their potential. Respect the coach by allowing at least 15 minutes before and after the lesson, for warm-up and practice.

Give her good role models!
Make friends with the better skaters and more sensible parents. Take her to see good skaters perform. As she improves, you might consider taking her to a summer skating camp. Always be positive and take the high road, if any rink politics rears its head.

Good luck to you all.

[QUOTE=Lippylulu]because I'm Russian." A Russian skater I met at the rink put it perfectly..."She has the Spirit of America and the soul of Russia."
[QUOTE]

She is probably not use to all the attention and new expensive equipment. I would say that once she is conditioned to the American way, she may change.

I know with my daughter, when she get's her picture in the newspaper or gets a medal, it is a real pick up and skating becomes her life. However, after a few months of skating with all the trials and tribulations and very little progress or even a setback or two, she quickly looks at her other more positive activities.

The way I work it out is that I do not look ahead. I just look back at her progress. That's more realistic.

I hate to be such a bummer, but Im not sure how after a few lessons anyone can determine if your skater has IT or not.Your child being Russian really has a very very small part to play in skating. As far as Athetic, lots of kids are but that doesnt make them a good skater.
I guess if you said she landed her axle in a week or something else, I would hold more worth to what the coach said. What can she do after 7 lessons? How good is her stroking and edges?Skating isnt jumps jumps and spins, it a balanced program with extension, speed, power, the whole package.How much does she practice?What can she do? What did the coach say was so special?
I really dont mean to be negitive, but some coaches see someone with some money as easy prey.Let her learn, practice and see how she does competing first.Skating is hours and hours of practice, and some of it isnt alot of fun. Lots of lots of time and money.
BTDT already...

I think there were a few things the coach noticed. The main thing is her rate of progress. She is skating like kids who have been skating for years and been in lessons much longer. She has incredible balance and grace which seems to make her look better than she really is at this point. She also has the dancing thing going for her...swaying to music, using her arms and hands, etc. I know being Russian has nothing to do with it in reality, but people mention it all the time anyway. Perhaps realizing she has only been here less than 6 months and came from such a deprived background makes people notice her somewhat remarkable transformation. What I mean is, in addition to the skating she has a "story" and somehow when she dances or skates it all comes pouring out in a very moving way.

My daughter is 4, turning 5 in May. She started skating just a few months after her 4th birthday in the Tiny Tots lessons. At her 3rd lesson, she'd passed the test and progressed to the next level. It was at this stage that one of the coaches approached me and said she had great potential as a skater, and that she would like to be given the opportunity to give her private lessons if/when I decided she needed them.

She started having private lessons around 3 months after she started and her progress increased dramatically! One week she had passed 2 complete levels (in Aussie Skate there are actually 2 tests to a level) !! This was when I realised she was good. In less than 6 months she was at the level that other girls who have been skating for 12-18 months are at, and now in her 8th month of skating, she is 2 levels away from being in Freestyle 1. She is not turning 5 until May. Her coach says she will be at FS1 by October at the rate she's excelling.

To give you an idea, she does 2 x 30 minute group lessons + 1 x 30 minute private lesson per week.

She also does Gymnastics, and is in the Elite Development Squad 2 days per week. I think some kids just "have it" ... she seems to be really good at most things shes tried. I don't know why!

At 9 years, she's older than most adoptees. Most people only want babies; I admire you for taking on this responsibility. It IS possible that she really, really loves you and wants to please you. She realizes that skating is expensive and you're spending this money on her, so she wants to work as hard as possible to achieve. When people praise her, she's being rewarded for that behavior, so she works even harder.

Be sure to mix in other activities, so she doesn't get burned out on skating. We hate losing kids to burnout, especially ones with potential.

Since she wants to go to the rink everyday, how about joining the skating club so she can make some skating friends? Arrange play dates and trips to the movies, or even movie night at your house. Friendships are very important.

As for your being perceived as an "easy mark" by instructors: I would talk to some other parents who've used those instructors. Check out their reputation before you commit to a lot of expensive lessons. There are bad apples in every barrel, so be wise.

I think it's more interesting that she's learning so quickly. I would expect a language barrier to hold her back. How does she communicate with you and the instructors?

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It takes experience, but you really can see pretty quickly who has talent and who does not. Sometimes you can see it the moment the childs steps onto the ice and moves around a little. That said, the last part of your post kicks in. Not everyone with talent wants to put in the effort and give up other activities. Some kids with very obvious talent never progress at all due to lack of interest. Finally, and unfortunately, ITA about some coaches.

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Indeed - and sometimes it's not a kindness to push kids too far, too fast. I knew a 5-year-old who passed what was then called the Preliminary Dance test here (the 2nd-level test up); that was fine, but she was about four or five years younger than anybody else at that level, and not such a strong skater, so ended up coming last in competitions for too long. Eventually she just gave up one day before she went to secondary school, and as far as I know, hasn't skated since.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Thank you for your kind words. It IS an incredible journey we have had adopting her. Communication was hard at first but quickly improved. We had a translator a few days a week at first and used picture dictionaries and an online translator. We enrolled her in school right away and between the other kids and ESL she learned fast. We were going to start her private lessons with a russian skating instructor but he wasn't available at first. By the time he was available she was tuning out Russian, and now she can barely even read Russian. She wants to stick with her very maternal female teacher for now but may take a group lesson with the Russian teacher who appears much more stoic and hard core.

I am going to check out a skating club since I like the idea of some play dates and skating buddies. Also, public skating sessions are so limited so it would be ncie to be able to skate at other times too.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I really appreciate it.

The bolded part really jumped out at me when I read your post. Yes, you want her to learn English and become fluent in it, but at the same time, knowing another language is such a gift. I was brought up speaking only Russian at home, didn't learn English until I was 4 or 5 because there was no need for me to. My parents know English, but at the time felt more comfortable speaking Russian at home, and still do. So now, I'm fluent in both Russian and English, and whether it's helped or not, I can't say for certain, but it certainly gives me more oppurtunities when I was volunteering at the hospital because they needed translators. But I think what I'm trying to say is encourage her to still read stories in Russian, it's good to remember where you came from to help you see how far you've come. I have friends that lived in Russia until they were about 8 or 9, but soon as they came to America, stopped speaking Russian and now they're 20, 21, 22 and regret not being able to speak the language, even though they lived in the country for a long time.

Don't worry...we always encourage and respect her Russia background. I think she is tuning out Russian at this point in order to learn English faster. We dont' speak Russian so she really needed to learn fast to deal with being in her new family. We are hoping that once the English is solid she will be more open to Russian again. We have lots of russian people in our community so she will have lots of opportunities. I agree that being bilingual a special thing.

Just prepare yourself for the cost of figure skating. We currently spend about $160 a week on figure skating and it usally come in $10.00 increments. You think oh it's only $10.00 more a week for this class and it eventually adds up.

My daughter is 9 also, she has been skating since she was 5 and is in FS5 and needs her axel to move on to FS6. There are a number of girls at our rink who are a year older or a year younger that skate at a higher level. Some girls move through things very quickly while others work hard for every single element. And on any given day at any given competition its a toss up as to who will skate the best in that perticular event. This world is filled with girls with high potetial so do to your best to keep it fun. My daughter is an only child and the girls at the rink are all like sisters to her, the friendships that she makes are worth more than any trophy she has won or will win.

Currently she has 2 - 3 30 minute private lessons, Jazz/ ballet combo class,
a footwork class, off ice jump class, Syncro team and Pilates/yoga class.

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Luckey

Sue -

I didn't realise you have a Russian origin! World is a weird place indeed.

Well, in this case, you might enjoy these adult skaters boards as well, if you haven't discovered them yet: www.skateclass.ru and www.tulup.ru
They have web versions of Tarasova's and Tchaikovskaya's books and lots of other interesting skating stuff in Russian. Enjoy!

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My other car is a Zamboni

I actually didn't know about it, but thank you. I'll read it over, but won't be able to post since I don't have a computer that types in Russian. My computer at home does, but I have no idea how to use it and what letters are which Russian letters. It's a computer program my sister needed to use for a research project, but not a Russian/English keyboard.

Fortunately, there a solution: http://www.translit.ru

You type it using latin letters, then convert to cyrillic, copy and paste. Easy!

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My other car is a Zamboni

My daughter is in Fs 4 because the axle is in Fs 5.You need to have all the elements in a level before you are at that level.At least that is what we do here
FS4: Flip, loop, sitspin, half loop , two back spirals, dance step sequence.
FS5: Lutz, Axel, camel, camel-sit-scratch, backspin, dance step sequence.
FS6: Split jump, split falling leaf, Axel-half loop-flip, double Salchow, cross-foot or layback or change sit spin, spin combo (with change of foot and position), serpentine dance step sequence.

luckeylasvegas I thought you were saying that your daughter was working on axel in order to PASS FS5 before starting to work on the FS6 elements that the other girls are doing. If she doesn't have an axel yet, she should be competing in FS4.

Is that correct?

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I sometimes things people think they are at the level of things they are working on, not level that they have passed.
My daughter has everything in fs 5, but a clean axle. She has an axle, just not good enough to pass into level 5.Her next comp will be at fs 4 unless she has an axle good enough to put into a program.
For fs six, you have to have a double sal.Not working on it, but have it well enough to pass the test. At ISI 7, you can only pass a test I Think with a panel of judges.

Twokidsskatemom: It sounds like your rink has a slightly different policy from other ISI rinks regarding testing students. The rinks I skated at and the one I currently work at all require that a student master the axel before passing out of FS5, not into it. I'm familiar with the official ISI testing forms (which do document that completing FS5 requires the axel), so I guess that your rink just has a slightly different policy. There's nothing wrong with this.

In terms of the earlier posts regarding learning English/tuning Russian out: first of all, Lippy, I very much admire and respect your adopting an older Russian child. I can't even begin to imagine what you're going through, but admire your decisions and hope that your path with your daughter is a wonderful adventure.

I am involved in the ESL field and can give you some suggestions that may help with your daughter's language learning. Even though she is learning English quickly, try to do anything you can to encourage her to maintain Russian. She's at a formative age when kids both learn and lose languages quickly. If she doesn't maintain her Russian now, even if for the benefit of learning English, she will most likely lose the majority of her Russian.

I know of a girl who moved to the U.S. with her family when she was 6 from Japan--she's now 10. Even though the family speaks Japanese at home and sends to her Japanese classes, she's much more comfortable in English and regularly switches to it when her family speaks Japanese to her. For your daughter as well, English will develop. Hopefully you can allow her to maintain her Russian while developing her English.

From a linguistical standpoint, lessons with a Russian coach could be a good idea, although from a skating standpoint, I would encourage you to seek lessons with whomever she's most comfortable. If your daughter would prefer the more maternal coach, you might also be able to get the Russian coach involved by working with her on some specific skills that he's particularly good at.

You might be able to say Im working on Fs 5, but you cant compete or pass a level unless you have all the elements.Therefor to compete to ISI fs 5, you have tested and pass all the elements.Maybe you can be in fs 5 group classes,but not to compete in.We dont have high level group classes, all the kids have privates.We do have high level power classes but not fs classes.
At least that is what the rulebook says, and that is what all the ISI rinks in this state follow

This almost 9 yr old girl has forgotten how to read Russian in 6 months? Get her to a pediatrician please, as no one should be 'forgetting' something she has been doing for years.

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blades, gary, Lucy, Emily, take care of Aiden and Sami. Sami is my sweetest heart, and always will be, forever. RIP Cubby Boy, my hero dog.

Actually forgetting Russian is very common at this stage in older adopted kids. We do not speak any Russian and she is in an English speaking classroom. I think she started tuning out Russian in order to really learn English and adjust to her new family and new surroundings. She now says she thinks and dreams in English. My guess is if we went to Russia tomorrow she would pick it all back up right away, but for now this seems to be how her brain is adjusting. After she has been here a year or so, we will encourage her to work on keeping her Russian since its wonderful to be bilingual. She is working really hard to learn to read English so maybe when she is more comfortable with that she will be willing to work on her Russian too. Don't worry, she still loves Russian candy, Russian perogies and all the Russian skaters!

This is sort of what we have decided to do. We are looking into her taking group lessons with the Russian coach and private with the woman she is working with now. Who knows, maybe the Russian coach will speak to her in Russian and she will realize she can think and speak in both languages! And thanks for the good wishes on our adoption. It IS an adventure and was quite hard the first few months, but she is a remarkable and resilient child and is making so much progress every day! She just had her first American birthday and the first birthday party of her entire life! I broke into tears when the kids all sang Happy Birthday, which then sent all the other mothers into tears too. It wa so special!!