Parents and coaches, it's a whole new week to talk about your child's or student's practices and lessons.

Cool : Started a new session for learn-to-skate yesterday. Five new Snowplow Sam 1 students. There's some potential in this class.

I still can't figure out why parents insist on getting rental skates for their kids that is a size LARGER than the kids' shoe size.

Curdled: Had to turn my old Sam 2 class over to a new instructor for Sam 3. It's amazing how much you miss some of these kids. The next time I get to watch them skate they'll probably be doing axels.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Our regular learn to skate season is over, so now we are working on ice show. Our show is "Beauty and the Beast" and I'm working with a group of Basic 1/2 kids, on "Syncopated Clock" to go along with Cogsworth, the clock in the show. They are doing really well, and it's been a lot of fun. I'm also working with our beginner syncro team on their program for the show. Our ice comes out March 15, until June 21, so this is a fun way to end the season.

We'll see if I have this same attitude the weekend of the show. We are doing six shows... 1 Friday night, 3 Saturday, and 2 Sunday, the weekend of March 12-14.

In snowbunnies I had one screaming little boy and I could tell by looking at his dad that he didn't want his son to come off the ice and just get away with it. He did not want to skate. Eventually the other coach took over. In introductory I had a hysterical 8 year old girl who was quite overweight and nearly as tall as me. Kind of scary. She was screaming the entire time and I was trying to calm her down while the head instructor was teaching the rest of the class and telling me to help this other kid. I told her, "um hello I can't! you do it!" and she said I can't I have to teach the rest of the class and I told her well, it's your class, you figure it out. Eventually the skate school director came out and helped with the 8 year old so I could help the other kid who was foreign and his parents didn't have insurance in the US so they didn't want him to fall - ha! So yes it was a very stressful start to the new session of skate school!

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- Ashley

I'm not sure about ISI LTS, but membership in USFSA Skate With U.S. programs includes insurance for the skaters.

Cool
The overweight mother of one of my Snowplow Sam 1 kids took a lesson with me on Sat. She is very out of shape and not too strong, but managed to stay on the ice for 20 minutes. She was very scared, so I had her put one of her hands over the wall. She did do about 5 or 6 steps that day without holding on to anything. On Sunday, she put on the same (loaner) skates, and worked at it for two hours on her own! She then did 10 minutes with me, and once again was able to let go for a little bit. She took a very gentle fall and got up with the help of the wall. I'm thrilled with her courage and determination. She wants to continue lessons with me after the outdoor rink closes. I really understand her state of mind, as I was only able to get halfway around the rink on my first try, and also needed help up after a fall.

Curdled
I've been looking forward all week to tonight, when I was to begin private lessons with a girl who is starting crossovers in her group lessons. I think she will be a lot of fun to work with, and it's refreshing to do some technical stuff for a change. Alas, the director left her skates at another rink and had to have others cover her classes for her, which, for reasons unknown, caused her to switch the class time of my new student, without telling me! Sooo, instead of doing crossovers with an eager and apt student, I spent 30 minutes with a child whose grandfather is more interested in her skating than she is, 20 min with an adorable but stubborn tot who quit in tears once again this week when she fell on her butt, and worst of all, 10 minutes with a child who very clearly has some kind of cognitive disability about which his mother is in denial.

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Well, when I was growing up (not really that long ago), and pond skating was popular, that was the 'wisdom'--you got larger skates for two reasons, 1) you could 'grow into them' and get more use out of them, and 2) you needed room for your dad's huge pair of sweat socks that were to 'keep your feet warm'.

I always see this as a wonderful opportunity to educate the parents. I think there really needs to be a sign at the rental desk about proper sizing of skates, and it needs to be mentioned in whatever the parents sign when they sign up for lessons. You'll still get the ones who don't read, of course, but it might cut down on ankle skating.

well, we are getting ready for our first away competion, we leave tommorow.She can fs tommorow then she sees her coach friday at 2pm.
Its they first time she is really competing with some others, but we talked about the fact she might not get a first. She said,,,, that is ok, its about having fun and a good time.
Not bad for a 4yo

The foreign kid I mentioned earlier is getting moved to the other Introductory class, since the Leah (the other teacher) and I are only assistant instructors and therefore do not have insurance, the skate school director does not want a kid without insurance combined with coaches without insurance! So he is getting moved to the other Introductory class with a staff coach. I am also getting moved to help the Beta class so I won't have to deal with anymore hysterical 8 year olds that are as big as I am.

Classes today went well. Tots is HUGE this session - 12 or 13 kids maybe? Last time there were 5! It went well though. They are a pretty good group. Alpha also went well, although it's a pain dealing with one girl who has a 0 attention span!

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- Ashley

Good for her!!!

Just keep reminding her that it's all about having fun.

Make sure you give us the details about how she did.

Wish her "Good luck" for us.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

That's at least one area I don't have a problem with. At 6'-1", when you put blades on me I'm pretty tall (actually, that makes me as tall as my oldest son).

To my disadvantage, I've got to lean over a lot further to pick up injured tykes off of the ice.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Well, I'm only 5'3" lol but STILL....8 year olds should not be that big!

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- Ashley

Kids grow at different rates! I've worked with some of those big 8 year olds (I'm 5'3" also) and I agree that it's no fun to deal with anyone hysterical on the ice, but especially when I don't have a good size advantage.

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Well, mine 9 year old is only 4'2" and 65 pounds pretty short and small, even compared to others in her class. Now my boy on the other hand is big and strong, but then again he is almost 17. Also a center for his varsity football team.


By the way when she was in snowplow 1, she actually skated out onto the ice without help, she was moved right away to snowplow 2. She was just 5 then, now you can catch her doing axles and every other move she can copy. Of course her then coach said she "needed" private lessons. We have sense moved on with the coach but she "has" to skate just about every day. I'm glad her excitement continues!

Cool:
I picked up a new private student, a teenager with pretty good basic freestyle skills. We worked on spins and crossovers - nice to be challenged! I hope she stays with lessons for a while since she shows promise.

I also have a new group lesson where we're working on higher-level basic skills. The kids nailed a few things right away. We just have to focus on checks and rotation before we go much further.

Curdled:
Another private student spent the first 15 minutes of our lesson crying because her mother made her carry her own skate bag. I had to resort to slapstick comedy to make her laugh. I sat down on the ice and spun around on my butt, then coaxed her to join me. After that, we were able to actually have a lesson, but we wasted half of it on useless tears!

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Totally Cool
I got to work with a self taught adult tonight for 75 minutes! He could do F & B crossovers, but needed quite a bit of fixing up on both. He caught on quickly and just needs to remember the fixes and practice them. It was wonderful to teach someone with both physical ability and the intellectual maturity to understand technical explanations. We also did the FO, FI, and BO edge patterns. He had FO threes, but but not controlled or checked at all, so we worked on those too. On Mohawks, he had quite a bit of trouble understanding the change of feet, which I know is a common problem. If anyone has any teaching tips on that, I could use them.

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Sorry DBNY, couldn't resist joining you on the subject!

My hockey skating expert that doesn't need lessons decided to leave his hockey skates at home last Friday and rent really bad figure skates. The skates were bad, not him. It was an epiphany for him to not be able to just zoom around the ice and show off. He joined the lesson and struggled with the rest of the class. Frankly, I think he had a good time being one of the guys! Hallelujah for smart kids!

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Any time!

Were you able to call out "toepick" for him?

BTW, I had a lot of fun teaching hockey stops this week, thanks entirely to you, since I didn't have one before you both taught me, and taught me how to teach them.

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I've been working with my girlfriend on her mohawks. I'll have her glide around the circle on a FI edge for a while, then I'll have her glide around on the BI edge for a while just to get the feel of the edges all of the while holding her arms properly to keep her chest pointed toward the center of the circle.

I try to get her thinking of a mohawk not as an element in itself, but as a transfer from the FI edge to the BI edge. She has closed hips, so I'm teaching her to "cheat" her FI edge in a little bit at the moment of transition to help get to that BI edge.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau