Coaches,
Since I got back into coaching this season, I am surprised by the number of kids who do not know right from left. I teach USFSA at 3 different rinks. It is everywhere. It also does not seem especially dependent on age. I would expect tots to struggle w this, but I almost never teach a skill to tots that requires differentiating b/w rt and left. However, I was teaching Basic 4 last night and those kids really did not know rt from left. They were a little older, maybe preteen. The other coaches at the rink have noticed this too. We have them raise their right hand. 50%+ will raise the left. When I ask them to put out their left foot, I get the same result. It is frustrating.

Don't kids learn the hokey pokey anymore?

Kay

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I can understand your frustrations, as with the higher levels right and left really makes a difference! I teach snowplow sam, so I wear a pink glove and a black glove and say "right, the pink side"- hoping to ingrain right into their head, but knowing they don't know it.

I don't think much time is spent on right and left anymore, but I'm not sure it ever was. I can remember learning how to drive and using directions like "take a Jessi, take a Sarah" depending on who was in the passenger seat b/c I still had to think about right and left as a 15 year old. And I DID play hokey pokey at the roller rink

I have no clue how to fix it, but wanted to add that it's not just you, and not just your rink

The other problem we have is inside vs outside. There are kids in Freestyle 3 here who still don't know the difference.

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-Jessi
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My coach has a good trick for teaching inside/outside, that I'm currently using with my Basic 3/4 class. When we're doing edges around the circle, I make a big deal about the name of the edge we're on - Forward, Right or Left, then - if your free foot is outside the circle, you're on an outside edge, and if your free foot is inside the circle, you're on an inside edge. Seems to be working so far.

DD and I can neither identify our right from left. It's a huge embarrassment to her, and she hates to have it discussed publicly. It's part of a learning disability for both of us.

One thing that works is constant repetition so that muscle memory takes over, and, in LTS, a small sticker on her left skate that she could glance down at, or, a different coloured mitten on her left hand (red mitt always on the left). In her dance tests, the coach doesn't use turn left/turn right, he uses turn in, turn out, etc. Inside and outside edge also works better.

BTW: her IQ is in the 99th percentile, high genius range, although she can't tell her left from her right, go figure.

Hokey pokey - good idea.
I teach it with "Simon Says" - "SS, skate on your LEFT OUTSIDE edge..."

For little ones, I put a sticker on their spinning foot (CCW=Left foot) and remind them that "The Fishie (or whatever sticker I've used) is the LEFT foot that stays on the ice." Little by little, I switch my terminology to say "Left forward spiral" without the sticker cue, or with a quick "Fishie is the left" reminder if they start off wrong.

You're right: there are a lot of kids who can't tell left and right apart. My sister (in her 50's) messes up all the time. We'll tell her "Turn left" and she'll put on her right turn signal. My BIL always tells her "No - MY left" or "Your other left." LOL (She's left-handed and still "scarred from the nuns trying to change her to a righty," maybe that's why she gets confused.

I once "taught behind" a very nice woman who called every maneuver with the wrong foot. This was a very experienced LTS instructor with excellent skills. A "Left Forward Spiral" in her class meant to LIFT the left foot, not skate on the left foot. I was getting frustrated because the kids kept lifting the wrong leg. I ended up telling the students to "Keep your left foot on the ice and lift the OTHER leg."

Many people also can't tell time without a digital clock, my own kids pointed out yesterday. My insane DH has at least one clock in EVERY room of the house, including several analog ones. If they need to know the time, the kids go find the nearest digital one. I'm tempted to set all the digital ones ahead so they either HAVE to read the analog ones or we'll be early to everything, lol.

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My coach taught me years ago, when we had to do hours of compulsory figures - a neat trick that I teach all my skaters!

Put both hands out as if you are admiring your fingernails......spread the thumbs out....and voila! Which thumb forms a big L??? The left hand, of course. Works every time and I still use it.

Of course, now my big problem is remembering which way I rotate....since I teach both clock and counterclock skaters and have learned to spin or jump equally well in both directions!!

But I still have to think about my left -- and I'm left handed!

I find kids get confused when you ask them to do, for example, a right one-foot glide. It's not that they can't tell which is R or L, it's that they don't know if you want them to pick up the right foot, or skate on the right foot. So I take a moment to reinforce that whatever foot I say should be the one on the ice.

I understand your point, and that is important to clarify to students. However, I am having trouble w kids just being able to raise their right hand. Different thing. They truly do not know right from left in that case.

Kay

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My 5 year old son is struggling with this - I now give him a right hand red glove and right red boot cover! Otherwise he is clueless. (He also doesn't have a clue about outside or inside edges so I don't think that helps - only way to tell him is to go round the circle with your right foot).

I wouldn't expect a 5 year old to know outside/inside edges. But it's so good you color code him! (When I was little I just remembered that my right hand went on my heart to say the pledge. I had to pick it up and check everytime! But lots of schools don't even do that anymore.)

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-Jessi
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I just think that some kids will always have trouble with that one. I am an adult and occasionally I will have to make an L with my hand to find the left one. Inside/outside edge no problem. But tell me to get on a left outside edge and I have to think about it for a minute.

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I have been known to put a sticker on the boot of the skaters dominent side. If the skater is right handed I put it on their right skate. I also used the color glove trick.

I have noticed the trend too. But I have to admit when I am told to turn right...I have to think about it.

I have to stop and think, too. Not only when on the ice, but also when I am giving driving directions - especially when driving abroad where turning across or with the traffic is different.... so I'll say "Turn right" when I actually mean "turn left" - after all, it's the 3rd exit from the roundabout, no?

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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!

You need to learn to do the "turn Mrs. Redboots" or "turn Mr. Redboots" code.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

I will agree my four year old has no problems with right or left. But when told to do an element on right or left she gets confused. I.E. A t-push she isnt sure if you mean right foot forward or backward. Its the details that are confusing. I am sure its this way for many skaters. Even those 12 year olds who should know the difference they just may get into this mind confusion.

For me it's been something I've struggled with all my life and DD has the same issue, which we didn't realize until she was getting serious about her skating. We are both right handed but left-eyed and left-footed, so I think there is probably some paths crossed upstairs that make it so difficult. My family has learned to listen to what I say, not which way I point, when I'm giving directions. It's so embarassing with strangers to be pointing left and saying right....