I'm working with a 3 year old girl who has now been on skates twice. She is adorable, bright, lively, and loves being on the ice. She's not afraid at all. The problem is that she frequently arches her back suddenly, which causes her to fall backwards. Of course, she wears a helmet, but I don't want to let that fall happen because I think that could be the beginning of fear for her. I hold one hand and put my other behind her back so I can catch her and let her down gently. Sooner or later she has to really fall, but I'd rather it not be backwards. Any ideas for helping her to stop the arching?

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just like kids do when they want to be picked up (they go limp) the same thing this girl is doing. She wants you to catch her so she doesn't fall. It's going to turn into a game. Let her fall once and see what happens. She might be scared a bit but if she likes skating then she will try it again. Remember all the times kids fall learning to walk.

I've seen little kids do this sort of thing. I think it's just a reflex that kicks in when they think they are going to fall forward. But she's only been on skates twice, give her some more time to get used to the feeling. Or play a game involving knee bends?

Hmm, I don't think that's it because she actually asks to fall, and then goes to the side like I showed her off ice the first time. This is really an accidental thing. I know I'm going to have to let it happen, but would like to postpone it until she is more on her own, rather than have it happen while I am still holding her hand virtually all of the time. Thank you for your input.

It does seem to be reflexive. I like your idea of a game for bending knees, most of the tots could really use that, since they tend to skate with stiff legs for quite a while. Any ideas for knee bending games are welcome.

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She's a bit young, but if you can come up with a way to have her keep her arms stretched out in front of her, it might help her balance.

Maybe give her a long stuffed animal that she has to hold in both hands out front.

I saw another interesting balance trick the other day with a skater a little older who wasn't wearing a helmet. Her coach put a stuffed monkey on her head and had her doing crossovers while balancing it. The monkey had floppy arms and legs that hung on four sides of her head so it wouldn't fall off too easily.

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

At my rink we sometimes sing "Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes" with the little kids. That makes them bend their knees. I also like using "The Wheels on the Bus". When we sing "The people on the bus go up and down" we stretch up and then bend down and touch toes. We also do backward wiggles at the verse about the windshield wipers.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

Well i was coaching Canskate and Preschool today and my best advice to you would be getting them to touch there toes when doing forwards skating.

It really helps.
(Well it works at are club)

Thanks for all the good ideas.

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Np..

I usually tell my snowbunny kids to put their hands in front of them and play the piano. They like that...or put them on the magic table like they're ready for dinner.

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- Ashley

Lol!

I've been teaching my 4-year-old niece to skate. She's pretty good with the balance by now and knows how to stop herself from falling by bending her knees and putting her arms out.

Her favorite thing is to have me pull her around the rink fast. When she has to move under her own power, she doesn't get much speed at all. She started out with little walking steps and now gets some slow gliding by a sort of slalom/shuffling movement.

I think when she gets that breakthrough concept of actually pushing against the ice with her blade, she'll be able to get more speed and glide, but I don't know how to convey that concept to her. Any suggestions?

I teach about 50-60 tots a week. The best trick is to start out by just teaching kids to keep their hands out directly in front of them. Later as they skate better, you can move them to the side for figure skaters and let them remain in front for hockey players. But this is a good way to get them to balance, and keeps them forward over their knees. We teach all kids to practice putting their hands on their knees, and tell them that if they think they are going to fall put their hands there. This is a great time to have them do the head and shoulders knees and toes game. But those are the best two tricks ever for teaching tots. Good luck, I know how difficult it can be sometimes just to find some balance for a little one!

I steeled myself for the inevitable tonight, and brought "Pumpkin Head" to the rink with me. He is a grapefruit sized orange plush ball
with a Jack-O-Lantern face and two spindly arms. I started the little one out almost right away with catch. I hardly held her hand at all. She took a hard splat, said "not hurting" in her tiny voice and continued to do all the things she had been doing - marching steps (she asked for that), playing catch, following the "wave" line another coach had drawn etc. After her lesson, I told her mother that she could go out on her own, if she liked, and she skated the rest of the practice time!

This little one is so bright, she is always looking around, taking everything in, and asking questions. All I had to do was remind her to "put your arms out" or "take little steps" or "bend your knees". I think she is a natural, and she LOVES skating! Sadly, I had to tell her parents that she is ready for the Snowplow 1 class, so I will most likely not be helping her learn anymore, except very casually in the practice area. What a joy!

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I know how you feel. My first session of assistant coaching, I taught the snowbunny class by myself but there was only 1 kid, so she got a 30 minute private lesson for 8 weeks! She was very very scared at first but in a couple weeks she was skating very first. Luckily, I've managed to get myself put in the classes she's moved up to.

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- Ashley

Oh thats Great Ashbugg44,im glad shes doing well !
I have a similar story too,its about a little boy named collin who ison my preschool session.
Hes adorable ,and he may be one of the lower skaters but he is doing much better than a few weeks ago!

One coach I know brings a bag of small stuffed animals to her classes. Each tot gets to choose their own animal for the class. The coach will throw the animals down the ice a short way and have the tots skate to their animal, pick it up, and bring it back.

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

I've seen coaches have soft (stuffed) skittles - the kind you use in 10-pin bowling, but these are soft, not hard. The children can throw the ball to knock down the skittles, and then skate to retrieve them.

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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!