A Positive Thread About Coaches

[Dave Amorde]

Have you recently changed coaches, or know someone who has? Was it a positive change? Tell me about your new coach, why you selected him or her, and what positive changes you have seen in you or your child's skating.
While I believe that it is important to weed out the bad ones, be they abusive or just incompetent, I also believe that the skating world is filled with terrific coaches who deserve a public pat on the back. So..
Here's your opportunity to publicly pat a coach on the back. :)

[becca]

I made a coaching change almost a year ago. I am an older skater (started skating at 12 and am now 19). I don't skate competitively but I do take the sport seriously and prefer to train as a competitive athlete (skating 2 or 3 nights a week is just not fun for me). I skate on a competitive and skate almost as much as some of our national competitors. Anyway, in the past I had trained with a good competitive coach (Blaine Moore) and had a great experience but when he moved to B.C. I went back to a recreational coach who had given me a few lessons in the past. I really liked her but I just didn't see the same improvement and she lacked the ispiration and spark that I had experienced with the competitive coach. In early August last year, I finally decided to make the change to the major competitive coaching team at my club (Paul Wirtz and group). I started off being coached mostly by Kristy and Lisa but then Kristy went back to competitve skating and Lisa moved back to Alberta. Now I get the majority of my lessons from Steven but I have had occasional lessons from every member of that coaching team. Anyway I went from my highest jump being an axel last summer to having all of my doubles (except axel) clean in about 8 months. They are very consistant and I can usually do several double/double combos as well. Every aspect of my skating has improved hugely as well as my confidence, work ethic and overall level of health and fitness. I am exceptionally happy with my coaching change!

[iceskater2]

Great Idea Dave.

There are tons of great coachs. I skated for several years and had Bobby Beauchamp as my coach. I am an adult skater and he always gave me as much hope and training as he did any of his other students. He has since moved away and I have stopped skating, truth is I never really felt I could find as good a coach as he was for me.

[ddpskater]

Interesting. Negative threads about coaches seem to have loads of replies but this one has had hardly any activity. So I guess I'll wade in with some kudos. I'm very pleased. I've been taking lessons w/Olivia Maxwell for about a year and she's very analytical, positive, demanding and working hard to correct lots of things I learned incorrectly. While I'm sure I'm going at a pace much slower than the kids, (b/c at 44, and working full time at a mostly desk job and w/absolutely no natural skating talent but lots of enthusiasm(!), I have limitations), I feel like I'm being held to held to a quality standard, so that eventually, what I can do, I'll do well.

[sk8er1964]

My coach is great. He's young (only about 15 years younger than me :) ), but he has talent, dedication, and an insight far older than his years. I've been with him for a year, and I wouldn't consider going to anyone else. If he "retires" when he graduates from college, I'll be devistated :( . In one year, he's coached me from a very out of shape returning child skater/no-test adult through adult gold (including the Adult Gold MIF), and my first Adult Nationals. He believed that I could do it (as did I), and we did!

[JKlink]

Seems like the only happy people are either adults, or non-competitive skaters. Why do you think that is?

[becca]

Originally posted by JKlink
Seems like the only happy people are either adults, or non-competitive skaters. Why do you think that is?

I don't know but you can't blame it all on the coaches. 2 out of my 3 favorite coaches have been competitive coaches with skaters competing internationally. The current group of coaches (see my post above) are some of the top coaches in Canada. The coaches sent 18 skaters to nationals (who earned 4 medals and 6 top 5 finished). He had 2 singles skaters and 6 pairs teams competing internationally last year. I don't think that problem is that there aren't any good competitive coaches. This perticular coach moved to another provence and had 13 skaters follow him so clearly they do think highly of him.

[Roseline]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by JKlink
Seems like the only happy people are either adults, or non-competitive skaters. Why do you think that is?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


1. Because lower-level skaters are more likely to post here, or willing to identify themselves. A high-level skater is not going to come on here and say "I love Richard Callaghan! We got along great, and he coached me to an Olympic gold medal."
2. Because higher-level skaters are attempting to achieve more lofty goals, trying to do things that 99% of the population cannot. I think that can cause tension.
3. We hear about problems with coaches and the coach/student breakups, but we often do not hear about the good relationships students and coaches have.

[Skatewind]

Originally posted by JKlink
Seems like the only happy people are either adults, or non-competitive skaters. Why do you think that is?
How do you know others aren't happy simply because they choose not to post here? Maybe they just prefer not to openly name their coach.

[radioactive]

Best coaches I ever had were the Scotvolds:D

[JKlink]

Originally posted by Skatewind
How do you know others aren't happy simply because they choose not to post here? I asked why, that's all. I'm sorry if my question was poorly phrased.

[IceDanceSk8er]

There are some really good coaches out there who rarely get any headlines. One dance coach in Chicago comes to mind - Christopher Hyland. Too bad ice dance is all but dead in Chicago because Hyland would most definately get recognition if he were in Detroit or Boston.

[butterfly]

Originally posted by IceDanceSk8er
There are some really good coaches out there who rarely get any headlines. One dance coach in Chicago comes to mind - Christopher Hyland. Too bad ice dance is all but dead in Chicago because Hyland would most definately get recognition if he were in Detroit or Boston. Well...sounds like there are going to be big opportunities for ice dance coaches at Detroit very soon :). He should apply.

[IceDanceSk8er]

Originally posted by butterfly
Well...sounds like there are going to be big opportunities for ice dance coaches at Detroit very soon :). He should apply.

What's going on in Detroit?

[what?meworry?]

there was a rumor a while back that jjohns, marina, and igor were seeking a new training home.

rumor also had it that dallas was a targeted destination.

considering the enormous caravan of skaters that would need to relocate (good for dallas, not good for those involved) it was thought that this was delusional speculation.

anyone got any real, live facts?

[what?meworry?]

Originally posted by JKlink
Seems like the only happy people are either adults, or non-competitive skaters. Why do you think that is?

by defination, early adolescents and adolescents are not pleased with authority figures like parents and coaches. most competitors are early adolescents or adolescents. from an adult perspective, they're horrible. from the perspective of a non-parent and psychologist, they are in the process of developing their "self-image." so much for that, they are still a pain in the "arse."

that said, however, i think most posters here are adults---parents, "fans," an occasional usfsa person, and coaches.

it's tough to see criticism in print of your skating, but such is a day in the life of a public figure, which competitive skaters are, like it or not.

[what?meworry?]

Originally posted by IceDanceSk8er
There are some really good coaches out there who rarely get any headlines. One dance coach in Chicago comes to mind - Christopher Hyland. Too bad ice dance is all but dead in Chicago because Hyland would most definately get recognition if he were in Detroit or Boston.

(??????????)
i've pm'd you a question regarding this.
i have acquaintances in chicago that i talk to occasionally.

edit to clarify: my "??????????s" in no way relate to the "bad" kind of stuff recently discussed on other threads. i don't want anyone to get that impression.

[what?meworry?]

ok, i'm taking up a lot of space now, but i'm between "flights' so to speak.

about high-level coaches. many of the girls have eating disorders and self-image problems.

as a third-party observer, i think the lescinski/brown coaching team is the most successful to date in producing quality teams comprised of healthy individuals.

there are others, but this coaching team has performed their responsibilities for the benefit of all their students most consistently over the greatest length of time.

and, how can i forget frank carroll! he's my pick for observable high quallity technical and emotional/mental fs coaching. his skaters all seem to have it "together."

[WeBeEducated]

It is my understanding that the Boston icedance coaches (Tom, Barret, Ron)recognize the importance of quality education, and support skaters who attend school/college by adjusting to THEIR schedules.
They seem to be professional yet warm and friendly.
In freestyle, Mark Mitchell also appears to be doing things the right way.
If I had to do it all over again, Boston is where we would be.

[IceDanceSk8er]

Originally posted by WeBeEducated
It is my understanding that the Boston icedance coaches (Tom, Barret, Ron)recognize the importance of quality education, and support skaters who attend school/college by adjusting to THEIR schedules.
They seem to be professional yet warm and friendly.
In freestyle, Mark Mitchell also appears to be doing things the right way.
If I had to do it all over again, Boston is where we would be.

You're absolutely right about Barret, Tom, and Ron. Currently there are eight dance teams training in Boston - three of these teams are in the USFSA's Team Envelope. With the exception of Hilary Gibbons and Justin Pekarek, all attend school and maintain very good grades. Of course, having dance ice scheduled from 5:00 AM to 10 AM also helps. Mark Mitchell, Peter Johansen, Lisa Coppola, Bobby Martin, and Tom McGinnis - all of whom coach at the Skating Club of Boston - are so supportive of their skater's. When you speak to all the coaches mentioned in this post, education comes first, then skating.

Boston is a great place to train.

[chattykathy]

Sometimes even higher level skaters find themselves needing a change in coaching. My daughter spent the winter skating with 4 top level coaches, and truly enjoyed everyone of them (Richard Callaghan included). All four of these coaches knew the reason for the change and put alot of emphasis on ethics and communication. In 7 years of competive skating my daughter only had one coaching team,and she thought she was a high priority to them. That dissapointment was the hardest to overcome. She is skating for herself more now, and that is good.
We looked for the right connection between skater and coach and then the ability to keep that connection in perspective. One thing we did make clear was that we wanted a coach and not a best friend or another mother. I saw my daughters ability to communicate with two of the coaches with ease that I never saw from her. It was soooooo hard to chose.

The move has been harder on me than my daughter but I will get over that hump too. I watched her land triple lutzes yesterday and that helps.