A coach's life

Long dry spell-- sorry folks! Got swamped between my day job and my teaching schedule this week. Watch for "upsides and downsides of private lessons" coming soon, but in the meantime, just a walk (glide?) through my skating week.

Monday 7 a.m., second lesson with new student "S" who is trying to finally move past Beta. Unfortunately we end up sharing the ice with puck practice. Space and safety not really a problem, since the student's just skating in circles anyway, but oh, the noise. My ears are still ringing 4 days later. At 9, I lay out the First Figures test and the Adult Bronze moves, because I am a big baby on the ice and only ever skate what I already know.

Tuesday, back on the ice with the local high school. This is a once-a-year class for kids who are trying to free up an academic hour later in the day so they take P.E. at 7 in the morning. That's right. High school students taking P.E. at 7 in the morning. I used to think this was a punishment meted out to all the j.d.'s and was somewhat intimidated. Turns out it's the smart kids doing it on purpose, which made me even more intimidated. This morning I had them learn dance holds, which they seemed to enjoy. After school comes the PreAlpha free for all (22 kids, 2 teachers), then completely empty Alpha class, then Alpha free for all. Who can figure out why these things happen.

Wednesday, 6:30 a.m. my excellent teen low freestyler. Took her on moves ice and made her skate with the high freestyle moves. This fired her up-- she was keeping up with them. Great thing to do if your kid can handle it. Only one other teacher on the ice, so she said okay to run full ice jump patterns. Tot horde from 9 to 10:30 (three classes); Parent tot at 1, then Beta-FS 1-Adult beginner-Adult intermediate from 5 to 8:30. That's right. Wednesday's special feature is 7 hours in skates.

Thursday. High school at 7, then ran the figures and moves again, did some stretching while waiting for Parent-tot. New student in P-T screamed through most of the class; Dad was great about it, apparently there have been separation issues. We did get a smile out of her at the end, but you know you're dedicated to your job when it involves singing "Wheels on the Bus" solo to a screaming 3 year old. Gamma with A at 4; we don't have as good a rhythm teaching together at Gamma as we do at the lower levels. Not sure why that is. He's definitely my favorite person to teach with. Alpha 2, empty.

Friday, my feet have finally stopped hurting from Wednesday. I know this will get better as the session wears on, but right now I'm in agony half the week. Subbed for V in massive tot class; yikes. Everyone comes on Friday. Giant PreAlpha, too; gave up Delta to help M with them (so sad, except oh yeah I HATE teaching Delta). One of those classes with 3 boys who just want to skate as fast as they can and don't quite get the whole "a class is for learning" thing. PreAlpha classes continually amaze me because of the number of young kids these days with really poor muscle tone and absolutely NO body awareness. Parents-- please send your children out to play on the playground equipment. Kids today need more falls off the monkey bars, and a few stubbed toes and split lips. I don't get 8 year olds who can't seem to stand up, even in shoes.

Week finishes with darling tiny Vika, pint sized and super sweet, and statuesque Laura, coming back into skating at 16 with lots of enthusiasm and a great attitude.

What a great job. I can't believe I get paid to do this.