Why Learn To Skate?
By which I don't mean why learn to skate-- that's obvious. Because it's fun.
Learn To Skate (also known as weSkate, and similar to CanSkate, and Basic Skills) is where you get the fundamentals, including the part where skating is both fun and mental. If you don't get it here, you're not going to get it in Freestyle.
There's a skill in every level of every beginner curriculum that coaches blow off. "I'm not going to hold a kid back just because she can't do [XX].
Here's the skills, and here's what happens if you let it go.
PreAlpha or Basic 1
Skill that teachers let slide (so to speak): One foot glide on the weak foot.
Consequence: Really really hard and frustrating to learn crossovers
Outcome: they switch to hockey, or quit skating because it isn't fun and everyone is better than them
Alpha/Basic 2-3
Skill: Proper underpush (i.e. no toe push)
Consequence: since weSkate and Basic Skills are set up to teach a skill and then basically drop it until the kid decides to do USFS testing, toe pushes become embedded in a skater's muscle memory, and they will never unlearn it. Watch for a post about the curriculum model that drops a skill once you move to the next level.
Outcome: competitive decision made for you. I'm not saying every kid wants to or should be a competitive skater. But why make that decision for them by teaching poor skills at the outset.
Beta/Basic 5
Skill: t-stops, especially on the "hard" foot.
Consequence: snow plow stopping in the higher levels, which just looks stupid. The close-foot T position is also the basic position for a mohawk turn. Think about it.
Outcome: the embarrassment of the utter disbelief on the FS5 teacher's face when she finds out you can't do a T-stop.
Gamma/ Basic 6-7
Skill: hockey stop
Consequence: the hockey stop teaches opposition much more effectively even than drilling turns. You can make a turn without really understanding opposition. But you can't do a hockey top without getting it right.
Outcome: Poorly executed turns. Also faceplanting on 60-second drills (also never completing it in under 60 seconds)
Delta/Basic 7-8
Skill: bunny hop
Consequence: the bunny hop teaches the basic lift and landing for every jump. Shoulders square, rock to the toe, lift the free knee through. Land on your toe pick. It also requires an absolutely solid understanding of right and left (this is harder than you think, for kids as old as 10).
Outcome: let this skill go, and that kid will struggle with every single jump.
I could go on: waltz jumps that are taught with the free leg already behind on the landing (this is a consequence of the stupid commonly used term "landing position" to mean "check out position"). Pivots that quickly just turn into spins. Never teaching mazurkas (I'm looking at you, ISI.) Back spins on the wrong edge. Toe loops that take off forwards.
Skaters: take the time and learn the techniques properly. Coaches: keep kids in each level until they've mastered every skill. Skating directors support your staff by letting them keep kids in levels, and your skaters by having other classes that they can do while they're mastering the boring stuff.
In the end, it will catch up with you. If you get to testing, the judges are not going to let this stuff slide, and if a skater has been getting away with it, they're not going to understand what those judges are talking about.
What skill do you wish you or your skater had really mastered before moving on?
Showing posts with label learntoskate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learntoskate. Show all posts
Apr 9, 2015
Dec 2, 2014
Sink or swim warm ups: 5 ideas to keep your head above water
It's been seven months since I dropped all my group classes due to health and business pressures. (Oops, did I forget to mention that? Last April I had to drop all my staff positions due to health and business concerns. I guess I'll do a post about that!)
The result is that I haven't seen a freestyle warm up in seven months. And I haven't seen a warm up at a rink that doesn't train its beginning freestyle students in the challenging warm up skills in even longer than that.
A couple of weeks ago I went to watch my student H, who passed into Freestyle One this session. His mother was a little concerned, because both I and his class teacher had told her he'd be fine with the skills, it was the warm up that she should be worried about.
He, and the other baby freestylers actually do fine. They stumble through the skills, sometimes badly and fast, sometimes well, but slow, but pretty much clueless throughout.
The Ice Rink of the Damned actually got this one right-- they inserted a level between Delta and FS1 called "Pre Freestyle" with the express mandate of teaching the kids the warm up patterns. At my last rink, you didn't get out of Delta (or out of Beta for that matter) without the flow, speed and skating knowledge to handle the warm up. (Yes, all those kids skated better than me. It was a little intimidating. Fortunately I'm extremely arrogant.)
H's rink-- man, they just throw them in the deep end, or would have, if it wasn't frozen. Because those kids were drowning.
I don't think the kids knew this, and the coaches were handling it reasonably well, but I don't really understand the point of having kids try to figure out a complex skill like power 3-turns. They're just getting it wrong and are going to have to unlearn it, or they'll feel incompetent and will check out. (haha skating joke).
Here are some solutions:
Pre-Freestyle
As I noted, you can simply add a level. The Basic Skills and ISI curricula are not governed by force of law. You can mess around with them. The problem moving from Learn to Skate into Freestyle is that LTS teaches the skills in isolation; Freestyle requires flow, and the ability to move from one skill to another. (This is actually one of the areas where Basic Skills gets it better than ISI, because it does teach more flow than ISI.)
The skills that kids should learn are alternating 3-turns, waltz 3-turns, power 3-turns, alternating mohawks, stopping drills, cross rolls and cross steps, perimeter stroking (PrePre pattern), perimeter cross overs (forwards and backwards), 3-turn tap toes. That'll do it. Once they have these in their muscle memory, other warm up patterns will become more intuitive.
Divide the ice
If your rink doesn't have enough available ice to add a level, and you've got mixed high/mid and low in a single class, put the new freestylers on one side of the blue line (about a quarter of the rink), with the rest of the class sharing the remainder. Yes, the high skaters will be somewhat restricted, but on the other hand they won't be tripping over the low skaters anymore. You don't even need to do it for the whole session-- maybe the first month, until the newbies learn the moves.
Add it to Delta
Delta Is So Boring. Start teaching the kids to put the skills together. They'll be more engaged and they'll be more ready for freestyle.
Rearrange the classes
Instead of putting Gamma and Delta on the same ice, put Gamma with the Betas, and create a Delta-FS1-FS2 level. this is another place where Basic Skills gets it right, by putting beginning spins and jumps in their learn to skate curriculum. FS1 and FS2 (and maybe FS3) shouldn't even be considered "Freestyle" but should still be counted in Learn to Skate, because they are still introducing basic concepts. But nobody asks me.
Divide the ice, part duo
To get around the full-ice problem created by dividing the ice along the short axis, put the high freestyle kids on the perimeter, and run the beginners up the center so they can both learn the skills and go at their own speed. You won't be able to run any "five circle" warm ups using this traffic pattern, but on the other hand you won't have the highs tripping over the lows. You'll also teach the high freestyle kids to use the whole ice. It makes me insane when skaters avoid the end zone like there's a force field blocking it.
How does your rink integrate or prepare low freestyle into the freestyle curriculum?
The result is that I haven't seen a freestyle warm up in seven months. And I haven't seen a warm up at a rink that doesn't train its beginning freestyle students in the challenging warm up skills in even longer than that.
A couple of weeks ago I went to watch my student H, who passed into Freestyle One this session. His mother was a little concerned, because both I and his class teacher had told her he'd be fine with the skills, it was the warm up that she should be worried about.
He, and the other baby freestylers actually do fine. They stumble through the skills, sometimes badly and fast, sometimes well, but slow, but pretty much clueless throughout.
The Ice Rink of the Damned actually got this one right-- they inserted a level between Delta and FS1 called "Pre Freestyle" with the express mandate of teaching the kids the warm up patterns. At my last rink, you didn't get out of Delta (or out of Beta for that matter) without the flow, speed and skating knowledge to handle the warm up. (Yes, all those kids skated better than me. It was a little intimidating. Fortunately I'm extremely arrogant.)
H's rink-- man, they just throw them in the deep end, or would have, if it wasn't frozen. Because those kids were drowning.
I don't think the kids knew this, and the coaches were handling it reasonably well, but I don't really understand the point of having kids try to figure out a complex skill like power 3-turns. They're just getting it wrong and are going to have to unlearn it, or they'll feel incompetent and will check out. (haha skating joke).
Here are some solutions:
Pre-Freestyle
As I noted, you can simply add a level. The Basic Skills and ISI curricula are not governed by force of law. You can mess around with them. The problem moving from Learn to Skate into Freestyle is that LTS teaches the skills in isolation; Freestyle requires flow, and the ability to move from one skill to another. (This is actually one of the areas where Basic Skills gets it better than ISI, because it does teach more flow than ISI.)
The skills that kids should learn are alternating 3-turns, waltz 3-turns, power 3-turns, alternating mohawks, stopping drills, cross rolls and cross steps, perimeter stroking (PrePre pattern), perimeter cross overs (forwards and backwards), 3-turn tap toes. That'll do it. Once they have these in their muscle memory, other warm up patterns will become more intuitive.
Divide the ice
If your rink doesn't have enough available ice to add a level, and you've got mixed high/mid and low in a single class, put the new freestylers on one side of the blue line (about a quarter of the rink), with the rest of the class sharing the remainder. Yes, the high skaters will be somewhat restricted, but on the other hand they won't be tripping over the low skaters anymore. You don't even need to do it for the whole session-- maybe the first month, until the newbies learn the moves.
Add it to Delta
Delta Is So Boring. Start teaching the kids to put the skills together. They'll be more engaged and they'll be more ready for freestyle.
Rearrange the classes
Instead of putting Gamma and Delta on the same ice, put Gamma with the Betas, and create a Delta-FS1-FS2 level. this is another place where Basic Skills gets it right, by putting beginning spins and jumps in their learn to skate curriculum. FS1 and FS2 (and maybe FS3) shouldn't even be considered "Freestyle" but should still be counted in Learn to Skate, because they are still introducing basic concepts. But nobody asks me.
Divide the ice, part duo
To get around the full-ice problem created by dividing the ice along the short axis, put the high freestyle kids on the perimeter, and run the beginners up the center so they can both learn the skills and go at their own speed. You won't be able to run any "five circle" warm ups using this traffic pattern, but on the other hand you won't have the highs tripping over the lows. You'll also teach the high freestyle kids to use the whole ice. It makes me insane when skaters avoid the end zone like there's a force field blocking it.
How does your rink integrate or prepare low freestyle into the freestyle curriculum?
Jul 19, 2011
Who has the right to teach
More than in any other creative profession I've worked around--music, theater, visual art, architecture--figure skating professionals are unusually threatened by the idea of new members of the profession, and even of volunteers, unusual for youth sports, where volunteer coaches keep the lower levels going.
Competitive students
This, of course, is where most professional coaches come from-- they were once competitive, or at least high-test students. Many clubs will not allow you to coach on their ice without at a minimum, an Intermediate freestyle or equivalent dance test; PSA will not allow you to take even the lowest ratings exam without either having tested, or passed a student, out of the Pre-Juvenile level.
The question comes in when the student is the coach; that is, kids who are still testing or competing. Believe it or not, there are sour grapes among coaches about current students teaching, even on classes, and we all go fairly ballistic when they start having a lot of private students. Some clubs or rinks have rules governing this--no privates if you're a "junior" coach; restrictions on the amount they can charge, etc.
High school skaters
Not quite the same thing as competitive students teaching, this would fall under a similar category to parent volunteers. I get plenty of "non" skaters in my annual high school class who are solid enough on skates to teach tots and beginners, and the daycamp at my rink has the counselors go out with their groups, rather than skating pros.
Adult skaters
This is me. I was a low-level adult skater (barely FS3), which frankly is fairly scandalous. I thought so at the time. Fortunately I am an ethical person and both set about testing the lower USFS levels and getting credentialed through PSA.
But I don't see the difference in a FS5-6+ adult onset skater teaching or a FS5-6/Juvenile+ former child skater teaching. In fact, adults have very important things to bring to the table, starting with they can remember what it was like learning beginning skills because they weren't 5 when it happened. From my observation, adult onset skaters have a very steep acceptance curve among coaches.
Parents
Parents who are recreational skaters should not be coaching private students. But I would love to know if there is a program that works utilizing parent volunteers in beginning classes. You'd have to qualify by demonstrating basic skating ability, and you'd have to have some minimal training I think, but every other youth sport absolutely relies on volunteer parents as coaching, judging, and referees . Why not skating?
College skaters
Summer job anyone?
Side job
Some of the best coaches I know have second jobs (or more accurately, the coaching is their second job). In many areas, making a living as a skating coach is nearly impossible, and benefits (vacation, pension, health care) is pretty much unheard of. So, if you've got another job, should that be looked upon as a sign of your lack of commitment? I've heard this argument.
Skating in general needs to be inclusive rather than exclusive. It's better for the sport, the culture and the kids if there's a place for everyone.
Who teaches in your program? Does your club or rink have rules regarding this?
Competitive students
This, of course, is where most professional coaches come from-- they were once competitive, or at least high-test students. Many clubs will not allow you to coach on their ice without at a minimum, an Intermediate freestyle or equivalent dance test; PSA will not allow you to take even the lowest ratings exam without either having tested, or passed a student, out of the Pre-Juvenile level.
The question comes in when the student is the coach; that is, kids who are still testing or competing. Believe it or not, there are sour grapes among coaches about current students teaching, even on classes, and we all go fairly ballistic when they start having a lot of private students. Some clubs or rinks have rules governing this--no privates if you're a "junior" coach; restrictions on the amount they can charge, etc.
High school skaters
Not quite the same thing as competitive students teaching, this would fall under a similar category to parent volunteers. I get plenty of "non" skaters in my annual high school class who are solid enough on skates to teach tots and beginners, and the daycamp at my rink has the counselors go out with their groups, rather than skating pros.
Adult skaters
This is me. I was a low-level adult skater (barely FS3), which frankly is fairly scandalous. I thought so at the time. Fortunately I am an ethical person and both set about testing the lower USFS levels and getting credentialed through PSA.
But I don't see the difference in a FS5-6+ adult onset skater teaching or a FS5-6/Juvenile+ former child skater teaching. In fact, adults have very important things to bring to the table, starting with they can remember what it was like learning beginning skills because they weren't 5 when it happened. From my observation, adult onset skaters have a very steep acceptance curve among coaches.
Parents
Parents who are recreational skaters should not be coaching private students. But I would love to know if there is a program that works utilizing parent volunteers in beginning classes. You'd have to qualify by demonstrating basic skating ability, and you'd have to have some minimal training I think, but every other youth sport absolutely relies on volunteer parents as coaching, judging, and referees . Why not skating?
College skaters
Summer job anyone?
Side job
Some of the best coaches I know have second jobs (or more accurately, the coaching is their second job). In many areas, making a living as a skating coach is nearly impossible, and benefits (vacation, pension, health care) is pretty much unheard of. So, if you've got another job, should that be looked upon as a sign of your lack of commitment? I've heard this argument.
Skating in general needs to be inclusive rather than exclusive. It's better for the sport, the culture and the kids if there's a place for everyone.
Who teaches in your program? Does your club or rink have rules regarding this?
Jul 2, 2011
What makes a good customer?
We had quite a discussion going about how a coach's better customers (i.e. the ones who skate more) are going to get the better customer service in terms of ice time, attention and flexibility.
But what about that "once a week skater." What about all those kids who just do classes, or the ones who take the beginning classes and then decide not to skate or the anonymous families who come week after week, but only to public? Are they "good" customers who deserve to have their needs met, or do we just focus on the lifers?
What makes a customer "good"?
Volume
Two ways to think about it-- individual skater who buys a lot, class of skaters that there are a lot of, namely beginners.
The great Jimmie Santee (now head of the PSA) used to do a graphic at coaching seminars showing a pyramid. In the tiny peak at the top were the approximately 500 "elite" skaters--kids in all skating disciplines who compete nationally. Along the broad base were the million or so people who participate in figure skating. You could do a version of this at any scale-- your rink, your region, or, like Jimmie's, nationally.
Coaches and rinks get stars in their eyes over these so-called "elite" skaters. I never worked at a rink that didn't think they were "competitive" and focused an awful lot of attention and effort on the 2 or 3 skaters who had a shot. And, to their credit, I've also never worked at a rink that didn't manage to produce a national skater every few years.
But they've got to come from somewhere. That one skater pulled himself out of the masses of public-session skaters. Putting up barriers to those kids--scheduling, cultural, cost,--keeps these casual customers out of your program and prevents them from becoming the so-called good customers who spend a lot of time (and money) in your facility.
Yes, your high freestyle and competitive skaters are important customers. For one thing they keep your coaching staff happy. They spend a lot of money, and they're great PR. But the beginners won't ever get there if you make it difficult, expensive, or unpleasant to be in your rink.
Talent
Gosh, if we only paid attention to the talented people, none of us would have jobs.
Need
Who needs premium ice and the "top" coaches: the hooked customer, or the new customer?
Again, most of the people who skate are casual skaters. It continually astounds me when facilities don't have convenient or frequent public skating (which is also more lucrative ice), giving all the premium ice times to the fewest skaters (high freestyle). Again from Jimmie Santee--most of the kids in your class will sign on not because they saw a catalog, but because they came to public skating or a school outing and had a great time. They didn't come because they saw your best skater; they came because they saw an actual famous skater on tv and wanted to try it, or because mom and dad loved skating recreationally. You top skaters are helping that coach get students, but they are not bringing bodies into the facility.
Loyalty
How do you make this happen?
There's the cynical way: hockey makes parents spend several hundred on equipment; synchro makes you buy lots of "team building" crap like matching guards, bags, makeup, and for all I know feminine hygiene products (really, what a racket), as well as signing a contract. (In other words, if you quit Synchro halfway through a season, no other team will take you and there are no refunds.) These programs, and other youth sports, grab the customer with a costly upfront investment and the promise of instant and long-term companionship.
Your solo skaters need to be lured back-- by good ice times, wonderful teachers, a caring staff, and a well-run facility.
In other words, all of your customers are "good" customers; all customers should be treated with equal respect and have their needs met to the best of the program's ability.
But what about that "once a week skater." What about all those kids who just do classes, or the ones who take the beginning classes and then decide not to skate or the anonymous families who come week after week, but only to public? Are they "good" customers who deserve to have their needs met, or do we just focus on the lifers?
What makes a customer "good"?
Volume
Two ways to think about it-- individual skater who buys a lot, class of skaters that there are a lot of, namely beginners.
The great Jimmie Santee (now head of the PSA) used to do a graphic at coaching seminars showing a pyramid. In the tiny peak at the top were the approximately 500 "elite" skaters--kids in all skating disciplines who compete nationally. Along the broad base were the million or so people who participate in figure skating. You could do a version of this at any scale-- your rink, your region, or, like Jimmie's, nationally.
Coaches and rinks get stars in their eyes over these so-called "elite" skaters. I never worked at a rink that didn't think they were "competitive" and focused an awful lot of attention and effort on the 2 or 3 skaters who had a shot. And, to their credit, I've also never worked at a rink that didn't manage to produce a national skater every few years.
But they've got to come from somewhere. That one skater pulled himself out of the masses of public-session skaters. Putting up barriers to those kids--scheduling, cultural, cost,--keeps these casual customers out of your program and prevents them from becoming the so-called good customers who spend a lot of time (and money) in your facility.
Yes, your high freestyle and competitive skaters are important customers. For one thing they keep your coaching staff happy. They spend a lot of money, and they're great PR. But the beginners won't ever get there if you make it difficult, expensive, or unpleasant to be in your rink.
Talent
Gosh, if we only paid attention to the talented people, none of us would have jobs.
Need
Who needs premium ice and the "top" coaches: the hooked customer, or the new customer?
Again, most of the people who skate are casual skaters. It continually astounds me when facilities don't have convenient or frequent public skating (which is also more lucrative ice), giving all the premium ice times to the fewest skaters (high freestyle). Again from Jimmie Santee--most of the kids in your class will sign on not because they saw a catalog, but because they came to public skating or a school outing and had a great time. They didn't come because they saw your best skater; they came because they saw an actual famous skater on tv and wanted to try it, or because mom and dad loved skating recreationally. You top skaters are helping that coach get students, but they are not bringing bodies into the facility.
Loyalty
How do you make this happen?
There's the cynical way: hockey makes parents spend several hundred on equipment; synchro makes you buy lots of "team building" crap like matching guards, bags, makeup, and for all I know feminine hygiene products (really, what a racket), as well as signing a contract. (In other words, if you quit Synchro halfway through a season, no other team will take you and there are no refunds.) These programs, and other youth sports, grab the customer with a costly upfront investment and the promise of instant and long-term companionship.
Your solo skaters need to be lured back-- by good ice times, wonderful teachers, a caring staff, and a well-run facility.
In other words, all of your customers are "good" customers; all customers should be treated with equal respect and have their needs met to the best of the program's ability.
What kind of skater are you? (Take the poll). Do you think your facility does its best to make you feel like a valued customer?
Feb 13, 2011
It's just the one skill
Unlike private lessons, skating school curricula have sets of skills at each level that you must master in order to pass to the next level.
In the USFS Basic Skills curriculum, each level contains testable skills that are critical for the next level (backwards one foot glides at Basic 4 before backward cross overs at Basic 5, for instance). The ISI curriculum contains all necessary skills for the "macro" skills within a single level, but the principal remains the same--you have to have the building skills before you can acquire the macro skills.
So what if a skater is missing "just one skill." Do you pass them on an "average?" Do you let it go?
ISI PreAlpha, Basic 1, 2, and 3 contain more or less only "building" skills, and no "macro" skills: forward and backward two foot and one foot glides, and marching or "push-and-glide" (weight shift from one foot to the other while moving forward), swizzles, one-foot pumps, forward to backwards two-foot turn, scooter pushes on a circle. I think everyone would agree that the ability to move forward on the ice and generate a two-foot glide is pretty basic, and that a skater that can't do this shouldn't move on.
But what about that one-foot glide? What if a kid does it really well on one foot but not at all on the other? This is the most common problem with kids on the cusp in these beginner levels. Well, next level, Alpha or Basic 4, is forward cross overs in both directions. If you can't balance on one foot, how are you going to cross? The building skill is necessary for the macro skill. I hate having to waste time in Alpha 1 class (much less Alpha 2) teaching kids this skill that they were supposed to master in the beginning level.
The next macro skill is backwards stroking and crossovers. Basic 3 and 4 include backwards one foot glides; again, this is necessary to the completion of a cross over, even the unfortunate swizzling ones that they allow in Basic Skills (snark snark This is the biggest problem with Basic Skills- USFS makes fun of the "ISI crossovers" with a lift, but ISI kids understand the weight shift in a backwards crossover better in my opinion. /digression). A good ISI teacher (that would be me) adds this Basic Skills skill into Beta class- gliding backwards on a circle.
How about t-stops? T-stops are stupid, and why do we have to do it in both directions? Well, that's essentially your hip/foot position for the mohawk turn in Gamma. Can't hold the "T"? You're gonna have trouble with the mohawk.
Both curricula are constructed to lead to later skills--proper bunny hops lead to proper waltz jumps which lead to proper axels. Proper understanding of 3-turns, equally strong in both directions, with the free hip held back, will make back 3s at FS4 or FreeSkate 1, and brackets at FS5 much easier. If you enter your ballet jump or mazurka with your toe pick facing forwards, you'll have difficulty learning a proper toe loop, and you'll never get the double.
Especially in the lower levels (which I count as thru FS3), every skill must be at minimum passing level, and preferably better. The more time you take with the basics, the easier time you'll have with the higher levels. A lot of my kids go through Alpha or Beta or Gamma 2 or 3 or even 4 times, but very few of them spend more than one session in FS2 or 3, because their basics are strong.
It's not just one skill. It's the bottom of the pyramid, and it needs to hold the whole structure up.
In the USFS Basic Skills curriculum, each level contains testable skills that are critical for the next level (backwards one foot glides at Basic 4 before backward cross overs at Basic 5, for instance). The ISI curriculum contains all necessary skills for the "macro" skills within a single level, but the principal remains the same--you have to have the building skills before you can acquire the macro skills.
So what if a skater is missing "just one skill." Do you pass them on an "average?" Do you let it go?
ISI PreAlpha, Basic 1, 2, and 3 contain more or less only "building" skills, and no "macro" skills: forward and backward two foot and one foot glides, and marching or "push-and-glide" (weight shift from one foot to the other while moving forward), swizzles, one-foot pumps, forward to backwards two-foot turn, scooter pushes on a circle. I think everyone would agree that the ability to move forward on the ice and generate a two-foot glide is pretty basic, and that a skater that can't do this shouldn't move on.
But what about that one-foot glide? What if a kid does it really well on one foot but not at all on the other? This is the most common problem with kids on the cusp in these beginner levels. Well, next level, Alpha or Basic 4, is forward cross overs in both directions. If you can't balance on one foot, how are you going to cross? The building skill is necessary for the macro skill. I hate having to waste time in Alpha 1 class (much less Alpha 2) teaching kids this skill that they were supposed to master in the beginning level.
The next macro skill is backwards stroking and crossovers. Basic 3 and 4 include backwards one foot glides; again, this is necessary to the completion of a cross over, even the unfortunate swizzling ones that they allow in Basic Skills (snark snark This is the biggest problem with Basic Skills- USFS makes fun of the "ISI crossovers" with a lift, but ISI kids understand the weight shift in a backwards crossover better in my opinion. /digression). A good ISI teacher (that would be me) adds this Basic Skills skill into Beta class- gliding backwards on a circle.
How about t-stops? T-stops are stupid, and why do we have to do it in both directions? Well, that's essentially your hip/foot position for the mohawk turn in Gamma. Can't hold the "T"? You're gonna have trouble with the mohawk.
Both curricula are constructed to lead to later skills--proper bunny hops lead to proper waltz jumps which lead to proper axels. Proper understanding of 3-turns, equally strong in both directions, with the free hip held back, will make back 3s at FS4 or FreeSkate 1, and brackets at FS5 much easier. If you enter your ballet jump or mazurka with your toe pick facing forwards, you'll have difficulty learning a proper toe loop, and you'll never get the double.
Especially in the lower levels (which I count as thru FS3), every skill must be at minimum passing level, and preferably better. The more time you take with the basics, the easier time you'll have with the higher levels. A lot of my kids go through Alpha or Beta or Gamma 2 or 3 or even 4 times, but very few of them spend more than one session in FS2 or 3, because their basics are strong.
It's not just one skill. It's the bottom of the pyramid, and it needs to hold the whole structure up.
Jun 13, 2010
Basic Skills and Learn To Skate, side by side
There are two figure skating curricula for skating schools, designed and sold by the two main organizing structures for ice sports in the US- USFS Basic Skills and ISI Learn to Skate (I believe they actually call it weSkate now, but whatever). US Hockey and USFS also have hockey curricula.
Learn-to-Skate has a very open curriculum, based on outcomes: ("forward crossover" "3 turn"); the Basic Skills curriculum is process oriented, breaking each skill down into components and testing those: (edges on a circle, two foot turns in place, two foot turns moving, before crossovers and 3 turns). Conversely, ISI has very restrictive competition rules, i.e. you must do the moves up to your level, and only up to your level, to very exact standards and use 9 separate judging criteria. Basic Skills competitions have much fewer specific skills requirements, and use only 2 judging criteria.
You'll learn how to skate using either. I've taught in both, and I find the ISI curriculum more teacher-friendly because it allows me to break down the skills in a way that makes sense to me and to each individual class. People swear by Basic Skills because it makes teachers break down the skill in a logical way. Here's the side-by-side:
Learn-to-Skate has a very open curriculum, based on outcomes: ("forward crossover" "3 turn"); the Basic Skills curriculum is process oriented, breaking each skill down into components and testing those: (edges on a circle, two foot turns in place, two foot turns moving, before crossovers and 3 turns). Conversely, ISI has very restrictive competition rules, i.e. you must do the moves up to your level, and only up to your level, to very exact standards and use 9 separate judging criteria. Basic Skills competitions have much fewer specific skills requirements, and use only 2 judging criteria.
You'll learn how to skate using either. I've taught in both, and I find the ISI curriculum more teacher-friendly because it allows me to break down the skills in a way that makes sense to me and to each individual class. People swear by Basic Skills because it makes teachers break down the skill in a logical way. Here's the side-by-side:
Basic skating (forward and backward motion, gliding, stopping, falling)
ISI: PreAlpha, PreAlpha 1&2, PreAlpha and PreAlpha Plus etc. (different rinks break them down differently). Gliding forwards for your body height on two feet, and on one foot both sides. Forward and backward swizzles, backward wiggles. This level needs to be fun, because if you lose them here, they're gone. Like in all ISI levels, there are only 6 skills. (My rink also adds basic snowplow stop, two foot hop, and moving dip.) ISI classes will teach proper falling and getting up, but not as a testable skill.
USFS Basic 1 & 2, conversely, has 15 separate testable skills including all of the above including the hop and dip). They then add additional skills including things Rocking Horse (one forward, one backward swizzle over and over, essentially in place), backward two foot glide, turning in place, and half swizzle pumps (slalom) which is a pre-stroking and pre-crossover skill.
Xan's take: ISI teachers will learn that these extra things, like rocking horses and pumps, need to be taught; the USFS advantage is that it's handed to the teacher on a silver platter. There's a curriculum development philosophy called "deskilling" where you write the curriculum in such a way that the teacher doesn't need to have actual knowledge of the subject in order to follow the curriculum (in other words, the teacher doesn't need any skill). This is what Basic Skills feels like to me-- it is extremely restrictive for an experienced teacher, but a godsend if most coaches in the rink are high school students.
USFS Basic 3: Forward stroking, half swizzle pumps on circle, moving turns, backwards one-foot glides, forward slaloms, two-foot spin, plus part of Basic 4: forward edges on a circle, forward crossovers
Xan's take: ISI Alpha makes sense to a customer. When you or your kid passes Alpha, you know exactly what's been learned. Crossovers. Stroking. If you don't pass Alpha, it's easy to see why. Basic Skills 3 feels like a "non" level--you have to explain every single skill in it to a non-skater. To a layman, the skills in it don't relate to recognizable skills like "crossover." Basic Skills takes an awfully long time to get to crossovers-- four levels-- and it mixes in skills that kids will need two and three levels on (by which time, by the way, they will have forgotten them). As a skating instructor, I can see the sense in the Basic Skills curriculum, and in fact I use these skills within the ISI structure to teach the named skills like crossovers and the various turns. But I think it would be hard for a parent to understand exactly why Suzy in the ISI program down the street is already doing crossovers, while my Johnny, who has been skating the same amount of time, is only doing something called "slaloms" and isn't that for skiing?
USFS Basic 1 & 2, conversely, has 15 separate testable skills including all of the above including the hop and dip). They then add additional skills including things Rocking Horse (one forward, one backward swizzle over and over, essentially in place), backward two foot glide, turning in place, and half swizzle pumps (slalom) which is a pre-stroking and pre-crossover skill.
Xan's take: ISI teachers will learn that these extra things, like rocking horses and pumps, need to be taught; the USFS advantage is that it's handed to the teacher on a silver platter. There's a curriculum development philosophy called "deskilling" where you write the curriculum in such a way that the teacher doesn't need to have actual knowledge of the subject in order to follow the curriculum (in other words, the teacher doesn't need any skill). This is what Basic Skills feels like to me-- it is extremely restrictive for an experienced teacher, but a godsend if most coaches in the rink are high school students.
Forward skating: cross overs and stroking
ISI Alpha: Forward stroking, forward crossovers, snowplow stop. That's it.USFS Basic 3: Forward stroking, half swizzle pumps on circle, moving turns, backwards one-foot glides, forward slaloms, two-foot spin, plus part of Basic 4: forward edges on a circle, forward crossovers
Xan's take: ISI Alpha makes sense to a customer. When you or your kid passes Alpha, you know exactly what's been learned. Crossovers. Stroking. If you don't pass Alpha, it's easy to see why. Basic Skills 3 feels like a "non" level--you have to explain every single skill in it to a non-skater. To a layman, the skills in it don't relate to recognizable skills like "crossover." Basic Skills takes an awfully long time to get to crossovers-- four levels-- and it mixes in skills that kids will need two and three levels on (by which time, by the way, they will have forgotten them). As a skating instructor, I can see the sense in the Basic Skills curriculum, and in fact I use these skills within the ISI structure to teach the named skills like crossovers and the various turns. But I think it would be hard for a parent to understand exactly why Suzy in the ISI program down the street is already doing crossovers, while my Johnny, who has been skating the same amount of time, is only doing something called "slaloms" and isn't that for skiing?
Backward skating: cross overs and backward stroking (backwards one-foot glides)
ISI Beta: Backward stroking, backward crossovers from lift, T-stop.
Basic 4: backward half-swizzle pumps on circle, backward stroking, hockey backward snowplow stops, and part of 5: backward edges on circle, backward crossovers from cut-back, one-foot spin with optional entry, side toe hop. (lost yet? And I left out some stuff for the next level.)
Xan's take: You start to see the problem. Basic Skills teaches necessary things, but they are all things that you have to teach anyway. When kids learn backward crossovers, they learn how to balance (i.e. one-foot glide) going backwards. If you can't do it, you can't do the crossover. No need to test it separately. Teach, yes. Test, no. Backwards glides are an integral part of backwards crossovers and stroking, and one-foot turns. For me it's like testing spelling by learning half a word at a time.
Basic 4: backward half-swizzle pumps on circle, backward stroking, hockey backward snowplow stops, and part of 5: backward edges on circle, backward crossovers from cut-back, one-foot spin with optional entry, side toe hop. (lost yet? And I left out some stuff for the next level.)
Xan's take: You start to see the problem. Basic Skills teaches necessary things, but they are all things that you have to teach anyway. When kids learn backward crossovers, they learn how to balance (i.e. one-foot glide) going backwards. If you can't do it, you can't do the crossover. No need to test it separately. Teach, yes. Test, no. Backwards glides are an integral part of backwards crossovers and stroking, and one-foot turns. For me it's like testing spelling by learning half a word at a time.
Turns
ISI Gamma and Delta: 3-turns inside and outside, forward inside open mohawks and mohawk combination (essentially skating into the turn), forward inside and outside edges on serpentine pattern, bunny hop, lunge, shoot-the-duck
Basic 4, forward outside three turn on half circle (they call it "from stand still" but they mean on half circle); Basic 6 forward inside three turn on half circle, moving backward two-foot three turn, lunge, bunny hop, spiral, T-stop; Basic 7 forward inside open mohawk, back outside to forward outside step on a circle (this is the same step that is part of the ISI mohawk combination), back crossovers to landing position (back one-foot glide with free foot extended), inside pivots.
Xan's take: At this level, I start to like Basic Skills better. There are fun skills mixed in with the difficult ones, like mohawks, and the progression from half-circle three turns to moving three-turns is nice. But you can see the problem-- parents can understand "three turn" and "combination" but everything else in this level is very wordy. You have to be a skater to understand the skills. I also disagree with taking the alternating forward edges out of the curriculum. This is skill left over from the old School Figures days, and is the first place where kids have to really think about precise upper body control in a considered way. (That's supposed to happen with turning skills, but it really doesn't.) Again, however, ISI is much more customer friendly-- you can really understand exactly what you need to do to pass, and the skills have short, familiar names.
USFS Basic 8: This includes Waltz Jumps, Mazurka (also known as an Albright or Scissor, essentially a backward-entry bunny hop from an outside edge. It's my favorite jump.) moving three turns on a circle, and a mohawk combination move (crossover into mohawk, forward step).
Xan's take: Basic Skills finally gets it right. ISI needs to add a pre-freestyle level.
Update: Here's a discussion from FSUniverse that brought up this post!
Basic 4, forward outside three turn on half circle (they call it "from stand still" but they mean on half circle); Basic 6 forward inside three turn on half circle, moving backward two-foot three turn, lunge, bunny hop, spiral, T-stop; Basic 7 forward inside open mohawk, back outside to forward outside step on a circle (this is the same step that is part of the ISI mohawk combination), back crossovers to landing position (back one-foot glide with free foot extended), inside pivots.
Xan's take: At this level, I start to like Basic Skills better. There are fun skills mixed in with the difficult ones, like mohawks, and the progression from half-circle three turns to moving three-turns is nice. But you can see the problem-- parents can understand "three turn" and "combination" but everything else in this level is very wordy. You have to be a skater to understand the skills. I also disagree with taking the alternating forward edges out of the curriculum. This is skill left over from the old School Figures days, and is the first place where kids have to really think about precise upper body control in a considered way. (That's supposed to happen with turning skills, but it really doesn't.) Again, however, ISI is much more customer friendly-- you can really understand exactly what you need to do to pass, and the skills have short, familiar names.
Getting ready for freestyle
ISI: ISI does not have a formal transitional level, which I think is a failure of this curriculum. At the freestyle levels, they are still teaching skills in isolation, rather than making kids move into them. Many rinks add a "pre-freestyle" or "delta plus" level to overcome this omission, using patterns from USFS Moves, or making up their own, and adding in specific testable freestyle skills like Waltz Jumps, two-foot spins from backward crossover entry, etc.USFS Basic 8: This includes Waltz Jumps, Mazurka (also known as an Albright or Scissor, essentially a backward-entry bunny hop from an outside edge. It's my favorite jump.) moving three turns on a circle, and a mohawk combination move (crossover into mohawk, forward step).
Xan's take: Basic Skills finally gets it right. ISI needs to add a pre-freestyle level.
Update: Here's a discussion from FSUniverse that brought up this post!
Have you taught or learned in either or both? Which did you like better?
Mar 8, 2010
Alphabet Soup
There are two established curricula for figure skating schools across the US: the Ice Skating Institute's Learn to Skate or weSkate program, and US Figureskating's Basic Skills. Both these programs take skaters from first-time on the ice up through triple jumps (in USFS kids transition to high freestyle through their Bridge program), as well as specialties like Pairs, Dance, Figures, etc. Basic Skills also has speed skating and hockey curricula. In Canada the skating federation (Skate Canada) promotes the CanSkate curriculum (see what they did there? Cute.).
There are also rinks that use their own curriculum, but if you then compete in any ISI or USFS competition you have to adhere to the curriculum as laid out in the two federations (ISI has greater restrictions on elements that can be in programs than USFS believe it or not).
ISI is strictly recreational. Although it does have local, national and even international competitions, and trains to the highest level (most difficult test in figureskating is not USFS Senior, but ISI FreeStyle 10) the focus is on fun. Even if you start in an ISI program, if you want to compete in qualifying competitions leading to Nationals, you must eventually switch to the USFS Moves and Free Style tests. It is possible and common for skaters to do both.
So that's the outline. What's the difference?
Both curricula are designed to lead the skater in a logical progression through the skills; to "build" each skill as it were. From two foot to one foot glide, to glide on a circle (edge), to crossovers. Then do it all over again backwards. Then combine forwards and backwards (turns). Add jumps, spins, more complex turns, etc.
ISI is a goal oriented curriculum. The skills are basically stated as "Forward Crossovers," "Backward Crossovers" "Three-turns" et cetera, leaving the instructor to break the skill down into the necessary glides, rotations, body alignment etc. A successful coach in ISI needs to understand the details of each move, because the curriculum doesn't hand it to you.
Basic Skills is very process oriented, and relies less on the knowledge and creativity of the teacher, but it forces students to really master each individual component of each skill.
I like the way Basic Skills forces a teacher to break the skill down. The drawback with the curriculum is that it breaks the skill down so far, with 7 testable skills at every level, that it removes a lot of discretion and creativity on the part of the coach, and just takes up a lot more class time on each line item skill. This is part of an educational approach called "deskilling" as in the teacher doesn't need actual skills to teach. It is directed at the idea of anyone being able to teach anything if they just follow the curriculum exactly, whether they're a trained teacher or not.
I like the way ISI makes it very clear to the student (and the parent) exactly what it is they are learning. "Forward Crossovers" is way clearer than "forward alternating half pumps on a line, then pumps on a circle, then forward inside and outside edges on a circle, then crossovers" (which spans 3 separate levels, but are all aimed at teaching crossovers). ISI forces skaters to connect the dots. My experience of Basic Skills was that kids just do not really get the connection between stroking, pumps, one-foot glides and crossovers, because the curriculum decouples the skill from the goal.
The drawback with ISI is that kids get "stuck" and it's harder to demonstrate why to the frustrated parent. In Basic Skills you can see that you have to have a solid one-foot glide on a circle before the crossovers. In ISI it's just "can't do crossovers."
Kids learn to skate no matter which curriculum they use, or neither. The key to learning how to skate is mileage. If you keep taking classes and lessons, you will get better, ipso facto. You will get best if you allow the teacher, and not the parent or the kid, decide when a child can move on. Slower is better. As I said to a child today, bored with edges, "in 5 minutes, you will get to do whatever you want. Is agonizing boredom for 5 minutes something you can handle?"
I like the way ISI leaves the breakdown up to the coach. Unfortunately this does not work if the coach does not know how to break down the skill.
So what's the solution? ISI requires coaches with a clue. USFS has the better skills progression. Coming up with better skills progressions and lesson plans is a favorite coaching parlor game.
There are also rinks that use their own curriculum, but if you then compete in any ISI or USFS competition you have to adhere to the curriculum as laid out in the two federations (ISI has greater restrictions on elements that can be in programs than USFS believe it or not).
ISI is strictly recreational. Although it does have local, national and even international competitions, and trains to the highest level (most difficult test in figureskating is not USFS Senior, but ISI FreeStyle 10) the focus is on fun. Even if you start in an ISI program, if you want to compete in qualifying competitions leading to Nationals, you must eventually switch to the USFS Moves and Free Style tests. It is possible and common for skaters to do both.
So that's the outline. What's the difference?
Both curricula are designed to lead the skater in a logical progression through the skills; to "build" each skill as it were. From two foot to one foot glide, to glide on a circle (edge), to crossovers. Then do it all over again backwards. Then combine forwards and backwards (turns). Add jumps, spins, more complex turns, etc.
ISI is a goal oriented curriculum. The skills are basically stated as "Forward Crossovers," "Backward Crossovers" "Three-turns" et cetera, leaving the instructor to break the skill down into the necessary glides, rotations, body alignment etc. A successful coach in ISI needs to understand the details of each move, because the curriculum doesn't hand it to you.
Basic Skills is very process oriented, and relies less on the knowledge and creativity of the teacher, but it forces students to really master each individual component of each skill.
I like the way Basic Skills forces a teacher to break the skill down. The drawback with the curriculum is that it breaks the skill down so far, with 7 testable skills at every level, that it removes a lot of discretion and creativity on the part of the coach, and just takes up a lot more class time on each line item skill. This is part of an educational approach called "deskilling" as in the teacher doesn't need actual skills to teach. It is directed at the idea of anyone being able to teach anything if they just follow the curriculum exactly, whether they're a trained teacher or not.
I like the way ISI makes it very clear to the student (and the parent) exactly what it is they are learning. "Forward Crossovers" is way clearer than "forward alternating half pumps on a line, then pumps on a circle, then forward inside and outside edges on a circle, then crossovers" (which spans 3 separate levels, but are all aimed at teaching crossovers). ISI forces skaters to connect the dots. My experience of Basic Skills was that kids just do not really get the connection between stroking, pumps, one-foot glides and crossovers, because the curriculum decouples the skill from the goal.
The drawback with ISI is that kids get "stuck" and it's harder to demonstrate why to the frustrated parent. In Basic Skills you can see that you have to have a solid one-foot glide on a circle before the crossovers. In ISI it's just "can't do crossovers."
Kids learn to skate no matter which curriculum they use, or neither. The key to learning how to skate is mileage. If you keep taking classes and lessons, you will get better, ipso facto. You will get best if you allow the teacher, and not the parent or the kid, decide when a child can move on. Slower is better. As I said to a child today, bored with edges, "in 5 minutes, you will get to do whatever you want. Is agonizing boredom for 5 minutes something you can handle?"
I like the way ISI leaves the breakdown up to the coach. Unfortunately this does not work if the coach does not know how to break down the skill.
So what's the solution? ISI requires coaches with a clue. USFS has the better skills progression. Coming up with better skills progressions and lesson plans is a favorite coaching parlor game.
Mar 1, 2010
Xan's all-purpose answer to every skating question
Beta means B for backwards. I always liked that accidental coincidence in the ISI curriculum. Aside from backward swizzles, this is the first place that sustained backwards skating is introduced.
By definition, backwards crossovers are a continuous backward movement around a circle, pushing with the “outside” foot, then crossing it over the “inside” foot; the crossed foot then pushes to the outside of the circle (the “undercut”), and returns to the starting position. To pass, you must demonstrate a strong first push without dragging the toe pick, smoothly lifting that foot to cross the skating foot, and pushing to the outside of the circle with the second foot. (USFS Basic Skills teaches cutbacks, i.e., no lift. More on that in a minute.) Five consecutive cross-overs are required to pass, with no additional pumps or pushes.
Backward Stroking is also in this level: Continuous alternating backwards pushes along an axis. Finally, Beta includes forward T-Stops (right and left): A one-foot stop in a “T” position, using the outside edge of the rear foot to stop. To pass, you must be able to use either foot to stop and you must be able to come to a complete stop after three strong pushes.
Throughout the ISI curriculum, a great deal of independent thinking is required on the part of the coach. Inexperienced coaches will jump in on the first day of Alpha or Beta with crossovers, forgetting that you can't do crossovers with a hinky one foot glide. The USFS Basic Skills curriculum solves this by making testable skills of one foot glides and pumps around a circle, forwards (Basic 2 & 3) and backwards (Basic 3 & 4). Unfortunately, these skills are in the levels BEFORE the crossovers. I also think Basic Skills gets it backwards, teaching pumps before edges. You can't do a proper pump if you don't know how to balance on a curve (i.e. edge). Further, separating these skills disguises their connection to each other. You'd be amazed at the number of kids who tell me there are no one-foot glides in crossovers.
Cut backs, with no lift over, are actually correct backwards crossovers. High level skaters don't generally lift the foot on back crossovers. However, in the lower levels, unless you're in a program that's willing to let a kid languish in Beta for a while, it's difficult to start with the tricky weight shift in a cut back when you've never done back crossovers before. Unfortunately, ISI does not then put cutbacks into the curriculum farther up, and some coaches expect the kids to just pick it up, or to learn them in private lessons. (ISI, are you reading this? Can you please add a pre-freestyle level for cutbacks, moving turns, and stationery spins? Thank you.)
Unlike at the Alpha level, where "correct" is good enough to pass (i.e. a "C" grade or even a D), your Beta skater should start working towards As and Bs. Coming out of Beta, the skater should be starting to use backward crossovers to generate power. This means no toe scraping, and a clear understanding of how to generate the underpush. Not every teacher will continue to work on crossover skills in the following levels, so if they don't learn it here, they'll suddenly turn up in a freestyle class in a few months with everyone whizzing past them. Personally I think Beta should be divided into Beta 1 and Beta 2, but no ever asks my opinion, for some reason.
So how do you generate the underpush? The key is to sink down as you stroke through. Watch a low level freestyle or under class sometime. You'll see kids nicely bend their knees for the first pump, and then straighten up as the leg crosses under. Crossovers bend down and then down again. (Can't use your knees for power if they're straight, after all.)
Bend your knees. It's what the title of the post means.
By definition, backwards crossovers are a continuous backward movement around a circle, pushing with the “outside” foot, then crossing it over the “inside” foot; the crossed foot then pushes to the outside of the circle (the “undercut”), and returns to the starting position. To pass, you must demonstrate a strong first push without dragging the toe pick, smoothly lifting that foot to cross the skating foot, and pushing to the outside of the circle with the second foot. (USFS Basic Skills teaches cutbacks, i.e., no lift. More on that in a minute.) Five consecutive cross-overs are required to pass, with no additional pumps or pushes.
Backward Stroking is also in this level: Continuous alternating backwards pushes along an axis. Finally, Beta includes forward T-Stops (right and left): A one-foot stop in a “T” position, using the outside edge of the rear foot to stop. To pass, you must be able to use either foot to stop and you must be able to come to a complete stop after three strong pushes.
Throughout the ISI curriculum, a great deal of independent thinking is required on the part of the coach. Inexperienced coaches will jump in on the first day of Alpha or Beta with crossovers, forgetting that you can't do crossovers with a hinky one foot glide. The USFS Basic Skills curriculum solves this by making testable skills of one foot glides and pumps around a circle, forwards (Basic 2 & 3) and backwards (Basic 3 & 4). Unfortunately, these skills are in the levels BEFORE the crossovers. I also think Basic Skills gets it backwards, teaching pumps before edges. You can't do a proper pump if you don't know how to balance on a curve (i.e. edge). Further, separating these skills disguises their connection to each other. You'd be amazed at the number of kids who tell me there are no one-foot glides in crossovers.
Cut backs, with no lift over, are actually correct backwards crossovers. High level skaters don't generally lift the foot on back crossovers. However, in the lower levels, unless you're in a program that's willing to let a kid languish in Beta for a while, it's difficult to start with the tricky weight shift in a cut back when you've never done back crossovers before. Unfortunately, ISI does not then put cutbacks into the curriculum farther up, and some coaches expect the kids to just pick it up, or to learn them in private lessons. (ISI, are you reading this? Can you please add a pre-freestyle level for cutbacks, moving turns, and stationery spins? Thank you.)
Unlike at the Alpha level, where "correct" is good enough to pass (i.e. a "C" grade or even a D), your Beta skater should start working towards As and Bs. Coming out of Beta, the skater should be starting to use backward crossovers to generate power. This means no toe scraping, and a clear understanding of how to generate the underpush. Not every teacher will continue to work on crossover skills in the following levels, so if they don't learn it here, they'll suddenly turn up in a freestyle class in a few months with everyone whizzing past them. Personally I think Beta should be divided into Beta 1 and Beta 2, but no ever asks my opinion, for some reason.
So how do you generate the underpush? The key is to sink down as you stroke through. Watch a low level freestyle or under class sometime. You'll see kids nicely bend their knees for the first pump, and then straighten up as the leg crosses under. Crossovers bend down and then down again. (Can't use your knees for power if they're straight, after all.)
Bend your knees. It's what the title of the post means.
Feb 4, 2010
A skating career starts in Alpha class
As a firm believer in building figure skating skills from the ground up, I've pulled out the description of what skaters learn, class by class. I already did tots (where you'll find the answer to "teaching kids to glide on ice"). Here's an Alpha/Basic 3-4 outcome.
To be successful at Alpha/Basic 3-4, you must have a comfortable, steady one-foot glide right and left before starting class; I always make my students learn how to hold a one-foot glide on a circle as well, both inside and outside edges. (I teach in an ISI program. The Basic Skills program makes forward edges around a circle a testable skill.)
A strong one-foot glide is the key to successful beginner cross overs. Don't be fooled by speed at beginning levels. If your skater wants to be more than what I call a "pond skater," make sure they can glide on one foot before they start to work on cross overs. If your child is in an Alpha class where the teacher seems to be spending "too much time on one foot glides, why aren't they learning cross overs," it's because the beginning level teacher passed the kids without the skills necessary to even start the next level. See the post called "Cute" about the phenomenon of passing children based on their bright smiles.
Alpha/Basic 3&4 is all about strong forward skating-- stroking, crossovers, stops.
Forward Crossovers
Crossovers are a power move, useful for getting around corners and covering a lot of ice with minimal effort. They travel in either direction (Right over Left (counter-clockwise) and Left over right (clockwise) and are, by definition, continuous forward stroking around a circle, pushing with the “outside” foot, then crossing it over the “inside” foot, and returning to the starting position. You'll also hear these referred to as "progressives," especially in a hockey program. Not quite the same thing, but close enough for our purposes today. There is also something called a cross-behind, which is a dance step and does not generate any power. (In skating you can never do anything actually wrong. We just give it another name.)
To pass beginning crossovers (for skating schools that divide the ISI "weSkate" classes into level 1 and level 2) you must be able to hold the first stroke, cross easily over the skating foot, glide briefly with feet crossed, and return to starting position. You must do five in a row with no extra pumps or pushes. A two-footed glide between crossovers is acceptable in Alpha 1. Toe pushes on the first stroke are not. I take the toe push on the undercut under advisement with Alpha 1, depending on the quality of the rest of the skating. (Don’t tell.)
In Alpha 2, Advanced Forward Cross-Overs, the crossed foot pushes (in a move called the “undercut”) to the outside of the circle, and then returns to the starting position. To pass, you must demonstrate proper arm position, a strong first push with no toe pick, understanding of the undercut, and be able to lift and return the crossed foot to the starting position without catching the toe pick. Five consecutive cross-overs are required to pass, with no additional pumps, pushes, or two-footed glides. In my classes, I don’t insist on an actual undercut push at Alpha 2, just that the student is not toe pushing on the undercut and has a correct weight shift. At any Alpha 2 skill I'm not looking for power, but for proper understanding of the technique.
My neglect, if you will, of the true power undercut is controversial. Technically, students should be required to do this. However, I have found that especially younger and more recreational skaters will translate power into a mongo-toe push, rather than just learning to be comfortable with the set up for the undercut. It takes a lot of patience and nerves of steel with parents who don't understand why their kid didn't pass alpha "when she's the fastest one in the class."
Necessary to proper crossovers—understanding that you’re skating on a circle, and the distinction between inside and outside edges. ISI leaves the teaching of this to the discretion of the coach; USFS Basic Skills makes it a testable skill. In the USFS Basic Skills curriculum crossovers are taught without lifting on the first stroke. Personally I don’t like introducing this here because I think it makes it harder for kids to understand the necessary weight shift, but either method of teaching is fine.
Forward Stroking
Continuous alternating pushes side to side to move straight down the ice. To pass a level 1 class you must be able to stroke from foot to foot, with free leg straight and extended behind. Toe pushes not allowed, but we usually let the kids do a brief two-foot glide between strokes (see more about toe pushes below). To pass Alpha 2, and the ISI registered test, you must be able to stroke from foot to foot, with good posture, free leg straight and extended behind, no toe pushes, no two-footed glides, and some evidence of ability to accelerate. You must sustain good flow for six pushes. A pointed toe is nice!
Forward Snowplow Stop:
A one-foot stop pushing forward with the inside edge of either foot, creating snow and gliding to a full stop. To pass, you must demonstrate the ability to stop from a slow glide. You get to choose the foot. I always tell my students that they can tell that their stopping technique is correct if they actually stop.
A word about toe pushes:
I consider an unacceptable toe push to be of what I call the “slip and grip” variety. This is when the skater slides the blade straight back until the toe pick catches, then bends his knee and blasts off. I tell the kids “slip and grip leads to trip.” They all groan, then someone trips on a toe pick and I get to say I told you so.
There is however an “acceptable” toe push. This is when the skater catches the toe after pushing with the side of the blade, and is a very common error at the Learn-to-Skate/Basic Skills level. It can almost always be attributed to not enough knee bend or not staying down in the ice as you push, and leading with the wrong part of the blade, and is an easy error for an observant coach to fix. But if the student is pushing with the whole blade, this should not be an error that holds them back. You may tell your coach I said so.
To be successful at Alpha/Basic 3-4, you must have a comfortable, steady one-foot glide right and left before starting class; I always make my students learn how to hold a one-foot glide on a circle as well, both inside and outside edges. (I teach in an ISI program. The Basic Skills program makes forward edges around a circle a testable skill.)
A strong one-foot glide is the key to successful beginner cross overs. Don't be fooled by speed at beginning levels. If your skater wants to be more than what I call a "pond skater," make sure they can glide on one foot before they start to work on cross overs. If your child is in an Alpha class where the teacher seems to be spending "too much time on one foot glides, why aren't they learning cross overs," it's because the beginning level teacher passed the kids without the skills necessary to even start the next level. See the post called "Cute" about the phenomenon of passing children based on their bright smiles.
Alpha/Basic 3&4 is all about strong forward skating-- stroking, crossovers, stops.
Forward Crossovers
Crossovers are a power move, useful for getting around corners and covering a lot of ice with minimal effort. They travel in either direction (Right over Left (counter-clockwise) and Left over right (clockwise) and are, by definition, continuous forward stroking around a circle, pushing with the “outside” foot, then crossing it over the “inside” foot, and returning to the starting position. You'll also hear these referred to as "progressives," especially in a hockey program. Not quite the same thing, but close enough for our purposes today. There is also something called a cross-behind, which is a dance step and does not generate any power. (In skating you can never do anything actually wrong. We just give it another name.)
To pass beginning crossovers (for skating schools that divide the ISI "weSkate" classes into level 1 and level 2) you must be able to hold the first stroke, cross easily over the skating foot, glide briefly with feet crossed, and return to starting position. You must do five in a row with no extra pumps or pushes. A two-footed glide between crossovers is acceptable in Alpha 1. Toe pushes on the first stroke are not. I take the toe push on the undercut under advisement with Alpha 1, depending on the quality of the rest of the skating. (Don’t tell.)
In Alpha 2, Advanced Forward Cross-Overs, the crossed foot pushes (in a move called the “undercut”) to the outside of the circle, and then returns to the starting position. To pass, you must demonstrate proper arm position, a strong first push with no toe pick, understanding of the undercut, and be able to lift and return the crossed foot to the starting position without catching the toe pick. Five consecutive cross-overs are required to pass, with no additional pumps, pushes, or two-footed glides. In my classes, I don’t insist on an actual undercut push at Alpha 2, just that the student is not toe pushing on the undercut and has a correct weight shift. At any Alpha 2 skill I'm not looking for power, but for proper understanding of the technique.
My neglect, if you will, of the true power undercut is controversial. Technically, students should be required to do this. However, I have found that especially younger and more recreational skaters will translate power into a mongo-toe push, rather than just learning to be comfortable with the set up for the undercut. It takes a lot of patience and nerves of steel with parents who don't understand why their kid didn't pass alpha "when she's the fastest one in the class."
Necessary to proper crossovers—understanding that you’re skating on a circle, and the distinction between inside and outside edges. ISI leaves the teaching of this to the discretion of the coach; USFS Basic Skills makes it a testable skill. In the USFS Basic Skills curriculum crossovers are taught without lifting on the first stroke. Personally I don’t like introducing this here because I think it makes it harder for kids to understand the necessary weight shift, but either method of teaching is fine.
Forward Stroking
Continuous alternating pushes side to side to move straight down the ice. To pass a level 1 class you must be able to stroke from foot to foot, with free leg straight and extended behind. Toe pushes not allowed, but we usually let the kids do a brief two-foot glide between strokes (see more about toe pushes below). To pass Alpha 2, and the ISI registered test, you must be able to stroke from foot to foot, with good posture, free leg straight and extended behind, no toe pushes, no two-footed glides, and some evidence of ability to accelerate. You must sustain good flow for six pushes. A pointed toe is nice!
Forward Snowplow Stop:
A one-foot stop pushing forward with the inside edge of either foot, creating snow and gliding to a full stop. To pass, you must demonstrate the ability to stop from a slow glide. You get to choose the foot. I always tell my students that they can tell that their stopping technique is correct if they actually stop.
A word about toe pushes:
I consider an unacceptable toe push to be of what I call the “slip and grip” variety. This is when the skater slides the blade straight back until the toe pick catches, then bends his knee and blasts off. I tell the kids “slip and grip leads to trip.” They all groan, then someone trips on a toe pick and I get to say I told you so.
There is however an “acceptable” toe push. This is when the skater catches the toe after pushing with the side of the blade, and is a very common error at the Learn-to-Skate/Basic Skills level. It can almost always be attributed to not enough knee bend or not staying down in the ice as you push, and leading with the wrong part of the blade, and is an easy error for an observant coach to fix. But if the student is pushing with the whole blade, this should not be an error that holds them back. You may tell your coach I said so.
Nov 18, 2009
From the keyword search
Here's what people want to know (the following phrases turned up on my keyword search list)
How long before my daughter tests out of alpha figure skating?
I've had students step onto the ice able to do cross overs and proper stroking, and I've had kids take 1 year to get there. A better question is "what should my daughter be able to do when she passes alpha?" She should be able to skate across a full sized rink with proper full blade pushes and leg extension. She should be able to do what I call a "true cross," that is place the crossing foot truly inside the circle so that her feet are side-by-side in the crossed position. She should be able to hold a two-foot glide in the position, and she should be able to uncross without pushing her toe pick into the ice. A strong alpha skater will have an undercut push, but I don't insist on this myself at the Alpha level as long as there is no toe push.
How fast can I move up in figure skating?
This is the skating variation of "how do I get to Carnegie Hall?" The answer of course, is "practice." A reasonable rule of thumb, however, is that with application and more than one time on the ice per week, most people (kids and adults) can progress two to three levels per year at the learn-to-skate/Basic Skills level, and one level maybe every 6 to 15 months (2 to 5 sessions) at the free style levels, with a long stop over at FS5 to learn the axel. (Take your time at 5.) For children, if you start skating by age 10 you will be landing doubles by the time you graduate highschool, provided you work at it. You can pretty much take that to the bank.
10 year olds at figure skating nationals
I'd love to know what this person was looking for! Yes there are 10-year olds at nationals, but mostly at Junior Nationals (Juvenile and Intermediate). There are minimum age limitations for the Senior Level at international (you must be 16), and national (you must be 15) competitions. As far as I've been able to find, there are no minimum age requirements at other qualifying levels. (Anyone have better info on this?) So yes, there might be 10 year-olds at Nationals, especially at the novice level. But I don't see the point-- what's the hurry? Coaches or parents in this situation-- why have kids skate so high so young? Let us know in the comments.
How long before my daughter tests out of alpha figure skating?
I've had students step onto the ice able to do cross overs and proper stroking, and I've had kids take 1 year to get there. A better question is "what should my daughter be able to do when she passes alpha?" She should be able to skate across a full sized rink with proper full blade pushes and leg extension. She should be able to do what I call a "true cross," that is place the crossing foot truly inside the circle so that her feet are side-by-side in the crossed position. She should be able to hold a two-foot glide in the position, and she should be able to uncross without pushing her toe pick into the ice. A strong alpha skater will have an undercut push, but I don't insist on this myself at the Alpha level as long as there is no toe push.
How fast can I move up in figure skating?
This is the skating variation of "how do I get to Carnegie Hall?" The answer of course, is "practice." A reasonable rule of thumb, however, is that with application and more than one time on the ice per week, most people (kids and adults) can progress two to three levels per year at the learn-to-skate/Basic Skills level, and one level maybe every 6 to 15 months (2 to 5 sessions) at the free style levels, with a long stop over at FS5 to learn the axel. (Take your time at 5.) For children, if you start skating by age 10 you will be landing doubles by the time you graduate highschool, provided you work at it. You can pretty much take that to the bank.
10 year olds at figure skating nationals
I'd love to know what this person was looking for! Yes there are 10-year olds at nationals, but mostly at Junior Nationals (Juvenile and Intermediate). There are minimum age limitations for the Senior Level at international (you must be 16), and national (you must be 15) competitions. As far as I've been able to find, there are no minimum age requirements at other qualifying levels. (Anyone have better info on this?) So yes, there might be 10 year-olds at Nationals, especially at the novice level. But I don't see the point-- what's the hurry? Coaches or parents in this situation-- why have kids skate so high so young? Let us know in the comments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
