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?

Snotty skater girls

You can always pick out the skaters with the future.

It's not the ones with the speed, or even the ones with the jumps.

It's the ones with the attitude.

Except it's not actually "attitude" in the pejorative sense. The actually snotty, mean ones generally don't go far because eventually they're snotty and mean (or their mothers are) to the Club president or a judge or a coach and it's all over.  They don't get the marks, or the prime ice, or the assignments. Their coaches get pressure and start to phase them out.

The attitude I'm talking about is something much simpler.

It's posture.

That's right, posture, like your grandmother and your first grade teacher used to insist one. Shoulders back, spine straight, nose in the air posture. My daughter still regrets that she didn't work on her posture as a skater, because it not only looks better, it helps your technique. It's a key reason that skating coaches always tell you to take ballet.

My old Polish coach used to say it this way: "geyt yur hyed over yur naik" ("Get your head over your neck". You have to say it with a Polish accent or it doesn't work.)

I call it "snotty skater girl" and I use it starting in Alpha class. Every single child in the class knows exactly what I mean. I say "snotty skater girl" and everyone immediately sticks their nose in the air and stands up straight.

Try it.

What simple or silly phrase have you, or your coach, come up with that makes you skate better?

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.

Skill building

How do you teach a new skill? Do you insist on absolutely correct technique from day one, or do you perfect one skill at a time, building it to perfection over time? This question brings coaches to blows. The technique-first people will say "Why teach it 'wrong'. Skaters need to know proper technique from the outset." The one-thing-at-a-time people will tell you "There's too much too learn about each skill to get every detail from day one."

Both arguments have merit, so what do you do?

I'm a one-skill-at-a-time person. I've had this validated by my Master Coach mentor, who likes to teach pattern and power, and then get down to steps and technique. (I was surprised that he and I shared this philosophy, as I can be something of a maverick since I didn't grow up skating.) After having an argument with a technique-first person yesterday, I was very amused when I opened up this month's Professional Skater Magazine from the PSA, and found this quote from Olympic coach Tom Zakrajsek: "...when I was younger I wanted it done correctly right away. It's all going to work in the long run. Patience. There are steps and that process can take a long time."

The one-skill-at-a-time approach isolates the parts of the skill. Each piece is mastered before the skater moves on. What it is not is "cheating" or "teaching it wrong." The end result will be proper technique on a given skill. The technique-first approach teaches each skill as a whole. The skater will get to the same place, and will make the same mistakes early on, but will have a picture from the start of what the skill needs to be in the long run.

Here's how this might look with basic alternating back edges:

One-skill. Start with the backward glide on an edge, with arms in an "airplane" position, and free foot tucked. You might teach this on a circle, or on a long axis, but the object is to get comfortable with the glide itself. I let skaters use a double pump to get going, because the most difficult part of backwards edges is the first push from a stationary position. Once they can glide backwards, I add the arm and head movements, and then the leg positions. The last thing I teach is the initial push. One-skill teachers do not compromise the final product. I believe this approach helps recreational, once-a-week, and not naturally talented skaters achieve success faster. It gives a skater something to succeed at on the first try. Instead of telling the skater "no that's wrong!" you get to say, "good, you've got a strong glide, let's add the arms." Further, it adds a reward to the process- you aren't allowed to move on until you've mastered each piece; the full skill becomes the reward for your hard work, instead of a mountain you have to keep climbing.

Technique-first: You have to explain the entire move: (face down the long axis, put your weight on your pushing foot, lift and turn the gliding foot, and pump to the glide. Free foot in front, drop and switch arms, turn your head toward the long axis, and bring the free foot through, setting up for the next push from the one foot glide. I know I'm showing my bias here, but really, how many FS1 skaters are going to be able to absorb and understand all that, let alone do it?). There's going to be a lot of hands-on guidance, placing skaters in the proper position, and guiding arms and heads. In private lessons, this works, but for group class, it forces everyone to stop while you work one-on-one with each skater. However, each skater is watching you (one hopes) working with everyone else, and absorbing the correction and the look of the skill. You'll get a lot of sloppy skating at the start, but theoretically a better understanding of the end result.

So which do you choose?

What I would say is: don't choose. Look at each skater and make a judgment. Can this skater handle the whole skill at once, or does she need it broken down? Are you sure that by choosing one over the other you are not compromising the quality of the final product? Are you using consistent, correct evaluation? In a class, you might encourage one skater to go for the entire correct technique, while allowing another (generally weaker) skater to break it down and perfect one skill at a time.

In the end, it's not about the teaching philosophy. It's about the best interests of each skater, and the approach that will help them be most successful.

What works best for you?

Skating books

I know from my stats that the most popular posts on here are the "how-to's" (most beloved by people who are taking private lessons, making me wonder exactly what their coaches aren't teaching them), and there are a couple of books that you should know about.

My copy of Figure Skating for Dummies has mysteriously gone missing, (as has my copy of Coaching Hockey for Dummies, hmmm), so unfortunately I can't point you to any specific advice that I liked or didn't. It's great-- starts at "fall down, get up" and goes all the way through triple jumps. Unlike a lot of other "how to" books on skating it really is geared to people who do not already know the basic terminology, so you can follow it even if you've never been on skates. Ostensibly written by Kristi Yamaguchi and Scott Hamilton, which I take with a little (okay, a giant) grain of salt. The overly-cute language and illustrations of these books can be grating, but the information is flawless.

I used this book a lot when I started teaching because it has a really good ordering of skills. Unfortunately, it has not been updated in more than a decade, so the sections on competitions and judging are outdated to the point of uselessness. It doesn't even show up on the Dummies.com website as a selection. There are always a few available on Amazon.

At the other end of the how-to spectrum is the book that is the closest thing to a technique Bible as you'll find, John Misha Petkevich's Figure Skating Championship Techniques, from Sports Illustrated. Petkevich also starts with swizzles, but his language is a little more technical and dense, and the illustrations (photos of skaters Brian Boitano and Tracie Brown) are hard to follow if you don't already understand the skill. He also sometimes arranges them from right to left, for some impenetrable reason, but not always. (I also believe that some of the photos are actually reversed, probably an editing error, where the editor put the transparency wrong side up, so that the skater appears to be jumping or spinnng clockwise instead of counterclockwise, again very confusing for someone who doesn't understand the skill.)

This book is laid out the way a coach thinks about skating-- with basic concepts, common errors, and standard corrections for hundreds of skills and variations. It also includes a lot of skills that are seldom taught anymore, let alone used in competition, like the open axel, double walley, and various flying spins.

Several years ago I found a marvelous little self-published gem in a remainder box at Rainbo Sport Shop. The Skaters Manual by Kenny Isely is part history of skating, part technical manual, and part diatribe against the United States Figure Skating Association, the clubs and various individuals, by name. I actually found 10 copies on Amazon this morning, although it's not always there. Includes wonderful information, not available anywhere else, on boot and blade mechanics and care. A truly unique and marvelous little book.

There is a terrific workbook on School Figures called "Figure It Out" which includes drawings, coaching, and execution tips for all of the old school figures. I had borrowed a copy from someone who made me give it back and then lost it. If anyone can find this book for me, I would pretty much mortgage my oldest child to own it.

Finally in the how-to is the mother of them all: Lynn Copley-Graves' The Evolution of Dance on Ice. There are usually a few on Amazon, and they turn up on Powell's Used Books as well. Hands down this is my favorite geek skating book; a comprehensive (to say the least) scholarly treatise, it demonstrates how free figures from the late nineteenth century eventually became ice dance. It shows every single world championship free figure ever laid out, season by freaking season. It shows how the "European Waltz" morphed into the "American Waltz" and traces the controversy, which sometimes literally came to blows, over which one was more "correct." (A lot of dance coaches still roll their eyes over the 3-turns in the American. You gotta love ice dance coaches.) It also relates the history of clubs and explains their rise and eventual fall as powers in figure skating. If you ever wondered why they always announce the club that a skater "represents" at U.S. Nationals, this book tells you.

If you're a skating uber-geek, get this book.

Do you have a skating "how to" book that I don't know about?