New Coach!!!

One of the biggest challenges as an adult skater, I think, is finding a coach that is willing to stick it out. I've had a coach since I was in Alpha level, but my coaches haven't been able to stick around.  This is mostly due to my rink being on a major university campus, so many of the coaches are college students, and many of them leave every few years. Or, like with my last coach, she took on the position of being one of the LTS (Learn to Skate) coordinators at my rink, in addition to her internship that she is doing for her college degree.  As a result, I got dropped from her teaching schedule because she does not have room for me. In addition, I sometimes get the feeling that many of the coaches at the rink prefer to teach the younger kids rather us adults, so that only adds to my frustration.

That being said, I was on the hunt for a new coach these past few days, and was recommended to Jeremy by an adult skating friend of mine.  As it turned out, he had taught some of my LTS FS classes last semester, so he was already familiar with my skating.  I got in contact with him, as I was told that he was looking for students.  For what it's worth, when contacting a coach for, here's a few things that I include:

1. Current skating level
2. What direction I jump and spin in (if in FS)
3. How often I practice
4. Who recommended me to the coach
5. Short and long term goals, and stating willingness to compete and test

When I emailed him my general skating background, he replied shortly later, and seemed very excited to work with me.  He also gave me a bit of his skating background. For those of you who might be interested in coaching, a few things that you consider including are:

1. Skating levels willing to teach, and any special areas (ice dancing, adults, MITF, etc)
2. Highest level passed
3. Some of your available teaching times
4. General expectations for your students (especially with practicing, competing, and testing)
5. Best way to contact you
6. Have proof of insurance on file at the rink (often required in order to coach)

Based upon the few emails we've exchanged, and knowing that he had worked with me a bit in class, I decided to take one lesson with him today, just to see how things would go.  In short, the lesson was AMAZING!  Jeremy has passed his USFSA MITF, and is currently working on his FS (Freeskate), and man, it clearly shows that he knows what he is doing!

So, we got onto the ice, and he had me start off with some basic stroking.  Right away, I could tell that I really liked his energy and confidence in making me a better skater.  It didn't matter that I'm an adult. He challenged me with coming out of my "box" a bit, but not too much.  It was like he could sense that I needed, and was really for a challenge.  So challenge me did!  We started working on swing rolls and power pulls!  In addition, he had me working on this crossover serpentine sequence that had me on my outside edges the whole time.  The general route for this happened on the long axis of the rink.

1. Start in a T-position, and push onto an outside edge with your LEFT leg. Your right leg is your free leg.
2. Extend your right leg, then cross it over your left leg, and placing it on the outside edge.
3. The left leg is now the free leg.....extend that, then cross it over the right leg, onto the outside edge
4. Repeat steps 1-3 throughout the whole long axis of the rink.
5. One the short axis, do regular crossovers (bend those knees!!!)
6. If you're up to another challenge, do this going backwards!


 Although I'm sure I looked like a klutz, I really liked doing this drill.  It's also essential to REALLY bend my knees for this.  I can already tell that my coach is not going to let me pass these moves if my knees aren't bent enough.  Since I'm a tall skater (5'8-5'9), I'm really going to have to work on getting really low to the ground, and staying there. Phew!

 For those who are interested in power pulls, I was shown a drill, which we did work on, but I want to make sure that I have the steps right before I post it, so stay tuned! I know that it involved a line, and sorta looked like doing a continuous left outside edge (since I was working on left foot power pull), but not changing feet at the line.  I'll have to think through the drill more before I post it, as I don't want others practicing the wrong thing.

Onto jumping...Jeremy had work a few minutes on my waltz jump today. However, as a warm-up, he gave me a drill to do at the boards. Looking back at when I first started jumping, I think it would've been very beneficial to have started my jumps off-ice, rather than off the boards and told "give it a try." As an adult skater, the fear of falling is sometimes very daunting, and I think it would be better for a coach to work with a skater on the jump off-ice first.  Then, as the skater gains confidence with the jump off ice, they could move to doing the jump along the barrier.  After that, do the jump without the barriers, but with some assistance from the coach.  Once that is achieved, the student can start working on the jumps on their own.

So anyways, here's the wall drill that we worked on:
1. Face the barrier with your hands on
2. Bend your knees as if going into a squat
3. "Jump" by springing from your knees, and using your arms as support. Allow your back to be nice, wide, and long, with toes pointing.
4. Land back onto the ice, starting with the toe picks and rolling through your foot.


 After doing this a few times, we did it off of the boards, but using my arms in a pumping type of motion as I jumped.  I didn't think that I was getting that much height, but Jeremy told me that I was.  The hardest part was having the confidence with landing, because I felt myself slipping a bit.  I know that this will just take some practice to get use to.

As a whole, I felt VERY confident with my new coach!  Although I knew he was watching me, I felt very relaxed, and didn't have the "Uh oh...he's watching me!" feeling, so I was able to be my usual, easy going self at the rink.  In addition, he is totally confident that I can pass both FS 1 and FS 2 this semester, and starting tomorrow, we're going to work on choreographing my FS 1 test program, and even do some work off-ice! In addition, he told me to go ahead and register for FS 2 classes this semester! Yay!!!  I'm totally excited to be one of his new students, and I can only hope that we'll continue to work great together. :)