HP #10 - Coaching tour
Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See my first HP post for the full notes on these.
Background: Ashley has now departed from the adult group lessons so we're all unsure as to who's going to be taking the classes from here on...
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For about a month, the coaching of the adult classes sat in a holding pattern as the rink struggled to nail down a consistent coach for us. The upshot of this period meant that we had coaches Sue, Jane, David and Jason in weekly succession and each change meant they had to wind us back to the beginning of the skills to get a feel for where we were in our learning. That's not to say that this time wasn't without merit though, we did enjoy experiencing the different approaches each coach used and we all learned something different from each one that improved an aspect of our skating.
For me, Jason's week had him demonstrate his method of 3 turns and it just instantly made everything so much clearer for me in a way that Ashley hadn't quite cracked. Jason was turning almost all of his body before turning his foot and as soon as I started trying this my 3 turns almost instantly fell into place smoothly and easily; they actually felt pretty good! What's amazing about skating is sometimes you can change one small thing about the way you're doing a particular move and the outcome can be drastically different.
Our whistle-stop tour of the rink's coaches also meant I could start thinking about which coach I might want to work with in the future if I got to the point where I started having one-on-one lessons (I hoped I'd get to that!). It was a great opportunity to see how they all taught and get a feel for who I felt fit my style best. Obviously my rink's coaches are all lovely people, but everyone teaches in their own way and you just have to find something that works well for you. Incidentally, I have no idea how skaters at a new rink work out which coach to have lessons with without having to do awkward trial periods and coach hop around (something I later discovered is somewhat frowned upon at some rinks).
Back to the group lessons though and, towards the end of the chaos period, Jason took us for three weeks in a row, which led us to start tentatively settling in to him, and then finally confirmed he'd be teaching us from now on. Like Ashley, Jason was very enthusiastic and sported an accent I couldn't identify. He had us doing warm up exercises to begin lessons, which we hadn't really done with Ashley so that was an interesting change. New things, however small, have always been what continue to stoke my skating interest. There's a lot to take in at first and you're learning new things all the time. I knew that eventually all this new shiny stuff would taper off as I got to more advanced skills that took longer to learn, but initially every week had small new things to try, even just simple warm up exercises.
What can I say? I'm easily pleased.
Background: Ashley has now departed from the adult group lessons so we're all unsure as to who's going to be taking the classes from here on...
-------------------------
For about a month, the coaching of the adult classes sat in a holding pattern as the rink struggled to nail down a consistent coach for us. The upshot of this period meant that we had coaches Sue, Jane, David and Jason in weekly succession and each change meant they had to wind us back to the beginning of the skills to get a feel for where we were in our learning. That's not to say that this time wasn't without merit though, we did enjoy experiencing the different approaches each coach used and we all learned something different from each one that improved an aspect of our skating.
For me, Jason's week had him demonstrate his method of 3 turns and it just instantly made everything so much clearer for me in a way that Ashley hadn't quite cracked. Jason was turning almost all of his body before turning his foot and as soon as I started trying this my 3 turns almost instantly fell into place smoothly and easily; they actually felt pretty good! What's amazing about skating is sometimes you can change one small thing about the way you're doing a particular move and the outcome can be drastically different.
Our whistle-stop tour of the rink's coaches also meant I could start thinking about which coach I might want to work with in the future if I got to the point where I started having one-on-one lessons (I hoped I'd get to that!). It was a great opportunity to see how they all taught and get a feel for who I felt fit my style best. Obviously my rink's coaches are all lovely people, but everyone teaches in their own way and you just have to find something that works well for you. Incidentally, I have no idea how skaters at a new rink work out which coach to have lessons with without having to do awkward trial periods and coach hop around (something I later discovered is somewhat frowned upon at some rinks).
Back to the group lessons though and, towards the end of the chaos period, Jason took us for three weeks in a row, which led us to start tentatively settling in to him, and then finally confirmed he'd be teaching us from now on. Like Ashley, Jason was very enthusiastic and sported an accent I couldn't identify. He had us doing warm up exercises to begin lessons, which we hadn't really done with Ashley so that was an interesting change. New things, however small, have always been what continue to stoke my skating interest. There's a lot to take in at first and you're learning new things all the time. I knew that eventually all this new shiny stuff would taper off as I got to more advanced skills that took longer to learn, but initially every week had small new things to try, even just simple warm up exercises.
What can I say? I'm easily pleased.
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