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A Little About My Skating and Coaching History, and My Core Teaching Values...
I’m a fully qualified coach with British Ice Skating and I’ve been teaching since 2010, which has past in a flash as I love what I do! I have previously worked at both Peterborough (where I also trained competitively) and at my childhood home rink and most recent training g
round of Bracknell until it closed its doors permanently during the first lockdown of the pandemic. In the time I have been coaching I have worked with skaters of all ages and abilities, from tiny tots where I’ve got down on my hands and knees to help them learn the fundamentals of skating through imaginative role play, to those pursuing a new hobby in the golden years of their retirement, many of whom enjoy the physical and mental challenges of learning not only to skate but to dance either solo or waltz in dance hold with me. Likewise I have worked with every age in between: primary school children, teenagers, university students, yummy mummies, sporty daddies, couples learning together, professional business people and more, including skaters with additional physical, emotional and/or educational needs. Many of my past skaters have been competitive, others have been doing it “just for fun” or even as part of their academic examinations and other extra curricular awards such the Duke of Edinburgh; whatever their motivation I value all my students equally and strive to help each of them find what it is that they are looking for from skating (more on this later). I took my first skating lesson back in 2001 and instantly fell in love with the ice, there is no place I am happier, and competitions were my favourite part of all (although the Christmas show and any exhibition where I had the opportunity to perform are fondly memorable highlights too)!... I’d skate before school, come back again after school and be there both days of the weekend (I’m very grateful for my parents support and encouragement to enable this to happen)! Now as a coach I love to see the same joy for skating felt by the skaters I teach: I know how wonderful and unique that gliding feeling is, I’ve always said my blades are my wings that let me fly and be free, and it is my aim to help others access this same amazing sensation! My specialist area is ice dance: as a skater I competed up to senior level both with a partner and solo; I retired from competitions on a high in 2019 after placing on the rostrum at the British Championships (the video is of me performing my free dance at the event last July). However I had also previously competed successfully in national competitions in free skating and had the opportunity to train with a junior level synchro team in order to further my coaching versatility. I have been lucky enough to coach skaters across all three disciplines and take competitors to national championships in each of them; similarly many of my previous skaters have achieved national test passes in multiple disciplines and performed solo routines in gala events and shows. Off the ice I have trained in numerous dance styles including ballet, jazz, ballroom and Latin American and also have school drama qualifications, all of which I feel have enhanced not only my own skating but also my coaching. As well as teaching the technical side, choreography is one of my favourite parts of what I do: I take great pride in helping skaters find a way to express themselves and their music on the ice if this is something they are interested in. I also really enjoy the challenge of creating group and show pieces. I have many values and philosophies that I incorporate into my teaching, however I have three key ones are that I would consider the core of my coaching:
Firstly I work with the individual skater in front of me and adapt my style to suit them. Not everyone who takes skating lessons have Olympic dreams, of course some will be aiming to become champions, but others will be learning to skate for other reasons, be it to learn the basics so they can enjoy the public session safely, for health and exercise, to challenge themselves by conquering a new skill and gain self confidence or as a way to socialise and expand their circle of friends (the skating community is very welcoming!). When I work with a skater I take time to find out and understand their aims and ambitions with skating, I then formulate a plan to help them achieve these. As a coach I believe I have a duty to think, see and map progression goals in the short, middle and long term in order to enable skaters to reach their full potential, and I have a responsibility to communicate my tuition in a way that it is both clear and effective whilst also managing expectations at different stages of development (learning to skate well is a process that takes time). However I also considered it important to have good rapport with my students and to make my teaching style enjoyable in a way that relates appropriately to the age and development of the skater I am working with, after all to fall in love with skating you need to have fun and enjoy being on the ice, and the more you enjoy it the more time you’ll want to spend practicing, and in turn the more opportunity you will then have to achieve your goals! In order to appeal to auditory, visual and kinaesthetic learners my teaching style involves a combination of explanation, demonstration and physical doing in the form of positioning and exercises for the skater to perform that will develop and progress their skills being taught; I continually assess the student in front of me to decide how best to proportion each element of this. My second grounding philosophy is that the basics need to be taught really well, therefore this is not a stage I will ever rush through. Fundamentally when a student goes to a coach for a lesson they should expect high quality tuition whereby skills are taught correctly, I firmly feel getting the basics right is essential to achieve this in the most beneficial way possible. What I have found in my years of teaching so far is: whilst fast tracking talent is important, the best way to do so is through creating a strong understanding and grasp of the foundation, as only from this knowledge can the more complex skills be achieved successfully when the skater is ready to do so. Likewise even those that find skating a bit more challenging can go further than they might have believed if they build from that same solid foundation. I have even worked closely with hockey skaters who wished to develop their skating skill and blade control in order to enhance their game. My final core coaching philosophy is that I will always try to further expand my own knowledge and keep learning from the skating, sport’s science and dance/performance world around me so I can continue to give my students the most relevant, up-to-date and beneficial information. One of the most significant ways I am doing this is through my current training to become qualified as a national ice dance technical specialist, with the rules and schools of thought changing continuously being on top of the most recent information is essential to this. However when all of this is said and done, at the heart of my coaching is my love for this beautiful and rewarding sport! I’m so excited to help the skaters of Cambridge find their glide and fall in love with the ice too!
