That's what we've all said: start taking lessons, regain your skills and then worry about testing and membership. In terms of testing, Moves are prerequisites for the Freeskate tests, so you should focus on them initially. The skill set needed to perform the Moves patterns at/above passing standard will improve your freeskate skills and make it easier for you to pass those tests and go on to compete. The local competitions are an option, at least up to the Pre-Bronze level, but working on programs will slow progress on the testing - it takes a lot of time during lessons and practices to perform a program. One side bonus is that skaters can now receive "test credit" for good competition results, but unless you've already passed the prerequisite Moves test, that isn't an option.
I get the "long term goals are important" concept, but good project planning also includes prerequisites and mastering skills in the correct order to actually reach those goals. You need to set objectives, like "skate x hours a week," "take x lessons/wk," and "pass () test."
As for the coaches bios, you need to do more research than just looking at the rink's page. I know several rinks with out-of-date or incomplete coaches bios; many rinks don't even list the coaches. You'll need to observe the coaches with students, ask them for their credentials/resume/cv and have some trial lessons to see if you match. You don't necessarily need a Moves Specialist, at least for the first few tests. Every coach at my rink works on Moves with their students, some are better at the higher-level moves (mainly because of experience) and some enjoy coaching Moves more than the rest. Just because it's not listed on a rink website (which was probably created by a webmaster that doesn't even know what Moves are) doesn't mean the coach refuses to teach Moves. They may have been asked to provide a paragraph and just didn't think to write it down.
Thank you for this. And yes, i already had long term goals set in my head. But my goal for now is to just take lessons and try to skate at least 6 hours a week, being the minimum. I turned in my requests for coaches today, so hopefully by next week i will start working with one. I originally wanted to start with group lessons but they run until end of september for the new sessions and i’m not sure if i would be here that long. But it will worn out, I would prefer a one-on-one lesson anyways. I’m trying to shy away from watching youtube videos and prefer to leave everything else to when I start lessons, that way the chance of having to correct a bad technique is significantly less. Which kind of sucks, since my practice sessions on ice are typically very minimal, just edge work and balance basically, but i know in the long run it will be better. The only think that sucks is the frustrations of my jumps in my head not cordinating with my feet but i will work on that. Im trying to be less strict on myself, and not think of myself as a returning skating but as a beginner (because honesty, that’s what it feels like). It’s just annoying to go from learning an axel to back to the basics.
Topic: Too old for high level comps...too young for adult comps? (Read 6774 times)