That's motivation?

[Skittl1321]

During my lesson this morning I had this conversation with my coach:
Him: How come in your backspin when you cross your leg, you chicken out and stop spinning?
Me: I guess I'm worried because I am spinning slowly, I will fall over and break my hip.
Him: Well, I have my phone in my pocket and 911 on speed dial, so if you do, I promise I'll call, go hold the spin!

Um, while I'm glad I'll have quick access to medical care, in this scenario.I still have a broken hip, so not the most motivational speech ever.

Anything crazy your coach has said?

[FigureSpins]

Too funny!

I had two students that I put on the harness to do loop jumps one day.  I fully admit my reason for doing it was purely to let them show off.  They shared a lesson, so I couldn't put one on the harness and not the other. 

The first girl was doing a video project on the physics of ice skating and she wanted to include some footage of how the harness helps with learning jumps.  Valid reason and I was happy to help out - she NAILED a beautiful loop jump with no assistance from me other than keeping the bar from hitting her head.  The skill disappeared once the harness came off, but the project received an A++ grade, so that's all that mattered.

The other student did a few loops on-harness rather wobbly but her visiting grandparents were thrilled because they'd never seen a harness in use before.  (Their DD/girl's mom was a roller skater as a youth.)  The next week, the second girl asked if we could use the harness again for loop jumps.  I said, "Okay, just do a few loop jumps just to warm up before we put the harness on."  She landed four or five and then still wanted to wear the harness for the jump!  I nicknamed her "Mary Martin" because she always want to fly on the wires.

Sometimes, it's okay to use wacky rewards to get results.  I told one student that she could do her elaborate "victory dance" on the ice if she did all four scratch spin stages.  She did it, she danced it, I watched, I clapped and laughed. 

[emilayy]

one of my coaches uses a dollar coin as motivation. the other uses a coach purse.

ah how the motivation across genders differs...

[jjane45]

one of my coaches uses a dollar coin as motivation. the other uses a coach purse.

ah how the motivation across genders differs...

lol, while my friend trained under his coach, allegedly he made a "fortune" off coach because coach offered monetary prizes for harder skills.

[turnip]

One coach i know gives out fridge magnets for kids who do really well (try hard as well as get the results)

A common one is money. Especially once you get on to axel and doubles.

I currently have a deal with one of the kids. I'm struggling with loop and she's struggling with axel. Thinking about it, I'm not sure what the deal is except if i land my loop she has to land her axel and vice versa... she's a fab kid though, so maybe if she gets her axel first (VERY likely!!!) I'll get her a little something.

[Kim to the Max]

I do challenges with the kids for competitions. I currently have the same challenge with 2 of the kids at the rink - if they skate a clean program in competition (as choreographed, or with approved substitutions), I will take them out for sushi. With one of them, there is an additional challenge that if she gets over 30 points at regionals (she is in juvenile), that I will either bake her cupcakes or I will get her some chocolate/caramel.

[sk8lady]

I was at a skating camp in Breckinridge, Colorado some years ago. The head coach was a youngish Russian woman. One of the off-ice activities was rock-climbing on a wall, which I had done before but never got very high because I'm afraid of heights, so invariably as soon as I realized how high I was I would freeze up and look down. The head coach saw me get 3/4 of the way up, freeze, and rappell down and came over to ask me what happened. I explained and she said, "You do again. This time, I belay you." I started climbing, caught a glimpse of the ground, and stopped dead. Immediately, she shouted in a terrifying voice, "YOU GO TO TOP!" and without a second thought I climbed to the top, rang the bell, and rappelled down.

Moral: when choosing between possibly falling from a great height or dealing with an angry scary Russian coach, the fall from a great height is less frightening!!