canskate

[retired]

My best friend is a SC evaluator who has been in skating since the 1960's.  She says SC is going back to the days when the few that could jump got to do solos, and the rest, "patch&precision".  Although she says that precision (synchro) is no longer the friendly place it used to be where every club had a team and there was a place for everyone.  There's now regional teams and the same thing happens, if by the age of 15 you're not an accomplished skills skater, it is very hard to make a place on a team.     We have very fun lunches with alcohol.   

I've been on top of the Canskate changes. Imagine the McDonalds of LTS.  Every club plays the same music and has exactly the same ice layout format.  Exactly.  Everywhere.

[jjane45]

I've been on top of the Canskate changes. Imagine the McDonalds of LTS.  Every club plays the same music and has exactly the same ice layout format.  Exactly.  Everywhere.

Compulsory ice dance?

[ferelu]

Do you have an insight on what the new canskate badge elements will be?

[retired]

 I have a report card.  I was hoping someone had a scan uploaded but haven't found any.  I'll work on it since it's a paper copy and I don't have a scanner.     While looking for that, I did come across this blog which was the perspective of an adult skater receiving their report card for the first time.    http://teachingoutloud.org/2012/02/18/its-report-card-time-at-the-milton-skating-club/  A fun read!

[Sk8tmum]

Compulsory ice dance?

The revised LTS (Canskate) program has very prescribed elements. All of the skills are taught in "circuits" that are given to coaches pre-designed, with detailed lesson plans. The schematics for the circuits are part of the lesson plan ... the coaches are to draw these on the ice with specific markings, etc, and the skaters work their way through the circuits, coached by a Skate Canada professional coach.  I've seen the most recent iteration ... my kid has been coaching under it ... and it's insanely complex and time-consuming - I believe it is being revised and rethought, yet again, before final rollout in September.  Canskate has been under revision for a few years now ... a few selected clubs have been working with Skate Canada to pilot and test the various theories and practices ... the expectation is that clubs are to follow the specifics precisely, with a target date of full implementation (IIRC) in 2013.

Prescribed music, that I've certainly not seen; it's not part of the pilot program.

[fsk8r]

Sk8tmum from what you've seen of these prescribed "circuits" do you think it's going to result in a better quality skater being produced at the end of Canskate? I'm assuming the goal of Skate Canada is to generate more future champions, do you think this prescriptive formula is going to work?
I also wonder what the coaches feel about this. Having done LTS a long time ago and before NISA developed their own formulaic LTS program, I went through a rink devised system. The elements were learnt in progression, but the coaches had the freedom to teach them how they liked and in whatever order they liked so if the class were progressing quickly with their chasses they could move onto crossovers even if they still hadn't mastered something else at that level. I'm guessing that on a fixed "circuit" that removes the ability of the coach to teach the higher level elements early because the "circuit" doesn't adapt to allow that.

It's interesting reading these discussions about Skate Canada as they echo those being had about NISA. Everyone seems to have the same ultimate goal but differs in opinion in how to get there.

[Sk8tmum]

a) the coaches don't like it; the circuits are very time-consuming to draw, the lesson plans that SC are providing are more complex (and less understandable) than the ones that I had to develop in Teacher's College, and that I never use anymore as a teacher!
b) The circuits are actually designed to review, reinforce, and introduce. The program divides the rink into teach, review, and practice; in the teach phase, you teach new skills; in the review phase, you review the new and solidify the old; and in the practice, you practice the old and the new.
b(ii) You do have to teach the circuit-of-the-day and with that day's focus (balance, agility, control, etc).  There's not supposed to be flexibility to just move on; this is supposed to prevent coaches from "skipping" or not adequately teaching some areas, leading to gaps in the skater's progression, and, also the circuits are supposed to interlock to teach/reinforce/etc.
c) it's less restrictive in some ways than the old Canskate system.  With the new, you can move forward on, say, jumps if you're succeeding there, but, continue to work on, say, forward edges at a "lower" level.  Traditionally, you worked on the skills at your badge level,and you couldn't move on to a new badge level and higher order skills until all of the skills at your badge level were mastered- which led to frustration for the kid who got stuck. Now, they can move on in some areas while continuing to work on the weaker aspects.
d) it's more efficient in that traditionally coaches assessed for "passing" every time they looked at the kid. Now, assessments are done on an assessment day, by a designated coach for that session, and that helps with consistency; we're now going to comps that are skated against "the book" which means that standards (hopefully) will get more consistent.

It's got good and bad.  The key thing though is that Canskate isn't designed to just produce figure skaters - it is also intended to produce strong hockey, etc skaters. Biggest problem is that it is overly complex, coaches don't want to do it, and there is a lot of resistance to change ... however, SC clubs will be required to do it.  Don't know, this is the 2nd "relaunching" of Canskate that I've seen since my kids started skating ...

[fsk8r]

Sounds like the person (or committee) who designed it didn't account for how long it would take to set up a lesson.

[Sk8tmum]

Sounds like the person (or committee) who designed it didn't account for how long it would take to set up a lesson.

Apparently based on the feedback from pilot V 3 sub 2 section 3A (just kidding) - they are revising it.  They do listen ... and they are actual coaches. Just not certain how much they can revise it, or will.

[retired]

Sounds like the person (or committee) who designed it didn't account for how long it would take to set up a lesson.

Apparently based on the feedback from pilot V 3 sub 2 section 3A (just kidding) - they are revising it.  They do listen ... and they are actual coaches. Just not certain how much they can revise it, or will.

Yes, all the coach chat I've had on the subject has been based around the forced regulations of HOW to teach, not WHAT to teach.  There's been little complaint of the rearrangement of elements.   It is impossible to set up the required circuits stepping on right after the flood.  

Skatemum, not all pilot items trialed are done in every club apparently.  

[Sk8tmum]

Sounds like the person (or committee) who designed it didn't account for how long it would take to set up a lesson.

Yes, all the coach chat I've had on the subject has been based around the forced regulations of HOW to teach, not WHAT to teach.  There's been little complaint of the rearrangement of elements.   It is impossible to set up the required circuits stepping on right after the flood.  

Skatemum, not all pilot items trialed are done in every club apparently.  

Really? They are supposed to be.  The clubs are given the specific directions; the pilot clubs are mandated to follow them completely, without exception and without adaptation, or, they lose their "status" as a pilot club.  There are very few clubs that are actually piloting it, however, I am aware of a few who are implementing it without being officially a pilot club.

[retired]

The presentations on new Canskate have been posted on Members only, there is the presentation and a separate clearer picture of the skills chart.     It's under the ACGM 2012 tab then presentations.