Skating Class Lesson Plans?

[pegasus99]

Okay, so I've done about two years of various adult skating classes, and I've noticed that a commonality among them is the complete lack of Lesson Planning, especially in the Freestyle levels.

When I was doing Beta/Gamma/Delta, it was pretty straightforward. But now I show up to a Freestyle or Dance Class and it seems like "I dunno, I guess we'll do this random thing for an hour and hope for the best."

My private coach has an idea of what to do when we walk in the door, which keeps me sane, but the complete lack of organization in the classes makes me want to skip them entirely.

How have other adult skaters found group classes to be? On track or off road?

[axelwylie]

I am enrolled in my rink's Learn to Skate program, which is done through the USFSA system. All levels are supposed to learn their respective elements. However, I am in Free Skate 6, which is the highest level that is offered. So we usually do "fun" stuff and work on footwork (random MIF), jump combinations and difficult spins. The lower level free skates and basic levels all follow their respective level's required elements. I don't think the coaches have a set lesson plan, but the review rate elements that are needed to pass that particular level.

I am ok with the lack of lesson plans because I basically use the class for ice time (and to get another coach's perspective on things).

[sarahspins]

I will say that the "lack" of organization is completely up to the coaches instructing the classes, and to some degree, the skating director in charge of said coaches.

That said, there are some coaches who do a great job of breaking down the curriculum into a plan (whether they actually have a formal lesson plan written out week by week or it's just all in their head) and others who flounder around a bit even if they write out a plan.  I think there are even a subset of coaches who are great one on one, but have trouble organizing a group class, from the moment the students step on the ice until they leave.

The group class I currently take is great - we typically have a warm up that we all do together, sometimes it's easy and over with quickly, sometimes it's more challenging and we spend more time making sure everyone understands it and can execute it properly.  From there we usually split off by level, and we are blessed with a coach who is very good at keeping an eye on everyone and offering corrections to everyone.  There are several of us who are easily "beyond" the BS curriculum, and our coach does a good job of finding different stuff for us to do even though it's beyond what is required.

Now, keep in mind, I also teach basic classes at my rink, and when I teach a class I like to keep everyone moving - I'm not a fan of standing around, and most students aren't either.  I also like to start with an organized warm up, where we go through an element or two from the prior level just to get them moving and to build some confidence, then we move on to the skills they are learning.  I rotate through what we work on after that, and during a 30 minute class I usually only focus on 2 or 3 different skills unless it's a lower level class - basically if everyone can do a skill and do it well, we'll move on to another relatively quickly, but if they need more time, we take more time.  I keep notes so I know what I did the week before, otherwise I just won't remember.

[pegasus99]

Our rink does ISI, and through the lower levels it was pretty rote.

But there aren't enough freestyle level adults to make it work breaking up the levels, so Adults get a generic "Freestyle" class. This gives you anywhere from Freestyle 1 to 5 in the same tiny ice. (They always put adults on the leeetle studio rink, never on the main rink. Blargh.) So, I can see where it would be hard for a coach to know what to do in that instance.

But for this last class I took, there were days where we spent an hour on crossrolls. Then another day doing an hour of perimeter stroking. The coaches seemed to not have any game plan beyond, "This is going well, let's continue it," thing. It got frustrating. I just wanted to ask, "If this is a dance class, shouldn't we be learning dances?"

It's not only an investment financially, it's a time investment since those classes wander late into the evening. I was giving up dinner with my family to do it. A few days, I wished I hadn't.

[AgnesNitt]

I quit a very nice group program because the practice ice was only a half sheet and there were 80 people on it.
That got to be so frustrating I just left.

[pegasus99]

Don't get me started. "Adult skaters have such a hard time with extension and power..."

Maybe it's because they don't have classes where they can stretch out and push without fear of hitting a wall or another person??

I'm almost to a point where I may just do my private lessons and call it even. We'll see how the summer goes.

[littlerain]

I have this experience sometimes as well. Our adult class doesn't have level distinctions, and the skating director  is usually the coach. She is great, and she seems to have a curriculum, goals for the skaters, etc. she also works on elements at various levels based on people's skill levels. However, when she is not available, the subs usually just ask us what we want to do. we generally have to come up with our own ideas and it is a bit unfocused. Oh well

Oh, have you asked either for harder variations or asking for something else? The coaches for our adult classes always tell us to let them know if something is too easy/boring. Maybe they just don't realize? I don't know :/

[kr1981]

Don't get me started. "Adult skaters have such a hard time with extension and power..."

Maybe it's because they don't have classes where they can stretch out and push without fear of hitting a wall or another person??

Ugh. I just had my first adult LTS group lesson last week, and there's only 3 of us, but we basically share the center hockey circle with a Basic 3 or 4 class. I took group lessons for Pre-Alpha through Gamma or Delta when the rink first opened back in the '90s, and I remember actually having some space on the ice. Last week when I went, they had twice as many classes going on at one time compared to the "old days." I think part of the problem is that they're trying to cram a lot more classes into the same two 5:30 and 6:00 Wednesday evening time slots that they've had for 20 years (i.e. ISI had 5 levels of basic skills, USFS has 8 ).

But back to the topic at hand, haha. I've only had one adult class and can already see the complete lack of structure. When I did group lessons for ISI years ago, it was pretty straightforward because there were a handful of elements that everyone had to learn in order to pass at the end of the 6 or 7 weeks. But now, I get the impression that my rink doesn't really test or do levels for adults. For our 25-minute class, it was just kind of like, do edges this way, do edges that way; do forward crossovers this way; do forward crossovers that way; do back crossovers this way... you get the point--until the alarm sounded and class was over. Not much instruction, and just kind of some random "a little of this, a little of that." I had hoped to take group lessons for a while before switching to private, but I was kind of disappointed and think I'll switch to private when this "semester" ends after next month.

[pegasus99]

Okay, so the Class I was in this past session is being broken up into Kids/Advanced Dance and Adults/Super Beginner Dance. I was told that I might be more challenged in the Advanced Class, but I said I'd prefer doing Beginner since I don't know dance at all.

I told the Coach of the Beginner Dance class that I wanted to set a goal of testing two of the Preliminary Dances by the end of the session (fall). This may have been a little passive-aggressive, but I did want to send a message of, "Let's have a point to this, please." Class Coach told me to clear it with Singles Coach, and Singles Coach is perfectly fine with it.

And since I'm not great at Choreography or Music, it can't Not be good for me, so long as we have an objective. So, here's hoping I got my point across!

[littlerain]

Pegasus, that sounds like it could work out in your favor!!

Kr1981, I do hope the class improves. I can't believe how crowded it is!

[dlbritton]

I have had mixed results at my rink, but the coaches and director are very flexible.

The Adult 1 class has a dedicated coach, then everything else is "Adult Workshop" covering Adult 2-6 + everything above that. After I passed Adult 1 I was put in the Adult workshop with a group of 5 skaters that had all passed at least Bronze MITF but only 1 coach. Not a good situation. Fortunately I was able to go back to the Adult 1 coach who only had one other student (who had been in Adult 1 with me but had missed some classes and was still in Adult 1) and work on Adult 2. The next session the only Adult 1 skater had taken skating in college so I was able to stay with that coach again and passed Adult 2. The next session there were 2 other skaters for Adult 2-6 so we got a second coach for the (low) Adult workshop group. All 3 of us will be back next session so hopefully we will have our own coach again and work on passing the Adult 4 skills.

The (high) Adult workshop appears to be less structured since everyone in it has completed most if not all of the Free Skate skills. The coach appears to pick 1 or 2 advanced skills to work on and does a class on those skills. The rink does not offer the Free Skate curriculum for adults so I will eventually be in the high Adult workshop and hope I will be able to get coached and evaluated on the Free Skate skills.

The biggest problem (and probably occurs everywhere) is we get little ice for our class. There are 8 groups sharing the ice. We get 1/2 the width of one end (and about the same depth) for both adult groups to share. It can get interesting when we try to work on something like back crossovers and the advanced group is working on spirals or jumps.

[pompeiii]

My rink doesn't have adult classes. In the low level LTS classes, typically they have adult groups for each of the low levels (pre alpha and alpha) but once you hit beta, you're thrown in with the kids. Sometimes this is good, other times, I found the coaches spent more time trying to keep kids in line than actually teaching.

For freestyle classes (again, all ages), your divided by level for each area. So, you have 20 minutes with your freestyle group, 20 minutes with your moves group, and 20 minutes with you dance group. It works out pretty well, but occasionally groups are combined and I'll have little peanuts join my dance group (it's always dance), who seem to cut in front of me/under my leg when I'm doing swing rolls...

[Query]

There are lots of reasons.

Planning takes a lot of time. The standard ISI and USFSA classes are already planned out. There are ISI and USFSA defined Adult classes, but few rinks have enough adult students to partition students that way.

Alpha/beta/gamma/delta/freestyle approximately define a common skating level and set of a priori skills. In contrast, "Adult" classes tend to throw together the relatively small number of adults who feel uncomfortable learning with kids, with different interests and prior skills, some of whom may be afraid to do certain things, and some of whom look to be in danger of hurting themselves. Each class, the coach has to adapt to the number and individualities of the students present.

But, if you can get together a sufficiently large bunch of other adults, all of whom have a specific common set of skills you wish to learn, most skating directors or coaches will be happy to accommodate you. That, of course, puts the planning time on you.

For example, if you found a sufficient bunch of adult skaters who wanted to learn the Ice Dances in sequence, or follow one of the ISI or USFSA sets of lesson plans, most skating directors - or individual coaches - would happily accommodate you. That does not of course mean everyone would reach the level that they could pass an external ISI or USFSA test, but that's true of alpha/beta/gamma/delta/freestyle classes too. Unfortunately, all the Ice Dance patterns are meant to be skated on a full sized rink. If you really want to learn it them way, the students would need to split the cost of the rink as well as the coach. E.g., if your rink charges $200 - $500 / hour for a full rink (it varies a lot), and the coach charges $45 - $80 / hour, the students need to split that cost. That's a lot. Especially if the rink wants to be paid for the length of the class in advance. You also have to schedule around other rink activities. That's hard. And it is essentially what you are asking of a rink if you want them to organize a class for you themselves.

This is part of why Synchro has become so popular. It's a way to get a LOT of students together on one ice surface, all of whom accept the necessarily large fees. (Though some rinks stuff them on part of a rink surface, and charge less. My rink does that, and charges about the same as for other group lessons.) Synchro tends to have relatively well planned out sessions. Have you considered joining or forming a Synchro group?

I didn't really give you the answer you want, did I? Sorry.

[pegasus99]

No, it's okay - you kind of did and I totally understand how it would be hard to plan a lesson around an adult freestyle Class. Yes, there is such a mishmash of skills and people and attitudes, unlike kid's classes where it's pretty rote.

But a Dance Class made no sense to me. A Dance is a Dance. You can print them out and see them, so why are we doing crossrolls for an hour? Why are we spending an entire class watching other people skate to random music randomly? So, that was an irritation. I felt like I walked away from that class with not much more understanding of Ice Dance than when I started.

But for Freestyle Classes, I get it. When I talk to other skating adults about it, they just shrug it off and say, "I just do this for fun, I don't really care," or "I'm not going to get much farther than this (level)." That bothers me in a whole different way. Why do something if you don't care about it? Why are you limiting yourself?

I'm getting off topic again... But I'm starting to see why the really High Freestyle Adults at my rink don't bother with classes. Sure, you can get another Coach's perspective, but it seems like too much of a time and $$ investment for that perspective. I can get that at the Adult Clinic for less.

[littlerain]

But for Freestyle Classes, I get it. When I talk to other skating adults about it, they just shrug it off and say, "I just do this for fun, I don't really care," or "I'm not going to get much farther than this (level)." That bothers me in a whole different way. Why do something if you don't care about it? Why are you limiting yourself?

I'm getting off topic again... But I'm starting to see why the really High Freestyle Adults at my rink don't bother with classes. Sure, you can get another Coach's perspective, but it seems like too much of a time and $$ investment for that perspective. I can get that at the Adult Clinic for less.

I am liking the ice time and perspective, and fortunately my work reimburses park district class fees ☺️. Though I may reevaluate once I spend that lol.

I agree about the adults who don't "care" though I think on some level they do care about achieving the elements. I was talking to someone in my class the other day, and she said she struggled to move up in levels because of her discomfort in going backwards. Not focusing on the levels allowed her to learn more and not be frustrated. I also think she thinks her abilities have limits. It was not a perspective I had considered!

[Query]

I have taken Ice Dance classes or clinics from two different sets of Russian coaches, and two sets of American coaches.

Both Russian-taught classes were very well organized and were very good, but they emphasized skills (including swing rolls, BTW), rather than Dance Patterns. (Part of the issue there is that almost all the students were female.) The classes were popular in part because the coaches had high level competitive credentials (a Russian champion in one case; an Olympian in the other), in part because they had a very disciplined style. Both took the one room schoolhouse approach to dealing with the wide range of skill levels - ranging from basic strokes to advanced drills that most of us couldn't do. In one case, the coach's Olympic hopeful students were encouraged to be available to teach short lessons to the group lesson students, which also helped make the classes very popular.

One of the coaches was once forced by management, at a student's request, to teach the Dutch Waltz pattern - but added twizzles into the side pattern to make it harder, so no one would make him do that again.  (One Russian coach told me that the [Soviet era] Russians didn't use low level dance patterns in their training. They started with drills, and didn't move to patterns until they were ready to compete the International level dance patterns.)

He could have continued the classes, but chose to devote his time to Internationally competitive teams instead.

The other team of (3) coaches (at Wheaton) continues to teach group classes - but mostly to very competitive young couples, whom they also coach privately, though upon occasion they have offered a 4 day adult clinic, with on and off-ice training.

One American coach, a very long time ago, did teach ice dance patterns, in College Park. But ice dance isn't popular enough here to do that. A number of local rinks have recently offered such lessons, then canceled due to insufficient interest.

The other American coach group sometimes teaches ice dance classes, as well as freestyle classes, at a relatively low popularity rink in the summer (Piney Orchard). Most of the coaches aren't especially famous, and I think it is of borderline economic viability.

Another rink around here used to offer fun and fairly popular adult free-style classes, with very interesting choreography. But I think the rink (Benfield) was not popular the rest of the time, and closed.

Another rink, up in Baltimore, had group lessons taught during club ice, and were in large part adult. They were fairly popular, including sessions taught by Robert Oglevie, a well known coach who also wrote figure skating books (and most of the original USFSA Basic Skills manual) that used to be very popular. But that rink closed too.

Another rink around here (Cabin John) has school figures classes taught by a coach I used to know. I assume, but am not sure, that they are largely adult. She didn't have high level competitive credentials, but she was double-gold test, and very good at teaching, and it is a very popular rink.

So clearly, if you get the right coaches teaching unusual and interesting classes, in a large metropolitan area where skating is fairly popular, you can attract a sufficient number of adults to run popular adult classes - ice dance or freestyle. (BTW, there are also popular speed skating classes around here. I'm not sure how popular the adult hockey classes are, but there are a bunch of adult hockey teams. I've not heard of any Pairs group lessons.) But you need coaches who are very, very good at teaching group lessons to people with a wide variety of skill levels, who are willing to spend a lot of effort organizing the class, and it helps a lot if the coaches are famous too. But such coaches are superstars in their own right, and have to be convinced that it is worth their time and effort to do it right, because they have other ways of making a good living as a coach.

[jjane45]

I was generally satisfied with my freestyle class structure, as long as I followed the right freestyle coaches. They sometimes did plan on the fly but they listened to student inputs and knew what they were doing from years of teaching. that being said, I would say it comes down mostly to passion and professionalism.

dance group class is a different story though as the group size increased and skill levels diversified. I cannot complain though,  it was a very good bargain for me, got me thru the lower dances. we used to alternate between one class of partnered patterns and one class of drills.

Sigh, wish I haven't moved away from my old rink.