Team coaching - what is it?
Every coach has an area/specialty that they are good at, there are very few coaches that can do everything well, for example, teach jumps, spins, skating skills and choreography. So serious skaters usually have a team of coaches, that is why on the kiss and cry bend at International competitions that you might see on TV there are quite often more than one coach.
A typical coaching team consists of a :-
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Base coach, this is the coach who guides your skating career, for example puts you through tests and suggests competitions to enter, goes with you to competitions, co-ordinates the other coaches on the team, recommends or runs off ice training programs. |
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Choreography coach - this coach specialises in making new skating routines (programs), this coach does not teach jumps or spins as part of this team. |
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Jump specialist - this coach only teaches jumps, this role may be done by the base coach |
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Spin specialist - this coach only teaches spins, this role may also be done by the base coach. |
Coaches sharing students and teaching them the same thing is not team coaching, for example two or more coaches teaching the one skater jumps. Technique varies greatly with jumps, some coaches use the American style like Kathy Casey, Russian coaches use Russian technique etc. The American style of Axel takeoff for example has a leg kick that is mostly from behind, other more old fashion techniques use a big kick forward, so for example if your child had two coaches both teaching those techniques then one lesson he/she would be told to do a big kick forward and the next lesson with the other coach would be told to kick from behind. So different technique, your child cannot learn two techniques, the result would not be efficient to say the least.
Policy on team coaching
I support team coaching, since I am a strong jump and spin coach I do not like sharing students with other coaches for jumps and spins as I feel that this compromises results, it also causes other problems.
