Give Your Child the Gift of a Healthy Lifestyle through Physical Fitness
Fitness training is an important activity to include in your child/teenager’s life….
Athletic children and youth involved in sport can experience added improvement in their sport and prevent injuries with fitness training. As an example, ice skaters can really benefit from off-ice training such as sports conditioning, Pilates, jump, Zumba, balance work, and stretching.
Ice skaters tend to specialize in their sport at young ages, so it’s all the more important to develop strength and flexibility throughout the body to prevent muscular imbalances and injuries later in life. With fitness training added into figure skaters’ weekly routines, skaters can enjoy their sport even more and feel great!
Photo Credit: Photo by Giulio Bernardi at Flickr Creative Commons.
Show Skating Inspiration
Ice skating shows are one of the most popular parts of figure skating for the audience. Usually the skaters in shows are previous competitors who have retired from amateur status (competitive skating) and gone professional (just doing shows).
The professional skaters perform in shows like Disney on Ice with productions of Disney stories that start in the U.S. and then tour around the world, Holiday on Ice which tours around Europe and Latin America, and cruise ship shows on cruise ships with ice rinks. There are also shows like Stars on Ice that have both top Olympic and World professional and amateur athletes performing, such as Evan Lysacek, Sasha Cohen, and Kurt Browning.
Every year there are thousands of smaller private shows that both amateur and professional skaters perform in all over the world as well. Usually in shows you will see many exciting moves, such as backflips, that aren’t legal in competition.
While many of these moves are more entertaining to the audience, many of the show tricks are actually technically easier than the moves you will see in competition. This is because the sole purpose of a show is to entertain the audience, not to get higher points for harder moves.
I attached a video that one of my students found on YouTube. The team is Jodeyne Higgens and Sean Rice who are former two-time Canadian national bronze medalists and World competitors. I found the video to be a very entertaining show program. Notice how small the rink is and how Jodeyne and Sean still effortlessly perform a very entertaining program with advanced tricks!
Note: See Upcoming Events page for summer class information at the Kroc Center in San Diego!
Why You Should Arrive Early for Skating Performances
Christina (8) (on right) and other skaters ready for their Pops on Ice performance, 1998.
Competitions, test sessions, and exhibitions can be stressful at times, especially if you’re running late. Here are some tips for less stress before performance and reasons why it’s important to arrive early for skating performances.
Inspiration from the 2011 World Pairs Champions, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy
Watch this video of Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy (Germany), pairs champions from the 2011 World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow. It’s one of the best pairs programs I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot.
Notice the way Aliona and Robin made it entertaining though their musical interpenetration, strong execution of the elements, and great use of Aliona’s flexibility in various positions. From the beginning, they used their music to communicate with each other and the audience, making the program fun to watch. Then they completed some highly difficult elements flawlessly, such as the huge opening throw triple flip, triple toe sequence, and the middle overhead lift with the spread eagle intro and exit.
A sign of great skaters is they make skating look easy, and Aliona and Robin really made this program look like a piece of cake to the viewers. Also, watch the amazing position Aliona gets to on their pair sit!
Making a Difference – Heroes with a Heart
Giving is such a special part of life. It helps others and is self-rewarding as well. I’ve been thinking a lot about giving this month as the Salvation Army Kroc Center in San Diego has a very special fundraising campaign right now called “Heroes with a Heart.”
The Kroc Center has a goal of raising $70,000 in scholarships by the end of next week. The scholarships will only be used to help underprivileged individuals of all ages participate in Kroc Center events and classes.
Inspiration from the 2011 Ice Dance World Champions, Meryl Davis and Charlie White
Meryl Davis and Charlie White performing their free dance at the 2011 World Figure Skating Championships. (Photo by Liz Chastney)
What a Worlds for U.S. ice dancing this year! Meryl Davis and Charlie White were the first U.S. ice dance team ever to win the World Figure Skating Championships! And the young Shibutanis placed third! Meryl and Charlie gained their victory over the Olympic and World champions, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
