The event was brought to Sun Prairie thanks to the hard work of Reklys and www.skateuniversal.com, the group started talking about hosting a fundraiser for the proposed two-sheet hockey rink in December 2011.

Some of the skating stars that will appeared in the show include Reklys; Akop Manoukian, three time Aremenian National Champion; Maverick Eguia, 2010 Phillipine National Champion and 2011 Phillipine Olympic Team member; Tomoki Hiwatashi, the current reining United States Intermediate Men’s Champion; and Lexis Verhulst, the 2012 Upper Great Lakes Regional Silver Medalist.

“It is not often we have professional level skaters here,” “In fact Stars on Ice and Disney on Ice don’t even come to Madison anymore, only Milwaukee.”

Some Sun Prairie locals also performed during the Frozen Dreams Ice Show as well. Bridget Davidson and mother-daughter team Melissa and Sabine Westermeyer will be representing the Southern Wisconsin Figure Skating Club, and Brookelle Ternus, Tove Westermeyer, Katriel Sutton, Ethan Dorn, Sarah Jensen, Ally Anderson and Katie Guld will be performing as part of a synchronized skating team. Davidson and Melissa and Sabine Westermeyer participated in the Chicago show as well.

“I like that I got to try something new,” Sabine Westermeyer said about performing in Chicago. “I had never done something like that [skate in a professional show] or skated in the spotlight, so it was a new experience for me.”

“It was nice to see that the skaters…were just so low key about the whole thing,” Melissa Westermeyer said. “You could see they really had fun skating.”

“There was some pretty impressive skating,” Camber Davidson said. “…It was just a fun, entertaining night, something that was right here in our community.”

For more information please visit www.skateuniversal.com

Embarking on a new era
The Sun Prairie Ice Arena has been a home to the city’s skaters for almost 35 years, but due to increasing maintenance costs and an increased demand for ice time, a new building with more space and parking is needed for the 673+ annual rink users.
According to Jeff Thornton from the Sun Prairie Youth Hockey Association, just under $2 million has been raised from the sale of the old building and various fundraising efforts.

Donations have poured in from the various teams and leagues that use the ice arena, including $40,000 from the Old Buzzards Hockey League and approximately $200,000 from youth hockey. Thornton also said negotiations are currently going on for a donation from the Sun Prairie Varsity Hockey Booster Club.

The proposed two-sheet hockey arena would benefit not only Sun Prairie hockey teams, Camber Davidson said, but figure skaters and synchronized skaters as well. She said with one sheet of ice, her daughter and the other students in the Southern Wisconsin Figure Skating Club have to travel often to practice during the winter months. Team members have traveled to McFarland, Verona, Oregon, Sauk, Waunakee, even as far away as Wisconsin Dells, just to find some ice to practice on.

“Especially during the hockey season, it is impossible to find places to skate, and having two sheets of ice in Sun Prairie would mean that the figure skaters would have a year-round home,” Camber Davidson said. “Tomorrow [March 6] is the first time we are back in Sun Prairie since hockey started. We haven’t been there at all – we’ve been traveling to other rinks, other communities, and it kills me every time we go down to Verona. I’m there for two hours and we end up spending money in that community rather than in our own community. We want to keep the money home.”

“If we could build this rink and have two sheets of ice, we could potentially have a sheet and hockey could have a sheet and there would be no fighting over who gets the best times,” Hineline added.

In addition to providing more opportunities for Sun Prairie youth to skate – be it in hockey, figure skating or just for fun – Camber Davidson said the proposed hockey rink would also give Sun Prairie the chance to host a regional figure skating competition, and because the competitive figure skating season runs from summer to fall, it would not interfere with the hockey season.

“A rink is a real important part of a community,” Camber Davidson said. “If you grow up in a community without a rink, you don’t learn to skate in Wisconsin.”

Answers to: Frequently Asked Questions receipt

1. Complete application and make video resume of work. (You may make a montage 3 minutes long, NO extra “special effects” editing,)

2. You can be your own “talent” on camera OR you can have other skaters perform your choreography.
3. Once your application has been received (and payment verified), you will receive the “Uploading Information & Pass Code.”

4. Upload your video to the YouTube Site.

5. Submit before close of entry deadline. No late applications will be accepted. (April 20, 2012.)

6. IF you are a finalist you will be notified by April 27, 2012.

7. Applicants not selected will be sent an evaluation and YAS T-shirt after May, 2012.

8. Each week the assigned challenge will be posted on G2CYAS YouTube channel and the G2C website. Posting time will be Sunday night at 7pm EST. It is up to the Finalist/Contestant to view the challenge and complete the work by the prescribed due date.

9. Questions concerning the assignment can be asked by contacting Audrey Weisiger at 703-338-9598 or coach6605@aol.com.

10. Emphasis is not on technical skills (jumps), rather the use of skating to music in the prescribed challenge.

11. Contestants must post their work as directed by the deadline. Late work will not be accepted.

12. Reviews of work will be posted 48 hours after the assignments have been posted. Each work will be given a rating using stars, half and whole. The contestants with the highest number of stars will go onto the live show June 27, 2012.

13. The live show will consist of two challenges, one that the contestants will prepare in advance, and one that will be during the live show.

14. The judges will post their reviews each week on G2CYAS YouTube. Each week there will be a new panel. The live show will have three judges, the audience and the contestants themselves vote.

15. All work MUST be your own, without any outside help.

16. (For all finalists/challenges) All performers in the online contest are asked to wear neat, form-fitting black clothing for their online contest videos. Please—no costumes, no special lighting, and no “special effects” or editing of individual pieces unless specified for the challenge. (Costume & Lighting rules, do not apply to the Application Videos.)

17. All decisions are final.

SUPPORT YOUR ART! Be a “Friend Of YAS!”
For more information see www.youngartistsshowcase.net

Join Eagles Nest Ice Arena and Aidas Reklys

A. writes:

Is there a difference between the two? I have never taken dance and I see a cross roll as more of a dance step. I am assuming I would teach it a cross roll different then someone who does coach dance, but what is the difference?  Cross Rolls are in the Juvenile Moves in the Field test. When I was at a recent PSA PACE seminar, a fellow coach came up to me and asked me how I teach a cross roll; what a great question! The diagram below is the Cross Rolls pattern from the Juvenile Moves test.

How I teach cross rolls-Cross Rolls are on outside edges. I teach cross rolls with thighs crossed or legs crossed above the knee. I have the skater put their free foot down right before it passes in front of the skating foot so that both skates are on the ice for a brief moment. A cross step to me is when the free leg is put down after it crosses the skating leg.

The following are definitions from some technical manuals as definitions of both cross strokes and cross rolls.

2009-10 U.S. Figure Skating Tests Book

Cross Stroke (XS) | A forward or backward step started with the skating foot crossing in front or behind, respectively, the previous skating foot so that the legs cross above the knee and with impetus being gained from the outer edge of the foot which is becoming the free foot.

Cross Roll (CR) | A roll started with the action of the free foot approaching the skating foot from the side, so as to strike the ice almost at right angles to the skating foot, started forward with the feet crossed in front or backward with the feet crossed behind.  The impetus is gained from the outside edge of the skating foot as it becomes the new foot.  In this case, the change to the curve in the opposite direction creates a “rolling movement.”

IceMom.net: What Parents Can Learn from Figure Skating Coaches: Failures are Opportunities

IceCoach.net: Figure Skating-Cross Rolls vs. Cross Steps

ISI Skaters and Coaches Handbook

Cross Stroke | While gliding on the outside edge with the free leg in the back, the free leg is crossed over the skating leg and placed on the ice on an outside edge.  The other foot then pushes with the outside edge, is extended to the side and back, before it is then crossed over the skating leg and placed on the ice on an outside edge.

Cross Roll – While gliding on the left forward outside edge with the free leg in the back, the right foot is placed on the ice in front of the left foot on an outside edge (with the toes of each foot nearly touching).  The right foot continues to glide past the left foot on an outside edge, while the left foot is extended off the ice to the back and swings to the front before the feet are placed back together again.  The same maneuver can be done starting on the right forward outside edge and crossing the left foot for the cross roll.

If you are a coach, how do you teach Cross Rolls vs. Cross Steps? If you are a skater, how have you been taught Cross Rolls? I am especially interested in hearing from those of you who have coached dance or do dance!

So far I the most famous star I know that will be on the show is Bethenny Frankel. Bethenny stars in the Real Housewives of New York City, is a popular chef and has her own line of margaritas called Skinny Girl Margarita. Other stars to appear on the show include  former Motley Crue singer Vince Neil. Vince contests that  he actually was actually a competitive figure skater when he was younger. I am anxious to see how he does. Other stars include Blade Runner actress Sean Young, soap star Rebecca Budig, Disney star Brandon Mychal Smith, Olympic Gold Medalist skier Jonny Moseley.

IceCoach.net: New Figure Skating reality show: Skating with the Stars

SynchroMom.net: Synchronized Skating Travel Treats

IceMom.net: Beware the Maximizer Figure Skating Mom

The show was hosted by Olympic Gold Medalist in swimming Summer Sanders and Olympic Gold Medalist Scott Hamilton.  It was  judged by Olympic Gold Medal winner Dorothy Hamill.

So will you be watching Skating with Celebrities? Have you heard anything else about the show? Who will the skaters be?

There are four basic spin positions. Can you name them? I bet you can easily name two or three of them. The for basic positions are- camel, sit, upright, and layback.  In recent years, innovative positions or variations have created highly interesting and unusually artistic, sometimes even ugly spin positions. Spins such as the Biellmann, the pancake, the catch foot camel and the broken leg sit spin are new variations.  To create difficulty, spins are even done on the opposite edge as previously executed. For instance, the forward scratch spin ,which is typically done on a backward inside edge, is now being attempted on a forward outside edge.

In this post I will go over identifying the four basic spin positions, in a future post I will cover variations of these positions.

Camel Spin- A camel spin can be recognized by the free leg being 90 degrees from the skating leg. The back is arched and arms typically are out to the side although some people pull them close to the body. A camel spin is basically a level spiral position

Sit Spin- A sit spin is identified by its sitting position low to the ice. In order to be qualified as a sit spin under IJS, a skater’s  bottom must be level with his knee or lower. The back is at approximately a 45-degree angle and arched. It is not hunched over the skating knee. The free leg is stretched out straight in front of the skating leg. Arms are typically stretched out in front of the skating knee and clasped together.

Upright Spin- One of the first spins a skater will learn will be in the upright position, the two-foot spin. The most common upright spin is the scratch or back scratch spin. The scratch spin is identified by the skaters perpendicular, position to the ice. The free leg and arms will start out to the side, and the skater spins they will be drawn closer to the body and the free leg will cross in front of the skating leg.

Layback spin- The layback spin starts upright. It is identified by the back then being arched backwards and the free leg being held up and turned out to the side. Arms are typically held above the chest in a round position.

Can you identify these common positions on the ice? What is your favorite spin position?

The following is a simple explanation of the 6.0 system. The  6.0 system is a majority system, which is unique to skating. Each event is judged by an odd number of judges, typically five or seven.  The skater who gets first is the person given first place by the majority of the judges. There are two marks in the freestyle program technical merit and presentation. The two marks in the short program are required elements and presentation. As you might guess the markes for each program go from 0.0 to 6.0. Basic Skills differ slighting in that many of them will use the 6.0 judging system but only use a range of one. Such as 2.0-3.0. For each category technical merit or required elements and presentation a judge will give the skater a mark between 0.0 and 6.0. These marks are added together and used to determine a ordinal or place.

Required and technical marks are a judge’s scoring of the level and quality of  elements skated such as spins, jumps, footwork and spiral sequences. The presentation mark is a judge’s assessment of the whole program. Basically anything that is not an element such as choreography and interpretation of the music.

0 – not skated
1 – very poor
2 – poor
3 – okay
4 – good
5 – very good
6 – flawless

As noted above first place is pretty straightforward. Whoever gets a majority of “1′s” wins. Now remove this skater from your mind when determining the other places. Now anyone who has a first place ordinal, the 1 becomes a 2.  Then you find the skater with a majority of “2′s” (anyone else who has a first or second place ordinal). That skater gets second place. Now anyone left who has a first, second, or third place ordinal is counted as a three. This process gets repeated for all the skaters.

IceCoach.net: 6.0 Figure Skating Judging System

IceMom.net: What Parents Can Learn from Figure Skating Coaches: Demonstrate

Do your area competitions still use the 6.0 competitions, IJS or a combination of both?

Do you have a question for Ice Coach? Do you have a suggestion for a blog post you’d like to read? E-mail me! IceCoach@IceCoach.net

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Photo credits:
Phone-pad.jpg: wax115 on MorgueFile.com
number 6: jontintinjordan / jon jordan on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Nature’s Number 6: CarbonNYC / David Goehring on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Eel Pond Buoy Number Six (Woods Hole, MA): takomabibelot on Flickr.com Creative Commons

As a coach, here are my issues: 

1. I feel guilty charging for time I didn’t spend with a student - But I have to also look at it from the point of view that this is my job, I planned on this income to pay bills, therefore it is not fair to me. Hopefully, I will get better at this.
2. I am very understanding if a parent calls me right before a lesson to cancel, if I haven’t made it to the rink yet or even if I have, I just go home and don’t charge them. But often times this does change my whole day. If I would have known I was going to have a day off, I would have brought some work out clothes with me and gone to the gym.
3. Most of the time I have another student on the ice, so I can spend the time with them instead and not charge the person who has canceled.
4. As long as the family doesn’t make it a habit, I have a hard time charging them. Even if it is becoming a habit, I have a hard time standing up for myself. I try to put myself in their shoes and be understanding of their situation.
5. If a lesson is missed I ask the student to reschedule.

A few strategies could have helped me deal with this issue: 

1. Charge for the month up front. If a student misses a lesson, they’ve already paid for it, so there’s no uncomfortable conversation the next week like, “By the way, you still owe me for last week.”
2. Make a policy, in writing that I give to new students with rules to deal with situations such as this. My rule would/could be something like this:
   1. Cancellation of private lessons must be made 24 hours in advance
   2. In the case of a last-minute cancellation due to illness, a doctor’s note will be needed 
3. Make a policy that allows for one cancellation every six months, or something similar.

 As a parent how can I help? 

1. Be respectful and always let your coach know as soon as possible you can’t make a lesson. Llet your coach know. I tend to check my email.
2. Offer to pay for the missed lesson
3. Reschedule the lesson as soon as possible
4. Apologize and don’t make it a habit
5. Bring your coach fresh warm cookies to the next lesson- Okay this is a joke, but it can’t hurt right?

IceMom.net: Does Your Figure Skating Club Do Anything Special for Advancing Skaters?

IceCoach.net: How do I cancel a private figure skating lesson?

Private figure skating lessons are different from other sport’s practices or lessons because most of the time, you pay after the fact. If you sign up for group lessons you have already paid, so if you miss a class you don’t get a refund.

Parents, what else should coaches like me do? How can a coach stand up for themselves and the income they depend on without coming off the wrong way? How much is too much? What are your coach’s policies?