Skating Milestones!

I have had an awesome week at skating - a week where I realize how lucky I am to be a coach and to get paid to do something that I love, and that can be so rewarding!

It started on Thursday with one of my skaters, Kate - she wasn't supposed to be at practice that night because she had an orthodontist appointment, but she was able to make it for about an hour. Now, I had readjusted my lesson schedule thinking that Kate wasn't going to be there, so I only had about ten minutes to work with her. I was going to give her a short skills lesson, but she asked if we could work on her double toe loop instead, so I said sure and we got to work.

She has been working on her double toe off and on all year - at one point, she was really struggling with it, so we decided to focus on her double loop instead - but over the last few weeks, we switched back to the double toe as it was getting really close. So on Thursday, after about two or three attempts...she LANDED her FIRST DOUBLE TOE!!!

I don't know who was more excited, me or Kate?!? I'm super excited because it's always good to see a skaters hard work pay off, and because this is the first of 'my' skaters to land a double toe!

When I got home after skating, this was Kate's status on Facebook....landed my double toe loop today!!!!!!!!!!! my butt is completely soaked but it was totally worth it! :)

And then yesterday, we had a 'guest coach' come to Tweed to work with our skaters in a harness. The coach uses a handheld harness to help get the necessary height to achieve the rotation of a jump - once the skater 'gets the feeling' of the jump, they are often able to complete it without the harness.

Here is a picture I found online of a coach using a similar harness...
The first skater I had Adam work with in the harness was Leah; she has been working on her axel for at least two years! It's a jump that kids always struggle with, and often spend a long time working to achieve, but it was beyond frustrating for her by this point! She'd pretty much given up on Freeskate by this point actually, I think she was ready to give up and focus on Dance and Skills.

So, she gets in the harness and after a few attempts, starts landing the jump. I'm working with a different skater at the opposite end of the ice, but I was totally distracted and paying more attention to Leah...ooops. It's obviously one thing to land the jump while in the harness, but the ultimate test to land it once the harness is removed. So, when she LANDED her FIRST AXEL I couldn't help but celebrate!!! I interrupted the lesson to give high fives, congratulate her, hug her and tell her how proud of her I was - no one would have been able to wipe the smiles off our faces!!!

She continued her lesson, doing a few jumps in the harness and then a few more without, going back and forth. The best part, not only is she now landing the jump, but she has a beautiful air position! Now that's a comment only a skating coach can appreciate! ha!

Once she finished her lesson, I did a little group lesson with my jumping stars - the lesson included Leah, Kate and another skater, Britteny, who has recently started landing her double salchow. It was a great lesson, the girls and I both loved rotating through skaters - Leah landing her axel, Britteny landing her double salchow and Kate landing her double toe loop!

And, now for a picture of the girls...
Left to right: Leah, Jillian, Kate and Britteny (Jillian didn't have any huge jump achievements this week, but I couldn't leave her out of the picture!)

These girls are normally really goofy, and always giggling, so this picture seemed too serious...so, I told them to be goofy, and this is what I got...
I'm anxious to see if the girls are still landing these jumps when I see them next, which isn't until Thursday?!?!