Get Coached - S&C for Figure Skating w/c 1/9/2014 & 8/9/2014

Welcome to the latest blog from Get Coached, apologies for missing a week. That means that I will cover the two weeks here and bring all things Get Coached - S&C for Figure Skating up to date!
The week commencing 1st of September saw some of the Get Coached skaters in final preparation mode for the Ayr Open starting Friday the 5th.
The Olympia and Gain the Edge groups both had skaters competing across all levels in Ayr many of whom had great skates and performed really well.
My final sessions with them looked to include mobilisation and muscle activation using exercise bands for clamshell, monster walk and hamstring curl exercises and finishing this set with the bands around the knees for resisted squats. This was followed by split squat with a rotation over the forward knee and single arm overhead split squats for core activation and hip stabilisation work. We also completed progressive sets of arabesque with squat variations for hip strength and coordination.
A big part of figure skating performance are the jumps, and for every up there is a down so landing practice in the form of a hop with a held landing focusing on technique and body position was a central part of the programme. Controlling the deceleration from jumps where the landing forces can be up to 10 to 15 times body weight for doubles and triples needs high levels of strength and coordination to ensure success.
To put this into perspective; a 50kg skater landing a double or a triple jump will have to withstand momentary landing forces in excess of 500kg, on one leg!
Having seen the Ayr Open through it was onwards to focus on the next competition which for some is the Lombardi Cup, and others the Southern Open at Lee Valley, London.
Similar focus and programme adjustments being made to accommodate the various competition schedules and individual needs.
With regards to the ongoing development of Get Coached I am now starting to push out the seminars I delivered at the NISA Coaches Conference and the Performance Camp to the clubs across Scotland, and if they continue to be well received then across the rest of the UK. If successful, this will be a big step forward for Get Coached and a move towards it's aim of being a platform for quality coaching and education for skating.
As always, thanks for following me this far and any comments and feedback regarding all things S&C for skating are appreciated.

Get Coached - S&C for Figure Skating w/c 25/8/2014

This will be a post of two blogs as it were!
I am going to update the week as well as a little piece on the Back Squat.
The week commencing 25th August saw the Sheffield IJS competition take place with some great skates and dazzling performances, I am always amazed at what these guys and girls can do on the ice!
As previously mentioned I was able to update on my daughters performance due to the late post last week. I can add to that and congratulate several more of the Get Coached skaters on some solid performances. Whilst some of the skaters felt their performances and scores were below par there were good lessons to be learned and lots of positives to be taken home from Sheffield and worked on before the next competition, always onwards and upwards!
I have had some good S&C sessions with the Get Coached skaters in preparation for Ayr and beyond with the highlight of my week being my involvement in the NISA Performance Camp in Sheffield.
It was fantastic to meet such celebrates as Robin Cousins and Kevin Adams as well as the International Judges and Coaches. The athletes were all great and hopefully enjoyed the presentation and workshop. It was also good to catch with/meet for the first time the support staff on the programme and discuss how best to work together to deliver our best to the athletes.

The Back Squat 

Much has been written and demonstrated on video about the back squat and how to perform it correctly, how much you should lift and what the benefits are. It truly is a foundation exercise that anyone who walks, runs or jumps in one form or another either competitively or recreationally should do! In other words, everyone should squat if they are safe and able to do so.

I am going to briefly discuss two key points regarding the back squat, at this point I will not be discussing key coaching points, loading or otherwise.

The back squat is primarily a knee extensor (quadriceps) and hip extensor (gluteus maximus and medius, hamstrings and adductors) exercise, with the latissimus dorsi, erector spinae, oblique and anterior abdominal muscles all involved in stabilisation of the trunk, spine and pelvis.

There are two key debates that are still ongoing with regards to the squat; squat depth, and should the knees go beyond the toes? 

Dynamic hip extension is vital for explosive movement, particularly in a sporting environment. It has been shown that a greater squat depth will result in a greater activation of the major hip extensors i.e. gluteus maximus. Therefore, a squat to parallel (hips level with knees) will result in the specific adaptation required to improve performance. 

With regards to the knees moving beyond the toes ask yourself this "Does this happen in sport?" Yes most definitely, this can be seen in most sports at some point or another. We then need to ask if we should train it? A correct squat technique will distribute forces evenly between knees and hips thus reducing the risk of injury, as such there will be some forward trunk lean and some knee movement  forward over the toes. 

Now this is where good coaching skills come in as everyone is built differently. A squat will look very different for someone with a long thigh bone (femur) and less flexible ankles than for someone with a shorter femur and greater dorsiflexion at the ankle. Both can squat safely and effectively with appropriate input and direction. 

Thanks again for reading my blog and I hope you have found this informative. Once again please feel free to comment appropriately or get in touch either here on Blogger, on my Facebook Page Get Coached or my G+ Page Get Coached.