S&C for Figure Skating Oct 2014

The NISA British Figure Skating Championships in Sheffield are fast approaching and the Get Coached skaters are gearing up for the competition!

This is interesting times indeed, not only do we (that is Get Coached and the Gain the Edge and Olympia skating coaches) have more athletes attending this year than previously but I believe they are in better shape both mentally and physically this year too.

The training group has grown in number and this has both added a degree of internal competition as well as a sense of confidence and excitement throughout the squad. They have been attending more group training sessions together both on and off of the ice and it is this that I feel is building a team spirit for what is an individual sport, pairs aside!

Training this week has been focused on continuing to build strength in what is still quite a young training group both in training experience and chronological age. They have all been well focussed and motivated throughout the sessions while still bringing an element of fun and enjoyment. Each athlete has specific developmental needs with regards to their S&C programmes as well as the overarching goal of Get Coached in providing athletes capable of withstanding the demands of and achieving the performance levels required for Figure Skating.

Overhead lifts are the mainstay moves for the programme along with various single leg exercises and movement combinations. The younger athletes are tasked with improving their coordination, balance and control of movement, whilst those with a greater training age follow a more traditional S&C programme. With just under 5 weeks until competition and an increased demand for time on the ice the S&C programmes have to be well balanced and periodised so as not to impact too heavily on programme run throughs on the ice. Good communication with the coaches is key for this to be effective, and I must say I am very lucky to be working and communicating well with the coaches for this training group. We are all keen to learn and progress in our chosen disciplines whilst learning about each others area of speciality as well.

As always thank you for reading this far. I hope you have found this blog interesting, any relevant feedback or comments are always welcome here and on the Get Coached FaceBook and Google+ pages

Get Coached - S&C for Figure Skating w/c 15/9/2014 to 6/10/2014

Again it has been a few weeks since the last post, and a lot has happened in a relatively short time.
Two of my skaters, one junior one senior, were both at the Lombardi Cup in Italy with another 6 novice and junior competing at the Southern IJS in Lee Valley, London, and a further 12 skaters competing at the Deeside IJS, Wales. This included Basic and Advanced Novice, Junior and senior skaters.
It was a mixed bag of performances across the board but overall good, moving in the right direction.
Training has been about competition preparation and individual development.
For example, one coach has asked that their athlete work on developing their triple extension for jump take off. The athlete jumps on dry land without extending at the ankle, this same athlete has also struggled to decelerate the downward momentum on landing. Thus we worked on various repeated hops, jumps and landing exercises both single and double leg.
Another athlete needed to improve their explosive speed of movement with regards to take off and landing in combination jumps, this is a more experienced athlete and as such we introduced drop jumps and rebound jumps into their programme. This was already a very individualised programme and we did not want to add any significant volume at this point, but we did need to answer the needs as highlighted above.

The overhead lifts are seen by many S&C coaches as essential for athletic development and key in improving core strength and stability in performance. In my opinion and experience these lifts are key for take offs, landings and spins in their various forms for Figure Skating.

I have included two short video clips showing an overhead squat and an overhead split squat performed by one of my athletes. He has been performing these lifts for about a year now and is competent but we did need to work on shoulder mobility for the overhead squat.
This is not a coaching article but rather a call to notice the benefit of these exercises for Figure Skating.

As always any relevant comments or feedback is welcome.