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.

Get Coached - S&C for Figure Skating w/c 18/8/2014

This week starting 18th August was spent primarily focusing on getting the Basic Novice, Advanced Novice, Junior and Senior Get Coached skaters prepared for the Sheffield IJS running from Monday 25th to Thursday 28th August.
The Development Group programmes were still on for those not competing with the focus still on overall strength development, coordination and conditioning.
Needless to say both groups worked hard and enjoyed the sesssions; it was also an opportunity to catch up on a few tests missed from the previous week.
The pre competition preparation was individualised for each skater depending on their specific needs, injury status and on-ice training volume for that week. These sessions were delivered either 1 to 1 or in small groups (no more than 3) with on going communication and content adjustment throughout the session.
For my part as a skating Dad it was the first full IJS competition for my daughter where qualifying for the Free programme is required. This did add to the nerves and pressure a little but she did us proud as always no matter what her results were. as it went she did qualify and went on to skate her Free programme too!
The next competition for most of the Get Coached skaters is the Ayr Open, nice and local, and a familiar rink to get a run out on before the Southern Open at the Lee Valley Ice Centre.
But before that I travel back down south for the Performance Camp to be held at the Sheffield Hallam University. I am really looking forward to working with the skaters, coaches and support staff. I am looking to learn more about skating, especially Dance as I have no experience here at all and to hopefully build and develop further professional relationships within this  amazing sport.
Once again, thanks for reading and I hope you are enjoying the Get Coached blog.
Any suggestions or feedback are always welcome and can be left on the Get Coached Facebook Page or Google+ page or right here on Blogger.

Get Coached - S&C for Figure Skating w/c 11/8/2014

What a week it has been!

We completed some basic tests on our Gain the Edge skaters on Saturday the 9th August and caught those skaters who missed the test day because of a training camp later that week. The test battery included height and weight measures to monitor growth (PHV - Peak Height Velocity), sit & reach for flexibility, the Multi Stage Fitness Test for endurance and jump height using a Just Jump mat. Understanding when PHV occurs can help in programming the correct developmental exercises into their training regime at the most effective time. It has been shown that there are certain windows of opportunity to enhance the development of particular physical attributes pre, post and during PHV whether this is strength, skills, speed or endurance.

We had a real mixed bag of test results with some good but expected results, some poor results and some unexpected and excellent results from some of the younger skaters.
On the Monday and Tuesday I was in Sheffield presenting at the NISA Coaches Conference. This included 3 presentations on Strength and Conditioning for Skating and 3 on Athlete Lifestyle Management; all of which were well received with some excellent questions asked. It was also a chance to speak to some very experienced high level coaches and network a little! We were well looked after and the Gala entertainment on the first night was very good.
I have since been asked to visit a few clubs to deliver some practical and classroom based workshops.
The week finished in Dundee for their Open competition at the Ice Arena where quite a few of the Get Coached skaters were competing for their various clubs. There were some excellent performances and everyone really put the effort in, it was great to see! All the hard work, early mornings and hard training was worth the effort and out on show.
Back to training for everyone this week and then off to the Sheffield IJS Competition next week then another training camp!
I'll be reporting back on these events and more. Thanks for reading and please let me know of any Skating S&C topics you would like covered and "like" my Facebook page Get Coached. 

Get Coached - S&C for Figure Skating w/c 4/8/2014

This weeks post comes from Dundee and the Ice Coaching Elite Skate Camp. This is the second camp I have worked on with Simon and Debi Briggs and I was delighted to be given the opportunity to do so.
Gheorghe Chiper, Jenna McCorkell and Kevin van der Perren, all three of them Olympians, were guest coaches at the camp which was great for the skaters to receive coaching input from such experienced athletes as well as great coaching from the rest of the coaching team.
It was also a great opportunity for me as an S&C coach to ask them about their Off-ice training, what they did and the aims of their off-ice programmes.
There were between 90 and 100 skaters divided into four groups attending the week long camp with classes including various on-ice and off-ice activities, presentations and workshops.

My activities included a practical session for each group on Monday morning, this session concentrated on squat technique for standard; overhead; split and single leg squats all at bodyweight. We also completed various hurdle jump and hop exercises for the two higher level groups whilst the two lower level groups completed various balance exercises which proved quite interesting. Several of the younger kids about 10 years old, said their balance was good, by the end of the session and having fallen several times they were still of the same opinion!
On Wednesday I delivered a brief presentation on Athlete Lifestyle Management to all four groups, tailoring it a little to suit each groups age and attention span. This was well received (the presentation) and prompted some good questions. Hopefully everyone took something from this that will help them develop as athletes whether this was understanding that sleep is important or the need for good, balanced nutrition.
The last session I delivered on Thursday was a practical where we looked at shoulder range of motion, thoracic and lumbar extension, flexion and rotation, and hip extension. Most of the athletes knew what stretches to do for each of these areas but in most cases the stretch was ineffective. Therefore the main aim of the session was to teach correct technique for stretching these areas. I ended the session for groups one and two by asking if there were any particular stretches they wanted to cover which raised a few hands I was pleased to see. We covered a further stretches for the neck/upper trapezius, adductors and the IT band.
It was a great week for the skaters, they all worked hard on and off the ice and had fun along the way. The coaches were great and made me feel a part of the team, not so much a newcomer!
It's testing this Saturday in Ayr for the Gain the Edge skaters and then off to Sheffield to present at the Coaches Conference hence the early post rather than leaving it until late next week.
Thanks again for reading if you have got this far, if you have any skating related topics for discussion please drop me a line. The Get Coached Facebook page is best for any communications and has my mobile and email.

Get Coached - S&C for Figure Skating w/c 28/7/2014

Coaching went well this week, as well as my usual development group classes I had a very good gym session with two of my younger skaters who have only recently started lifting. Both are slightly built but competent skaters who will really benefit from this step up in training and added resistance.
Funnily enough, although they have similar build and are in fact sisters their training needs do differ. Whilst technique work and learning the new exercises are the main focus of these sessions I know from working with them both for a number of years now that one needs to improve her speed of movement and power output whilst the other just needs to increase her whole body strength.

They do share most of the exercises in their programme but with subtle changes for each. Back squat, overhead split squat and stiff leg deadlifts were all performed well and the few  coaching points needed were picked up easily.
An increase in strength will improve power output but it is also the intent to move fast that needs to be developed and as such various jump exercises have been included in her programme as well as introducing the Olympic lifts. This latter inclusion has only just started with Jerks and has been picked up well so far.
I must also thank Bene-Fit Health & Fitness for the continued use of their excellent new facility in Ayr, a gym run by athletes for athletes.
I was also invited to present and deliver workshops on S&C at the Magnum Figure Skating & Ice Dance club annual training camp. This involved three practical workshops and one lecture for the two groups of skaters. The workshops covered basic exercise techniques including various squats, planks and agility drills whilst the lectures covered the need for S&C in Figure Skating and Athlete Lifestyle Management, both of which were well received by athletes and coaches alike.
I then received contact from Dundee at the end of the week to stand in and cover their planned Off-ice strength sessions and lectures at the Dundee Ice Camp annual training event at the beginning of August as well.
This was an excellent opportunity for me to work with some of the best figure skating coaches and athletes in Britain and continue to build my relationship with them after helping out at their camp earlier in the year. With international skaters and coaches in attendance it is an excellent opportunity to learn more about this great sport and pick their brains for their views and knowledge on S&C for figure skating.
I will give a full update in next week's post, thanks for reading and please get in touch with any questions or for more information on Get Coached.

Get Coached - S&C for Figure Skating w/c 21/7/2014

This week has been fairly quiet on the coaching front with senior skaters still on camp and holiday (alright for some!).
However, I still had my development groups in Ayrshire and East Kilbride to work with.
Both groups are a mix of ages so adapting the planned programme and making adjustments on the run were the order of the day.
The key aim of both sessions was to challenge and build on their balance, coordination and proprioception abilities. We covered single leg squats, arabesques with a squat; a seesaw like pivot and moving from upright to arabesque and back upright again without putting a foot down. These moves all challenge balance and core strength/control as well as stretching and working the hamstring and hip muscles.

I have seen a real improvement in movement control and general coordination since introducing these type of exercises and few years ago and this had had a positive impact in performance on the ice.

This takes me on to my next point on core/torso strengthening exercises which is to ask if overhead squats in their many variations are better for developing torso/core strength for absorbing forces, bracing against and generating torque?

I currently use overhead squats and split squats with a barbell, overhead split squats with a dumbell and body weight overhead squats for the younger athletes. All my athletes also complete various floor exercises for core/torso strength as well including plank variations and sit-up variations both straight and rotational.

What are your thoughts and opinions on overhead squats and how do you use them?

Comment on this post here or on my Get Coached Facebook page.