Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue are World and Olympic ice dancers. Madison and Zach are two-time World Ice Dance medalists (2018, 2019). They also competed in the 2018 Olympics where they placed 4th. They currently train in Montreal and their coaches include Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon, Romain Haguenauer, Pascal Denis, Josee Pichet, Ginette Cournoyer, and Samuel Chouinard.
From time to time, Madison and Zach teach at skating seminars where they focus mostly on skating skills and choreography. We are very luck at iCoachSkating to have their unique perspective on skating and coaching.
Most recent videos at the top…
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Alternating Forward Outside Three Turns (Madison Hubbell)
World and Olympic ice dance medalist Madison Hubbell continues her lesson on basic skating skills and patterns for the USFS Preliminary Moves in the Field tests. (See the previous video here.) In this video, the focus is on alternating forward outside three turns, also typically referred to as “three turns on the line.” After watching […] Continue reading →
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Crossovers and Pushes (Madison Hubbell)
World and Olympic ice dance medalist Madison Hubbell works with a young skater on basic pushes and crossovers. The pattern this skater uses is the first pattern of the Preliminary US Figure Skating Moves in the Field Test, but the information Madison shares is focused entirely on the skills and not the pattern. Madison explains […] Continue reading →
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Basic Pushes for Power (Madison Hubbell)
World and Olympic ice dance medalist Madison Hubbell continues a skating skills lesson at a seminar/camp. Part 1 focused on skating skills associated with generating power from edges. This part focuses on the fundamentals of pushing for power. Madison describes a powerful basic push as having both feet together and both legs generally straight before […] Continue reading →
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Drills for Generating Power (Madison Hubbell)
World and Olympic ice dance medalist Madison Hubbell gives a skater a lesson at a seminar/camp. This lesson focuses on skating skills, and in particular, how to generate power on the ice. Madison begins with a simple two-foot weight transfer exercise where the feet are separated (wide stance). In this exercise, the skater should “always […] Continue reading →
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Partner Skating – Backward Skating Drill for Cadence and Unison (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
Two-time World Ice Dance Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue teach a backward crossover drill in high Kilian. The purpose of this drill is to develop the correct up and down timing of the knees and match partner movements, as well as to work on tracking. This is not a “power” exercise and is not […] Continue reading →
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Ice Show 2-Hand Eagle Partner Spin (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
Two-time World Ice Dance Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue teach the very common ice show partner spin which is sometimes referred to as the eagle spin or spread eagle spin. And although this is not a serious figure skating skill, the spin is fun and an excellent tool for improving partnering and building awareness […] Continue reading →
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Push Pull Partner Exercise (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
Two-time World Ice Dance Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue share a fun and helpful partner exercise intended to build partner connection and control while also demonstrating how speed and power can be achieved with and without push with a partner. The initial drill is very simple. Two skaters simply grab right hands (thumbs up, […] Continue reading →
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Exercise for Power and Stability (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
Two-time World Ice Dance Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue share a valuable exercise for improving power and stability. This exercise is simple and well-known, but Zach and Madison offer insights on how to do it well. The idea is simple: Stand on the red line at the end of the rink and with one […] Continue reading →
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Subtleties of Partner Skating – Basic Stroking (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
Two-time World Ice Dance Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue teach a class on the foundational details of partner skating, and in particular, basic stroking with a partner. For those interested in partner skating (pairs or ice dance), there is a ton of great info in this video. Zach is clear about the starting position, […] Continue reading →
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Exercise to Build Power (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
Two-time World Ice Dance Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue work with a class of skaters on a single exercise for learning to generate power. In this video, Madison and Zach explore this exercise in detail, and explain the concepts in a variety of ways. One of the biggest challenges that all coaches face is […] Continue reading →
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Natural Acceleration (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
2018 World Ice Dance Silver Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue work on acceleration with a class of skaters at a seminar. Zach initially shows an exercise intended to allow skaters to feel acceleration and deceleration while on a flat and simply using body movement. This drill does not actually cause a speed increase after […] Continue reading →
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More Partner Skating Drills (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
2018 World Ice Dance Silver Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue teach a class of skaters a couple more partner skating drills. This video builds on the earlier videos in the series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. The first new drill in this video has the skaters facing each other and one […] Continue reading →
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Backward Crossovers With a Partner (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
2018 World Ice Dance Silver Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue teach a class of skaters backward crossovers with a partner. The video builds on a repeating series of back inside edges in the previous video and another video discussing the foundation of power back crossovers. Zach begins the lesson discussing another concept that helps […] Continue reading →
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Backward Crossovers With Power (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
2018 World Ice Dance Silver Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue teach a class of skaters backward crossovers, and particularly, how to do them with power. The video builds on a repeating series of back inside edges in the previous video. This presentation is based on the classic method that ice dance and pair teams […] Continue reading →
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Inside Edge Weight Shift Exercise (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
2018 World Ice Dance Silver Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue teach a class of skaters a repeating series of back inside edges. This exercise is performed on two feet, although the skater’s weight is nearly 100% on the inside edge of the outer skate on the lobe. This exercise is almost always challenging for […] Continue reading →
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Partner Exercise for Gaining Speed and Momentum (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
2018 World Ice Dance Silver Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue teach a fun exercise for generating momentum with a partner. This exercise is a simplification of the always-fun “slingshot” pass-by and it teaches important partnering skills in a very fun way. To do this exercise well, skaters have to master partner connection (feeling a […] Continue reading →
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Power Generation Exercises and Skating With a Partner (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
2018 World Ice Dance Silver Medalists Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue offer two exercises for generating power and flow in the context of skating with a partner. The first exercise is just a repeating series of dance swing rolls. The secret to generating power with this exercise is the timing of the knee action. This […] Continue reading →
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Nuances of Partner Skating (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
Olympians and 2018 US National Ice Dance Champions Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue share partnering wisdom with a class of non-elite skaters. There is only one skating exercise in this video, but there’s a large volume of teaching by Madison and Zach on how to do the exercise (and all partnering) well. The exercise is […] Continue reading →
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Shadow Skating With a Partner (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue)
2018 US National Ice Dance Champions Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue teach a class of skaters some basics of partnering. Maddie and Zach are teaching the skaters basic shadow skating without holding on. This is also called side-by-side skating. This form of partner skating is supposed to be easy, but it never is. For some […] Continue reading →
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Basic Partner Skating – Part 2 (Barrett, Hubbell, Donohue)
This video is a continuation of a class on partner skating (see Part 1 here) by US National Pair Champion Jeremy Barrett and US World ice dancers Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue. In this video, they cover a lot of ground including tracking on offset circles, basic side by side waltz jumps, and a variety […] Continue reading →
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Basic Partner Skating – Part 1 (Barrett, Hubbell, Donohue)
The vast majority of the information at iCoachSkating is focused on singles skating and particularly, on how to figure skate singles or how to teach figure skating to a singles skater. This video represents a slight deviation from this as this is about basic partner skating. This video was recorded at a Grassroots to Champions […] Continue reading →