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Low Level Choreography Lesson – Part 2 (Kate Charbonneau)
Coach and choreographer Kate Charbonneau continues a choreography session with a young skater to build a new program. In Part 1 Kate got to know the skater a bit and challenged the skater with some new movements. In this video, Kate essentially lays out a majority of the skater’s program utilizing the skills from Part […] Continue reading →
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Low Level Choreography Lesson – Part 1 (Kate Charbonneau)
Coach and choreographer Kate Charbonneau begins a choreography session with a young skater to build a new program. A very large percentage of coaches work with skaters at this level, so many will benefit from seeing how Kate approaches this task. This entire first part is really just Kate getting to know this skater and […] Continue reading →
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Performance Reminders During Program Run-Through (Rohene Ward)
Coach and choreographer Rohene Ward skates along with Olympic medalist Jason Brown (a number of years ago) during a program run-through, reminding him throughout of important performance details. The purpose of this kind of exercise is the choreographer can repeatedly emphasize certain aspects of the performance or choreography. The choreographer can provide motivation as well, […] Continue reading →
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Performance Comments During Program Run-Throughs (Rohene Ward)
Coach and choreographer Rohene Ward works with a variety of advanced skaters who are doing program run-throughs without jumps. Rohene calls these performances “makettes” (SP) which he explains is a Russian ice dance word for “mark through” of an ice dance. He has his skaters do these performances after their morning on-ice warm-up class and […] Continue reading →
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Off-Ice Choreography – Part 4 (Garrett Kling)
Choreographer Garrett Kling continues off-ice choreography with a higher level class for an on-ice group performance at a camp. The previous 3 videos of the series were the off-ice choreography for one of the lower level groups (see Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3). In this video, Garrett is working with a higher […] Continue reading →
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Off-Ice Choreography – Part 3 (Garrett Kling)
Choreographer Garrett Kling continues the off-ice choreography class for an on-ice group performance to skaters at a camp. He begins this video with choreography that precedes the movements learned previously in Part 1 and Part 2. Garrett first organizes the group into lines and then teaches the movements. Again, as in the earlier videos of […] Continue reading →
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Exercises to Build Skating Skills – Part 4 (Denise Myers)
World and Olympic coach Denise Myers continues her multi-part series sharing a variety of exercises and drills intended to improve overall skating skills. These exercises would be excellent as part of an on-ice warm-up or at the end of a session or training day. The ultimate goal is to build skills that translate into improved […] Continue reading →
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Warmup Edge Class – Part 3 (Rohene Ward)
Coach and choreographer Rohene Ward continues his warm-up edge class for advanced skaters. This class is performed to a variety of music and the emphasis is on warming up, mastering skating skills, and improving performance skills. Check out the entire series: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 The first […] Continue reading →
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Warmup Edge Class – Part 2 (Rohene Ward)
Coach and choreographer Rohene Ward continues his warm-up edge class for advanced skaters. This class is performed to very slow, bluesy music and the emphasis is on warming up, mastering skating skills, and improving performance skills. Check out the entire series: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 The first […] Continue reading →
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Warmup Edge Class – Part 1 (Rohene Ward)
Coach and choreographer Rohene Ward leads a warm-up edge class for advanced skaters. The class is warming up with very slow music using 3/4 timing. The exercises are meant to warm up the skaters’ bodies and provide an opportunity to work on mobility, flexibility, and extension on the ice. Due the slow nature of the […] Continue reading →
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Off-Ice Choreography – Part 2 (Garrett Kling)
Choreographer Garrett Kling continues the off-ice choreography class for an on-ice group performance to skaters at a camp. He begins this video where Part 1 left off, adding new movements and steps. Skaters often struggle with steps and footwork while also including arms and upper body movement, but Garrett builds the choreography as one complete […] Continue reading →
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Off-Ice Choreography – Part 1 (Garrett Kling)
Choreographer Garrett Kling teaches choreography for an on-ice group performance to a class of skaters at a camp. He begins by telling the class about the music choice, including some deeper meaning. Next he explains that he will teach the choreography to counts, in this case repeating counts of eight (from music selection). The value […] Continue reading →
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IJS Footwork Tips – Part 3 (Karen Olson)
Coach Karen Olson continues a series of videos talking about how to approach IJS footwork sequences (choreographed sequences or step sequences) in order to prepare skaters for higher levels and to maximize points in competition. See Part 1 here and Part 2 here. NOTE: The rules of the International Judging System (IJS) are constantly changing. […] Continue reading →
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IJS Footwork Tips – Part 2 (Karen Olson)
Coach Karen Olson continues a series of videos talking about how to approach IJS footwork sequences (choreographed sequences or step sequences) in order to prepare skaters for higher levels and to maximize points in competition. See Part 1 here. NOTE: The rules of the International Judging System (IJS) are constantly changing. This video was recorded […] Continue reading →
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Off-Ice Musical Movement for Skaters – Part 3 (Kate Charbonneau)
This is the second in a series of videos by coach Kate Charbonneau that are intended to provide a way for skaters to develop or maintain musicality and musical movements during this period without ice. The focus for this series is musical movement, but unlike dance lessons, very little emphasis is on actual steps. The […] Continue reading →
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Off-Ice Musical Movement for Skaters – Part 2 (Kate Charbonneau)
This is the second in a series of videos by coach Kate Charbonneau that are intended to provide a way for skaters to develop or maintain musicality and musical movements during this period without ice. The focus for this series is musical movement, but unlike dance lessons, very little emphasis is on actual steps. The […] Continue reading →
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Off-Ice Musical Movement for Skaters – Part 1 (Kate Charbonneau)
This is the first in a series of videos by coach Kate Charbonneau that are intended to provide a way for skaters to develop or maintain musicality and musical movements during this period without ice. The focus for this series is musical movement, but unlike dance lessons, very little emphasis is on actual steps. This […] Continue reading →
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Program Sections, Choreography, Program Development (Kori Ade)
World and Olympic coach Kori Ade is working with one of her skaters. She begins the lesson by analyzing the skater’s daily skating diary to identify problems with the program that might need to be fixed. For this kind of a diary, the skater keeps accurate records of each program run-through, with notes about each […] Continue reading →
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Advanced Concepts For Improving Expression (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster continues his step sequence lesson with a skater. In the first part of the lesson, Doug focused on the mechanics of the step sequence itself, and in this part, he shares insights about performing and improving expression. In the initial discussion, it’s clear that Doug has “developed a story” for this […] Continue reading →
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Deep Edges in Steps and Footwork (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a skater to improve the step sequence in her program. The focus is on deepening her edges, generating more power, moving smoothly from one movement to the next, improving the look of turns, and using the eyes to project to the audience. Doug makes a point of addressing the […] Continue reading →
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Footwork Illusion (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster continues his work with a skater on her footwork. The first part of this lesson is here. In this part, the primary focus is on improving the illusion and getting the exit direction correct to improve the edge quality of the rest of the sequence. To improve the illusion, Doug wants […] Continue reading →
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Footwork Sequence Fine Tuning (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a skater on a footwork sequence. This process of fine tuning is usually necessary to create a more advanced footwork sequence with better edge quality and overall presentation. Doug focuses on a wide range of issues in this video, including head position, knee bend and rhythm, pattern and edge […] Continue reading →
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Improving the Execution of a Footwork Sequence – Part 2 (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster continues working with a skater on her footwork sequence. See Part 1 here. In this part of the lesson, Doug focuses again on edge quality and power generation. He gives very specific feedback to the skater to improve the knee and ankle bend, including detailed instruction on exactly when to bend. […] Continue reading →
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Improving the Execution of a Footwork Sequence (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a skater on her footwork sequence. This is not an advanced skater, but she is also not a beginner. Skaters at this skill level usually struggle with power generation, knee and ankle bend depth and timing, overall edge quality, as well as slowing the tempo of movements to properly […] Continue reading →
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Mastering The “Scotty Turn” (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a skater to improve a section of her program. The focus of this video is an unnamed turn or step that is sometimes called the Scott Hamilton turn, the Scotty turn, the flip-flop, or the helicopter in the USA. Doug offers some excellent tips to help master this skill. First […] Continue reading →
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Figure Skating – Video as a Tool (Pasquale Camerlengo)
World and Olympic figure skating coach and choreographer Pasquale Camerlengo discusses the value of using video as an analysis and a teaching tool. Using step-by-step or slow-motion video to analyze jumps is an obvious use of video in skating because the movements occur very quickly. But as Pasquale notes in this video, this kind of analysis […] Continue reading →
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Choreography – Polishing a Footwork Sequence (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a skater to improve a circular step sequence in her program. In this video we see Doug teaching and offering insights about a program put together by a different choreographer. The value in this video is mostly a result of how Doug teaches the skater to improve the execution of […] Continue reading →
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Choreography – Part 4: Adding Arms (Pasquale Camerlengo)
World and Olympic figure skating coach and choreographer Pasquale Camerlengo continues his presentation on choreography (see Part 1 here and Part 2 here). In Part 3 he discussed the idea of “polishing” a program, and he continues in the video below with an example of adding arm movements as a form of polishing. In this example, Pasquale […] Continue reading →
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Choreography – Part 3: Polishing (Pasquale Camerlengo)
World and Olympic figure skating coach and choreographer Pasquale Camerlengo continues his presentation on choreography (see Part 1 here and Part 2 here) with a discussion of “polishing” or improving existing choreography. Pasquale wants every single moment of a program to be interesting. Head and body movement, arms, and facial expression create interesting and compelling shapes on […] Continue reading →
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Skids and Stops, Part 4 – Skidded Turns (Chris Conte)
Chris Conte continues his multi-part series on skids and stops. In Part 1 he covered T-stops. In Part 2 he introduced the slideboard drill. In Part 3 he shared some drills for building skidding mastery and discussed the ”one foot hockey stop” and the “tango stop” in detail. In this video, Chris talks about and […] Continue reading →
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Choreography – Part 2: Transitions (Pasquale Camerlengo)
World and Olympic figure skating coach and choreographer Pasquale Camerlengo continues his presentation on choreography (see Part 1 here) with a discussion and demonstration of creating an interesting transition. Transitions by definition are the connecting movements between skating elements like jumps and spins and footwork/spiral sequences. As Pasquale notes, a higher score can be attained […] Continue reading →
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Choreography – Part 1 (Pasquale Camerlengo)
World and Olympic figure skating coach and choreographer Pasquale Camerlengo begins a discussion about choreography. Pasquale is one of the most sought-after choreographers in the world and it is valuable to hear his insights. Right at the beginning, Pasquale notes that although a choreographer’s job is to create choreography, most of their time is actually […] Continue reading →
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Jump Development Exercises Pt 11 – Prepping for Triples (Chris Conte)
Chris Conte continues with Part 11 of a multi-part series on jump development exercises. In this series, Chris provides a set of warm-up exercises with a variety of drills embedded in them to develop important jumping skills associated with axis, air position, head control, and strong powerful landings. The drills are general and apply to […] Continue reading →
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Importance of Edges and Skating Skills (Pasquale Camerlengo)
World and Olympic figure skating coach and choreographer Pasquale Camerlengo discusses the importance of edge work and skating skills as it relates to skating development and IJS points. Pasquale is an elite choreographer, and notice the focus and awareness on finding “different ways to make turns happen, just to make it look different and original.” […] Continue reading →
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Warming Up the Knees and Ankles (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster teaches a class on warming up properly after stepping on the ice. Instead of racing around the rink to warm up, Doug offers a set of exercises that are more effective at engaging the ankles and knees while still getting the heart rate up. He takes a few moments to explain […] Continue reading →
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Large Group Choreography Example – G2C 2014 Supercamp
This is the final edited version of the G2C 2014 Supercamp group number, performed in July 2014. The head choreographer on this piece was Doug Webster, and Doug utilized a number of assistants. Notice how the entire group is split up into smaller groups and the smaller groups have separate music and choreography. These group […] Continue reading →
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Edge Class – Part 6 (Chris Conte)
Choreographer Chris Conte continues with his class on edges and power generation. As noted in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 this class was in Korea on one of Chris’s visits and you’ll notice Eun Hee Lee translating for her Korean skaters. Please excuse the audio on this video as […] Continue reading →
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Creating Figure Skating Footwork Using FERTS Game – Part 1 (Nick Perna)
Figure skating coach Nick Perna discusses a dice game he invented called FERTS for working on figure skating turns and steps and developing a clearer understanding of the definitions of the major turns in skating. The FERTS game is a natural extension of Nick’s previous discussions of orphan turns. Nick explains that FERTS stands for […] Continue reading →
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Figure Skating Choreography for Advanced Skaters – Part 2 (Chris Conte)
Master figure skating choreographer Chris Conte continues his discussion of how he designs high level skating programs. The previous video in this figure skating choreography series is here. In this video, Chris continues to show how he designed an IJS program to the soundtrack to Pocahontas. You can see how he intertwines the “story” and […] Continue reading →
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Figure Skating Choreography for Advanced Skaters – Part 1 (Chris Conte)
Master figure skating choreographer Chris Conte discusses how he builds higher level skating programs. This video picks up where he left off in his discussion of the tools of a traveling choreographer and building low level skating programs. In this video, Chris talks about higher level programs and helping give skaters a competitive edge in […] Continue reading →
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Ice Skating Choreography For Beginning Figure Skaters (Chris Conte)
Chris Conte discusses figure skating choreography. This video picks up where he left off in his discussion of the tools of a traveling choreographer. In this video, Chris delves into the various types of programs that he uses and he discusses the different approaches for different levels of skaters. He also discusses the benefits of having direct […] Continue reading →
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Figure Skating Training Tools For Skating Choreography (Chris Conte)
Chris Conte discusses figure skating choreography. In particular, he shares some of the tools of the trade for a traveling choreographer. Chris offers many valuable insights about choreography in this video. Notice that Chris places an emphasis on “developing the skater” through choreography and skating skill development. He thinks of himself and other choreographers as developing […] Continue reading →
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Tribute To My Coach (Audrey Weisiger)
The following is a short story from Olympic coach Audrey Weisiger. She asked me to put it up here at iCoachSkating.com so all coaches could read it. As coaches we make a huge impact on the lives of the skaters we teach. Continue reading →
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Figure Skating Choreography Ideas – Part 6 (Tricia Offerdahl)
Tricia Offerdahl finishes Leah’s program. Continue reading →
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Figure Skating Choreography Ideas – Part 5 (Tricia Offerdahl)
Tricia Offerdahl continues her development of Leah’s program. This is Part 5 in a multi-part series. In this video, you’ll see Trish make changes to the program. Continue reading →
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Figure Skating Choreography Ideas – Part 4 (Tricia Offerdahl)
Tricia Offerdahl continues her development of Leah’s program. Continue reading →
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Figure Skating Choreography Ideas – Part 3 (Tricia Offerdahl)
Tricia Offerdahl continues her development of Leah’s program. Continue reading →
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Figure Skating Choreography Ideas – Part 2 (Tricia Offerdahl)
Tricia Offerdahl continues her development of Leah’s program. Continue reading →
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Figure Skating Choreography Ideas – Part 1 (Tricia Offerdahl)
Tricia Offerdahl discusses what she takes into account when choreographing a lower level program. After her initial discussion, you get to sit in as she begins setting a program for Leah. Continue reading →
