Setting Performance Goals
View skating as a vehicle for learning about commitment, self-improvement, and dealing with successes and failures Performance goals – with emphasis on individual skill improvement – are much better than the outcome goal of winning. Performance goals are in the athlete’s control and will help the athlete improve. Performance goals should be specific and they should be challenging but not too difficult to achieve. Performance goals are best set by the skater, with assistance from the Pro. Physical conditioning and endurance training are key elements of performance goals. Having the ability to go full speed on the ice for four minutes puts you in far better condition compared to your opponents. It takes less effort to skate the program and you can have more focus on the artistic and mental aspects of the program.
Ways to improve you’re Skating
- Videotape yourself so you can see yourself how you’re Pro and the judges see you.
- Practice like you perform, create an attitude and routine practice that is exactly the same way as how you want to perform.
- Don’t worry about your competitors. Focus on what you need to do to be your best. Don’t give your opponents the advantage of getting inside your head by worrying about what they’ve done.
- Leave the past in the past. If you make a mistake during a performance, don’t dwell on the mistake, focus ahead on the moves you have control over so that the rest of the performance will overshadow that mistake.
- Go to your Pro if you have a question or problem. Going to others at the rink may lead to multiple answers and a more complicated problem. A good Pro welcomes that kind of discussion. You’re paying for their assistance.
- Learn to accept criticism. Take criticism as the Pro’s way of helping you, remember that you’re working together and the Pro is saying these things to help you improve. You need the Pro’s feedback, expertise and viewpoint to do your best.
- Become self-sufficient. Be able to do your own hair, makeup, and put on your costume. Take responsibility for finding out practice ice times and competition schedules. Being responsible for yourself demonstrates your dedication to the sport.
- Take dance lessons. You have so little time on the ice to work on the basics: edges, stroking, jumps and spins. Dance lessons provide the additional training for proper carriage, posture and control of your body.
- Keep your blades sharpened. Check your edges after every practice or lesson.
Ways to Improve your Condition
- Warm up properly before getting on the ice or doing any off-ice training.
- Become more flexible. Flexibility makes athletes more resistant to injury, gives full range of motion improving grace and artistry. It adds to strength, speed and sureness of landings.
- Training on the ice to develop the muscle memory you need to perform the specialized skills of ice skating. When you repeat a motion over and over, your muscles “remember” the motion.
- Maintain a regular and consistent conditioning regime. The progress you make in conditioning comes slowly and can be lost quickly.
- Train for endurance. Take several run-throughs of your program without any breaks. Have hard stroking sessions to work on your speed.
- Improve your upper body strength. Strong decisive arm movement is as important to consistent jumps as strong legs.
- Make the most of ice time, work hard. If you love what you do, you’ll work hard. If you work hard, you’ll get better. If you get better, you will love what you do even more.
- Get plenty of rest. Lack of coordination, poor balance and concentration result from inadequate rest.
How to Avoid Injury
Skating injuries occur mainly in three areas – knees, feet, and back. There are exercises and precautions must be taken to minimize the risk of getting hurt. Stretch properly every time before you skate. Knee pain, which is a symptom of knee injury, is a common complaint. Several things can put your knees – or any part of your body - at greater risk of injury.
- Injury in another part of the body that causes the skater to alter the technique or posture to avoid pain or compensate for weakness. That throws the body out of balance, increasing stress on another body part. A common place for this to happen is the knee or back.
- Poorly fitting boots can have the same effect as an injury.
The best protection for the knee is for muscles that control motion and protect stability to be fit and properly warmed up and stretched prior to skating. Muscles that are not warmed up are brittle and are more likely to tear or bruise. The muscles that protect the knees are in the thighs and calves. Every time you skate, take a few minutes to stretch them out. Your Pro will demonstrate effective stretching exercises. Off ice practice of jump takeoffs and landings should be supervised by the Pro. Skaters should wear sturdy athletic shoes and should never try to ‘stick’ the landings. Instead bounce up. When you land, you’re still spinning around and the landing leg has to stop the spinning force. The floor isn’t as slippery as ice; on the floor you can twist your ankle or worse on improper landings.