Top U.S. Family Ice Skating Rinks (Forbes, Nov 16, 2018)

With the holidays approaching, I can not think of a better time to round up your family and friends and venture outdoors for a magical skating experience. Check out the Forbes’ recently published list of The Country’s Most Magical Ice Rinks. If you’re traveling or expecting family or friends visiting for the holidays and will be near one of these rinks, then you should definitely make plans to enjoy some bonding time with your loved ones while also getting a great workout.

What Is An Edge?

Learning how to use and control your edges is important in helping you become an efficient and confident skater- in fact, proper use of edges is paramount to being a great skater. You all hear me many times tell you to use your edge to push harder or to use your edge to skate a curve or make basic turns, ie. forward/backward, or more advanced turns, i.e.. three turns or mohawks. Let me take the time to explain what a skating edge is and its importance.

The Importance of Warming Up & Cooling Down

I’m glad to see so many of my students getting to class early and not having you or your parents frantically rush to change and improperly lace up your skates. For those of you who are early and just sitting and waiting around, let me advise you to use this extra time wisely and warm up your joints and muscles. Everyone knows that before any vigorous exercise that it’s important to stretch and warm up because it not only helps prevent injury and improve performance but also helps reduce muscle soreness after the workout. You want your heart pumping, blood flowing, and body temperature rising to prepare your body for strenuous activity. The reason for more blood flow and increased body temperature is so that more oxygen is released to help your working muscles which in turn means better performance. Even a five minute warm up is sufficient and better than nothing at all. So try to get to the rink earlier and start warming up.

Mind Over Matter

I’m still so elated and riding high after medaling at the National Solo Dance Finals from a couple of weeks ago. Reflecting on my experience and lessons learned, I wanted to bring attention to a major challenge that I faced at nationals and also faced by many athletes- sports performance anxiety. I know all of my students have experienced it in some degree, whether it’s taking a skating test or performing your program or even just doing a run through in front of everyone at the rink. I wanted to address this because I’m not sure how many of you realize the importance of mental preparation for a competition and how it can greatly impact one’s performance. I want to share my experiences and help you all to learn how to better handle and reduce competitive stress.

Reflections of New Dance Judging System

I’m so ecstatic!!!…I just found out my dance article was accepted and published on Ice-Dance.com (IDC)! It’s one of the leading online resources for ice dancers, providing weekly news, partner search, coverage and results of ice dance competitions across the country and the world, and everything else related to ice dance.

I’m sorry I know this post is not very relevant to my young skaters but I wanted to add it as an addendum to my earlier post on the National Solo Dance Finals. My article is about this new judging system for the solo dance series and I can not tell you how excited I am to be writing and contributing to this ice dance website.

If you have time, please check out Ice-Dance.com (IDC) and my article, Reflections of New Dance Judging System.

HEY, MAYBE I CAN SPARK YOUR INTEREST AND ONE DAY YOU WOULD WANT TO LEARN TO ICE DANCE TOO?!?!

2018 National Solo Dance

Hi everyone! Back from National Solo Dance Finals and had the most amazing several days in Cape Cod. I still cant believe I won two national medals!..I earned Bronze in my Pre-Gold Pattern event and Pewter in my Junior Combined Free Dance. This year’s nationals was full of excitement and thrills but also never without high stress and pressure. I prepared for this day all year, putting in over hundred hours of practice, conditioning and strengthening off-ice, learning new judging rules and program requirements, traveling to local competitions to qualify, and rehabilitating through a painful ankle injury. My ankle sprain occurred halfway though the season and I suffered for many weeks, forced to stay off the ice and not compete to qualify. It never fails that something always happens to me before nationals- last year a week before competition, I had a severe cold and fever and spent four days in bed and nationals was held in Colorado Springs so the long trip and the altitude there didn’t at all help with my recovery.