Update: Download brochure for 2005 camp
Update: USFSA Article on 2005 Camp at http://www.usfigureskating.org/event_story.asp?id=30236.
Update: The 2004 Camp was great too! Check out the USFSA Article at http://www.usfigureskating.org/event_story.asp?id=25771.
Just thought I'd share a few of my thoughts on the adult skating camp.
This camp was a blast!! Too bad if you missed it.
First, you should check out the excellent story and photos from the 2003 Camp on the USFSA site at http://www.usfsa.org/Story.asp?id=106.
(By the way, I'm almost famous, since I'm in a couple of photos there:
At the back of the stretching class photo on the main story page, wearing a pink shirt,
The camp was very helpful and enjoyable. It was great to work with so many
top level coaches, and they seem to be enjoying working with the
adults too. It was also really cool while on a break to look out on
the ice and see so many adults leaping about!
They have a very nice facility in Hackensack, with four ice surfaces.
We had three of them for most of the weekend, and the fourth they
seemed to be using for learn-to-skate and public skating.
There's a lot of information about what we did at the camp in the
USFSA story, but I'll post my group's schedule so you can better see
what each day was like for the freestyle skaters.
The dance track sessions ended up being taught by Peter Tchernyshev and Naomi Lang.
I'm sorry I didn't get to work any with them, being in the freestyle track.
So I'm not sure what the dancers did, but they seemed to be having a lot of fun when I'd
pass a rink where they were working.
Classes were supposed to be 45 minutes, but often ended up being
closer to 50, since the coaches didn't seem to be in a hurry for the
class to end either. We had the 10-15 minutes to get in or out of
skates, scribble some hasty notes, and get to the next class. It
didn't seem too rushed though.
Skaters were divided into groups by test level. There was one no-test
group, two pre-bronze, two bronze, one silver, one gold, one dance.
All the freestyle groups rotated through all the same classes listed,
at different times. Sometimes there was only one group in a class,
other times a couple of groups were combined. The actual content of
the class was based on the group's level. For example, I was in one
of the pre-bronze groups, and my group worked on bronze moves in the
moves class, and on half and single jumps in the jump classes.
When there were two coaches to a class, sometimes they taught together
and other times they split us into two groups and each took a group.
Then we'd switch halfway through. Usually the coach would show us
something, then we'd all go off and work on it for a bit and they'd
come around individually. Then we'd all get together again and they'd
show us something else. Once in a while, we'd have to take turns
doing a jump or something in front of the whole class. Intimidating,
but the "soloist" would often get applause from the group.
The schedule for my pre-bronze group:
It's amazing to me how coaches who might be accustomed to an easy
combo jump being triple Sal, double toe can scale that down so well to
work on something like waltz jump, mazurka. They were really great
about working on our level and being encouraging over small successes.
They also picked out small things that needed work, like smoothing out
the 3-turn before the Salchow. And it was good to hear when they'd
say that yes, you were doing it right, that was good!
The stretching class with Tatiana was kind of hard, but also was good
to work the kinks out. I wish she'd do a video, because I have a hard
time remembering the moves we did, but I enjoyed it. She was funny
too, she'd have us doing some kind of stretch, then she'd do the
impossible and everybody'd laugh. For instance, we were sitting and
stretching a leg up and to the side, then she tucked hers behind her
head like in the photo on the USFSA site.
Regarding the eye candy comment in the USFSA article, one of my friends wrote me that maybe
skating was a secondary priority for many people there. I don't think
this was the case at all. Everyone was very focused on their skating,
and it was a coach/student relationship in the classes, not drooling
over celebrities. Nevertheless, I think most people did appreciate
the scenery as well as the coaching.
I can also understand the person who was quoted as worrying that people
would just be seeking autographs, but this wasn't really the case. I agree with her
that being on the ice with them is worth a lot more, and I think most
people did. People waited till.the autograph session at the end of
the camp to ask for autographs. Maybe I'm silly, bit I didn't get
autographs then either. I had enjoyed the feeling of, if not exactly
being peers on the ice, at least being in a coaching and fellow skater
relationship, and somehow asking for an autograph seemed to be
demoting myself back to fan. Just my own goofy take on it, I'm sure.
Craig Maurizi, the skating director, said they'd welcome having the
camp back again next year if the USFSA approves, so hopefully that'll
happen. When someone asked the coaches if they'd come back next year,
Tamara Moskvina said she'd make a deal, if we'd come back she'd come
back. Sounds like a good deal to me!!
Mary
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Saturday
8:00 Check in and introduction of coaches (everyone)
9:00 Toe jumps with Tamara Moskvina and Igor Moskvin
10:00 Spins with Artur Dmitriev and Neil Ruben
11:00 Off ice Stretching with Tatiana Droutchinina
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Edge Jumps with Silvia Fontana and John Zimmerman
2:00 Break
3:00 Off ice Strength and Conditioning with Vince Burke
4:00 Power stroking (everyone in one of three rinks)
with Tamara Moskvina and Igor Moskvin (no-test & prebronze)
or Silvia Fontana and Artur Dmitriev (bronze and silver)
or John Zimmerman and Peter Tchernyshev (gold and dance)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday
8:00 Off ice Jumps with John Zimmerman
9:00 Off ice Injury Prevention with Dr. Rick Braver
10:00 Body movement with Silvia Fontana and Tamara Moskvina
11:00 Field moves with Edward van Campen
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Combo jumps with Artur Dmitriev and Igor Moskvin
2:00 Break
3:00 Question and answer period and autograph signing (everyone)
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