Fergus Skating Club

StarSkate Junior Group

LESSON PROGRAM

Program Requirements: Skaters who have passed the Skate Canada CanSkate badge 6 and wish to work on the fundamentals of Preliminary STAR Tests in a group lesson format.

• The Jr. Group program is designed as a transition from CanSkate to STARSkate, and recommended for one year before hiring a private coach and signing up for the Jr. STAR program. If the skater plans on trying Skate Canada tests, they must have a private coach.
• There is time during the lesson to allow the skater to either work independently on newly acquired skills or receive private coaching from a Pro Coach of their choice.

JUNIOR STARSKATE Program

Program Requirements: Skaters who have passed the Skate Canada Can Skate badge 6 and wish to work on Preliminary and Junior Bronze STAR Tests in a private lesson format.

• Junior STARSkate program is the beginning of the Skate Canada Format test work on Freeskate, Skating skills, Dance and Interpretive Skating.
• Test work is taught by private lessons (fees extra), which must be booked with a Pro Coach of your choice.
• For information on our Pro Coaches, please refer to our brochure and website.

STARSKATE GROUP lesson is a class that was started fifteen years ago by one of our coaches Sue Hosking.  This class was designed to be a unique class within the other disciplines of jumping, spinning, dance and skills.

Detail, good technique and discipline to self teach are key philosophies of this class.  Listening and learning to think on your own (self teaching) are important to the broader picture of a figure skater. 

In a group setting the skaters feed off of the energy of each other and make the atmosphere all inclusive with everyone contributing.

 

JUNIOR STAR PROGRAM – Orientation Package

Please find some reference materials on the Junior Star Program that may assist with you orientation into the test stream curriculum.  For those of you that have not had an opportunity to meet Louise McIntosh and Sherri Vincent, they will work together to be your Junior Star Program Liaisons.  Our role will be to help the Junior Star Skaters with their transition from the Canskate Program into the Test Stream program.  We are a resource you can call upon if you have any questions or suggestions to enhance the program.

The following items are included below or found on the website:

Coaches Brochure    Outlining the FSC coaches, credentials etc.  found under the coaches tab.
Article “What is a skating test?”  To orient you with what to expect on a test day.
Listing of the test levels (Low Test, High Test)
Outline of aspects covered in the sessions (Skills, Dance, Freeskate etc…)
Schedule of daily skating sessions

Any questions on the Junior Star Program or Volunteer Opportunities, please do not hesitate to contact either one of us.
Louise McIntosh This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Sherri Vincent   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

When a skater finishes their Canskate level 6, and they want to continue figure skating, they can move up into the STAR program. The Star program works with the premise that each skater has a private coach, who teaches the skater individually.
Most clubs have two levels of Star programs: junior Star and senior Star. Junior Star is for the skaters moving up from the Canskate program. Senior Star is for Skaters that have skated in the junior Star program for a number of years, whose skating skills have developed to a higher level, and who have passed certain test levels. To make the transition to the Junior Star program easier, we have a Junior Group program in Fergus. A skater can start out in Junior Group if he or she doesn’t have a private coach yet. In Junior Group the skaters will have about half an hour of group lessons, and the rest of the time they can practise the things they have learned in their lessons. The Jr. Group coach will teach them dance, skills and freeskate.
A skater in Junior Group can also receive private lessons from one of the coaches when the group lesson is done for the day, or at another time (for example on the shinny ice on Monday morning, or other day ice). These lessons have to be arranged between the skater’s parent and the coach.

In the Junior and Senior Star program the skaters follow a set time table. An example of this is below.

Freeskate        4:00 – 4:45
Dance              4:45 – 5:00
Skills                5:00 – 5:15
Tech & Agility  5:15 – 6.00
 
Freeskate, dance and skills are the three disciplines that are being taught in the Star program. 

Skills

he skaters learn different ways of turning on the ice and using inside and outside edges of their skates. This helps increase and refine the control the skaters have.

Skills
Skills have replaced “Figures” (which is where the name “figure skating” comes from). In the good old days, skaters had to be able to trace certain figures on the ice, while using different edges of their skates.
Some of the different turns that they will learn are mohawks, three-turns, rockers, choctaws, and loops.
During skills the skaters are taught three different patterns on the ice, that require them to use different edges and turns in a variety of combinations.

Dance
Is like ball room dancing on ice.  Skaters learn a variety of dances (foxtrots, waltzes, tangos). While skating the dances they learn to focus on posture and expression, timing, edge control, edge quality and partnering. All the dances trace a pattern that goes counter-clockwise around the ice. Several of the turns that they learn during Skills are incorporated into the dances as well.
After a skater has mastered the turns and pattern in a dance, their coach, or a special dance coach, will partner them on the ice. Partnering a dance is harder than dancing alone. Some coaches will partner their skaters for the first few dances they learn. After that, our club’s dance coach will partner the girls in all their dances. Some coaches like to use the dance coach as a partner for their skater. This will also depend on the age of the skaters.

Freeskate
They work on a variety of spins (sit spin, camel spin, cork screw spin, lay-back spin), a variety of jumps (waltz jump, toe loop, salchow, loop, flip, lutz, axel), and a variety of field moves (spread eagle, spiral). When your child has a private coach, the coach will choreograph a freeskate routine for the skater. First, the coach and the skater decide what music they would like to use. As a skater becomes more accomplished, the length of time and the difficulty level of their freeskate program increases. Then the coach choreographs certain required elements, that suit the music, into a program (a number and variety of jumps and spins, some footwork, and some field moves). During the freeskate session, skaters will practise individual elements of this program, but they will also skate their program.

Skaters that skate in junior group can also have the opportunity to skate a freeskate program. In this case, the coach may use the same music for all the junior group skaters, but choreograph a different routine for each of them.

The three disciplines freeskate, skills and dance are usually not done at the same time, especially if there are a lot of skaters on the ice. Safety is the most important reason for this. Our dance coach will partner girls in their dances during freeskate time, because the dance session is not long enough for him to partner all the girls.

Another aspect of the Star skating program is the testing component. After a skater has been working on a skill, a dance or freeskate program for a certain amount of time, and has reached an appropriate level of competence, he /she can test this skill, dance or freeskate program. These tests are done on a test day, which for the three lower test levels usually takes place in the evening, and for the three higher test levels take place during the day.

The test chair is the person who organizes the test days. About a month before a scheduled test day, each of the coaches will give the test chair a “long list” for the test day. This contains all the skaters that are working on a certain dance/skill/freeskate program, and of whom the coaches think may be ready to test this in a month’s time. About two weeks before the test day, they give the test chair a “short list”, which contains the names of the skaters that they think are ready to take the test. The chair with then write test envelopes for each skater listing what tests the skater will be taking and what the cost for this is. This money is sent to Skate Canada, and it covers their administration costs, and some of the money is put back into skating programs.
It is important that you return the test envelope a.s.a.p. Do not give it back to your child’s coach, but please put it in our drop box that is located beside the coaches’ room in the new arena.
For the low test day a Skate Canada approved evaluator will come out to evaluate the skaters’ tests.
There is a test sheet for each skater’s test, which the evaluator has with him/her during the test day. The evaluator will fill this test sheet out and make comments on how the skater did. At the bottom of each sheet he/she will either mark “pass” or “retry”. If they mark a “retry”, they will give the skater comments on what they need to work on so that they can pass the test the next time.

Sharpening skates:

Do NOT go to a hockey shop. Do NOT let anyone tell you to shave the bottom pick off of your skater’s skates! The skaters need all these picks to execute the various jumps that they are learning.
Use people that specialize in the sharpening of figure skates:

Wayne Francis  - at RIM Park, 2001 University Ave. E.,  Waterloo, 519-746-6563.
Gary at McPhails Cycle, 98 King St. Waterloo, 519-886-4340
Kevin Wheeler – at the Hespeler arena in Hespeler/Cambridge, 519-622-4548.
Daniel Porty – Chesterton Lane, Guelph,  519-767-0297.
Allan Carson, 7061 Cadiz Cres., Mississauga,  905-821-7826.
Edee’s Place, 1180 Wallace Ave. N., Listowel, 1-519- 291-5164 or 1-800-399-0282.

Sharpening can cost from $10 - $15.
Ask your child’s coach for names of skate sharpeners that they would recommend. Ask other parents as well, since you can hear about their experiences with different sharpeners.
Use of plastic skate guards is very important to maintain the quality of the sharpening for as long as possible. Teach your skater to take them off right at the boards, just before they go on the ice, and to put them on right when they come off the ice.
When storing skates after practice, teach your child to take the skate guards off, to dry the skates with a dry towel and to put cloth skate protectors (called “puffy guards”) on them. The plastic skate guards will get wet inside from the ice that sticks to the blade after skating. Leaving them on until the next practice will cause the blade to rust and will make them dull.
New sharpenings are needed after about 30 hours of skating. If your child has a test or a competition coming up, try to get the skates sharpened about 1 week before the date of the event. It can be a bit harder to skate on newly sharpened skates, so make sure your child skates on them at least once or twice before an important event.