Coach halting progress??

Hi everyone,

so right now I’m working on my prejuvenile moves and juvenile moves, almost testing prejuvenile.
I am working on my first dance test, although I just started with my dance coach. I am quite advanced with general skills relating to synchro, (really nice crossovers, nice power 3’s very easy to do when going really fast, good twizzles both feet, hydros, 180s, biellmans, etc), I have nice spins including back scratch, although it seems my progress is just stopped when it comes to jumping. I am definitely a jumper, not a spinner, yet my coach is such a perfectionist she’s been having me work on my loop jump non stop, and I’ve had it for a year! 2 months ago, she told me she would teach me the further jumps, like flip and Lutz, and then she had me work on my loop even more! I will say she has been talking more about doubles recently, but I’ve seen Instagram posts of people learning their flip jump BEFORE their loop. I really want to progress and get to my doubles already because I know I can do it, but I don’t know why we have spent so much time on loops. Don’t get me wrong, loop is definitely my fave jump, but at some point it just gets boring to practice. Is my coach just laying a good foundation for the future? Please let me know. Meanwhile I’ll be attempting my loop-loop-loop-loop-loop.

My coach mentioned the other day that, when she was training with an Olympic coach back in the day, when he took her on he made her work on stroking, and nothing but stroking, for a year. In her own time she could work on other things, but in their lessons that was it. He always found something to improve about them. She hated it, but after the year found that everything else had improved remarkably.

Not sure if your coach is up to the same thing, but maybe?

Without seeing you skate, I can't say definitely, but I'll say that in my experience, it would be very unusual of for someone who has already tested prelim moves not to have all their singles. Most would have all their singles before even testing pre-pre moves in this area, but we do tend to start testing a tad later here. I have no idea why a coach would delay basic singles. It doesn't make sense for a coach to discuss doubles before you have all your singles and it makes no logical sense to work on a loop for a year before moving on to the flip and lutz. I can't think of any scenario where that makes sense (outside of you forgetting to mention a 10 month break from lessons).

AndreaRu said:

Without seeing you skate, I can't say definitely, but I'll say that in my experience, it would be very unusual of for someone who has already tested prelim moves not to have all their singles. Most would have all their singles before even testing pre-pre moves in this area, but we do tend to start testing a tad later here. I have no idea why a coach would delay basic singles. It doesn't make sense for a coach to discuss doubles before you have all your singles and it makes no logical sense to work on a loop for a year before moving on to the flip and lutz. I can't think of any scenario where that makes sense (outside of you forgetting to mention a 10 month break from lessons).

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Nope, no consistent breaks aside from 2 weeks every summer out of the 3 years I’ve been skating. I had one coach where I had a tryout lesson about a month ago (it was right after I sprained my wrist so I wasn’t jumping that consistently but even then I only took a one day break) and he said that I had a better hook on my loop then some of his other skaters doing doubles. I was really proud of myself that my loop had gotten that good to warrant the compliment, but I feel like I am capable of doing more. The other day in synchro practice, we were doing half flips, and I accidentally did a flip. I surprised myself, because I hadn’t been taught it yet and had never tried it, but then I thought that I really shouldn’t be teaching myself things, so I stopped doing them.

I have had to talk to my skater's coach because she was/is working on jumps more slowly than my skater wants. Coach is a perfectionist and wants to develop a well-rounded skater. But I counter that it needs to be balanced with FUN. My skater needs to have fun. He is young!

In our discussion, coaches reasons for taking things slowly were:
- to develop excellent form and technique
- to reduce possibilities of overuse injuries
- to use jumps as reward for learning MIF

Perhaps you and coach are not exactly on the same page about goals?
I suggest a frank and honest discussion about goals. Try to make a development plan together.

Does your coach say what specific things you have to improve about your loop before she lets you move on? If not, I can see why it can be very frustrating.

I wouldn’t say it’s normal to be stuck on a single jump so long after you’ve landed it. It is more typical for coaches teach up to lutz pretty quickly and then work on polishing them all together, and then pausing a while until they are all very good before starting on the axel. When I was really eager to start the axel, and my coach thought it was too early, she said that we would start walk throughs when I could do a 10 revolutions backspin. Maybe you should talk to your coach about your goals and what checkpoints you need to reach in her eyes.

Have you actually sat down and had a discussion with your coach about this? Communication is key.

Another thought...
I recently learned that it's not a good idea to teach new athletic skills during a growth spurt. The kids are less coordinated and more prone to injury during those periods. So the youth athlete experts say tone it down during growth spurts and focus on maintaining basic skills. Don't add new skills or extra intensity at that time.
So... if you've been growing a lot lately then that could be it also. But if you're done growing then it doesn't explain anything.
Regardless you need to talk to your coach.

Did you switch coaches at some point?

I ask because when we switched coaches, my skater literally had to go all the way back down to basic stroking and re-learn all the jumps from scratch because the technique was so wrong. There was a lot of time (like MONTHS) spent on the loop jump in particular because of the completely different technique my skater had to learn. After many years of doing it the way the first coach taught, it took a long time to get it right with proper technique. This halted "progress" in terms of moving forward to double jumps and axel, but I think it actually laid a better foundation for learning the axel and doubles as you really can't land a double jump if your technique is completely off.

I agree with the earlier suggestions to talk to your coach - let them know what your personal goals are and that you'd really like to progress and find out what you need to do in order to do so. If your coach isn't willing to have this conversation with you, then I question whether you should be with them. Its important that you are clear with them what you want to achieve and that they give feedback as to how realistic your goals are, what you need to do, and how they plan on getting you there. It might be that your coach thinks you need to work on your jump height for doubles and that is the point of all this loop work, but you should at least be in the know about it.

Hi everyone,

Thank you SO MUCH for your comments and suggestions. I talked with my coach, and she said she would teach me my higher level jumps very soon, and she did! I have landed my lutz, so right now I’m learning technique for my axel and doubles, and I will say that it is a lot easier than I have anticipated! My coach says that I might be able to land my doubles (excluding 2 axel, obviously) consistently by next December, so a year from now, and I couldn’t be happier!! Thanks a million everybody!