Coaching Disciplines

DEFINITIONS OF COACHING DISCIPLINES

• USFSA Basic Skills
  • Fundamental movements and basic skills for beginners of all ages.
  • See USFSA Skate-With-U.S. program.
• Ballet
  • It’s no shock that most professional athletes use ballet in their training.
  • It improves coordination, balance, strength, posture, and flexibility.
  • Anyone can take classes and exercises are fairly easy on your knees and back.
• Choreography
  • A Freestyle arrangement of steps that connect technical jumps/spins to create body movement, to interpret a music selection.
  • Dance Set pattern of steps to prescribed music, incorporating timing, musicality (expression, posture), rhythm structure and skills.
• Free Skate or Freestyle
  • Combines the technical elements found in figure skating with creativity and movement to music.
• Ice Dancing
  • A discipline of figure skating which draws from the world of ballroom dancing.
  • Ice dancers skate as a couple consisting of a man and a woman. Ice dance differs from pair skating by having different requirements for lifts, requiring spins to be performed as a team in a dance hold, and by not allowing throws and jumps.
  • Ice dancers must always skate to music that has a definite beat or rhythm. Singles and pair skaters more often skate to the melody rather than its beat.
• Ice Hockey
  • A team sport with fast skating movements, edges, quick turns and stops.
  • Requires a considerable investment in protective equipment.
  • An exciting sport for all ages.
• Interpretive Skating
  • Creativity & movement to music, emphasizing performance over technical.

• Moves-in-the-Field (MIF)
  • Skating movements, edges and turns on a pattern without music.
  • It replaced “Figures.”
• Power Skating
  • Enables skaters to develop stamina and control on the ice.
  • Especially desirable for those interested in competing or testing in figure skating or playing ice hockey.
• Synchronized Skating
  • The team sport in figure skating.
  • Each team is composed of 8 or more skaters at different skating and age levels.
  • It tends to emphasize Interpretive Skating skills.