Real-Life Communication
"Coaching is all about communication," says Joanne Canow, a figure skating coach. "You are teaching skills, and expressing ideas to children about technique and communicating artistic ideas."
In addition to working with students, coaches have to be able to communicate well with officials, directors and with other coaches. "There are a lot of egos out there to deal with," says Canow.
You are a figure skating coach going to a practice in an out-of-town skating rink. You aren't familiar with the rink and with its practicing schedule. You stand by the side of the rink with your friend. She doesn't know anything about skating.
This is what you say to her as you look out at the ice:
"This session that is winding up must be a recreational session. I thought it was going to be a dance session! But look at that person out there, he's just doing a snowplow stop, so he couldn't have been skating for long. I don't think he would be able to ice dance. And look at his skates -- they aren't dance skates.
"See that other person over there doing forward crossovers? I think he must be practicing hockey because he just did a hockey stop. Let me look at my schedule. Oh, I see this is a recreational session and the next one is going to be a patch session. I wonder if I brought my freestyle skates or my patch skates."
The friend looks confused. "Could you repeat that?" she asks. She doesn't understand skating terminology. Using the vocabulary below, rewrite the paragraph so that your friend can understand you.
Vocabulary
Dance session: a session when dance moves may be practiced in isolated or entire moves
Snowplow stop: when a skater turns both toes in a V and puts pressure on one of the skates to stop
Dance skates: skates with shorter blades to avoid stepping on the partner's blades, with toe picks smaller than freestyle skates
Forward crossovers: when traveling in a circle, the skater shifts his balance to one leg and swings the other leg out in front like a step. This is done in succession
Hockey stop: when a skater puts both skates together, rises up, rocks slightly forward, turns the skates at a 90-degree angle and skids to a stop
Patch session: a session where each skater is assigned a patch of ice to work on
Freestyle skates: have larger toe picks for jumps and deep grinds
Patch skates: have a very shallow grind and very small toe picks