xan-boni.blogspot.com
Xanboni: How can you be a coach if you aren't coaching?
http://xan-boni.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-can-you-be-coach-if-you-arent.html
Resources- links about figure skating. Dec 10, 2014. How can you be a coach if you aren't coaching? Last April I had to quit teaching classes because life threw me several curveballs and I'm a skater not a sportsballer. I don't know how to catch, or hit, a curveball. And PSA, which means I also put my hard-earned rating in abeyance. It is challenging to reinstate a rating- it takes up to three years, because you have to re-earn continuing education credit, and they won't count credit earned while you're ...
xan-boni.blogspot.com
Xanboni: Sink or swim warm ups: 5 ideas to keep your head above water
http://xan-boni.blogspot.com/2014/12/sink-or-swim-warm-ups-5-ideas-to-keep.html
Resources- links about figure skating. Dec 2, 2014. Sink or swim warm ups: 5 ideas to keep your head above water. It's been seven months since I dropped all my group classes due to health and business pressures. (Oops, did I forget to mention that? Last April I had to drop all my staff positions due to health and business concerns. I guess I'll do a post about that! H's rink- man, they just throw them in the deep end, or would have, if it wasn't frozen. Because those kids were drowning. The skills that k...
xan-boni.blogspot.com
Xanboni: November 2013
http://xan-boni.blogspot.com/2013_11_01_archive.html
Resources- links about figure skating. Nov 19, 2013. I hate my music! My daughter's father is a musician. You can't imagine how this simplified music choices- her coaches pretty much trusted us to come up with great unusual music and she mostly skated to things she liked. Ice show programs were often dogs, unfortunately- she skated to music that I wouldn't blast at terrorists to get them to give up the hostages. Have you had music that you hated? How did you resolve the situation? Links to this post.
xan-boni.blogspot.com
Xanboni: November 2014
http://xan-boni.blogspot.com/2014_11_01_archive.html
Resources- links about figure skating. Nov 24, 2014. Skating school exhibitions that don't make you want to poke your eyes out. Anyone ever been to a 3-hour skating school exhibition? How about an 8-hour one, where your skater is at 10:30, her best friend is at 11:15, her synchro team is at 1:30, her tot class is at 3 and her best-friends-group is at 6:30. So you have to sit there all day, because heaven-forbid you should miss a single precious moment. It's time for a revolution. If you've got a small un...
xan-boni.blogspot.com
Xanboni: October 2013
http://xan-boni.blogspot.com/2013_10_01_archive.html
Resources- links about figure skating. Oct 27, 2013. Two boys suiting up for hockey. One jumps up and asks the other- hey! Do you like singing? Second boy says singing is stupid. First boy agrees. Singing is stupid. The parents, who are all there, do not say anything. The parents of the singer (and they must know this child thinks singing is fun) simply allow their child to confirm that singing is stupid. And that is how it starts. That is why it is so difficult for boys to be artists in our society.
xan-boni.blogspot.com
Xanboni: The gag rule
http://xan-boni.blogspot.com/2011/04/gag-rule.html
Resources- links about figure skating. Apr 30, 2011. UPDATE, November 2014: The gag rule is dead! The Federal Trade Commission got wind of it happening (across many professional associations, not specifically the PSA), and put a stop to it. PSA has changed their guidelines in compliance. Imagine a job where if someone else's client approaches you about switching, because they were unhappy with the current relationship, you are bound by your professional association to report this to your rival. Is the Bi...
xan-boni.blogspot.com
Xanboni: February 2014
http://xan-boni.blogspot.com/2014_02_01_archive.html
Resources- links about figure skating. Feb 15, 2014. The kids who won't go to the Olympics. I've been working with atypical skaters for several years- kids who have special needs, first as a designated aide, and now as a Program Leader with the Northern Suburban Special Recreation Association. NSSRA), part of a national movement of "SRAs," essentially park districts for individuals with special needs. S walks in with his beautiful service dog, repeating Hi Xan! P is usually quite quiet, and needs two hel...
xan-boni.blogspot.com
Xanboni: Basic skills aren't all that basic
http://xan-boni.blogspot.com/2015/03/basic-skills-arent-all-that-basic.html
Resources- links about figure skating. Mar 26, 2015. Basic skills aren't all that basic. I've had parents in higher level classes yell at me for teaching cross overs. Because as everyone knows, once you learn a basic component of your discipline, you never have to learn it at a higher level, ever. So once you've learned addition, it's just foolish to teach multiplication (which is really just fancy addition when you think about it.) Did you learn how to read in first grade? You never have to read again.
xan-boni.blogspot.com
Xanboni: April 2015
http://xan-boni.blogspot.com/2015_04_01_archive.html
Resources- links about figure skating. Apr 9, 2015. Bunny hops are not just for fun. Why Learn To Skate? By which I don't mean why learn to skate- that's obvious. Because it's fun. Learn To Skate (also known as weSkate. And similar to CanSkate. Is where you get the fundamentals, including the part where skating is both fun and mental. If you don't get it here, you're not going to get it in Freestyle. Here's the skills, and here's what happens if you let it go. PreAlpha or Basic 1. Snow plow stopping in t...