Basic Skills Page

Responsibilities as a Skating Parent

As a parent of a skater or skaters, you want the best for your child. Here are some suggestions to make your child’s skating experience more successful. This will help to make it more fun and valuable for you and your child.

To do so, you need first to understand your responsibilities as a skating parent:
1.Encourage your child to skate, but don't pressure. Let your child choose to skate - if he or she wants to.
2.Understand what your child wants from skating, and provide a supportive atmosphere for achieving these goals.
3.Put your child's participation in perspective. Don't make skating everything in your child's life; make it a part of life.
4.Make sure the coach is qualified to guide your child through the skating experience.
5. Keep winning in perspective and help your child do the same.
6. Help your child set challenging but realistic performance goals rather than focusing only on "winning."
7. Help your child understand the valuable lessons skating can teach.
8. Help your child meet responsibilities to the coach.
9.Discipline your child when necessary.
10. Turn your child over to the coach at practices and competitions - don't meddle or coach from the sidelines.

Helping your child enjoy Skating

You can help your child enjoy skating by doing the following:
Develop a winning perspective
Building your child’s self-esteem
Emphasizing fun, skill development and striving to do his or her best
Helping your child set realistic performance goals
Making your skater a champion for life

What is success?

Success is the easily measured distance between your origin and your final achievement. Athletic participation and competition in figure skating allows your child the opportunity to develop and excel. While pursuing self-improvement and achievement, athletes transcend themselves and become better people and champions for life.

Here are some valuable characteristics that are developed and enhanced in successful athletes:

Persistence
Courage
Concentration
Self-Confidence
Self-Worth
Desire