One of my college students, 14-year-old Jayne Kim, who I’ve coached for over seven years, says, “Zoom video lessons have helped me see the small details and see myself more objectively.” Her mother Mia provides, “This has given her a different perspective on her skating. Plus, we like that there is flexibility in scheduling.” It’s true: We aren’t restricted by tight session schedules and boxed in by Zamboni breaks.
I’ve been utilizing video evaluation with my cellphone contained in the rink for a few years, together with my fellow coaches. (In reality, my very own coaches integrated video evaluation way back once I was coaching, by having a video digicam operator standing by the facet of the rink. Back then, we’d take the VHS tapes dwelling and watch them on our TVs.) But trying on the footage collectively from dwelling, with out the distractions of different skaters’ music, the voices of different coaches, and the strain to get in additional repetitions, we will focus on the corrections with extra focus.
This isn’t simply attainable within the determine skating world. Former triathlete Mackenzie Madison can also be leveraging video to assist her athletes remotely. She is predicated in Oregon however coaches triathletes all over the world. She does the vast majority of her work via social media and texting and enhances her video evaluation of operating and swimming kind with apps like Dartfish. A self-described knowledge geek, she’s additionally utilizing Garmin, GPS, and Training Peaks to trace her athletes’ progress from afar.
What she feels has been the largest and most stunning advantage of teaching remotely is one thing I’ve additionally skilled: elevated human connection. She says she has opened herself as much as extra constant contact along with her distant athletes than ever earlier than.
“You can’t be too formal with this, or there isn’t going to be a connection,” she says. “To make up for the distance, I’m making this more of a partnership. I want people to feel heard.”
While she in fact nonetheless values teaching in-person, she is discovering that she will be able to present extra individualized consideration to her athletes on this format, and she or he retains detailed notes on every athlete. “It’s all about being creative, changing things up as a coach, and encouraging your athletes to make changes as well.”
With my skaters, I’m nonetheless combining off-ice workouts with video evaluation. Daniela Senitta, mom of Charlotte, age 12, is completely happy to see how a lot stronger her daughter is getting from the off-ice parts of our classes. Senitta, who can also be a former determine skater, says, “I can see that this is translating to how she’s performing on the ice.”
Lauren Cozza’s 9-year-old son, Joey aka “Kid Boogie,” took up aggressive breakdancing throughout the pandemic via the Kids Breaking League, situated within the Bronx, in New York City. Breakdancing, or “breaking” (sure, the identical breakdancing that is been in style for the reason that Nineteen Seventies), is now a quickly rising sport that may debut within the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Joey nonetheless trains via zoom on Thursday nights regardless that his mother additionally drives him 30 miles from the NY suburbs for in-person coaching classes and competitions, referred to as Battles, on the weekends. Due to her work schedule, Cozza can’t make this commute greater than as soon as per week. Plus, she likes that, on Zoom, her son isn’t distracted by the opposite children. “It’s just him and his own space.”
