STARSkate encourages skaters to develop more advanced figure skating skills in various areas such as Skating Skills, Free Skating, Dance and Interpretive Skating. It provides figure skating instruction in group and private lesson format. The program assesses the skaters’ progress through optional Skate Canada assessments completed by coaches at the beginner level and by certified judges at higher level skills. The program challenges skaters in a competitive environment through competition and encourages skaters to keep participating in skating for fun, fitness and achievement.
Skating Skills: Skaters learn exercises containing edges, turns and field movements executed on a pattern. The objective of skating skills is is to master basic fundamentals of skating such as edge quality, control, power and speed.
Free Skating: Skaters learn how to execute jumps, to spin in a variety of positions and to incorporate those and other skills into a program of a specified length using connecting steps and music interpretation.
Artistic: Encourages creativity and movement to music, and allows skaters to explore the performance aspect of skating without focusing on technical elements.
Dance: Skaters learn timing, musicality, rhythm, interpretation, and structure as well as basic skating skills such as edges, flow, control and unison. Dancers skate with partners and sometimes by themselves to various musical rhythms, including waltz, tango and blues. Each compulsory dance has a series of steps that must be skated in a specific pattern. In addition to the compulsory dances, there are also Creative Dance tests.
LESSONS DELIVERY
Base Coach – The base coach acts as the key point of contact for all inquiries related to programming and athlete development. The base coach is meant to work collaboratively with the skater, their parents and other coaching staff to ensure the athlete is on track to meet their developmental goals. At the start of the season, all STARskaters will be assigned a base coach.
Intermediate – Skaters receive coach instruction in group lesson format and have access to individual practice time during the session. Through the base coach, the parent can arrange for additional lessons. The majority of the arranged lessons will be in small group or semi-private format. Skaters may get access to private lessons to facilitate individual needs such as program choreography.
Senior – Skaters receive coach instruction in group lesson format and have access to individual practice time during the session. Small group, semi- private and private lessons are scheduled in consultation with the skater’s base coach.
Small group, semi-private and private lesson fees are not included in the session fees. These lessons are paid directly to the coach upon receipt of their invoices to the parent/guardian.
Fundraising
Parents/Guardians of Starskaters will be required to support fundraising campaigns throughout the year.