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Article on the Kennebecasis Valley Figure Skating by KV Style
2010-02-15

Article written by:
Candice Mac Lean
KV Style

Skaters at the Kennebecasis Valley Figure Skating Club are part of 15 troupes across Canada that will test a new national program said to create stronger athletes earlier!

Skaters in the Kennebecasis Valley are gliding, spinning and jumping for a new program that only 15 clubs across Canada were selected to implement during a test phase.
The Kennebecasis Valley Figure Skating Club's head coach Kim MacVey was one of 10 coaches across the country asked to sample a revised CanSkate program.
"In early December I received an email that asked if I'd be interested in testing it which of course I am," MacVey said, standing on the ice at the Rothesay Arena. "My base club is Saint John but I'm also coach out here so they asked if I would test it in both."
CanSkate is Skate Canada's universal learn-to-skate program designed for beginners of all ages. The program focuses on basic skill development and skaters earn badges as they learn fundamental skills through a number of stages.
MacVey has been teaching CanSkate for more than a decade and said the new program assists in developing athletes earlier.
"The (program) we have right now has been established for about 15 years and Skate Canada is very forward thinking and looking at long-term athlete development and we're starting at the grassroots level and implementing changes."
In a letter to participants, Skate Canada skating programs senior manager Donna King explained that the proposed concepts will be tested from January to March 2010. The chosen clubs represent various sizes and demographics of clubs across the country.
In March, the letter says, clubs will report back to the organization to help improve the quality of the program.
The changes are mainly technical and not noticeable from a parents' standpoint, the letter says.
On the ice, MacVey said the changes are rolling out smoothly.
"It's tweaking it," she said of the program changes. "It's still the same skills. We teach six fundamentals when we teach skating for hockey, ringette, pleasure, for life, or figure skating."
The fundamentals, MacVey said, are learning to stop, go forwards and go backwards and how to turn, jump and spin.
"Once you finish the CanSkate program or mastered most of it, you're ready to go on to hockey, ringette or figure skating," she said, adding that a misconception about the program is that it's only for figure skaters. "You don't learn any figure skating yet in this. It's still just skating."
MacVey said children from age three up to 12 are in different levels of the program. Of the about 146 skaters registered at the valley club, about 60 are involved with CanSkate.
It's been about five weeks since the test phase began, MacVey said, adding that subtle changes can be seen as the skaters develop.
"Because they want to increase speed and flexibility in stage three and four they've started to introduce drags and spirals which they didn't do before," she said. "Spinning was always a challenge at stage two so now that's not introduced until stage four. The skaters are learning to glide better and get used to proper pushing, so it's just rearranging and adapting some of the steps."
MacVey said the new program isn't necessarily more advanced but provides consistency throughout the stages.
"Before you would learn to walk in stage one and skate forward stage two and that's the last you ever saw of it," she said. "Now you will learn to walk and skate forward in stage one, improve on it stage two, improve in stage three so by the time you're in stage four you should be quite adept at it."
As the new program gets underway, MacVey said she sees signs of how it will improve skaters in the long run.
"They're stronger."
MacVey said it's been a task to become familiar with the new program because she's been teaching the previous method for a decade.
"I knew that system inside out so now I'm working both systems," she said. "I kind of like the new one better. It's just trying to get it into my head."
Club president Crystal Herrington said parents and skaters have been enjoying the transition.
"It's been wonderful," she said. "The feedback from the children is very positive. The parents' feedback has been really supportive. Everyone is really excited about having the opportunity to do this."
Herrington's has been watching the skaters learn under the new model and said they are seeing benefits already.
"What I've been hearing is basically it gives them more area to skate whereas before they never really had a chance to go on their own and see how much speed they had," she said. "That's there now. That's major."
Skate Canada will review the feedback from across the country in March and implement a pilot program afterwards, MacVey said. She said in September 2012 the official new CanSkate program will be offered throughout Canada.
To learn more about the club, email kvfsc.rothesay@gmail.com.

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