The Sunshine Coast Skating Club (SCSC) is excited to announce the successful installation of the jump harness at the Gibsons and Area Community Centre.
The harness components that attached the entire unit to the beam structure in the building were designed and fabricated by Dave Rose. The jump harness is an integral tool that will help ensure not only the safety of the skaters learning to jump, but will be extremely important in instilling proper jump technique during the learning process.
As well, the SCSC is proud to announce the addition of two highly qualified male professional coaches to their staff.
David Holmes will head up the ballet component of the off-ice programming. Holmes was trained by the legendary master teacher Alexander Pushkin at the famous Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. After a long career as a featured artist and then as an internationally recognized master teacher, Holmes is able to pass on his insights, knowledge and personal expertise.
Why is ballet important to figure skating? Classical ballet has a true methodology that takes into account the training of the entire body, head, eyes, hands, torso, etc. in incremental portions, which ingrains movement and musicality into the muscle memory. It takes into account the importance of the lower back and core muscles as the fulcrum of the body, which needs to be trained slowly and carefully for maximum potential in both strength and flexibility.
Nationally certified coach Daryl Austman joins the on-ice professional coaching staff in a variety of capacities — on-ice video analysis, jump harness specialist, Hockey Buddies, CanSkate, junior academy and private coaching at all levels. He is also CanPowerSkate certified and was a national competitive skater in pairs. Having coached competitive figure skating for 20-plus years, he retired to pursue his passion for technology and the Internet by starting a web design/Internet marketing/computer repair business. Now, after a short hiatus from skating, he has moved to the Sunshine Coast to join forces with Lesleigh Farr as a part-time coach while continuing his marketing business.
The club also welcomes back CanSkate in-training coach Brenda Harkin to the CanSkate program. Joining CanPowerSkate coach Anita Flay this year will be newly CanPower certified coach Bethia Macey, who is well known throughout the hockey community as she is an active participant as both player and coach.
The new season started Sept. 2 for figure skaters, and CanSkate will take the ice on Sept. 10. Registration can be done at www.sunshinecoastskatingclub.ca.
— Submitted
