Getting to Know You

Our little ones love to just skate. Some of them would be happy to just go around and around the track for hours if we allowed it. But how much would they learn from that?

Another things our little skaters love? To talk about themselves! They love to share with us stories about their day, their lives at home and school, their likes and dislikes.

So here’s a drill you could use as a warm-up or to reinforce good skating stride skills, speed and being able to stop well. You need to coaches and that’s it.

Coach A will be on one side of the room and Coach B will be on the other. The skaters will be along the wall on the end where Coach A is. She’ll say a statement (like, “I have red hair,” “I’ve been on an airplane” or “I can have a conversation in a language other than English”). If the statement is true about the skater, the kid will skate to the end of the room where Coach B is, stopping without ramming into the wall. Not all will be release and that’s okay. Coach B will have her own statements to say. So what you’ll get is a constant back-and-forth motion of skaters.

Go Tag

Here’s a quick game you can use. It’s like off-skate training you can do on skates!

Divide your skaters into two lines. Everyone in the line will be doing squats. Meanwhile, you have a “chaser” and a “skater.” These two juniors begin skating around the two lines of squatters with the chaser trying to catch the skater.

As the chaser skates around the squatters, she can at any time tap one of the squatters and shout, “GO!” The tapped player now becomes the chaser and the original chaser takes the empty spot in line and proceeds to squat.

When the skater is finally tagged, the chaser now becomes the skater and you can pick a new chaser.

This game works best when you change the chasers frequently, which will likely happen because this gasses the kids out. Even when you think you’re getting a break by tapping a new chaser, you don’t really get a break because you then need to squat.

A terrific way to enforce agility, stopping, strength training, evasion and speed.