Coach Hamish

“As long as we are skating, we find a little piece of ourself.” — Ali Heiss

There are so many forms and disciplines of skating—ice, roller, inlines, speed, freestyle, and more (feel free to add more in the comments and I’ll add them to this list).

I think we can all agree regardless of the the type of skating, we do find a little piece of ourself when we skate ❤️

This quote is from a DM Ali wrote during a conversation we were having, I thought is was such a meaningful quote I had to share it with you all. Thank you Ali for being such an inspiring member of the skating community.

#фигурноекатание

Your skating progress isn’t linear and sometimes you’ll take the scenic route. There will be times when you move forward with your progress quickly and times when you will move more slowly. The key is going at your own pace to keep moving forward.

The simple way to keep yourself on track is to check in with yourself every week to see if you’re still moving towards your goals. Ask yourself, “Am I moving closer to my goal or further away from it?”

Be kind to yourself when you ask this question. It’s not a time to beat yourself up if you’re not moving closer to your goal, it’s a moment to check in with yourself.

If you’re moving towards goals, fantastic! Keep doing what you’re doing. If you’ve sidestepped from your goal that’s okay, perhaps you were meant to be exactly where you are.

When you’re ready, lace up your skates and take the first step towards your goals again at your own pace.

Five ways to learn from me:

❄️ Follow on Instagram
❄️ Follow on Facebook ‘coachhamishskating’
❄️ Join me on Patreon for off-ice training (link in bio)
❄️ Personalised off-ice training program (sold out)
❄️ Private lessons in-person and online (DM)

What does making a positive mistake really mean? First, let’s understand what is a negative mistake. For example, you're practicing your single Axel and the free-leg is toughing down or you’re landing on two feet because of holding back or not committing to the jump.

When you hold back trying a skill regardless if it’s simple or complex more often than not you won’t succeed. This is what I describe as a negative mistake. These can lead to a negative mindset and poor confidence.

Let’s go back to our Axel example again. The goal is to land cleanly on one foot, so you should aim to stack your landing and drive the free-leg back in strong confident action. So the goal now is to commit a positive action during the landing of the Axel.

If you go in with positive intent you’ll have a greater chance coming out with a positive mindset, regardless of success or failure. This is what I describe as a positive mistake.

Mistakes are part of your learning, but more often than not if you commit to an action or element you’ll succeed and make faster progress. This approach is one way to help build you confidence when you skate.

Next time you go skating try and make positive mistakes!

Five ways to learn from me:

❄️ Follow on Instagram
❄️ Follow on Facebook ‘coachhamishskating’
❄️ Join me on Patreon for off-ice training (link in bio)
❄️ Personalised off-ice training program (link in bio)
❄️ Private lessons in-person and online (DM)

#фигурноекатание

What is one fun or random fact about your skating? Share in the comments ☺️ Here is my random fact:

When I returned to competing in my late 20’s I had a few boot and blade troubles. And when I saw a few, I mean a lot 😂 In the space of 4 months I managed to snap or bend beyond repair 4 pairs of blades (thanks goodness for one year warranties on blades 😅).

The blade would snap right down the middle
or on the plate on jumps or it would bend where there stanchion meets the plate just from doing edge work 🤷‍♂️

The solution to this problem was to switch to Edea Skates] boots with water resistant soles and to use Matrix blades. I’m yet to break a pair of Matrix blades to this date. In fact, these blades lasted me years when I was competing and now forever as I’m only skating professionally and coaching.

📷 |
🥾 | Edea Skates] Concerto
🔪 | .ultima Matrix Freestyle
👕 |
📍 | Slough Ice Arena, U.K.

Five ways to learn from me:

❄️ Follow on Instagram
🔥 Follow on Facebook ‘coachhamishskating’
❄️ Join me on Patreon (link in bio)
🔥 Personalised off-ice training program (link in bio)
❄️ Private lessons in-person and online (DM)

#피겨스케이팅 #フィギュアスケート #фигурноекатание

I wanted to share today’s quote after listening to and new podcast . The episode with talked about how figure skaters are some of the toughest athletes he’s trained, more than martial artist, football, and rugby players.

I found this incredibly inspiring to hear, as having trained myself and coached skaters all these years I couldn’t agree more. This is also what makes skating such a beautiful, challenging, and rewarding sport.

There will be times where perhaps you feel you’re not making progress, but look a little deeper and you’ll find some.

Every skill you practice or exercise you do there will always be positives. Even if you fall over, simply the act of getting back up is a positive action!

Try and find and focus on these positives. Use this as motivation and encouragement. Remember, every time you turn up to train you’re making forward progress.

Share in the comments something you’ve made progress on during your most recent training session ✨

Five ways to learn from me:

❄️ Follow on Instagram
❄️ Follow on Facebook ‘coachhamishskating’
❄️ Join me on Patreon for off-ice training (link in bio)
❄️ Personalised off-ice training program (link in bio)
❄️ Private lessons in-person and online (DM)

#фигурноекатание

Write in the comments one thing you’ve achieved no matter how big or small 💬

The thing about progress it can be both so small you don’t even notice or a big milestone like landing a new jump.

Never underestimate how much skating progress you’ve made. You’ve achieved more than you realise.

Five ways to learn from me:

❄️ Follow on Instagram
❄️ Follow on Facebook ‘coachhamishskating’
❄️ Join me on Patreon for off-ice training (link in bio)
❄️ Personalised off-ice training program (link in bio)
❄️ Private lessons in-person and online (DM)

#фигурноекатание

Skating progress isn’t linear. You’ll have times when you have big breakthroughs and others when you feel like you’re going backwards.

This can be especially apparent the sessions shortly after making a big breakthrough with an element, like landing a new jump for the first time.

I often have to remind skaters I coach that the key is to stay consistent with your training and, overall, you’ll keep making progress.

The elements you learn will eventually be the elements you can do consistently.

Which element are you working on at the moment?

Five ways to learn from me:

⭐️ Follow on Instagram
💖 Follow on Facebook ‘coachhamishskating’
🎉 Join me on Patreon (link in bio)
📕 Personalised off-ice training program (link in bio)
💪 Private lessons in-person and online (DM)

#фигурноекатание

What is it you want to achieve in skating?

If you know that, you’ve already made the first step. Now, you need to set out a concrete goal and consistently work towards it.

Go fearlessly towards the challenges you’ll face along the way.

Keep things simple and don’t over complicate it. Consistency over complexity. Your success will come from building a strong foundation of movements.

If you find yourself making the same mistakes consider a new approach, don’t he afraid of mixing it up.

And above all fail, fail again, and keep going.

I’m here to help you and this is how.

⭐️ Follow on Instagram
💖 Follow on Facebook ‘coachhamishskating’
🎉 Join me on Patreon (link in bio)
📕 Personalised off-ice training program (link in bio)
💪 Private online lessons (DM or coachhamish.com)

#фигурноекатание