by Jo Barnes –
Your school friends can’t wait to have you join them in a skating field trip to the local rink. Perhaps you’d really like to do Skate with Santa this year with your little ones. Or, maybe your spouse has always wanted to share their love of skating with you.
But there’s just one little problem: you don’t know how to skate!
Fortunately, it doesn’t matter if you’ve just learned to walk, if you’ve just started a family or if you’re an adult who has never laced up skates. A wonderful opportunity to learn how to skate awaits you at Panorama Recreation.
Fall 2016 features the ever popular Learn to Skate Program. Pre-school (ages three to five) classes focus on building confidence and having fun on the ice. Kids begin with touching toes and balance and move on to more advanced skills like two-foot glides, backward sculling and stopping. Youth classes (ages six to 13) feature seven levels of skill building from basic forward gliding and falling down all the way to advanced edge work and jumping skills.
Well that’s all fine for the kids, but what if you’re an adult with trepidation about getting on the ice?
“We get a variety of adult learners. Some are brand new and are hoping to take children or grandchildren out on the ice while others are looking to perfect cross-overs or stops,” says Courtney MacMurchy, Assistant Arena Coordinator.
Adult classes teach to the ability level of participants and cover skills such as balance, stride, safety, stopping and crossovers. Panorama offers excellent instruction with teachers who come from different backgrounds like competitive figure skating or hockey and have extensive experience in coaching and training.
There are also other programs which offer training in specific skills. Learn to Figure Skate teaches the fundamentals of jumps, twirls and spins, and the Learn to Play Hockey program for youth ages six to 13 focuses on a variety of hockey-related skills. For little tykes keen to shoot and score on the ice, there’s Mini Canucks (ages three to five) which focuses on fun on the ice while also providing basic instruction on stick handling, passing and shooting.
So what’s new this fall? Panorama is offering a Learn to Teach Skating program aimed at age 14+, which gives those wanting to teach others some excellent grounding.
“This program allows potential instructors to become familiar with the Learn to Skate Program while learning techniques, skills and progressions, class and behavior management, physical literacy and child development,” says Courtney.
Whether you’re experienced or brand new, child or adult, Panorama Recreation has lots of ways for you to get an “edge” on your winter experience and “glide” into fun.
