Why I Value My Master Ratings

BY JANET CHAMPION, MFF, MG, MM

After I finished skating professionally, I used to go to the rink in my hometown to skate just for fun. How lucky was I that after performing professionally for all those years, I still loved to skate for FUN! The people who owned the rink asked me to teach and I resisted for some time thinking that I knew how to skate but not how to teach. Finally, I relented and taught a beginner class which I immediately loved. I loved being on the ice, the kids, and helping them with their skills. Soon some kids signed on for private lessons and my life as a skating teacher started blooming. I have great pride today in all those early kids I taught in San Diego. Cindy Stuart (Moyers) was one of my first students.

Apprenticing Before Apprenticing

With school figures counting for 60% at the time I started teaching, and I having only passed the 5th figure test, it didn’t take me long to figure out my knowledge in teaching school figures was insufficient. I decided I was going to take lessons myself to learn all the figures.

Remember, there were 64 figures! I started taking lessons with Eugene Mikeler in Los Angeles. He taught me his entire figure theory in a classroom and on the ice. I took what I learned from him and taught it to my “kids”. It worked. The notes I took from him are as valid today as they were then. I have used all these theories in both free skating and moves in the field. For example, the concepts include weight on the blade, the lean of the body, being over the skating hip, and the body mechanics to create turns. I didn’t know it at the time, but lessons with Mr. Mikeler were the start of studying for my rating exams.

Educated Observation

Another way I “studied” for my rating exams was what I call educated observation. Armed with the ideas and techniques I had learned from Mr. Mikeler, I went to competitions and observed the different techniques. Like, exactly where does each skater carry their free leg in and out of a turn and did that work or not? How does their body and head move between turns, where are their hips and shoulders in relation to the circle…I was studying technique.

Attending PSA Events

The third way I studied for my rating exams was attending PSA conferences and Seminars. Lucky for me the top people in coaching were sharing their expertise with other coaches. I learned from Don Laws, Barbara Roles, Christy Krall, Christy Ness, Frank Carroll, Carlo Fassi, Kathy Casey, and many other great coaches.

After a few years of putting all this information to use on my students, I decided to try to validate my work in my own eyes, and hopefully in the eyes of others, by passing my PSA rating exams. Just to know I had the knowledge to pass those exams gave me a wonderful sense of pride in what I was doing. One time when my exam was being evaluated, my examiners told me they would hire me at their rink. How cool was that?!

Janet Champion is a national and international coach, Olympic spin coach. Janet has earned master ratings in figures, free skating, moves in the field, and group instruction. She is a coach at Broadmoor World Arena.