Unified Synchronized Skating

Unified Synchronized Skating

by MARY JOHANSON

Grace is a nineteenyear-old young girl who has experienced some challenges and struggled to find sports programs through her school connections. In her early elementary years, when her brother began to skate and play hockey, Grace found that there were no skating programs available for children with disabilities. By the time she was twelve, Coach Johanson had begun to include children with challenges in her new program. Grace began her journey with her friend Alex and together they continued to become Special Olympians. Their travels have included competing in Austria and Iceland, and winning Gold medals!

With the subsequent development of the Unified Hockettes team, Grace was able to continue with her skating dreams. She described “feeling so excited” when she was chosen for the synchronized team. Erin Donovan has been the director and coach of the Hockettes Synchronized Skating Program since 2002. She began the first unified team in 2018.

Since being a part of the team, Grace expresses that she feels very energetic and strong, and values the support she feels from her teammates. Her mother, Marie, reports that Grace was unable to ride a bicycle prior to learning to skate. By the time she was thirteen and had participated in the Learn to Skate program, she mastered this skill. The overall improvement in her core stability, balance, body awareness, and ability to plan and execute accurate movements has carried over into all aspects of her life.

Both Grace and her mother report that the benefits from team skating are invaluable.

Grace credits all her coaches, including both individual and team coaches, for “helping me on the inside and supporting others to be successful.”

Emma is a skater who is on the highly competitive Junior Hockettes team. Emma’s team coach, Erin Donovan, invited her to become a part of the unified team as a peer mentor. She had seen the girls at one of the competitions and became interested in working with them to improve their skills and help them to build team accomplishments.

In her role as a peer mentor, Emma helps the girls who experience challenges with warming up and learning to sequence the steps. She talks with them, and finds creative ways to guide them to learn a new program. Emma considers this a normal part of the sport, mentoring others, as is done in any other professional experience. She and the other mentors offer encouragement and support, guiding without unrealistic expectations or judgment. With involvement on this team, success on the ice is not the most important accomplishment.

“Ninety percent of the time, we are not competing. It’s not about winning. The ten percent of the time that we are competing, the focus remains on how the skaters feel about their experiences.” Emma places a high value on helping others and enjoys doing this through adaptive skating. She describes her involvement as inspiring, fun and becoming a family with the other skaters and families. Although Emma does not aspire to become a professional coach, she does want to make an impact by helping others through her hard work. She is considering getting a college degree in the medical field after her high school graduation.

Both Grace and Emma have tremendous respect for their coaches. They feel supported and appreciate that the coaches create an extremely positive environment. For Emma, the contrast between being on a highly competitive team where the focus is on perfection and winning, not just improving, this team provides a wonderful feeling of connection. Even when the team may not perform well, overcoming fear may be the most meaningful lesson of the event.”

The above is an excerpt from an article written by Denise Fisher, the parent of a former Hockette and writer for 2LIV4.org. This article highlights the mental and physical benefits for adaptive skaters who participate in various programming, specifically ones that allow close interaction between individuals with disabilities and their mentors. In the case of the unified team, which is made up of half Special Olympics skaters and half peer mentors, all of the skaters benefit from the skater connections, mentors and Special Olympians alike.

Unified synchronized skating is just one of many “next step” programs coaches, clubs and rinks could add for adaptive skaters who may be ready to move beyond a weekly Learn to Skate class or other adaptive skating beginner program. Adaptive skaters can participate in Compete USA, Skate United 6.0 competition, U.S. Figure Skating testing on the adaptive skating track, National Showcase events, adult competition, theater on ice, Special Olympics competition and more. Information on these programs can be found at U.S. Figure Skating’s Adaptive Skating page.

For more information about the Adaptive Skating Programs and the Unified Hockettes Synchronized Team, please contact: MaryJohanson at coachmaryjohanson@gmail.com