Virtual Ratings Prep

Virtual Ratings Prep

By Kent McDill

Every year, the Professional Skaters Association hosts a Ratings Prep event to aid coaches in preparing for rating exams. Before the pandemic, this was an event held at a designated location with coaches moving from lecture to lecture and demonstration to demonstration, then enjoying the camaraderie of colleagues while preparing for the next day of courses.

However, in the coronavirus pandemic era, nothing happens as it once did, so the Ratings Prep event for 2021 was held in the living rooms, family rooms, garages, home offices, basements, man-caves, or she-sheds across the country.

And in South America as well.

Through the magic of video chat technology, coaches from around the country “gathered” in Zoom link “rooms” March 12-14 to attend any of more than 30 sessions for coaches in free skate, moves in the field or group instruction. The event included a “social event” the night of March 12, an equipment seminar for all coaches, and a question-andanswer summary session on the final afternoon.

Based on interviews with both presenters and attendees, the event was virtually a success. No, wait, it was a virtual success!

Perhaps it was both.

The event details

Created and conducted under the watchful eye of PSA staff members Heidi Thibert and Barb Yackel, the Virtual Ratings Prep offered pre-recorded sessions explaining initial assessments, exam categories, drawing turns and steps for all disciplines, as well as basic elements for all disciplines, tips on how to succeed, what to watch for in exams, and an equipment update.

The live meetings were conducted one hour at a time with three different sessions per hour for the different categories of coaching (see schedule inset). Just as with an in-person Ratings Prep, Friday’s three hours of sessions started in the afternoon, Saturday included five hours of instruction and Sunday had four one-hour morning sessions, including a final wrap-up Q&A and summary. As far as the schedule went, it was conducted just as if everyone was meeting in one place and had to run off to an airport or other transportation Sunday afternoon to get “back home”.

After a year in which much of the instruction and even some of the competitions were held virtually, everyone seems to have grown accustomed to the process and its shortcomings. But was the Virtual Ratings Prep event a success?

PSA spoke to both presenters and participants to see what went well, what was missing, and whether virtual instructional events of this sort can continue while the nation continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The presenters

“I think the Education Committee and the PSA staff have a great deal to be proud of,” said presenter coach and PSA Board of Governor member Patrick O’Neil. “They made it easy from beginning to end for people to sign up and enjoy a weekend of education.”

“As with all this virtual stuff, the strength of the bandwidth you have matters, but I do think it accomplished the mission as well as if it were held in person,” said current PSA Vice President and event presenter Denise Williamson. “Demonstrating can be a little challenging for the presenters to do, but with everything we have gone through in the past year, we have become accustomed to demonstrating. We know how to move the screen and present effectively.”

In-person ratings prep events allow for a great deal of back-and-forth between presenters and attendees. The same was true for the virtual event, although anyone who has attended meetings via Zoom knows that question and answer periods require a bit of patience as well as the understanding of where your mute button is on your computer.

“I thought it offered a safe zone for many of the attendees, who were more willing to ask a question than if they were at a live event, because they could put it in the chat box, whereas in a group of 25 people some are more reluctant to speak up,” Williamson said. “It is different than standing up in a room full of colleagues. Often, the question could be answered by the room manager who is off screen, and the response could go directly back into the chat box.”

Williamson did say she sometimes dislikes the chat box in part because there are times when entire conversations are taking place in that “anonymous” manner, saying it is really no different than the distraction having a conversation taking place in the audience at a live event while a presenter is providing information.

Technical difficulties did occur during the event. There was an occasion when the audio and visual in one presentation were not in sync. Attendees had to keep their spouses, children, and pets from interrupting, which was not always successful. And the value of the mute button was always at a premium.

O’Neil and Williamson agreed that in the case of a presentation that involves a discussion of physical maneuvers, a video presentation does not equal that of a live presentation. It is in this matter that the pandemic has created a true attitude of “doing the best we can under the circumstances”.

The attendees

“I thought it was very successful,” said Amy Ladogana, a skating coach from Charlotte, N.C. “The sessions were just as informative as the live events I have attended and they were successful in keeping the event interactive. I don’t think anything was missing from an in-person event.”

The audience for the event included Mariano Fuentes, a skating coach from Peru who would be much less likely to attend an in-person ratings prep event in the United States.

“Every session was more than a learning experience for me,” Fuentes said. “It was a preparation for what is coming in the exams and what is expected from coaches, which was enlightening. I was provided with all of the necessary information that a coach should take into account during the exams.”

The benefits of a virtual ratings prep session

While there is no ignoring the fact that teaching a physical practice through a video screen is not as appropriate as a live demonstration, the virtual event had actual benefits that a live event does not offer. Most importantly, a virtual event is easy to attend, with the only cost being the registration fee.

“I was very pleased to be able to attend the event without having to travel and also to have the ability to go back and watch the recorded sessions from the event at my own pace,” Ladogana said.

“There was increased attendance because it was virtual,” said Williamson, who mentioned Fuentes as an example. “In the current climate we are in, you don’t put yourself at physical risk by attending. The cost is so dramatically less because there is no hotel, travel, or food costs. Additionally, many coaches could continue to work since some sessions were intentionally scheduled for later in the day so attendees could avoid losing income which is otherwise lost when attending live events in another city. That made it very appealing. It was appealing to me as a presenter as well. I didn’t have to miss any work to do this.”

The disadvantages of a virtual ratings prep session

Other than the aforementioned difficulty of demonstrating a physical skill via virtual means, the most often mentioned disadvantage of a virtual ratings prep event is the same disadvantage that everyone has experienced by practicing social distancing and staying quarantined: the lack of human interaction.

“In my opinion, nothing will ever truly replace in-person events,” O’Neil said. “The networking that goes on during events like this, and the energy of the learning that takes place in a live setting is important.”

“I do think it is great to be in person and to socialize,” said Williamson, who noted that she found out the best way to teach a particular skating move occurred in a bar in Philadelphia. “Sitting around after the educational events is when you do learn the most. You can bounce ideas off of each other, you can grab a knee or shoulder and show how to teach a move. That component, when you are talking about how to get the body to cooperate, in person is definitely the way to go.”

There were also technical issues, many of them coming from a lack of experience either for the presenter or for the attendees. Operating in gallery view, knowing how and when to speak, presenting videos were all issues that will become less problematic as participants get experience with the technology of video meetings.

Williamson mentioned a detail that many teachers and tutors have experienced in the past 12 months: “sharing videos is horrendous.”

That being said…

There is no question that a virtual ratings prep session is the PSA’s attempt to make the best of a bad situation. Williamson pointed out that this “bad situation” may exist for a long time and that virtual events for the PSA may become the norm.

“Part of me feels that people may prefer this, at least for a while,” Williamson said. “I think for several years out, we are going to be a hybrid. We may be forever. You can see it with many corporations, employees are going to go into the office twice a week and working from home the other times. There is something to be said for that: climate change, fewer cars on the road, less expensive corporate offices.”

Perhaps the lesson of the virtual ratings prep session in a time of a pandemic is, as O’Neil said, “Better than nothing."

“We will take what we can get,” he said. “Virtual is the next best thing to being there.”