PSA in the Time of COVID

BY KENT MCDILL

The coronavirus struck, and the world shut down.

Soon thereafter, PSA Executive Director Jimmie Santee took action.

Knowing the PSA had a membership of 5,000-plus coaches operating without facilities or students and in need of guidance, Santee determined that there needed to be available outreach to those coaches. He enlisted the knowledge and enthusiasm of events chairman Patrick O’Neill, and two webinar series were created: Safe at Home and Coaching Forward.

Here are the stories about those two webinar series.

Safe at Home

“As Events Chair, I am always looking to create webinars and seminars, and when the pandemic hit, we weren’t going anywhere for seminars,” O’Neill said. “We realized coaches would be staying at home, and it was our goal to build a community with our coaches, and bring them together at this critical and unusual time.

“The first series we started was Safe at Home, primarily focused on the immediacy of the problem, discussing things like ‘what is coronavirus?’ and “how can coaches protect themselves’,” he said.

One attendee of previous PSA seminars and webinars is Tenley Brownwright, who took time in between figure skating coaching sessions to earn a PhD in epidemiology from the University of PIttsburgh. When the coronavirus struck, she kept an eye on how the PSA was apprising coaches of concerns related to the virus, and offered her services as an expert on the matter.

Thus, the Safe at Home webinar series had a knowledgeable person to provide guidance.

“I did two webinars,” she said. “The first one was probably 50 percent what COVID was and general information, and the second half of that first one was looking forward to, when rinks open, what life was going to be like.

“The second one (created in mid-July) was a lot later, when everyone knew what COVID was,” she added. “That one was very tailored to coaches. How do you assess risk in an ice rink environment, what do we do to keep ourselves safe at the rink. I talked about really specific things, like should you wear gloves, should you wear a mask, should you put kids on the pull harness, things like that.”

As you probably recall, at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, advice about avoiding the virus was sporadic and scattered. Advice about wearing masks started with a statement saying they did not help, followed by stern warnings that they were necessary. Such changes made Brownwright’s task a bit more dicey.

“I worried about that a lot,” she said. “I worried I was going to do a webinar and the next day everything I said was going to be wrong. But, in both seminars, I stated the day I was giving the webinar, and noted that science changes quickly, so that the advice I am giving you now may not be true if you are watching this weeks from now.”

Brownwright added information for coaches to use to find out current Centers for Disease Control warnings as well as how to determine any legal questions that might come up specific to rinks in certain states.

“One of the problems is that ice rinks can be really crowded, there are a lot of people,” Brownwright said. “It is indoors and you are at higher risk when you are indoors because there is less ventilation. It is cold, and we think cold may increase risk. It can be difficult to wear a mask when you are on the ice.

“But there are ways to stay safe,” she said. “Figure skating is a lot safer than a lot of other sports in this situation. It is not a contact sport, for the most part. There are ways to be very safe when coaching figure skating.”

After creating the Safe at Home series, O’Neill turned his attention to the coaching instruction needs of the PSA membership as they and their skaters stayed at home. Thus was created the Coaching Forward series.

Coaching Forward

“We don’t believe we are going back to a traditional seminar format any time soon, with 50-100 coaches in a room or on the ice together for eight hours,” O’Neill said. “So, we thought, how do we continue to offer education?”

One webinar in the series was presented by Wendy Enzmann, an ISU judge, referee and national specialist, and an official with U.S. Figure Skating.

“I have done webinars specifically for coaches to discuss the new rules and the changes on those rules that come from the ISU,” Enzmann said. “They come out in July and then clarifications come after that.

“I put together a PowerPoint presentation and utilized a live chat to field questions,” she said. “Throughout the webinar, I showed examples of what I was discussing, for example, I went through a spin and in that spin we would look at particular features for a specific level of skater.”

Enzmann admitted a webinar is not the ideal way to teach coaches how to coach figure skating moves.

“It is really hard to gauge whether I am reaching them, which is why throughout I would constantly try to engage them, but it is not the same,” she said. “You are not getting the same visual to know how involved the audience is. The only way is to create something that is interactive to get them involved in the conversation so you are not just talking at them but getting through to them.”

What matters, Enzmann said, was repeating the key details as they relate to the minor rules changes made this year.

“I had to make sure people knew what the changes in the rules are and how to put it in their program and how it would be evaluated. What counts and what doesn’t count,” she said.

The Impact of Webinars in the Time of COVID

For an organization which provides education, being able to maintain communication with membership is vital. When the coronavirus struck and all communication became electronic, webinar instruction became imperative.

“Education in any field is absolutely necessary, and for figure skating coaches, it is more so now that we are not at the rink, and not able to do events to be live with them,” Enzmann said. “As coaches, they need to be involved in the PSA so that they can do everything they can to educate themselves to understand and to be the best coaches they can be.”

“I think it is incredibly valuable,” Brownwright said. “It is difficult to keep updated on this information because it is changing so fast and it is hard to know how it affects you as a coach. The PSA has been great in keeping coaches updated.”

As of Aug. 14, 1,342 coaches have accessed the webinars more than 5,000 times in total, and they continue to do so even as some rinks open up and on-ice training begins anew.

“I was so grateful for the Safe at Home and Coaching Forward webinar series during the COVID lockdown,” said coach Ryan Hileman.

“It was such a great way to keep coaches feeling connected to the sport, as well as a great way to continue learning and staying up to date with changes being made while rinks were shut down and we weren’t able to be on the ice.

I particularly like the open forum and the interactiveness of the webinars. It made me feel like we were in a room of people, with the ability to ask questions as well as hear other questions people had. It really got different ideas and thoughts flowing.”

Hileman watches the webinars with her husband and fellow coach Jeremy Hileman, and they are able to discuss the details from the presentations with each other afterward.

“As we are used to being on the ice together, it was a great way to have those learning moments with each other in the sport that we are both so passionate about,” Jeremy said. “We are grateful for the wealth of knowledge that the PSA has and offers to all of its coaching members.”

Such reaction is why the PSA does what it does.

“It is heartening to see the number of coaches who have logged in,” O’Neill said. “There are a lot of us who work very hard to produce this material. We have an amazing office staff, from Jimmie and on down the line. These things take a lot of time to produce, a lot of leg work, but we are fortunate to have an office staff that cares so deeply about the membership of the association.

“The payback is knowing that people are able to log in and get educated and ask the questions they have about coaching in this precarious time,” he said.

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Congratulations to Lisa Spearing, Jenettte Maitz, and Joelle Stephens!

They each won a new pair of Jackson Ultima boots or blades after participating in the free Jackson Ultima webinars as part of the Coaching Forward series. Thank you to Jackson Ultima for being a continued supporter and sponsor of PSA.

Presented by Jackson Ultima

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SAFE AT HOME SERIES

Sudden Change: Becoming the Superhero the World (and You) Need NOW! — Guidance and exercises to increase mental flexibility and resiliency, avoid personal kryptonite, and help to unleash management superpowers.

COVID-19: How to Keep our Students and Selves Safe — PSA member and epidemiologist Tenley Brownright shares information about the COVID-19 virus and how we can help keep our students and selves safe.

Skating Steps and Turns — A unique perspective of different teaching methods, explanations, and drills for introducing and mastering the core skating steps and turns. Video analysis and an IJS perspective included.

Coach/Athlete Feedback — A focus on the role of the coach’s feedback and its influence on athlete’s learning with a variety of feedback strategies.

IJS Part 1: Steps and Turns — IJS criteria for singles skating and the various ways rules are applied.

IJS Part 2: Spins — IJS criteria for singles skating and the various ways rules are applied.

Music Editing — Useful, easy tips for editing music and how to approach editing, equipment needed, and apps for phones and computers.

Virtual Training — A focus on virtual off-ice training with ideas on core circuits, stamina training, plyometrics, creativity, etc..

Emotional Health in Figure Skating — Addresses emotions and their role in injury prevention and maintenance of psychological health.

COACHNG FORWARD SERIES

Safe Return to Coaching — Dr. Tenley Brownwright, a PSA member and epidemiologist, shares best practices for coaches as we return to the rink.

IJS for Singles: Part One – Jumps and Bonus — The latest updates and changes in IJS rules regarding jumps and their bonus.

IJS for Singles: Part Two - Spins — The latest updates and changes in IJS rules regarding spins.

IJS for Singles: Part Three - Step Sequences — The latest updates and changes in IJS rules regarding step sequences. Part three of three.

Basic Skate, Boot, and Blade Essentials: Part 1 — Basic information of skate equipment and earn the simple physics to the logistics of best practices. Presented by Jackson Ultima.

Blade Parts, Features, and Development: Part 2 — Gain a deeper understanding and refresh on parts and the development of features. Presented by Jackson Ultima.