Coachless
Don’t be alarmed – I am still with a coach for freestyle. But, my pairs partner and I are out of luck.
I shared with you all over the summer that I was experimenting with pairs just for fun, and we had a pairs coach who had moved to our rink. We only met with the coach once every 2 weeks, and my partner lived about an hour away so we weren’t able to practice together very often.
We had set an audacious goal of trying to test Bronze Pairs by the end of the year. The pairs coach helped us with some of the basic elements but did not cover some of the required ones that are listed on the test.
Not too long ago, the coach moved away without any warning. I don’t know the exact circumstances of the situation but only know that he is no longer teaching at my rink. And no other coaches at our rink or at a neighboring rink have any qualified pairs coaches.
My partner and I still have the desire to try and pass this test. We’ve already come so far, so it’s not an option to just abandon ship at this point. We’ve relegated to watching dance teams and studied YouTube videos for instruction. You can say that we’re pretty much self-coached right now.
So… onward we go. There are still a few elements giving us difficulty but hopefully we’ll get those sorted out soon so that we can put together a test program and get this in front of the judges.
