Jump Clinic with Nick Perna
Earlier this week, our club hosted a jump clinic with my jump coach, Nick Perna. My bestie K and I had been planning this for months. She and I are in our 3rd year of planning and running clinics for our skaters so we are mostly running on autopilot.
I started working with Nick almost 10 years ago (I think – I don’t know the exact year we teamed up) and have only seen him in person a handful of times. Even though we live in the same state, we are over 2 hours away from each other – and that’s without traffic!
I was overjoyed to have him do a jump clinic for us, as he is a masterful technician and knows the latest and greatest in jump mechanics and techniques. He often chats with others who “nerd out” in jump technique like him (his words, not mine) so they share insights constantly.
Our skaters were so enamored with Nick that we begged and pleaded for him to offer more private lessons. Our private lesson schedule filled up and we eventually had to ask our skating director to allow the rink to open earlier so we could fit in more lessons. She happily obliged, and Nick was able to give lessons to more of our skaters.
Several of our adult skaters got together the evening of the seminar for dinner. We got to hear Nick share some stories about his career and some interesting stories about some skaters (who shall not be named here!).
We also had a coach at our rink do edges and movement, and in the afternoon we had a Gold level competition judge give some insights. Additionally, we had a professional dancer teach a seminar on improvisation and movement off ice. Nick also gave instruction for some off-ice jump technique.
We hope to be able to offer another jump clinic with him again next year!