Nick Perna Edge Seminar

Last week, we had an adult skater Edge Seminar at my rink coached by Nick Perna of Fairfax Ice Arena and icoachskating.com for some of the adult skaters the rink. There were 13 of us ranging from Basic 8 to Gold, ages 22 to 67.  I was the one to set up the seminar, so I asked him for an Edge class rather than a more traditional jumping class. (I also told him half the class was over 60!)

Nick Perna – PSA Master Rated National, International, and
World Coach teaching in Fairfax, VA, World-renown pole harness expert

There was two hours on ice and one hour off ice (covering what Nick calls the  Four Basic Edge Positions).

He started us with swizzles. Yes, swizzles. Forward and back--but with a twist. The goal with the swizzles was to do it with a crunch or rip of power. And then to do the swizzles in different patterns, for example, two long swizzles followed by three crisp ones. Or in the shape of double petaled flowers.  Let's just say, if you've taken swizzles for granted, and can't get a crunch on them, this was a great way to warm up. He then took us through using other techniques suitable for adoption as an on ice warmup--always with a focus to developing the 'crunch of power' where we needed it and when we wanted it.

The two hour class built up through various techniques to build power and edges. At one point he had us balancing on the blade of one foot then pulling into a back edge from a dead stop. And another using toepicks (easy), to walking on the heels of your blades (not so easy!) in order to get us able to use the entire blade, and not just the part we were used to using.

I do have an example of his crossover lesson he gave us (from a seminar  for coaches in Memphis). We also had to do forward and backwards crossovers with both feet on the ice (thank goodness I'd done this before!) And much, much more!

Everybody had a good time. But even an edge seminar is harder than you'd expect. There were people splatting all over (I went down 3 times!) And you know what they say: If you're not falling you're not working hard enough! AND WE WERE ALL WORKING HARD!

Anyway, if you want to see his coaching and coaching of other top level American coaches, please use my affiliate link to sign up over on icoachskating.com!