Many people in our community don’t realize that Peoria is the home of many devoted and competitive figure skaters. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, it has been near impossible for local skaters to train at Owens Center Ice Rink.
I recently sat down with local figure skating coach, Jenni Flores, to get the inside scoop on how the pandemic has affected her students and her teaching style.
To my surprise, Flores presented countless difficulties and challenges coaches and students faced in order to stay within Illinois guidelines.
“A lot of us coaches started doing Zoom. We were doing off-ice Zoom classes. I personally held off-ice stretching classes and off-ice jump classes and then slowly people started getting their spinners in the mail because only a couple people had them and so I started doing off-ice spin class on Zoom as well.”
A figure skater typically trains on ice and off ice under normal circumstances, so the Zoom transition wasn’t as tough as it seemed. But, when the training is only limited to off ice Zoom sessions, it definitely takes a toll on the progression of the skater.
When Owens Center Ice Rink put a halt on all on ice activities, they disregarded the countless hours skaters put into their training. This was a slap in the face to the figure skating community because there was no way skaters could improve their skills based solely on off ice training.
As of June 29, 2020, students were able to resume in-person lessons, but there were still obstacles facing all the coaches, including Coach Flores.
“We had to wear masks the entire time. We reset up the whole facility where there was one way in and one way out. That way you could limit exposure from the people that were there to the people coming in.”
Even though skaters were allowed to resume on ice training, the next challenge was overcoming capacity issues. Flores explained these issues were extremely hard to get around because only a certain amount of skaters were allowed on the ice at a time. As a result, problems with scheduling arose.
Coaches can only teach at times they are available. Unless the students are homeschooled, the only time allowed to practice is before or after school, meaning that any skaters attending school would be on the ice at the same times. How can a skater get the practice and lessons they need if ice capacity and ice time is limited for them?
When cases skyrocketed in Peoria, Owens Center was only allowing 10 people on the ice, and that also included coaches. Students weren’t able to practice during this period and had to leave right after their lesson was done. There were also 30 minute breaks every 2 hours so people could sanitize and prepare for the next group of skaters to come in.
But with the introduction of the vaccine, Flores explained that things have been lightening up around the rink. Skaters are now able to practice outside of their lesson times, but they still have to sign up for certain slots. The capacity has also changed from 10 people on the ice to 15 people, and that does not include coaches.
Even though the local figure skating community has overcome many challenges this last year, there are still some issues they face with capacity and scheduling.