Ice. When you think of ice, most people think cold, hard, slippery, uninviting. When a figure skater thinks of ice we think smooth, clear, purposeful, home. We practice day after day, even when we’re exhausted, even when we’ve fallen an uncountable amount of times trying to perfect a footwork sequence or a new jump. Once a skater always a skater. You always love it no matter how involved you are in it over the years. Then there’s figure skating coaches. They dedicate their free time to teach us everything there is to learn about skating, but also about life. They push us to heights we could never have imagined for ourselves, and then some. They turn the most shy, most timid person into someone more capable, graceful, and confident.

A coach is a teacher, a friend, a mentor. They put up with every situation and person you could possibly run into in the skating world. They are some of the most dedicated and incredible people, and the luckiest of us are blessed with the most amazing coaches. If you’re extra lucky, you get a coach that also kicks butt at skating still, and you try to aspire to be as epic as they are. I was lucky to have one of those amazing coaches, and I know everyone else at my rink would agree. A coach has the towering task of not only teaching a bunch of sometimes less-than-graceful people to skate, but also to be a prominent figure in our lives. Coaching is long hours, bruises, wounded pride, big successes, smiles, tears, sweat, and blood. Coaches get a view into the parts of us that no one else may really ever understand.

They put up with us even if we do sometimes look like an ugly duckling fumbling over the ice rather than a swan (Lisa you know exactly what I’m talking about). Not all of us soar to the great beyond of the sport, but if you have a truly great coach it doesn’t matter. What matters is the insane amount of growth they bring out in us anyway. A coach understands every skater's fears and tendencies, probably better than the skater themselves. They know which buttons to push and when to push them, and they understand at a deep level that we genuinely can do anything we want, even if it does require face-planting, butt-planting, elbow-planting, into the ice a hundred times (or more, it’s usually more). They keep their calm and know how to get past the frazzled tears and frustrated moments of each and every skater. Coaches deserve more credit than they get.

They don’t just teach us to skate, they teach us a poise and work ethic that only an athlete could quite understand. A great coach gives you the self-confidence you need to have the graciousness of an Olympian even though most of us are far from it. That type of attitude is something I could never thank my coach enough for. It gets us through the best and the worst situations. It’s an advantage to us in all aspects of life, from school, to relationships, to jobs. They bring out the very best qualities in every single one of us. So, here’s to you coach, for being one of the greatest, most influential people in our lives.