Social

Socialization, interaction, and fun should be the highest priority at this stage of development. Engaging skaters to have a positive experience in a welcoming and caring social environment is vital to the retention of these young participants.

Intellectual

Before athletes develop a passion for their sport, they form an emotional association with physical activity. The goal in the Active Start stage is for young children to rack up positive experiences within sports activity.

Physical

Make activity FUN and part of the child’s daily routine activity and movement skills development. Focus on developing locomotor, object manipulation and balance skills on land, water, ice/snow and in the air in a variety of movements.

Social

At the fundamentals level, the objective is to build a supportive, interactive, positive, and welcoming training environment. If you can succeed at engaging these young participants, they will want to return and continue within the sport.

Intellectual

Children can learn and explore different movements and skills through structured activities and participation in unstructured play. Their self-esteem starts developing at this stage and can be further nurtured by reinforcing their effort, creativity, enjoyment, and learning. Additionally, children start developing a level of self-awareness in the way they perceive, think, feel and act. At this stage, basic concepts of ethics in sports (sportsmanship, fair play, teamwork) and rules of a game can be introduced. This helps with the development of decision-making, behavioural, and social skills.

Physical

The focus of this stage is on critical skill and speed skating literacy. Involvement in more than one sport should be promoted.

• Speed, power, and endurance through fun and games
• Introduction to core stability through fun and games
• General overall athleticism through programs introducing the:
  • ABC’s of athleticism (agility, balance, coordination, speed)
  • RJT’s (run, jump, throw)
  • KGB’s (kinesthesia, gliding, buoyancy, striking with implements)
  • CK’s (catching, kicking with body parts)

Social

As our participants mature and enter the Learn to Train stage, we begin to see the depth of the social domain expand into new areas. One such area is the recognition and founding of a sense of belonging to a team amongst their peers. This sense of belonging identifies the participants with their sport, and in this case they begin to identify themselves as speed skaters to their friends and family.

Intellectual

During this stage, athletes develop foundational skills that lead to success in sport. They are introduced to foundational mental fitness concepts that complement their physical development and enhance their learning experience and self-awareness. Mental skills are introduced and taught on a basic level, and opportunities for testing out the new skills in training and performance settings are provided.

• Introduction to mental preparation
• Understanding of the role of practice
• Perseverance
• Confidence
• Concentration
• Achieve success and receive positive reinforcement

Physical

Continued involvement in multi-sports should be promoted. The focus of this stage is on critical skill and speed skating literacy. Further development of all fundamental movement skills is critical during this stage of development. If missed, a significant window of opportunity is lost which will compromise the ability of the young skater to reach their full potential.

Social

Skater retention through the Train to Train category is often the most challenging, as competing interests from other sports, educational pursuits, and outside social groups, draw athletes’ attention away from skating. Creating a strong social atmosphere in your program that facilitates a sense of belonging that will go a long way in maintaining the interest of these skaters and hopefully reduce the rate of participant decline.

Intellectual

The focus needs to be on learning, applying, testing, and refining the physical, technical, tactical, and mental skills/strategies, as well as how to use them in competitive settings. To help athletes learn to cope with physical and mental challenges in competition, a comprehensive mental training program should be introduced at this stage.

Physical

The focus of this stage is on physical development or “building the engine”, and on consolidating sport specific skills. It should be noted that both the aerobic and strength trainability are dependent on the maturation levels of the skater. For this reason, the timing of training emphasis differs depending on whether skaters are early, average, or late matures.

Social

The social consideration for this development stage is again critical as the challenge and stress of racing can often overshadow the fun and relationship building that comes as a result of training and competitions. By structuring our training sessions and competitions to be inviting for participants, and a place for them to engage with each other and socialize with their peers, we will motivate them to return.

Intellectual

During the Train to Compete stage, athletes become more sport-, event-, and position-specific within their training regime. The brain is more developed, and critical thinking has become more established. Advanced mental preparation strategies are incorporated and focus on mental skills needed for competition and quality training increases.

Physical

The focus of this stage is on continued physical development “Optimizing the Engine”, and on competitive development. Although the focus of competition is implemented in this stage, physical development remains an important focus.

Social

Building a strong team environment to divert attention from an adversarial perspective of sport is important to building a healthy and socially connected training group. Encouraging athletes to unite and work together to achieve their common goal, rather than compete against each other will strengthen their relationships as they push forward and challenge each other in a positive manner. Creating a supportive team environment within the group by which the success of one skater is the success of the team can build positivity within the team. Outside of the training environment you should promote and support social networking outside of sport. Athletes often need to escape the constant demands and pressure of sport. By fostering social relationships with others outside of sport, be it at work or in educational pursuits, athletes can gain a healthy life balance. These social networks outside of the skating community can also provide emotional support for our athletes.

Intellectual

During the Train to Win stage, athletes develop much greater self-awareness of the competition routines and mental strategies that work for them individually. The Train to Win stage focuses on refining the mental skills more closely related to performance outcomes and achieving personal performance bests. In addition, academic, financial, and relationship demands may be more prevalent, so athletes should continue to develop strategies to maintain a healthy sport-life balance. Finally, athletes at this stage can start to think about a plan for “retirement” from competing at the highest level. At some point during this stage, athletes are encouraged to think proactively about life after competitive sport and begin working on a transition plan.

Physical

The focus of these stages is on performance development – “Maximizing the Engine”. All of the skaters’ physical, technical, tactical (including decision making skills), mental, and personal and lifestyle capacities are fully established. The focus of training has shifted from “Learning to Win” to podium performances. There will be a division between high performance and development/recreation skaters at this stage of development. Although there are these two streams, all skaters are training to win.

This e-learning module on Safe Sport, developed by the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC), will help anyone involved in sport learn key information to promote physical, psychological and social health.

This course is highly recommended for all levels of skaters and their parents. You will need an NCCP number – which can be created for free through The Locker – to access this module.

Complete Safe Sport Training

This e-learning module on concussion awareness, developed by the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC), will help you gain the knowledge and skills required to ensure the safety of all participants, including yourself.

This course is highly recommended for all levels of skaters and their parents. You will need an NCCP number – which can be created for free through The Locker – to access this module.

Complete Making Head Way in Speed Skating

This e-learning module, developed by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), addresses ethical sport, supplements, and various other components of the Canadian Anti-Doping Program (CADP).

This course is highly recommended for skaters competing at the provincial and national levels. Athletes can complete a free untracked version of the course, which will provide you with a certificate of completion.

Complete True Sport Clean 101

Speed Skating Canada has two annual awards that are given out to deserving athletes nominated by members of our speed skating community.

• The Athlete of the Year awards in Short Track and Long Track recognize athletes who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to success during the season through outstanding performance at national or international competitions, dedication to the training program, continued growth in physical and technical abilities, and contributions to sport or community development.
• The Athlete Impact Award for Community Champion of the Year recognizes an athlete whose impact on their community positively influences those around them both on and off ice. Established in 2022, this award recognizes an athlete’s contributions to sport and the broader community, in alignment with Speed Skating Canada’s values.
• The Peter Williamson Memorial Bursary awards two bursaries of $1,500 each to National Team or Development Team speed skaters who best combine athletic and scholastic achievements.

Learn more about SSC Athlete Awards

For over 20 years, athletes across Canada have benefited from the Cutting Edge Pin Program, which focuses on testing the skills and abilities of a skater, in a fun and non-competitive environment.

The Cutting Edge program teaches skaters the proper skills that will help them to develop first as a skater, second as a speed skater, and finally as a champion. Successful completion of the program will provide young athletes with the necessary skills for high performance development.

Cutting Edge pins are handed out based on the completion of specific skills, which are tracked using Report Cards.

Access the Cutting Edge report cards