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Hockey Skating Techniques Improvement


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Planning to work on hockey skating technique improvements for my son (Pee-Wee) over the summer. Considering options with personalized attention, corrections, and reinforcement over a few weeks, or some other format. I know RMU has a list of Instructors, and PPE offers private sessions. But, I don't know anyone specifically. Will appreciate any suggestions/recommendations regarding local instructors/places who do this type of work.

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Just asking for a random recommend is not the best, imho. It depends on your kid, too. Some of these instructors can be really tough, and some kids respond well to that, some not so much. Some of it is finding a match between instructor style and your kid. Talk to people who get lessons, take a look at their kid...is their kid's personality similar to your kid?

I am sure the instructors at most rinks are pretty good. Or it wouldn't benefit the rinks to have them.

If your kid is not into it, I would do more of a clinic, camp or power skating class. Waste of money and everyone's time if the child won't work. Follow their lead. 

Pittsburgh really does seem to be blessed with a lot of good people. Good luck!

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12 hours ago, lferg said:

Thank you for recommendations. Tough instructors are fine. Looking to identify weak spots, provide corrections, and then reinforce it all.

Marianne Watkins at RMU is good at breaking things down. Cliff Loya at Bairel. Who do the south people use, lots of great players come out of there.

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2 hours ago, Lifelongbender said:

I second Marianne Watkins - she's tough but still easy to work with.

I've had players have good success with Mark Chaves, who usually has classes at Mt. Lebanon. Great for edgework improvement.

My son worked with Chaves, and he is a tremendous skating teacher. 

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On 4/2/2019 at 8:20 AM, Saucey said:

Marianne Watkins at RMU is good at breaking things down. Cliff Loya at Bairel. Who do the south people use, lots of great players come out of there.

Barb Benedetti works with a lot of players at SHAHA and Mt. Lebanon hosting private lessons at both facilities, sometimes by invite only because of her calendar filling up quickly.

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I do second Marianne at RMU (she has worked with the Pens and has a great resume), Cliff at Baierl is OK - some love him others are 'meh'; Tyler Kennedy has started doing lessons at many of the rinks locally as well but he isn't really focused on power skating.

 

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On 4/4/2019 at 4:11 PM, SChEats said:

Avoid Steve Emmett -

... remainder removed by moderator (along with the entire original comment) as it was inappropriate and potentially libelous. 

Commenter warned.

Have had my son skate with Steve for 4 years. Every other week, weekends on occasion, sessions always well attended by many levels of skaters. Junior hockey, AAA High School, Tier 1, all the way to squirts.

Clearly we cant “ unring the bell” from the above post, but I have never heard of any of the behavior described above. Steve was not thrown out of Baierl, his banner is still on the wall. Will not go into any thoughts regarding his absence over this past winter; perhaps contacting him directly at the address or phone number provided above would get an answer. He is scheduled to be back at Baierl in May for a weekend clinic, come see for yourself and ask him then.The original post asked for recommendations not unfounded scandalous accusations.

 

Edited by one97one00
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Never a fan of Steve Emmett's work.  He was at SHAHA years ago and while he set up good drills, he just had kids go through the motions and not make individual critiques or corrections with skaters.  Even in groups, Marianne and Barb take kids aside and personally instruct them in group settings to give it that personal touch.

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3 minutes ago, HereWithPopcorn said:

Never a fan of Steve Emmett's work.  He was at SHAHA years ago and while he set up good drills, he just had kids go through the motions and not make individual critiques or corrections with skaters.  Even in groups, Marianne and Barb take kids aside and personally instruct them in group settings to give it that personal touch.

Honestly and sincerely, thank you Popcorn. That was a personal critique of another person’s work. 

Probably what the original poster is looking for after all. 

 

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On 4/4/2019 at 4:28 PM, SChEats said:

I do second Marianne at RMU (she has worked with the Pens and has a great resume), Cliff at Baierl is OK - some love him others are 'meh'; Tyler Kennedy has started doing lessons at many of the rinks locally as well but he isn't really focused on power skating.

 

Clarification, @SCheats was NOT warned for this comment, but a different one which we also deleted.

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  • 1 month later...

Marianne Watkins is great. Several NHL teams have used her, as Columbus brought her in at one point too. But yet she takes youth students and works with youth clubs regularly. That's pretty much ideal. She comes from a figure skating background so you're getting totally skating-focused training. 

I typically think the best skating coaches are probably solely skating coaches, so no matter who you chose that's what I'd look for. (It's the way most pro and major teams tend to operate right? So clearly there must be something to it when you're talking about specialized, individual skill coaches like this.)

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Marianne was one of the best! Then about 5-8 years ago she started having too many kids, up to 25 at a time and there was no way she could coach them up! Smaller classes, 5-10 at the most are the best! Believe it or not, Marc Voit is one of the best power skating coaches around, if you can get around the stigma, he’s goo though! Kevin Muller is also very good at UPMC!

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2 hours ago, DMB said:

Marianne was one of the best! Then about 5-8 years ago she started having too many kids, up to 25 at a time and there was no way she could coach them up! Smaller classes, 5-10 at the most are the best! Believe it or not, Marc Voit is one of the best power skating coaches around, if you can get around the stigma, he’s goo though! Kevin Muller is also very good at UPMC!

What's the stigma?

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