Good Figure Skating Club in Denver area?

Hi,

I plan to move to Denver area from Northern Virginia this summer.

My daughter who is 10 years old is a serious figure skater (Juvenile in freeskate and Junior in move).

My question is, are there any good figure skating clubs in Denver? I know that Colorado Springs has one of the best in the world.

I appreciate your answer in advance.

You are most likely to get answers in the Lutz Corner of our forum, so I moved your question here.

Monument is closer to Denver than Colorado Springs. Coach Kori Ade works out of Monument these days, with Jason Brown, Tyler Pierce, Jordan Moeller, and Mariah Bell. An estimate of driving time to Monument is 57 minutes from Denver.

This is a great info. Thank you very much!

boungdong said:

... I know that Colorado Springs has one of the best in the world. ...

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FYI, Christy Krall and Tom Z are holding a week-long summer camp for young skaters. Maybe could be a way for your daughter and you to get a feel for the people, facilities, general vibe, etc., at the World Arena??
And to get inspired by Max Aaron, Josh Farris, Mirai Nagasu, and Rachel Flatt, who will be involved in the camp .

(Jason and Jordan, etc., are involved in teaching in Monument .)

golden411 said:

FYI, Christy Krall and Tom Z are holding a week-long summer camp for young skaters. Maybe could be a way for your daughter and you to get a feel for the people, facilities, general vibe, etc., at the World Arena??
And to get inspired by Max Aaron, Josh Farris, Mirai Nagasu, and Rachel Flatt, who will be involved in the camp .

(Jason and Jordan, etc., are involved in teaching in Monument .)

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Great! Thank you. Will definitely register for the summer camp in World Arena.
Now I am looking for a list of coaches in Monument but hard to find online.

boungdong said:

Great! Thank you. Will definitely register for the summer camp in World Arena.
Now I am looking for a list of coaches in Monument but hard to find online.

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Here is a coaches page for Monument.

(If you browse around on the same site, I know that it says somewhere that Kori expects all of her elite skaters to teach as well -- and I think they all happily do so.
Not sure whether Jason et al. are involved in private coaching, but photos have shown him giving group lessons.
A while back, Jordan's Instagram had a photo of what I interpreted to be some official stuff from PSA for new coaches -- but just my interpretation.)

Good luck to your daughter!

boungdong said:

Great! Thank you. Will definitely register for the summer camp in World Arena.
Now I am looking for a list of coaches in Monument but hard to find online.

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http://www.skate7k.com/home

Not sure you are going to find many beyond Team Koro. Monument is kinda a small pit stop town between Denver and the Springs, but is more convenient to get to from Denver than World Arena.

There was a summer competition in I think it was Westminster, Colorado (Think north to northwest Denver Suburbia, you will become familiar with these names when you get here) last year that attracted Max Aaron and Alexa and Chris in pairs to it, so if you could go to that comp, you might be able to network at that event. Especially if you end up more on that end of the city. Southeast Parker/Highlands Ranch/Tech Center area would make Monument very doable and likely be your best option. Places like Thornton, Westminster, Golden, Lakewood, would be more of a commute.


*edit

Looks like it was the "Colorado Champinhsips" last year and a bit more info can be found in this old thread.

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?41129-Max-Aaron&p=965670&viewfull=1#post965670

That was the only Denverish club one I recall having my interests peaked by last year.

Thanks very much golden411 and StitchMonkey!

I am also interested in Denver Figure Skating Club located in South Denver because it will be the closest ice rink from my office.
But also hard to say whether it is a club or not for my daughter by just checking its coach list:

https://www.ssprd.org/Portals/0/Ice/InstructorGuideSSIA_FSC 2015.pdf

boungdong said:

Thanks very much golden411 and StitchMonkey!

I am also interested in Denver Figure Skating Club located in South Denver because it will be the closest ice rink from my office.
But also hard to say whether it is a club or not for my daughter by just checking its coach list:

https://www.ssprd.org/Portals/0/Ice/InstructorGuideSSIA_FSC 2015.pdf

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I can't comment on coaches, but can on the general area.

"South Suburban" is kinda code for the parks and rec department for a few of Denver's suburbs (Englewood, Littleton, Centennial, maybe a some I am forgetting). It has two ice rinks i think, but may have more. I would not be surprised if the coaches, or some, work for south suburban in general. Basically, when you see it, you know it is part of a slightly larger recreation network. You may have gleaned this already but thought I would mention it.

Funny story about South Suburban Ice Arena specifically though. Just before worlds, I was in the area and saw a sign saying "Ice Rink". I did not know it was there, so when i got home I wanted to find out more to see if maybe it could be a nice idea for a date basically. Well that weekend was marked out "competition" so i pretty much figured id check back and not think more of it. Come Monday and this board is buzzing about Josh landing his quad cleanly that weekend at some Denver local competition. I don't know how likely it was that there were two going on in the Denver area that same weekend, so there is a decent chance Josh Farris has made his face known at that one. If nothing else I would toss my hat in to say it has good mojo going for it.

That being said, don't rule out 7k yet. It is really not that far from South Suburban and not an evil drive. Basically 90% of it would be well maintained not typically gridlocked highways with few missed turn opportunities - not mountainous or curvy or hilly - boredom is likely your biggest complaint. Really even in snow - the highways are well kept, and it is the side streets you need to worry about. If you can get to C-470 in bad weather, you can make it the rest of the way. Goggle maps says it is less than an hour away and an alternate route is only 1 hour 10 minutes. An hour to train with a coach that currently has two of the top ten US ladies in the country, plus the mens champion, is not just any ordinary opportunity. I think the only other coach that had three top ten singles skaters this year was Rafael Arutyunya. Don't think of it as an hour away to the best in the area, but the best in the country, because there is an argument that it is one of the top coaching teams in the country currently.

We joined a club based on our coach's recommendation. The tests and comps were nearby. But, we learned that the club meetings and home ice were about an hour+ away. This did not matter at all until my skater got older and wanted to participate in working for the youth board with and other club volunteer opportunities. We have switched to a smaller club that is located much closer to home. For us (we are in the US too), you can skate anywhere, you don't need to be a member of a club to use a rink and your coaches don't have to be a member of the same club, so the definition of "good club" doesn't mean much to us other than for social reasons. And if you can't participate easily because of distance, it makes it less ideal. Basically we gave up the "Big Name Club" for one that permits us to easily participate in club events.

All of the big name coaches here are at more than one rink. Most go to at least 3 during the week. So you don't have to follow a coach through a club. I hope that makes sense. So if you ask Frank to be your coach, he might have times at Toyota Center and/or Paramount - and your club doesn't matter.

Thanks StitchMonkey and Loopy. It is always hard to move to a new place...

boungdong said:

Thanks very much golden411 and StitchMonkey!

I am also interested in Denver Figure Skating Club located in South Denver because it will be the closest ice rink from my office. ...

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Random FYI re Denver FSC involvement in the annual Showtime on Ice:

Max Aaron and Polina Edmunds are the guest skaters in this year's shows, which take place starting tonight. I posted a Max rehearsal video and some information about this year's shows in Max's fan thread:

Hi - are you looking for a FSC or a training center? Because Monument, where Kori teaches, is not a USFSA club, it's a training center, and the skaters are members of lots of different FSC. If your daughter is already a member of a USFSA club, I think she can retain that membership until you decide there's a good reason to change - eg you can get cheaper ice time or lower test fees through the local club or you want her to be part of that community.

As to a coach and training center, have you asked her current coach if s/he has any suggestions or recognizes any of the Denver FSC coaches names? Because the skating world is pretty small, so chances are her coach will have some idea of who is good. This would be especially useful if you really like her current coach. Barring that it probably makes sense to enroll your daughter in a summer program and ask other parents, watch the coaches, and maybe visit the clubs/ training centers once you move.

One other thing: at your daughter's level I would assume she needs to be on the ice a lot, and she probably has lessons more than once a week. If she is at the training center 5-6 days a week for several hours, would a daily commute to Monument or CS be practical? Stitch knows the area and I don't, but I'm guessing that in the winter there will be days when travel from Denver to CS or Monument would be difficult or impossible due to the snow.

Anyway, good luck with the move - I would love to get transferred out to Denver one of these days!