Category: All Competitive Skaters

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Athlete Profiles: Torri Hollstein / Jason Xie

Calalta is proud to feature our athletes who have achieved distinction in our sport. As part of our Athlete Profiles feature, we are spotlighting our athletes who fall within either or both these categories:

  1. Podium winners at Skate Canada Sectionals, Challenge and/or National competitions
  2. Attained a spot on the Select or Junior Development Team at the provincial level.

See the full list of athletes featured for 2016

Athlete Profiles: Torri Hollstein / Jason Xie

torri

Torri Holstein and Jason Xie were podium 1st place winners in Juvenile Ice Dance at Sectionals this season. This is the second time the couple participated at Sectionals. Congratulations on your achievements Jason and Torri!

Age
Torri – 14, Jason – 15

School
Torri – Edge School, Jason – Dr EP Scarlett

Years at Calalta
Torri – since 2010, Jason – since 2014

Favorite elements
Torri – Lifts, Jason – Lifts, Waltz Jumps

Skating Achievements for 2015/16 season
Both – Alberta Juvenile Champions this year (2016), also part of the Junior Development team

How do you feel about your achievements?
Torri – Happy, Proud, made me feel so lively

Jason – Great, the achievements are things that I can feel good about after the hard work and effort.

What do you hope to achieve this/next season?
Torri – I hope we can win sectionals again next year, I also hope to make it to Challenge

Jason – Landing my double toe!

Activities besides figure skating?
Torri – Competitive Dance (Ballet/Jazz/Lyrical/MT), Snowboarding

Jason – Snowboarding, playing the piano

What do you do to chill out/unwind?
Torri – Hang out with my family, watch movies, hang with my friends

Jason – Sleeping lots

torri2Who is your figure skating inspiration? Why?
Torri – Tessa Virture and Scott Moir, they have been together for so long, never gave up, we so successful and such awesome skaters .

Jason – My coaches are my skating inspiration because they have helped me discover the joy of this sport

Who is/are your role model(s)/favorite person/people? Why?
Torri – Kim, Jaime Lyn, Mr. Ford, Ben W. And Tammi. Because they have made me the best skater I can be.

Jason – My role model is Mr. Ford because he has a great sense of humour.

Social media
Torri – Instagram – tik_tak_torri and Snapchat – torri_45

Anything else to add?
Torri – A big thank you to Jason for being a great friend and partner, and for dealing with my bossiness. 🙂
Jason – Big thanks to my partner Torri, there’s such great fun skating with you

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Athlete Profile: Jayden Johnson

Calalta is proud to feature our athletes who have achieved distinction in our sport. As part of our Athlete Profiles feature, we are spotlighting our athletes who fall within either or both these categories:

  1. Podium winners at Skate Canada Sectionals, Challenge and/or National competitions
  2. Attained a spot on the Select or Junior Development Team at the provincial level.

See the full list of athletes featured for 2016

Athlete Profile: Jayden Johnson

jayden

Age
9

School
Battalion Park School.

Years at Calalta
Skating at calalta since I was 3 1/2 years old.

Favorite jump/sequence
Favourite jump Lutz but favourite combo Axel+Loop

Skating Achievements for 2015/16 season
My skating achievements are winning a silver medal in Pre-Juvenile U11 at AB Sectionals. Also becoming a member of the Jr Development team.
Silver medal at Sask. invitationals Pre Juvenile U11
Canmore invitationals Bronze medal Pre Juvenile U11
Wild rose Bronze medal Star 4
Sunsational Bronze medal Star 3

How do you feel about your achievements?
I feel happy about my accomplishments because it makes me feel like if I work hard I can do anything.

What do you hope to achieve this/next season?
This season I want to land my double Jumps. Also I want to win sectionals.

Activities besides figure skating?
Snowboarding, Tae Kwondo, Piano are other activities I am passionate about and do every week.

What do you do to chill out/unwind?
Play video games and play with my sister.

Who is your figure skating inspiration? Why?
Sean Sawyer is my inspiration. He is entertaining and fun to watch. He can do amazing tricks Also most importantly he looks like he is having a lot fun skating and I want to have fun skating.

Who is/are your role model(s)/favorite person/people? Why?
I look up to Iron man. He is my role model because he is smart, a scientist, rich and an engineer. He can solve any problem and look cool doing it. I want to be like him.

Social media
My Instagram is superjaydy

Anything to add?
I love my coaches Scott and Danielle. They help me follow my passion and encourage me everyday. They believe in me and support me. I am very thankful to have them in my life.

I want to thank Kim for teaching me dance and skills. I appreciate how much that helps me to look good doing my program.

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Ice Cancellations due to Test Days

THE FOLLOWING ICE SESSIONS ARE CANCELLED DUE TO TEST DAYS:

Monday, February 8, 2016
5:15-6:00 pm
6:00-6:45 pm
7:00-8:00 pm
8:00-9:00 pm

Tuesday, February 9, 2016
5:15-6:00 pm
6:00-6:45 pm
7:00-8:00 pm
8:00-9:00 pm

Wednesday, February 10, 2016
7:15-8:15 pm

Thursday, February 11, 2016
5:15-6:00 pm
6:00-6:45 pm
7:00-8:00 pm
8:00-9:00 pm

Pick up passes for skaters registered for these sessions will be available from one of the Rink Chairs by Friday, February 5, 2016.

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Yukon’s Hoffman and partner skate to silver at nationals

Stephan Potopnyk/Skate Canada Whitehorse's Bryn Hoffman, right, and partner Bryce Chudak perform their free program at the 2016 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in Halifax on Wednesday. Hoffman and Chudak won silver in junior pairs.
Stephan Potopnyk/Skate Canada
Whitehorse’s Bryn Hoffman, right, and partner Bryce Chudak perform their free program at the 2016 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in Halifax on Wednesday. Hoffman and Chudak won silver in junior pairs.

Taken from Yukon News: written by Tom Patrick

See original news article here.

 

A year after Yukon got its first gold at the figure skating nationals, the territory got its first pairs medal at the championship this week.

Whitehorse’s Bryn Hoffman and her Alberta skating partner Bryce Chudak won silver in junior pairs at the 2016 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in Halifax on Wednesday.

“It’s actually bitter-sweet,” said Hoffman. “We’re really happy to have placed well and won a silver, obviously. It feels amazing. But in our long program we didn’t skate as well as we could have and we did make some mistakes.”

Hoffman, 18, and Chudak, 20, placed second in both programs out of nine teams. They scored a personal best of 51.25 in the short Tuesday and an 87.90 in the free Wednesday for a combined 139.15.

“Although the (free) program wasn’t going how we wanted it to go … As the program went on we focused on all the details, our spins and choreography sequence – doing all the easier elements really, really well to try to get as many points as we could,” said Hoffman.

With their silver placing, Hoffman and Chudak are now waiting to learn if they will be selected to represent Canada at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Debrecen, Hungary this March.

It wouldn’t be the first time they skate for Canada at an international competition. The two placed fourth at International Skating Union Junior Grand Prix competitions in Colorado and Poland so far this season.

The Hoffman-Chudak team, who placed seventh at last year’s nationals, live and train in Calgary where Hoffman attends the University of Calgary.

Also competing in Halifax was Whitehorse’s Rachel Pettitt, the winner of Yukon’s first gold at last year’s championship in novice women.

The 16-year-old, who now competes in junior women, placed sixth out of 18 skaters on Thursday.

“I’m really very pleased with how I finished for my first junior nationals,” said Pettitt. “I didn’t have the best free program, but I’m proud of finishing seventh in the free with not my best skate.

“I’m walking away proud and ready to train and be ready for the next one.”

Like Hoffman and Chudak, Pettitt notched a personal best in her short with a 48.87 for third place on Wednesday. She then placed seventh in the free with a 79.08 on Thursday for a combined score of 124.95, about five points from her personal best.

“I just did everything the best I could,” said Pettitt of her short. “I just performed very well, got all my jumps done, and just enjoyed it a lot.”

Pettitt, who skates for Yukon’s Arctic Edge Skating Club and trains in Kelowna, also won Yukon’s first-ever gold in figure skating at the 2015 Canada Winter Games.

Both Hoffman and Pettitt skated for Yukon at the 2011 Canada Winter Games that, like this week’s nationals, took place in Halifax.

“I love it here in Halifax – I seriously do,” said Pettitt. “I’m not really a lobster fan, but I told myself I need to try lobster before I leave … I did try mussels, so I’m proud of that.

“It’s such a nice environment – being down at nationals is so much fun. We saw some of the senior competitors today. We saw Patrick Chan and all the ice dancers and pairs and everything.”

Contact Tom Patrick at [email protected]

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Athlete Profile: Maja Husain

Calalta is proud to feature our athletes who have achieved distinction in our sport. As part of our Athlete Profiles feature, we are spotlighting our athletes who fall within either or both these categories:

  1. Podium winners at Skate Canada Sectionals, Challenge and/or National competitions
  2. Attained a spot on the Select or Junior Development Team at the provincial level.

See the full list of athletes featured for 2016

Athlete Profile: Maja Husain

maja

Maja debuted at the Skate Canada AB/NWT/Nunavut Sectionals competition in November 2015 and won gold.

How old are you? 

10

Where do you go to school?
Calgary French & International School (CFIS)

How long have you trained at Calalta?

Since Fall 2012

What is your favorite jump/sequence?

I love jumping, they are all fun and all my favourites

How did you feel winning the Sectionals Champion for your group?

It was amazing, I was so happy and overjoyed. I felt very proud.

What do you hope to achieve this next season?

To be the 1st Juvenile girl to land a double axel in competition.

What other activities do you do, besides figure skating?

I still competitively dance (Ballet & Jazz); take gymnastics and play the piano and the tenor saxophone.

What do you do to chill out/unwind? sectionals2015

I like to play with and cuddle my dog Winnie.

Who is your figure skating inspiration? Why?

There are many skaters that inspire me such as Gracie Gold, Ashley Wagner, and Kaetlyn Osmond because they have all had to push through their individual challenges and still perform well.

Who is/are your role model(s)/favorite person/people? Why?  

My Mom and Dad because they are both really encouraging and supportive.
Also, all of my Calalta coaches as each one has helped coach and support me in different ways.

Have you got anything else to add?
This has been an amazing season!!!!

 

 

 

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Calalta Spring Event 2016 Announcement

Spring Event 2016 – Performance Evaluation Day
Saturday March 5, 2016
Jimmie Condon Arena
502 Heritage Drive SW
Calgary, AB
T2V 2W2

Registration for the Calalta 2016 Spring Event is now open. Please make sure that your submissions are in by February 1, 2016.

Calalta Spring Event Announcement 2016

Online Registration for Calalta Spring Event 2016

Planned Program Form for Calalta Spring Event 2016

Please contact us if you have any questions.

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Message from Scott Davis, Director of Skating

It’s hard to believe that another year is gone! 2015 flew by and it’s now a great time to reflect on the past 12 months and also where we want to go in the next year.

I am extremely proud of the continued growth within the club in all areas including Canskate, StarSkate, Jr Prep and HP, developmental competitive skaters including dance and pairs, and our elite athletes representing Calalta and training with the National Performance Center (NPC).

We are well on our way to reaching our goal of being the premier skating club in Western Canada!

With this growth, it is imperative that everyone in the club works together effectively.

A huge ‘thank you’ goes out to the many volunteers who make everything run so smoothly, to the Board of Directors who guide our club, to the amazing coaching staff that show up daily, motivated to teach, and to the office staff who make it all come together.

A special ‘thank you’ goes out to Diana Peters, our amazing President who spends countless hours working for the betterment of the club and skaters.

For all our skaters, the focus is to improve and to reach their goals set with their respective coaches. The club offers quality programming to assist in this process. In the Spring of 2015, the dry land program was reworked by Stephanie Davis to incorporate a more well-rounded approach to making all skaters ‘fit’ athletes first. What prompted this was we found that skaters were missing the balance, focus, concentration and basic skating quality, which used to be ‘taught’ through school figures.

Skate Canada published the Long Term Athlete Development model, which we used to create our programs including Jr Prep, HP and our Group Star and Jr Star programs. In order to improve, the time and energy has to be put into the training. Nothing can take the place of the hours that need to be spent on basic skating and technique. The table below shows a guideline for the number of hours minimum needed to see improvement.

smhoursAs your skater progresses, more time and energy needs to be spent both on and off the ice. I can’t stress enough the importance of dry land training and seminars that will contribute to your skater’s overall fitness and mental training. For the senior and elite skaters, we offer sessions on nutrition and sports psychology as well as dry land training that includes meditation, dance, pilates, gymnastics and tai chi. With our children being increasingly stimulated with electronics and social media, we need to slow them down, get them to focus, and concentrate on the task at hand. Our meditation classes are becoming an extremely important tool being offered to our skaters and mindfulness training will benefit all skaters in any aspect of their lives.

Click here to see the latest information on children and meditation.

The New Year is a time to set a plan for the future and to execute on that plan. Work with your coach and identify your strengths and weaknesses and put in the time and effort to improve upon them.

I look forward to watching the continued improvement and growth in skating.

Happy Holidays!
Scott Davis
Director of Skating
[email protected]

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Christmas Ice Update – Dec 13

Given the overwhelming popularity of Christmas ice, we were able to book a few more hours of ice at Jimmie Condon and add in the Wednesday as well. We would have liked to book more, but it’s full!!

Given these changes, Scott and Diana have had to review each of the sessions to ensure skaters have adequate skill level and we can maintain a safe ice surface.

The sessions have now been renamed to ‘Sectional Skaters’ and ‘Junior to Intermediate’ which will be less confusing for all.

Please review the Christmas ice 2015 Schedule – note the time changes as well as the dates. We did our best to ensure a level of fairness to everyone. As you can see some sessions are not full – this does not mean that a junior skater can pick up on a “Sectional Skater’ session nor can a Sectional Skater pick up on a ‘Junior to Intermediate’ session. This means that other skaters that have not had the chance to reserve ice yet, have the opportunity to do so now.

If by chance you are at the rink on your session and the next session is not full, there may be an opportunity to pick up that session. That would be at the discretion of Scott and the skater would be asked to skate appropriately for the level – in other words if we have 16 skaters on a Jr/Int session and a Novice skater wants to pick up, they would be asked to not do their jumps nor skate aggressively but they could practice their step sequence. It is important we keep all of our skaters safe especially the little ones who have not developed the maturity or awareness to stay out of the way yet.

If your session no longer works for you, please advise Natalie by email. She will keep the sheets at Jimmie Condon updated. If you want to skate on the Wednesday or one of the new sessions and there is room for your skater on the right session, please email Natalie.

Thanks

Diana and Scott

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Challenge Wrap Up

The 2015/2016 Skate Canada Challenge was an eventful weekend for everyone! The event wrapped up on December 6 and was a smashing success for Calalta!

Competition Background

For those new to the figure skating world here’s a bit of background:

The International Skating Union is the governing body for figure skating world wide.

Each country has their own organization and Skate Canada is our national governing organization.

Each province is represented by a Section – or make up a part one. BC is paired with the Yukon; Alberta has North West Territories and Nunavut; and Ontario has 4 sections (it’s a big province after all).

Each of these sections has their own Championships (also known as Sectionals).

The top 4 skaters in each event from each section, from Pre-Novice and up through to Senior (male and female, singles, pairs and dance) advance through to Challenge (the semi-finals).

Quebec is the only province that gets to send their top 8.

Challenge was held in Edmonton last weekend and over 500 skaters from across Canada attended!

The top 18 skaters for Singles, top 12 Pairs, and top 15 Dance Teams, from Novice through to Senior, then advance to the Canadian National Championships which are being held in Halifax in January 2016.

Skaters who perform well at Nationals may get selected to represent Canada in various events including the Junior Grand Prix Series, Grand Prix Series and if it is an Olympic year, might get the chance to represent Canada in the Olympics.

The Pre-Novice Level skaters do not advance to Canadians – which is why we can say that Shay-Lyn Jackson and Josh Venema are the new Bronze Medal Canadian Champions in Pre-Novice Pairs! A big congratulations to Shay and Josh!

How did our club do?

Calalta was very well represented – we started by sending 86 skaters to Sectionals that were held in early November.

Of these, 28 qualified to go to Challenge (they were in the top 4 in their respective events) and of these 28, 14 skaters made it through and will represent Alberta at the National Championships in Halifax in January!

Congratulations to the following skaters who will be heading to the Canadian National Championships!!

Junior Women
Nicole Joe

Novice Men – Alternate
Yujin Armstrong

Junior Men
Kurtis Schreiber

Senior Men
Dustin Sherriff Clayton

Novice Pairs
Kurtis Schreiber & Katrina Lopez

Junior Pairs
Davin Portz & Keelee Gingrich
Bryce Chudak & Bryn Hoffman

Novice Dance
Janine Rho & Vali Baimoukhametov
Natasha Collier & Malcolm Kowan
Jessica Behiel & Jackson Behiel

Novice Dance – Alternate
Jolie Che and Kyle Pearson

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December and Christmas Ice Reminders

Updates for December ice at JCA and COP:

Sunday Stroking dates for December

December 6, 13, 20

JCA: Last day of regular skating is Sunday December 20, skating resumes January 3 (no stroking or off ice)

COP: Last day of regular Skating is Friday December 18, skating resumes Monday January 4.

Sign up at JCA (beside the music room) for Christmas ice:

This is what is confirmed for Christmas ice:

Monday December 21,28
11:15-12:15 Dance
12:30-1:30 Juv to Senior
1:30-2:30 Open

Tuesday December 22,29
11:15-12:15 Dance
12:30-1:30 Juv to Senior
1:30-2:30 Open