Toy Angels Wrap Up

Thank you to all our skating families, coaches and volunteers!IMG_3502

Our first ever Christmas toy drive, Toy Angels has been a success and we were able to donate 99 toys to the Salvation Army and Calgary’s radio station Kiss 95.9FM efforts to help Calgarian families receive toys this Christmas.

We were able to hold two ‘buy-to-donate’ shopping days where families could buy a toy from our volunteers and immediately add it to the toy mountain. These were fun and successful for all who were involved, not to mention a convenient way to donate to the toy drive.

IMG_3505Our skaters were also involved in a fun mini Christmas ‘creative’ free skate session during Sunday stroking to encourage participation in the Toy Angels program this year!

It was a fun and memorable experience, one which we hope to repeat next year!

The toys were delivered safely to a Toy Angels location and will go to families and children in need this holiday season.

Thank you again for everyone’s generosity and for playing a part in contributing to our Calgary community!

Happy Holidays!

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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]

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

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

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

Springbank Fall Freeze!

Calalta skaters had a wonderful presence at the Springbank Fall Freeze Competition hosted by Springbank Figure Skating Club.

See the detailed results published on the Skate Canada AB/NWT/NUN site.

Thank you to our roving club photographers and parents, for capturing these photos on behalf of the club.

There were some medal finishes and personal bests – from Star Level skaters to Pre Novice. Congratulations everyone – skaters and coaches! And keep competing!

Here is a montage of photos from the weekend! For more photos, please visit our facebook site!

 

 

Congratulations – Calalta Skaters going to Challenge!

A huge congratulations to all Calalta skaters who will be competing at the Skate Canada Challenge event in Edmonton, AB (December 2-6, 2015).

Good luck everyone! We are cheering you on!

skaterssect

Pre-Novice Women Michelle Wong Calalta FSC
Pre-Novice Men Jackson Behiel Calalta FSC
Pre-Novice Pair Shaylyn Jackson/Josh Venema Calalta FSC/Calalta FSC
Pre-Novice Dance Pearl Kang/Cael Elford Calalta FSC/Calalta FSC
Isabel McQuilkin/
Jacob Portz
Calalta FSC/Calalta FSC
Mia Saunders/
William Oddson
Calalta FSC/Huntington Hills SC
Novice Men Yu Jin Armstrong Calalta FSC
Novice Pair Katrina Lopez/
Kurtis Schreiber
Calalta FSC/Calalta FSC
Novice Dance Natascha Collier/
Malcolm Kowan
Calalta FSC/Calalta FSC
Janine Rho/
Vali Baimoukhametov
Calalta FSC/Calalta FSC
Jolie Che/Kyle Pearson Huntington Hills SC/
Calalta FSC
Jessica-Lee Behiel/
Jackson Behiel
Calalta FSC/Calalta FSC
Junior Women Bryn Hoffman Calalta FSC
Nicole Joe Calalta FSC
Junior Men Kurtis Schreiber Calalta FSC
Josh Venema Calalta FSC
Junior Pair Bryn Hoffman/
Bryce Chudak
Calalta FSC/Calalta FSC
Keelee Gingrich/
Davin Portz
Calalta FSC/Calalta FSC
Senior Men Dustin Sheriff-Clayton Calalta FSC

 

 

Calalta supports Toy Angels!

We are encouraging all our members to support Calalta’s initiative for the Salvation Army and Kiss 95FM’s TOY ANGELS campaign.

Toy_Angels_Donate_2015

All you have to do is bring an unwrapped, new toy and drop it off at JCA or COP. See details as to how and who to look for below!

COP skaters and families — Our Board Members will be collecting your toys from COP if you do not have the opportunity to drop by JCA. Please contact these board members or approach them directly and they will be happy to receive your gifts on behalf of the campaign.

Mon, Tues, Thurs afternoons — Terra Lee Behiel

Wednesday afternoon – Diana Peters

Friday afternoon – Gayle Stobie

all morning ice – Terra Lee Behiel

 

JCA skaters — you can do a drop off at the office directly. Look for the Toy Angels box in the upstairs office!

 

Donations will be collected until Saturday December 19.

 

If you would like to volunteer to help with this toy drive, please let us know!

Thank you for your generosity!!

 

Calalta Board of Directors