Constraints-led Approach to Figure Skating Coaching

Garrett Lucash is a U.S. figure skating champion, International medalist, and three-time World Team member. He is a National Development Team coach (USA), the Chair of the PSA Sport Science Committee, and a member of U.S. Figure Skating’s Sport Science and Medicine Committee. As an athlete, Garrett trained under some of the most successful coaches in figure skating history and alongside dozens of elite athletes from all over the world including Olympic and World champions. He attended and presented at numerous coaches and judges seminars as an athlete and a coach, attended numerous sport science training camps, and guest lectured at Boston College. In 2018, Garrett co-founded Athlete Centered Skating, a holistic figure skating program that supports the individual needs of its athletes and develops learning skills within its curriculum. The Athlete Centered Skating methodology is derived from a constraints-led approach. Garrett’s writing appears in Dynamics of Skill Acquisition vol.2 (Human Kinetics, publisher), and he has written numerous articles for Skating magazine and The Professional Skater magazine. He has also written continuing education courses for the PSA, the official coaches’ education and accreditation association for figure skating coaches in the United States.

• Introduction: Reflection Illuminates the Way Forward1. Breaking the Ice: An Introduction to Figure Skating2. A Traditional Approach to Figure Skating Coaching3. A constraints-led Approach to Figure Skating Coaching4. Environment Design Principles5. Stages of Skill Adaptation in Figure Skating6. Reflection and Assessment7. A CLA for Learning to Figure Skate8. A CLA and the Developing Figure Skater9. A CLA and Expert Figure Skating10. Epilogue: A CLA from Expert Coaches