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Jackie Brenner Coaches

Author:
Issue: 2006 January

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Brenner now works with about 30 athletes, ranging in age from 3 to adult. Though she has always loved skating and enjoyed her years competing, she knows she has found her true calling as a coach.

“I have more of a passion for coaching,” she said. “It is great to share a gift with someone.”

Although one might expect Brenner’s reinforcement to come from seeing her skaters win medals or master a routine, it is something more philosophical that keeps her coming to the rink every day.

“Watching the children learn to become responsible for their work and their lives” is the best part of being a figure skating coach, she said.

Brenner works with the athletes to set goals and learn how to achieve them. She said the people who excel in figure skating are the ones who make it happen through passion, desire and long-term commitment.

“They have to be able to handle the ups and the downs, both the successes and the failures,” Brenner said. “Children learn more from the bumps in the road than from the gold medals.”

As spring competition nears, Stucks will be extending her training schedule, adding another hour and a half, every other afternoon, to her morning workout on the ice.

“I have big goals in my life,” she said. “Nationals, possibly the Olympics.”

Something for
Everyone
Arctic Edge offers skating instruction for all ages and levels of ability. Jackie Brenner heads a staff of 18 coaches and teachers who provide both private and group lessons. The international staff includes Russian, Canadian and American ice dancers and medalists.

“If anybody wants to learn, they can do it,” Brenner said. The only required skills are balance and the desire to skate.”
Some people may think it is too late to start ice skating, but Brenner said that really isn’t the case.

“I had a gentleman in his 70s call me and he wanted to learn to skate,” she said. “Now he comes out for public sessions and is proficient.”

Ideally, people who want to be competitive skaters start by their ninth birthday, Brenner said, but skaters who begin later can still excel. She said there is now a track for those who start in their late 20s and early 30s and want to skate competitively. Parent and tot classes, adult beginning classes and classes for children are all available.

“Whether your goal is to skate at Rockefeller Center and not fall or try out for the Olympic team, we’ve got a class for it,” she said.

 

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