OLDS — After years of taking direction and guidance from coaches, local ice dancer Kobi Chant is appreciating the other side of the sport – as a coach himself.
Chant has been skating competitively for seven years and coaching for two. He first got on skates when he was just four years old.
Chant and his skating partner Savanna Martel of Airdrie now train in Calgary. They placed eighth in the novice level at nationals in Mississauga, Ont. last month and won a bronze medal in pre-novice during the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer last year.
“Being a skater in a small town, you don’t get that same experience as in a city,” he said.
“But because I’m a city skater, I bring all the city coaching skills to small towns, so it’s helping some of the girls progress faster.
“And it’s just an extra level of coaching that I can help give back to where I started even, because I started in this small town.”
Chant’s experience coaching has given him more empathy and respect for coaches.
“You become a coach and you learn that skaters are sometimes hard to deal with, or you have to problem-solve when something’s not going right,” Chant said.
“You don’t always think about that as being a skater. You just feel like, oh your coaches just don’t know how to fix it. But no, it’s that problem solving that I’ve learned now.
“When something doesn’t work for me and my partner, I don’t feel the same way anymore, because I know that the coaches have a hard time figuring it out.
“Sometimes the coaches try and do one thing and it doesn’t work and then you get frustrated and they get frustrated.
“But after coaching now, I’ve learned that everyone’s trying to work together and the more you just let it work as a team, it works so much easier when the coaches and the skaters all help together,” he added.
Chant enjoys bringing out the best in the skaters he coaches. One in particular gives him a smile.
“We actually have a boy who’s quite a dancer. He loves to bust out his breakdancing moves on the ice,” Chant said.
“He’s just a little guy but he’s so much fun to coach; he just has all the energy in the world so I’m excited to see where he goes. He’ll be fun.”
