Despite being around the sport for more than 30 years, an East St. Paul figure skating coach continues to find new ways to keep her skaters focused and engaged.
Tanya Pilat laced up her skates for the first time at just eight years old. She’s been coaching figure skating since she was 14.
“I like that cold wind on your face and the idea of flying when you jump. It was something that has always been inside me,” said Pilat.
“I wanted to try and bring that passion out in my skaters and have them find the love of the sport, as well.”
She does everything from teaching kids how to skate to helping experienced figure skaters prepare for competitions, just like her daughter, Jade.
“She knows we’re all equal. We all have different skill sets, we all have different goals and different things we want to do and she respects them,” explained the younger Pilat.
If you spot a few emojis in Tanya’s hand during the course of a practice, it’s a new tactic aimed at keeping her skaters engaged.
“It’s just more of a fun way to have them feel a little bit more positive about a negative element,” she said.
“It’s just more of a fun way to give them that negative,”
“She gets right in with you and she helps you move your body,” said Larissa Scott, one of Pilat’s junior figure skaters.
“If your body’s stuck doing a jump or a spin, she’s like, ‘your shoulders need to do this.’ She’ll come and she’ll grab your shoulders and be like, ‘put it there.'”
At the end of the day, Pilat’s main focus is setting her athletes up for success.
“I might set something up in their program that’s a little bit more challenging for them, but I know their skill level and their passion and their training regime so I know that it’s something they will get,” she said.