None! You can come as a white page – without prior knowledge and enjoy the training process in all its glory. Our coaches can quickly and accurately train children from the age of 3 and “put” them on skates.
What equipment is needed to take part in the first class?
When coming to our first lesson, you should think about suitable clothing, which
should be fitting for ice training. Clothing should be quite comfortable and warm, so it wouldn’t limit the movement and the child wouldn’t get cold.
For example, a long-sleeved shirt, warm sweater, vest, and gloves (in the beginning those can be waterproof ski gloves). Hat and helmet (may be that of a bicycle). Older beginners do not require a helmet. It is advisable for the smallest skaters to wear tights underneath warm leggings.
As for skates, for the first lesson, they can be rented in the ice hall. However, for the long haul, these skates won’t be suitable. Therefore, you should buy your own skates in specialized figure skating shops. There are two in Riga: Liepājas street 7
and at the figure skating shop near VOLVO Ice Hall. If parents get the chance to go to Estonia (Tartu, Tallinn) or to Lithuania (Kaunas), then in these cities there are also specialized figure skating shops, where you can buy everything you need (skates, clothes, gloves, bandanas, etc.).
Where do figure skating classes take place?
The club is based in Ozolnieki, on Stadiona street 5, at the OZO ice hall. We call it our home.
However, classes are also held in Piņķi in the Inbox Ice Hall, Babites parish, and in the Marupe ice hall, Kantora street 128, in Marupe.
How do I determine if I am suitable for figure skating lessons?
Our team is based on mutual respect and the coach’s role in our club is very special. It is possible to watch our ice lessons (viewing is free), but with the coach’s permission.
Being in the hall will allow you to feel the inner mood of the club and determine how big of a role figure skating could take up in your life.
Note that without the coach’s permission, you are not allowed to take photos or film.
What are the costs of figure skating classes?
It is possible to attend separate training sessions or to get a monthly subscription, which gives an opportunity for an all-round development of your child’s skills.
The payment of individual classes is more often chosen by children and young people who are not sure that they want to participate in competitions and develop serious sports skills in figure skating.
If a child with his parents has decided that he wants to train professionally and develop more advanced skills, a monthly subscription would be more suitable.
More about the lesson costs, find out here!
There are special prices for the first 2 months to those kids who are new to our club:
One separate ice class for club members | 15 € |
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Separate choreography or dry workout lesson | 3 € |
For children and teenagers after 2 months of classes payments are:
One separate ice class for club members | 20 € |
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Separate choreography or dry workout | 5 € |
- All club members can buy a monthly subscription for 350 €. Those who purchase the subscription are also entitled to additional training with our coaches outside of the club’s regular class time. Additional workouts can be arranged individually with the coach. The monthly subscription includes all of the classes (ice lessons, choreography, dry workouts), that we offer in that period.
When can I take part in figure skating competitions?
When the child is already steady on the ice and knows how to execute basic elements, we can start choreographing a routine for competitions.
What are the differences between summer camp and regular training sessions?
The camp participants are looked after all day; all participants have lunch at the cafe Meka. In the free time, we enjoy the beautiful surroundings of Ozolnieki and get all the benefits that nature and fresh air can offer. For those students who wish to stay overnight, we offer accommodations in the Ozolnieki sports centre.
You should acknowledge that the summer camp is a sports camp, so its members participate in serious training sessions, learn to be independent, cope with dressing themselves and tying their skate laces, maintain order in the dressing room, etc. Some parents are very surprised by what their child can do independently after the summer camp.
We’ve heard bad reviews from foreign skaters about their coaches, they don’t pay attention to children in their class and any individual approach is out of the question. On the contrary, after our camp parents are very happy because they can see real progress in their child’s skill set.
Professional coaching
Each and every one of our coaches have had a unique skating career and in addition, all are very vibrant, tenacious and skilled teachers. Our club’s regular coach staff – Deniss Balandins, Diana Garā, Ieva Pujāte and Jeļena Garkušina. It’s important to mention that the club has a family feel to it, which helps greatly in the training process. All coaches have the necessary education and experience in working with children. Our club children’s achievements in competitions speak for themselves.
How do we train our figure skating athletes?
We offer complex training for our students, which includes both 1 hour of ice training and 1 hour choreography or dry workout. Total two hours a day. Training sessions usually happen five days a week. So, an athlete who attends all training sessions, is trained for 10 hours a week.
The number of training hours depends on the student’s goals and level of preparation.
Our advantages
Individual approach.
We are all very different, so understanding each student's needs and motivation helps us to provide our specific professional support.
Accessible locations
Our regular training sessions take place at Ozo ice hall or sports centre in Ozolnieki, at Inbox ice hall in Piņķi, Babītes region or at the ice hall in Mārupe.
Classes
Taking into account each student’s skill set, we divide them into separate groups for every training session.
We have a group for beginners – for children who have just started to skate or more recently.
An intermediate level for kids with more experience and better skills.
The oldest group in which athletes already have good skating skills and experience.
Each group has its own coach, who is responsible for preparing their own group and its students for different competitions and, if necessary – coming up with a routine too. Dry workouts are held by the same coach. The choreography is taught by professional choreographers with academic ballet education and experience.
Competitions
OZO Figure Skating Club students regularly participate in various competitions both in Latvia and beyond its borders. We raise skilled figure skaters and we are very proud that our training helps students to enter and win international competitions.
We prefer such competitions as Volvo Cup or Ventspils Pērle, but we’re very happy to go to other cities like Daugavpils, Ogre and Jelgava.
Outside of Latvia, we usually go to Tallinn, Tartu or Kaunas, but we also have taken part in competitions in Finland, Holland, Poland and Sweden. OZO figure skating club itself organizes international and well received competitions several times a year in Ozolnieki, with participants from both Latvia and abroad. The closest OZO club competition will be on December 8th, 9th.
Camps
Every summer, OZO skating club organizes several summer sports camps for figure skating. Summer is the time when children get time off from school, so they have more time and energy to practice sports.
Our summer camps are open, so we offer this opportunity not only for children of the Ozo club, but also for figure skaters from other clubs and other countries. In the 2018 camp, for example, skaters were from:
Belgium,
United Kingdom,
Malta,
Austria and
Russia.
It is known that skaters progress the most during summer camps and in the winter they strengthen their new skills.
We can teach your child to ice skate very quickly and skillfully. In the Ozo figure skating club that will take only one week. Of course, those are just the basics and the training of more complex elements will take a considerable amount of time.
A great deal of attention is paid to skating skills that highlight the performance of each athlete. The Ozo figure skating club is focusing more on the technical elements of figure skating, like turns and jumps. That will show good results in competitions, where the higher points go to the most technically skilled athletes.
Senior group’s skaters with good results already start to learn triple jumps, which can be done only with good basic jump technique. We’re very proud of our coach Deniss Balandins who is capable to teach our students the best technique in the very beginning.