Sheila Thelen is a PSA Master Rated coach and was Skating Director at the St.Croix Valley Recreation Center in Stillwater, MN from 1998 until 2008.  She is the Designer and President of Champion Cords which produces training aids for skaters that teach them alignment, position, muscle memory, body awareness, and technique.  She is also the Executive Director of Grassroots to Champions.  She has also been a presenter at PSA, CFSA, and ISI International Conferences.

Please leave a comment below in appreciation of Sheila's willingness to share her knowledge and insights about skating and coaching.

Most recent videos at the top...

	Sheila Thelen presents a way to use Champion Cords to helps skater learn proper body lean.  Sheila shows how to attach the cords and use them with the skater.
	Sheila Thelen offers a trick to help skaters keep their head up while skating.  Sheila explains and demonstrates how to attach a Champion Cord to the skater to add tension and awareness of the head position.
	Sheila Thelen shares some helpful tips to improve layback spins.  Sheila discusses the desired position and then shows how to use training aids like Champion Cords and hula hoops to get the desired result.
	Sheila Thelen offers a clever and memorable concept to help skaters understand and remember proper air position alignment.  Sheila's sense of humor results in terminology that skaters will not forget.
	Sheila Thelen explains how to use a Champion Cord to help develop forward crossovers.  Sheila offers several tips to help with arm and shoulder placement and awareness as well as a way to help the skater develop the proper undercut.
	Sheila Thelen shares a fantastic and simple trick for preventing head pre-rotation on jump entrances. Sheila explains the tip and has a skater to demonstrate.  Head issues are extremely difficult to deal with after they've become ingrained habits.  This trick offers a solution.
	Sheila Thelen continues her discussion of the back spin. Sheila offers additional advice on this difficult spin to teach and learn, including the use of a squishy ball and more ideas on applying Champion Cords. Sheila covers the most common errors and how to fix them.
	Sheila Thelen offers insights on how to teach the back spin. Sheila introduces this spin very early and she uses Champion Cords to help get skaters to cross their feet.  She addresses common problems and provides suggestions to improve this challenging spin.
	Sheila Thelen offers coaches a tip for keeping their feet warm while spending long days on the ice. This novel boot warming system fits inside a skating boot and Sheila explains exactly how she does it.
	Sheila Thelen introduces Fat Stanley, her convenient and clever video analysis setup (Dartfish).  Visit Sheila at the National Sports Center (8 sheets of ice) as she explains her system and the reasons for everything.  Cooool.
	Nick Perna (and Sheila Thelen) explain to an intermediate spin class the "sweet spot" or "slipper spot" for spinning friction-free.  This is an important concept that all coaches and skaters should be aware of and using every day.
	Sheila Thelen and Nick Perna teach an intermediate spin class.  This is relatively long video that highlights some of the misconceptions that young skaters often have about spinning.  This is eye-opening.
	Sheila Thelen and Nick Perna teach an advanced spin class.  This is long video but it has tons of great information on a variety of spins.  See and beat the posted records!
	Sheila Thelen gives a lesson to a 6 year old boy (Part 5).  In this final part of the lesson, Sheila is working on the salchow.  See how Sheila does this jump at the wall, what terminology she uses, and how she helps the skater remember what foot to start on.
	Sheila Thelen gives a lesson to a 6 year old boy (Part 4).  In this part of the lesson, Sheila is working on the toe loop.  The main value of this video is the drill Sheila uses at the wall and the verbal cue to make sure it's correct.
	Sheila Thelen gives a lesson to a 6 year old boy (Part 3).  In this part of the lesson, Sheila is working on a loop jump exercise.  These's lots of important fundamental ideas in this video.
	Sheila Thelen explains how she made a little extra income hosting a jump rope class.  Sheila's class got her skaters to warm up correctly, it built a sense of community at her rink, and she brought in some extra cash.  You can do this.
	Sheila Thelen gives a lesson to a 6 year old boy (Part 2).  In this part of the lesson, Sheila is working on the waltz jump.  Helpful ideas for young skaters and "ketchup and mustard" game.
	Sheila Thelen gives a lesson to a 6 year old boy (Part 1).  This is the first part of several.  In this part of the lesson, Sheila is working on back spin.  Lots of ideas for coaches to use with young skaters.
	Sheila Thelen discusses the ankle buzzer and how it can help skaters achieve a proper air position.  Sheila explains the buzzer in detail and has one of her skaters demonstrate it's use.  Highly recommended!
	Sheila Thelen talks about using multiple loop jump drills to help skaters learn quickness and alignment.  See one of Sheila's skaters perform 5 double loops in combination.
	Sheila Thelen uses a Champion Cord to help her skaters learn to cross their feet in jumps.  Sheila shows the progression of drills she uses that naturally builds the skill while being fun for the skater.
	Sheila Thelen shares a fun story for young skaters to remember what crossing the feet means.  Stories are one of the most effective way to reach young skaters.  This is a great Learn-To-Skate tip.
	Sheila Thelen shows a great tip to help skaters kick their knee through on axel.  You can do this with walk through's as well as the jump itself.  Sheila also offers a helpful safety tip.
	Sheila Thelen shows how she uses training aids to help skaters learn the axel.  These drills are very helpful with younger skaters that can be overwhelmed with the mechanics.
	Sheila Thelen talks about how she teaches an axel to young skaters.  She offers some tips to help young skaters understand the concept of the axel without feeling intimidated by it.
	Sheila Thelen shows how to use a toy for better posture.  Sheila is a master at keeping it fun and distracting young skaters in a good way.
	Sheila Thelen discusses skater posture and landing positions.  Sheila talks about how to help younger skaters develop good posture.  She mentions the "Hockey Stick Trick" and shows how to help a skater develop a "tensioned look" using Champion Cords.
	Sheila Thelen shows how to use a Champion Cord to improve the stretch of a spiral.  Sheila briefly references an "easy" way to get a full split spiral.
	Sheila Thelen explains where to balance on the skate blade during a forward spiral.
	Sheila Thelen talks about 2 fundamentally different ways to do a spiral and why a coach would want to choose one over the other.  Notice that she talks about "hip tension" to keep the leg higher in one method.
	Sheila Thelen discusses one of her favorite ways to help her skaters get more split on their spirals.  This is so obvious and logical that many coaches may overlook it.
	Sheila Thelen shares important basics and safety tips when using an overhead harness system.  Sheila used to own a harness company so she knows a thing or two about it.  Harness safety is often overlooked by rinks and clubs and there doesn't appear to be any helpful information about it online.  This info is important, so iCoachSkating.com is making it freely available to all our guests.
	Sheila Thelen discusses more ceiling harness safety issues.  Then she demonstrates common jump setups when using a ceiling harness.  Sheila provides tips and patterns that all coaches can use. Again this is so basic and important to our sport that iCoachSkating.com is offering this freely to all of our guests.
	Sheila Thelen demonstrates how to use a harness for double axel.  She also gives a few tips for double axel and she talks briefly about the take-off skid/no-skid debate.
	Sheila Thelen demonstrates a stretching method she learned from Janet Champion to improve spiral positions.  An assistant helps the skater during this stretch.