[Ce texte n'a pas été traduit.  Lanny's original text is what set off the debate. Here he responds to the replies by Elizabeth Wadas and Allan Wright.] Yes, both opposing views are good. I can now see the perspective focusing on learning to teach rank beginners. I also must admit, if a person doesn't know the first thing about skates, wants to learn artistic and skate in a rink, then IISA content and style is probably okay. I find the "artistic" moves totally contrary to speed technique and down right dangerous. I don't think IISA acknowledges this and I find this most disconcerting. Elizabeth is a very good instructor. She taught me how to do the spin stop. She was very detailed, proper and poised. I congratulate her on her success. I hope she tries Eddy Matzger's course when it comes to Ottawa on July 4th. I like the point Elizabeth makes about my "imaginary dense and uncoordinated person". My apologies to anyone offended. It's true I have never met a person whom I couldn't teach "to skate" in less than 2 hours; if they have the strength and coordination ability to do the sport. (I make it 4 hours for skiing.) In answer to Elizabeth's speculation that I've "never actually taught anyone who is just learning how to skate". Actually, I have taught one person who came with her equipment in a box. She had never seen skates. (Most people I teach have tried it and want to go faster.) Prior to this course, in brief, here's what I did. In the first 10 minutes she was standing with all her equipment on correctly. (Her kids helped her and she knew about safety so I didn't be-labour the point into a 2 hour class.) The next 10 minutes was balancing, walking and turning around. I held her arm for some of this time, just so she didn't fall. (An abridged IISA) Then we spent 20 minutes learning to use the brake to keep her from rolling to alleviate her fears. (IISA wants them rolling before teaching stopping.) While learning to stop, she "discovered" walk-striding and rolling. That took another 30 minutes. End of 1 hour lesson and I didn't spend all that time with her because I had several others learning other stuff at entirely different levels. My parting instructions to her were to practice, practice and practice. She spent a good hours after this just rolling about and stopping and having a great time. Here kids skated circles around her. (They were learning crossovers, sort of.) I was working with her kids to get rid of their toe push. That takes longer. (IISA thinks toe push in a long stride is pretty.) Next week her lesson was roll and turn. I use snow plow turns from my skiing days. That took about 15 minutes. She had it all backwards (according to IISA) but she got a turn in. Who cares if it's lean left and turn right. I focus on the feet. I ask them to lift their toes up inside the inside skate. It seems to work, with a few technical words. And it keeps the weight on the heels. Then it's back to practice, practice, and practice. As she practiced she discovered gliding. She now skating about, confident and having fun. If I compare this to the IISA level 1, I've done about 10% of what they suggest in 10% of the time. I've left out most of the technical mumbo jumbo until later. The other 90%, I won't use on grounds it teaches the wrong speed technique or it's dangerous. (This would include the spin stop.) Most people who come to TISC can skate. We start people with perfecting the heel push. They have to unlearn a lot. Then I go into Eddy's 5 steps, then to crossovers and on to double push. The two most difficult techniques to learn are consistent heel push and to push before setdown. For the heel push, I must admit I do use the swizzle (an IISA term) but I call it sculling. Then I turn that into paddling a kayak which is sculling one foot at a time and then onto keeping the feet together while paddling a kayak. (IISA calls this parallel.) We spend a lot of time on heel push exercises to get rid of toe flick. From this you can do all sorts of different technical races and games. (IISA level 1 ends at parallel, then you get into a lot of artistic and backward stuff.) Beyond heel push, one needs a stop action video camera and one does get downright technical with a protractor and a ruler. I just think if IISA wants to become credible they have to de-emphasize the notion that teaching beginners is so complicated, rigid and time consuming. They have to embrace a more flexible program to appeal to a wider audience of skaters beyond the artistic beginner. I compare this to Eddy's course and there are just no criteria to compare. Eddy is the master at skating and teaching. Although he starts from the beginning with people who can skate. Eddy is so good, I'm going to take his sessions over and over again until I get it right. Eddy's course is value for money. I still maintain, for teaching and skating techniques, IISA level 1 was useless for me. My heart just wasn't in it from the very start. Lanny Totton