A Hidden World (Part 2)

by Grace Yu

In case you missed it, check out our interview with synchro coach, Jackie Rizzitelli in A Hidden World (Part 1).

The complexities behind coaching a synchronized skating team are often overlooked by spectators and skaters. In the second installment of our “A Hidden World” series, we interviewed Heidi Richetelle, a Connecticut coach with 51 years of skating experience and 21 seasons of experience as a coach.

GIC: Can you describe your synchro career as a skater?

I skated for The Figurettes. In the late 1970s there was only one level of precision, then the junior and senior divisions were created. Junior was the “main” or “championship” level and senior teams had up to 32 skaters! The Figurettes were originally a junior team.  We competed at the first ever Eastern U.S. Sectionals in 1983. The Hamden FSA and Yale FSC co-hosted the event at the Yale rink and my parents were the co-chairmen. Our Figurettes’ junior team earned the silver!  The first ever U.S. Precision National Championships were held in Bowling Green, Ohio in 1984. We earned the silver medal there as well! Fun Fact – in those days we traveled everywhere by bus – Virginia, Ohio, Michigan (17-hour drive), and even Ontario, Canada.

GIC: Which teams have you coached and where do you currently coach?

I coached Team Esprit from 1999-2019. I coached every level from exhibition through novice. Now I coach the exhibition, SS2, preliminary and pre-juvenile lines at CT Ice Fusion.

GIC: What is your personal history with skating? How did you begin figure skating and how were you introduced to synchronized skating?

My dad was a hockey coach and my brother played hockey. My dad was one of the founding fathers of Hamden Youth Hockey and he wanted me to learn how to skate, so he enrolled me in basic skills lessons in Hamden. There used to be 12 badges and when I completed all of them, a friend of mine in HFSA wrote me a note about figure skating, the club and how much fun it was. She suggested I join and start taking private lessons, so I did! This was in 1972.

HFSA was a large club at that time, with over 150 skating members – and all Hamden residents! We put on a biennial ice show called The Wonderful World of Ice and it was a very big production. Sherri (Siclari-Maturo) directed the show and in 1975 she had a “precision” number. After the show, she decided to keep the precision group skating together and The Figurettes were born. I couldn’t join right away because there were so many skaters in the club and only so many spots on the team (24 I think), so Sherri had tryouts. There were requirements to tryout, one of which was that skaters must be 5’ tall.  I wasn’t, so I had to wait a year until I was tall enough to try-out!

GIC: Take us through your process of choreographing a program.

My approach to choreography begins with the music selection and editing. Once the coaches select a theme, we choose the exact pieces of music we’ll use and then take the list of required elements and determine which ones we “feel”  (such as a rotating element) or “see” (such as a line) in each piece. We layout the program like an outline, making sure the flow and placement of the elements feel balanced.  Then we decide which levels and features we’ll attempt, based on the skills of the skaters on the team.  In the past, we literally choreographed every beat of music and taught every step to the skaters off-ice. Often, the steps we choreographed morphed into something different when the skaters hit the ice. So now, rather than specifying every step before putting it on the ice, we teach the layout of the elements and certain features, such as step sequences, but we let the steps come as we move through the early part of our season.  This seems to result in a better outcome.  I thoroughly enjoy music selection, editing, and choreography.  I like to get music ideas from the skaters at the end of the season to kick off my search for the right theme for each line.  Choreography is an ongoing task, at least into the fall, as the teams develop their skills and grow into their programs for the season.

GIC: Outside of practice, do you have synchro-related work that you complete on your own time?

Absolutely – communicating with the rink to schedule practices, preparing calendars, continuing coaches’ education, “lesson planning” for the next practice, reviewing USFS and ISU communications, parent meetings, competition selection, preparing competition itineraries, costume design, apparel selection, recruiting, scheduling critiques with technical specialists, skater progress evaluations, SafeSport modules, choreography and music modifications, and more! The time spent on these items varies throughout the season, but on average, I’d estimate it’s anywhere from 3-5 hours per week.

GIC: How have you navigated coaching during a pandemic? How have you maintained the motivation of your organization’s skaters? 

After 21 years, of course I thought I’d “seen it all.” Never could I have imagined coaching during a pandemic.  That being said, I think we’ve done a pretty good job given the circumstances. We ran virtual training sessions throughout the spring, including conditioning and skating specific skill building. We also tried to keep the skaters motivated with weekly challenges. For example, a physical challenge to see how long can you hold a spiral position. An educational “You be the Judge” challenge with videos from the virtual 2020 world championships, to teach our skaters about IJS. An artistic challenge, where skaters selected music for a program and designed a costume to go with it. When we were able to return to the ice in July, we provided each skater with their own “goodie bag” of necessary items, such as tissues, hand sanitizer and pool noodles to use at practice. The bags are big enough for skaters to fit their water bottles and skate guards inside them, so they have everything they need without touching the boards. Each skater was also given a reusable mask made by our costume designer that features our team logo. We find that pool noodles are great for social distancing while working on maintaining alignment and posture during stroking drills. We held an abbreviated one-day boot camp where in addition to beginning work on their program, skaters learned their new warm-up, did some off-ice conditioning, shared motivational window cards and set goals for the season.

GIC: Do you have any advice for skaters looking to make the transition to coaching?

There are so many facets of coaching a synchro team, so I definitely recommend starting with a mentor coach with at least a few years of experience. This year, we have a high school student completing a senior project by working with our teams. She’s gaining experience and beginning to learn the “other side” of synchro. This is a great way to get started in coaching.

GIC: How do you balance your personal life with all of the planning and practices that come with synchro?

Balancing my synchro time and personal life isn’t always easy, especially since I work a full-time job, teach Learn to Skate and coach private students as well. I try to schedule my non-practice synchro work at specific times, so that I can be completely focused. I was so fortunate that for 11 of 21 years, my daughter skated on Team Esprit, so she was with me at most practice times.  

There have been so many highs and just a few lows in my 21 years coaching synchro. It’s so exciting to see the sport I love continue to grow and develop. There’s no better feeling as a coach, than watching former team members continue to be involved in the sport as skaters, officials and coaches, and knowing that I played a part in sparking their passion for synchro!

A big thank you to Heidi Richetelle for taking the time to answer these questions! Hopefully, in viewing synchronized skating from her perspective, a greater understanding is built about what it takes to lead and coach a successful team.