SKATE ACADEMY ONLINE
Who are your coaches ?
A professional and dedicated team will follow you al along the courses.
The number of coaches during the courses will depend on the number of confirmed registrations.
Sylvia Verschraege
Head coach
Professional sports teacher and coach, specialized in movement analysis, with an 18 years classical ballet background, she’s now coaching only adults, mainly dancers.
During a 25 years brilliant career in shipping and logistics (1983 – 2008), she decided in 2000 to turn back to her passion : Ice Skating and Dance.
As a child she competed in Belgium in figure skating (1967-1968), coached by Georges Henrotte. At that time, she also spent a lot of time to practice in Switzerland, in Davos.
At the age of 18 she started Ice Dance. Later she competed with Adults in Dunkerque/F (2001-2002).
In her own words, she had the happiest moments of her coaching career with youth when teaching her son Mathias towards international Ice Dance competitions.
Inspired by Jimmy Young she’s Gold test medallist Ice Dance as well in Belgium (with Corey Lapaige) as in UK (with Jason Blomfield).
Sylvia is the founder of the Skate Academy Online, which is an innovating concept of online coaching figure skating, ice dance and also inline figure skating.
Sylvia can fluently coach you in 4 languages (French, English, Dutch and German)
Mathias Timmermans
Assistant coach
Mathias discovered skating on a skate-board and on street inline skates. He started ice skating quite late at the age of 11 after having seen me competing with adults at the Dunes of Flanders in Dunkerque.
Former non-competitive free skater and former international Ice Dance competitor, Mathias has been a lot in the UK to be coached by Helen Prior, he also spent several months in the USA on intensive practice.
During his first years of skating, he became Bronze test medallist figure (free) skating in Belgium.
In Ice Dance he is Silver test medallist in Belgium, Pre-Gold in the Netherlands, and Gold in the UK (skated in tests with Sylvia Verschraege and Helen Prior).
Mathias can fluently coach you in 3 languages (French, English and Dutch)