Tots expert Kayla Johnson explains a couple games for a tots class that build backward skating skills.  The first game is the “bubble gum” game.  This game is effective for a number of reasons.  It involves candy which most tots can immediately relate to.  It involves a song or chant.  It involves participation by the skaters in making decisions.  And the actual backward skating is incorporated seamlessly into the game so they don’t even think about skating backward.  Kayla offers tips on changing it up to keep their interest for multiple repetitions of this simple game.

 

The second game Kayla explains is the “blast off game.”  This game is also effective for similar reasons.  There are imaginary cupcakes.  There’s a countdown.  There’s a fun destination like the moon or some planet.  Kayla notes the game can be repeated by blasting off to different planets and blasting off the different planets back to earth.

 

The tips Kayla offers at the end of the video to help young skaters properly learn the back bubbles or swizzles and back wiggles are also clever.  Pretending the skater has a tail can be really effective to get them to move!