We were lucky to catch up with Elle Vaske recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Elle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I knew I wanted to pursue coaching at a very young age. I started skating when I was 4 years old as I looked up to my father who was a former NHL player. I started off in hockey (of course) with my dad being my coach. I begged and begged to become a figure skater and finally he gave in and I started at the age of 5. With skating professionally for 12 years came a lot of creative, inspiring & influential coaches I was blessed to be taught by. I always admired their drive, creativity & attention to detail when it came to perfecting my craft. It was my last coach Cindy Caprel who really inspired me to start coaching. She cared for me I think almost as much as my mother & had faith in me as an athlete which eventually influenced me into becoming a coach. Between her and watching my dad my whole life I knew coaching would be something I could happily call me job.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into skating through my father who was a professional athlete and immediately fell in love with the ice. I fell in love before coaching by watching girls older than me. I admired their grace, their determination & sense of awareness. As a coach I take pride in each individual athlete. There’s a lot of blood sweat & tears that goes into skating. But having gone through injuries, eating disorders & mental blocks as an athlete, I am able to guide each individual skater with the best possible advice, love & care possible. Being a coach isn’t all about making a champion on the ice. It requires patience, grit, determination, perseverance & truthfully a certain type of love. I personally am a very observant person, and being able to be exposed to so many different personalities when it comes to coaching at a young age made me the coach I am today. There’s coaching who’s technique is to push you until you can’t take it anymore, some who have a gentle approach & some who you could feel weren’t doing it for the right reasons. One thing I feel that sets me apart from some coaches is that I genuinely love what I do. I don’t care if I’m teaching someone who started skating at 35 or a 4 year old girl who’s dream is going to the Olympics. To me, it’s about how I make them feel. I want each and every single one of my athletes to leave the rink every day feeling accomplished, feeling confident, taking the hard lessons skating teaches us and using it in the real world.
One of the biggest things I’m proud of so far in my coaching career is the relationships I’ve created with my younger athletes.
About a year ago now I was let go from the rink I trained at. It was heartbreaking, I had the best group of young girls and felt so confident in the work i was doing. But, I knew there was another opportunity waiting for me that might even just be better.
I ended up starting to coach at another rink in Tampa Florida and fell in love with the environment there. Why? Because everyone shares the same love. The coaches are beautiful human beings, the kids are always smiling & the leadership there is impeccable.
Of course, in the beginning I was so afraid of losing all of my students. Which I in fact did and still love every single one of those kids with all my heart. But there were a few who followed that sparked my WHY again. The relationship I have with these girls is irreplaceable. They inspire me every single day.
I notice the words of encouragement I’ve given them over the past couple of years actually resonated. If they are frustrated I hear them say to themselves “I can do this, I am a champion” or “I believe in myself” as those are the words I constantly remind my athletes to say to themselves. I’m taking these girls are 4-8 years old!
The second I walk into the rink or my students do, immediately it’s like we haven’t seen each other in years & they are excited to get on the ice. To me, that’s more rewarding than a gold medal or “high status” any day.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I was 16 years old, I had made the decision to retire my professional competitive career. It was gut wrenching & felt like I lost a part of who I was. I made this decision based off of my mental & physical health. I had dealt with 9 injuries (broken bones, torn ligaments) and had a severe eating disorder that had taken over my mind. I remember going to my mom and just crying and saying “but skating is my whole life” and her response to me was “it still can be, just a different route. You need to heal yourself first & when you’re ready, you can take everything you learned and become the greatest blessing in each and every student you have lives”. She in fact was 100% right. From that day forward I learned a lot about myself, did so much deep internal work, I went back to school after being homeschooled since 6th grade into a high school I didn’t know a soul. I become my own person and grew that person into a very strong coach.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I had to unlearn is that not everyone is kind. The first experience I had with someone who isn’t kind that really had a strong grip in my memory, was a coach. She constantly tore me down at the age of 10-12 yrs old. “You’re not skinny enough” “your acne is not going to win over the judges” “only rich girls make it far in this sport and your family is not rich”.
Those words ate me alive for YEARS! Along my journey of competing I ran into a lot of people similar to that. Once I started coaching I ran into a lot of coaches who wanted nothing but the worst for me.
My parents always said to me “kill your enemy’s with kindness and you will not fail”. All thought there were days I definitely did not do that especially when I started coaching. I would immediately regret it. I never could understand why people couldn’t be kind. Couldn’t give a compliment, why they didn’t want everyone to succeed. It really was a constant question I had in my mind.
It really wasn’t until this past year that I had to wake up and say to myself “if you are kind, you give the most to people & you know at the end of the day you can put your head on your pillow and say that you are enough & you did and said the best things you could, then why does this bother you so much?
I started to think deeper into this over time & become insanely grateful for the families and students I have the honor to work with every day. Every family that I have encountered in business comes from love. Comes from kindness. I realized that if you are kind and you have a good soul, the right people will always follow.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Coach_ellev