INUVIK - Having two qualified figure skating coaches at her fingertips for five days made Rachel Watters a very happy girl.

Rachel Watters gets some help with her technique from coach Jeff Cann at Sunday's clinic. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photos

"They're great and helped me a lot with my double Salchow and double loop jumps," said Watters. "We don't get coaches up here very often so I'm really glad they're here."

Watters was among a group of skaters who participated in a five-day figure skating clinic held at the Roy Sugloo Ipana Memorial Arena from Oct. 7 to 11. Skate Canada coaches Jeff Cann and Danyelle Ellis are also technical specialists and have plenty of skating experience, including world competitions.

The Toronto-based coaches had the daunting task of getting the skaters on track for territorial competition. All-day sessions were packed with both group and one-on-one training. Sometimes that meant going right back to the basics.

"They don't have a lot of the basics," said Ellis. "We have to go back to the very beginning and you're so limited in time and there's so much they want to do. We have to focus on dances and technique. You're just trying to cram it all in without overloading them."

It's the fourth clinic Ellis has held in Inuvik since being asked to come North by her sister-in-law and former figure skating club president Kristen Wenghofer. Cann joined her last year.

She said she feels a certain attachment to the Inuvik skaters, several of whom have participated in her summer skating camp in Ontario. She said she's also motivated by seeing how far the girls have progressed in such a short period of time.

"They love it," she said. "Some of them truly have the potential to skate and have the potential to go further," she said, mentioning Winter Ross and Katelynn Crocker in particular.

Both Ellis and Cann will return in March for one more lesson before the territorial competition.

Theresa Ross, figure skating club president, said she's grateful the pair have shown a commitment to the skaters, who, she added, appreciate the hard work.

"Even in one lesson I see their confidence swell and I see the fun that they're having," she said. "They're developing and we need to hold onto that and carry it through the system."

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