About Jo Ann Schneider Farris
Jo Ann began ice skating in 1964 in Southern California.
In 1975, she won a silver medal at the United States
National Figure Skating Championships
with her dance partner, Richard Griffin.
In 1976 she earned her
United States Figure Skating Association
(USFSA) Gold Medal.
In the 1980's, she and her husband Dan purchased some
of the first inline skates produced by
Rollerblade,
and in 1995, when the
Pic artistic skate frame
was developed, she mounted
Pic Frames on a pair of
Harlick Boots
and began learning to do artistic figures on
inline skates.
Since then, she has been developing methods and instructions
for reproducing all of the artistic ice skating movements on
inline skates.
In 1999, she produced the
first edition of her book, "How to Jump and Spin on Inline Skates".
In August of 2006 About.com hired Jo Ann to be the editor
of their ice figure skating Web site at
figureskating.about.com.
Jo Ann at 15
|
with partner
Richard Griffin
|
Winning the
1975 Silver
|
Jo Ann's Family Legacy of Skating
Jo Ann's father,
Dr. Arthur Schneider
,
is currently
a United States Figure Skating Association Judge
in the Chicago area.
He proposed to
her Mother at Iceland, a skating rink in Paramount
California owned by the famous
Zamboni family.
Her sister
Lynnellen
was one of the most
outstanding skaters in Compulsory School Figures
in Southern California
in the 1960s and 1970s.
Her brother
Billy
was the youngest skater in the US National Championships
in 1970.
He began coaching skating in 1980, and since then,
he has trained numerous National champions
and is a Master Rated Coach with the
Professional Skaters Association.
Jo Ann &
her Father
|
|
Sister
Lynnellen
|
|
Brother
Billy
|
|
Lynnellen,
Billy, Jo Ann
|
The Next Generation
Jo Ann lives in Colorado Springs with Dan, her
husband of almost 30 years, and their three children Joel, Rebekah
and Annabelle.
Rebekah and Joel Schnieder-Farris compete as a brother and sister ice
dancing and pairs figure skating team. Jo Ann has teaching credential from
the State of California and she is the editor of About.com's
About Figure Skating Web site. For more information
about Jo Ann and her family visit Jo Ann's
JumpSpin.com Web site and the
Dan Farris Tragedy and Triumph Blog.
Jo Ann's Book:
How to Jump and Spin on Inline Skates
Buy Jo Ann's Book at Amazon.com
Jo Ann's book "How to
Jump and Spin on Inline Skates",
explains
how to do artistic figure skating movements
on inline skates. Important Note: The instructions
in this book assume
that the skater is wearing an inline
skate with a "toe pick" (rubber stopping device) mounted
on the FRONT of the skate.
The book has a nice introduction to inline figure skates,
and a glossary of artistic skating terms.
The rest of the book is
devoted to detailed instructions for performing many
different artistic movements, with extra attention
given to spinning and jumping techniques.
I found the instructions a bit daunting, but
that's probably because I'm a fitness and recreational
skater with absolutely no background in artistic skating.
Someone with my level of (lack of!) experience would definitely
want to use the book as a supplement to skating lessons
from a professional instructor.
Jo Ann's book is available at
Amazon.com and it can be ordered from any bookstore.
|
|
|
Author
Jo Ann Schneider Farris
|
|
Illustrator
Larisa Gendernalik
|
What People Are Saying About the Book:
From Liz Miller, well-known California skating instructor and
author of the books
"Get Rolling", "Advanced Inline Skating"
and
"California Inline Skating".
"Jo Ann has a warm, encouraging and very enthusiastic
writing style, and she delivers what the book's title promises:
information about the inline figure skating discipline, gear,
and moves. The gear section and glossary are also useful."
From John Petell, President of Harmony Sports:
"Jo Ann's book is a giant step toward exposing
the fine sport of inline
freestyle skating, with its many and
wonderous movements, to the public.
From Nick Perna,
National and International figure skating coach and
co-inventor of the Pic-Frame skate:
"This book is well written and extremely
thorough for this type of instruction.
I think just about anybody who is
interested in inline figure skating techniques
will be able to learn
something new from this book.
I hope someone in the future will do an instructional
video based on the book!"
Jo Ann's Book
-
How to Jump and Spin on Inline Skates
Jo Ann's Web Sites
-
FigureSkating.about.com
(About.com)
-
JumpSpin.com
(Jo Ann's personal site)
-
International Inline Figure Skating Associatioin
(founded by Jo Ann)
|
