ICP Certifies 1st Iranian Instructor!

by ICP Director Kris Fondran

Khadijeh Daghigh is a special person. 

She started skating in 2005 and in 2015 she traveled all the way from her home in Tehran, Iran to attend an ICP Level 1 Program in Singapore. In her words,

"I started skating as an adult fellow, hence finding an instructror, finding a proper terrain, opportunity and facility for learning and practicing basic skating, became very hard and impossible for me. This led to loneliness in my skating world. For several years, I skated  without any instruction in parks and streets."

Being self taught, and not having any access to inline skating instructors in her country, it took a lot of courage and great personal expense to travel so far just to take the program taught in English, in a country so far away and different then her own. Although there were a lot of unknowns, she was deeply motivated by her passion for skating and wanting to learn to be a better skater and an instructor.

According to Khadijeh, she was searching for a standardized model of learning skating and found the ICP. It was exactly what she was looking for when she started skating in 2005 but couldn't find it at that time. Her main aim was learning skating in a standardized way and becoming a member of ICP International. 

While she enjoyed the certification program in Singapore, and improved both her skating and teaching throughout the weekend, she still unfortunately fell short of passing the Level 1 course. 

Since she took the program in Singapore, I have kept in touch with her over the last 4 years as she had been very earnest in wanting to successfully complete the program. The ICP had been relatively "close by" holding a handful of programs in the UAE and Europe where she could possible go and retest but she was unable to attend either because of timing or visa requirements. With so much time passing, and her goal not met, another plan was needed to get her certified.

The continued development of the ICP online platform, "Skating Instruction Academy"  and the official launching of an online ICP Level 1 slated for early 2020, was the perfect inspiration to get her through the course.

This past spring Khadijeh was given access to the Beginning Inline Skating Instruction course where she reviewed the skating and teachng materials and successful completed the theory exam. Once the exam was completed, she was asked to send videos of all the skating skills as well as one of her teaching a full 15-20 minute lesson. This took some time to compile but in November she sent in the final videos for review.

While you of course knew where this was going from the title of the article, I am still thrilled to say that Khadijeh Daghigh is the very first ICP Certified instructor in Iran!

I often joke with my friends and colleagues that the ICP is truly the "United Nations" of skating. While many countries in the world may be at odds with one another, the ICP, and it's efforts to "Teach the world to skate.", transcends borders, language and ongoing disputes, creating a community of instructors with common goals. The common language of skating, along with the unified effort of instructors to provide safe and effective skating instruction world-wide, makes the ICP a very special sports program.

Throughout my communication with Khadijeh she has been ever so grateful for my attention to her and for the effort of doing what was possible to get her through the program and move her closer to here dream of having her own skate school, which would be the first in Iran.  In her words,

"I wish the people  of my country become familiar with ICP and especially it's instruction. I wish the ICP teaching Model and skills becomes popular in my country so people could feel the greatness and excellence of the ICP.  I wish, this endless LOVE for skating and ICP penetrates into the hearts of the people in my country and they would be full of delight and happiness, as I am now."

Thank you Khadijeh. We are truely thankful for you as well and for all the effort you put into becoming certified. We welcome you with open arms to the "ICP World-wide family" and hope to meet and skate with you very soon!