The Need

Learn to Skate USA® (LTS), the premier program governed by U.S. Figure Skating, serves as the foundational pathway for thousands of aspiring athletes across the nation. While LTS offers an extensive curriculum—ranging from basic fundamentals to advanced techniques in figure skating and hockey—the organization recognized a digital gap in their student engagement model.

To remain competitive in the youth sports market, LTS needed to translate their massive learning library into a high-performance, intuitive mobile solution tailored for a younger, digital-native demographic. The objective was to decrease the friction between on-ice lessons and off-ice practice, providing a centralized mobile ecosystem that makes the program's rigorous standards more accessible, engaging, and convenient for kids, young adults, and their parents.

The Solution

Through a series of deep-dive discovery sessions with LTS stakeholders and athletic directors, Epic Apps identified that "usability" was only one part of the equation; the platform also required a behavioral motivation layer. Epic Apps engineered a custom mobile application that functions as a digital companion, bringing the curriculum to life through interactive tracking and real-time progress visualization.

By focusing on youth-centric UI/UX design, we transformed a standard educational syllabus into an engaging, gamified experience that encourages consistent practice and long-term commitment. The final solution is a robust, cross-platform mobile tool that allows skaters to manage their own athletic journey, providing a streamlined interface where users can monitor their skill mastery and stay inspired through a sense of continuous achievement and digital rewards.

Key Features

  • Digital Record Book & Skill Matrix: A comprehensive, searchable database that allows skaters to quickly access and log fundamental to advanced techniques. This includes specific completion criteria for every level, ensuring athletes understand exactly what is required to progress to the next stage of the USFS curriculum.
  • Integrated Practice & Calendar Tracker: A dynamic tool allowing users to log specific skills practiced during each session. The calendar-based interface provides a visual history of an athlete's dedication, helping coaches and parents monitor frequency and focus areas over time.
  • Gamified "Trophy Case" & Badge System: To maximize user retention, we implemented a sophisticated gamification engine. Users earn digital badges and achievements for reaching milestones in practice, warm-ups, and lesson completion, turning the rigor of ice skating into a rewarding, goal-oriented game.
  • Curriculum-Aligned Video Library: Access to high-quality instructional content that allows skaters to visualize proper form and technique directly from the ice, ensuring standardized learning across different skating rinks and coaching styles.
  • Progress Visualization & Milestones: A high-level dashboard that translates raw practice data into visual progress bars and milestone indicators, giving young skaters a clear sense of their athletic trajectory and overall mastery.
  • Multi-Discipline Support: Custom logic that allows the app to adapt based on the user's specific focus, whether they are pursuing figure skating, ice hockey, or speed skating, ensuring the interface remains relevant to their chosen path.