I was speaking to a coaching colleague the other day and it’s funny but we both agreed that “the year” doesn’t start with the calendar in January but rather in September when the kids go back to school and to the rink and order returns to my life.
Nothing signals the start of my professional life more than Skate Canada’s High Performance Camp where many of this season’s competitors are brought together in one place. The reason for the camp is two-fold: to introduce skaters to the media and to have them perform their programs under a bit of pressure for Skate Canada officials who are on hand to evaluate and ensure that skaters’ programs follow the rules and take advantage of all of the opportunities to rack up points.
There is also team building and off-ice evaluations and a chance for the skaters and coaches to wrap their brains around what work has to be done in the fine tuning of programs before competition season starts in earnest.
My purpose for being at the camp was to capture video interviews in a series we’re calling The Next Step: with some of Canada’s top skaters for CBC Sports.
My joy was in finding myself lost in the exuberance of this ad-hoc family reunion.
Here is the link to the videos and CBC’s video player for figure skating:
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Sports/Olympic_Sports/Figure_Skating
if we can go by what the skaters say, it’s going to be a great season!