KURT BROWNING WANTS SKATING TO BE MADE "EASIER"
Kurt Browning - Monday Feb. 17, 2014 12:31
Male figure skaters like Patrick Chan being taxed at every turn
Too much pressure causing 'paraylsis by analysis'
CBC suggested I write a blog before Patrick Chan skated for Olympic gold and they wanted it to be about "What is going through Patrick’s mind?” Well, I never got around to writing it and I suppose it was because I could not answer that question.
Now, in the aftermath, I don't have to guess. “Too much” is now the obvious answer!
Figure skating: nice music, flashy costumes and arm gestures. Doesn't sound scary at all, not to everyone's taste but certainly not scary or intimidating. Then why do the very best in our sport so often falter on the biggest stage?
Why did I sit here all week in Sochi and watch the men practise incredible feats, defying gravity with ease and grace? Why did the men's event not skate to their full potential?
Here is something to consider: Each skater knows ahead of time exactly what he plans to do every single second of his competitive skate. When you read that you must think to yourself, "Would this not be a positive thing?" If you know what to expect then you can plan for it, train for it and simply execute that plan.
Nobody is going to change up their goalie and throw you off or out of nowhere have the game of their lives making your plan of attack useless. We skate alone out there and, without the wind or elements changing rapidly and making your run down the hill slower than the earlier skiers, why can't we simply execute our plan?
The ice doesn't change during the event, not that I can remember. Frustrating, since I am not just a fan, announcer and friend to so many of the skaters but I was one of them and I screwed up, too. The men were terrible in the long program, there is no way around it.
I have asked some of the hockey players I know to imagine this scenario. It is a month before the Stanley Cup Finals and your coach comes to you telling you that late in the third period the puck is going to come to you streaking in on goal. To get this chance you will need to fight off a check and jump over a fallen player and as you land you will then have to one-time it into the top four inches of the net on the right-hand side. Make this shot and we win the game and you will be a hero with a new contract.
Miss it, we lose and you fade away. Now you have a month to practice this over and over and over and worst of all, think on it. Different mindset totally!
In most every sport you prepare in the hopes that if a chance comes your way you will be ready to capitalize - but what if you knew the game ahead of time? How do you let the puck fly naturally when you have fallen asleep thinking of that fraction of a second for days, months or even years? A quad is less than a second but it can feel like a lifetime.
Paralysis by analysis.
The men's event caught a virus, each one passing it along to the next skater. Some survived better than others but what could have been an amazing event fizzled. Each sport has to move forward, and trying two or even three quads in your long program is amazing. Nobody wins when they play it safe, but human nature has a way of making us self-aware. “Take your skates and your costume with you on the ice and nothing else” sounds like good advice, but lingering thoughts and expectations limit our bodies’ ability to move naturally and it's over.
Elvis Stojko called the event an Olympic game of hot potato. Maybe Elvis could have gone for the top of the mountain with quad combos all over the place but I could not have. I was, and still am, an emotional skater and consistency doesn't come as easily to the overly emotional.
Clearing the 'land mines'
Speaking of which, my heart broke for so many of those guys but I am happy to say that the top two were the right skaters. Denis Ten, of Kazakhstan, who came third, overcame a year of injury to survive the night better than the pack, and also deserved his medal the same way a race car avoids the crashing cars around it the fly out to the lead.
What if Plushenko had not bowed out just before his short program...?
Here is the question my sport should be asking: How do we make it a bit easier for the skaters so we can see the quality shine through?
They are amazing athletes and artists. Can we clear a few of the land mines out of the way for them so we can see our athletes bow with smiles more often, please? Do we really need to tax them at every turn?
Making the spins simpler might be a start. So many times I see skaters trying to pretzel themselves into a shape that will give them another point. Some can do it but the spins are too often ugly and certainly tiring! And as much as I like the jumps, what if there were one less jumping
pass, making their choices of which jumps more important and freeing them up a bit more time to skate and get their personalities out? The demands on footwork make everyone look too similar as well. Quit telling them what to do with every single second of their performances.
The pressure of the Olympic Games will always be there and we should respect anybody who can go out on the ice with the rings painted on it and throw those amazing jumps and spins.
But if the gauntlet was a little easier, if the athletes could actually have more fun out there, then maybe we would not see a whole event go down in flames like we did here in Sochi.
So, what was going through Patrick's mind as he skated that long, long program? “Survival.”
The sport is awesome, the skaters amazing, so how about we get a few of the rules out of their way and help them perform programs they can be proud of? Make it easier for them to enjoy the moment and in doing so then we can enjoy it with them.
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