Part 4 of a series on young coaches. Read parts 1, 2, and 3 at the links. by Jacquelyn Thayer Colin McManus: I’ve learned to have a different appreciation for my coaches because coaching is horrible. I’m talking like coaching at a competition. It’s horrible. Horrible. It is the worst nerves that you’ve ever had.…
Part 3 of a series on young coaches. Read parts 1 and 2 at the links. by Jacquelyn Thayer I think one thing that coaching has taught me, and also being a freeskater—try to have an open communication with your athletes, asking them questions, because I think we are so inclined to think we’re just…
Part 2 of a series on young coaches. Read part 1 at the link. by Jacquelyn Thayer Growing up a coach’s son, I definitely gained some insight into the job from my dad. I think my first memory is just how much traveling is involved when you have your own program—competitions, seminars, etc. My dad…
by Jacquelyn Thayer How does the skater become the coach? It was the question that returned to mind with each summer competition circuit; one more retired competitor would take a new seat in the kiss & cry, trading in team jackets and self-critique for business casual and constructive support. From a wave of retirements in…
Part 2 of a two-part feature; read part 1 here by Jacquelyn Thayer Athletes have spoken of the difficulty in moving from the concretely goal-focused regimen of the sporting life to the more mundane concerns of life after. But in the first months since retirement, the mundane is what’s grounded ice dancers Alexandra Paul and…
Part 1 of a two-part feature by Jacquelyn Thayer Perseverance: few virtues are more celebrated in sport. For athletes grappling with injury and long odds, it becomes a mantra. But just as fundamental is the confidence to know when it’s time to close a door. Canadian ice dancers Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam initially entered…
by Jacquelyn Thayer This Grand Prix ice dance team-by-team analysis has been expanded from recent Snapshot Stats features on Two for the Ice on Tumblr. CHOCK & BATES vs. WEAVER & POJE A pair of world medalist teams in an oft-unsteady position: Madison Chock and Evan Bates ceded the U.S. national title to Maia and…
by Jacquelyn Thayer It was a classic quote of much-debated origin — “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts” — that concluded the ice dance team’s reflective Facebook post, a season wrap-up tradition begun in the wake of a devastating Canadian Nationals, where an element error…
by Jacquelyn Thayer Though also well-represented in junior dance (discussed later), the senior dance event at the 2015 Quebec Summer Championships (Championnats québécois d’été 2015) in Pierrefonds was overwhelmed with entries from the Gadbois Centre — five of seven couples in each segment hailed from the school led by Dubreuil, Lauzon and Romain Haguenauer, and…
by Jacquelyn Thayer After disappointing results on the Grand Prix circuit, 2015 Canadian bronze medalists Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam made a bold move to regroup before those national championships: swapping out a jazzy Frank Sinatra free dance, choreographed by Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, for a turn to the contemporary — an adaptation of…
