Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Posted on 08 Jan 08:08 am

Singing in the Rain

Ah, the character building nature of outdoor speedskating. Nothing like it in the world! After the snow of last week, this weekend’ s Jack Shea Sprints were raced in pouring rain, dense fog, and a lot of water on the ice.

And that turned out to be a good thing, outdoor ice can be awfully fast when there is standing water on top of it, and the warm temperatures were very comfortable.

This was a very different crowd than Nationals a few weeks ago. The Jack Shea race is very club-centric, low key, friendly, and with skaters ranging in age from 6 to 72. A smorgasbord of fantastic folks from the east coast skate tribe.

Here are some video highlights I put together, with music that I found karmicly appropriate to the day. Click here for a high quality quicktime video, or if you can’t see that, start the youtube clip below.

Thanks are due to my brother, who shot some of the footage here, provided hours of invaluable help during editing, and also pegs me with a snowball halfway through the video.

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Filed under: Audio/Video, on the road

Blackbirds & Speedskating

The Paul McCartney song “blackbird” has always gotten to me. It’s one of those rare songs that’s depressive and uplifting at the same time. I have always felt it applied well to folks who throw themselves fully into the fires of their passions. People like artists, social activists, graduate students, & of course -speedskaters.

The song fits well with video clips I shot at US national speedskating championships.

Click here for the high quality quicktime, or just press the YouTube play button below. I’ve been posting video on the web for over a year now, and am always playing around with options.

Here are the folks in this, & what they were doing when I shot each clip.

Matt Plummer & Chad Hedrick, starting a 1500.
Maria Lamb & Catherine Raney, 700m into a 1500.
April Medley, 2 laps to go.
Donald Stewart & Michael Stein Stewart, 300m into a 1500.
Same two guys again, Donald skated the race of his life here, earning a World Cup spot.
A crowd of curious kids with noisemakers cheering on 2 skaters.
Justin “CoonPup” Stelly, in the final lap of his 1500.
John Loquai, midway through a 5k.
Kreg Greer giving the camera a grin in the first few laps of what became an outstanding 10k race.
Chris Witty & Beckah Bradford, starting a 500m.
Coach Mike Witty and a 2022 winter Olympic hopeful
Tucker Fredericks and Kip Carpenter, ripping out an amazing 500m start.
April Medley & Leah Lambert, 500m.
Danny Frederick & Matt Shannahan, halfway through a 1000m.
Jessica Smith (& that’s April Medley lying on the ground, she’s ok).
Shani Davis Passing John Loquai, & creating some SERIOUS 1500m corner pressure.
Anna Ringsred & Andrey Zhuikov.
Anthony Lobello & Andrew Love, 500m start & finish.

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Filed under: Audio/Video, on the road

Posted on 20 Dec 07:26 am

Olu times 3, music video

I shot a video of Olu playing the National anthem, and had the idea of blending some of the videos I shot with his playing.

As I was working on this late last night, I looped Olu’s playing 3 times, so really you are hearing 3 Olu’s playing over the top of each other in unique harmonies. Some folks get offended when they hear the national anthem played in semi-arty ways, but as I look at the dedication of these Olympic hopefuls & the challenges they face, somehow lonely, atonal, patriotic music oddly fits.

Here it is in an easily accessible flash video. If you want to see a much nicer high quality Quicktime version, Click here.

The skaters pictured in this video are

Danny Frederick (fastest man in the world with 3+ kids)
Paul Dyrud
Matt Plummer
Liam Ortega (in white)
Jessica Smith
Nate Defranco (in red)
Mia Manganello’s feet
Catherine Raney
Mia Manganello
Anna Ringsred & Maria Lamb
Shani Davis & Chad Hedrick (in the last 500m of a crazy-fast 5k)

5 Comments »
Filed under: RACE DAY, Audio/Video, on the road

Bobsledders

In addition to Speedskaters, many different kinds of athletes can be spotted training at the Utah Olympic oval, For example, last month the US National XC ski team was there.

But this past Tuesday, there was a unique group I had never seen before. At first I thought they were just more University of Utah track & field sprinters. But they had a very different way of starting their running sprints, and they seem drastically more physically powerful than most runners. I noticed a team jacket on one of them, and realized, these are world-class bobsledders!

Speedskaters often complain about how small & specialized our sport is. Compared to bobsledding, we are HUGE. But looking at top athletes, watching them train, and talking to them about their lives, I felt in the presence of kindred spirits.

I shot some video, and was showing it to them, and they were critiquing their technique in slo-motion view the same way skaters evaluate what they do.

Although you can’t really hear it in these video clips, there was this “Scwhaap!” sound their running spikes made when they blasted off the start line that was truly amazing.

Erin, Darian, Juliane & Julie, keep on rocking!

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Filed under: Audio/Video

Posted on 11 Dec 01:22 pm

I’M BACK!

Chad Hedrick has had a slow start to his word cup season. He knew after his extended layoff following 3 medals at the Olympics, that it would take a while for him to get back into shape.

Since returning to Salt Lake two weeks ago, he has been relentlessly working on technique. This past Saturday, December 9th, he was starting a 4 lap effort, and asked this humble webmaster to tape them.

Several very fast laps later, he came over to the video camera, checked his technique in slo-mo, and after noting about 5 different things he has been working on, he said with confidence “Yeah!! I’m back!!! that’s my Torino technique right there!”

You can view his 30+ mph laps via the start button, or a high quality quicktime version by clicking here.

p.s. as I was working on producing this video, my wife Jessica came over, was intrigued, and pretty much took over the computer. What you see is 90% her work, not mine, especially the music/video vibe synchronicity.

3 Comments »
Filed under: Audio/Video

Important! Video Tip Jar

I always enjoy posting quality video & images of this sport we all love so much, like the recent Derek Parra Slideboard video.

In about a week, it’s been watched almost a THOUSAND times. From the Hyper wheels message board, to mentions on Japanese inline websites, to Speedskate Sweden, folks are pouring in to watch.

Awesome!!

However, this video (and others, like the Andy Newell XC skiing video, that over 600+ XC skiers watched) blew my yearly bandwidth allocation to pieces in a matter of days…. My site actually went down for an afternoon because of it.

I had no alternative; I had to immediately shell out $254.44 to pay for more juice/bandwidth just to get the site running again. I already pay around $100 a year for hosting and the hipcast video service I sometimes use, and that is ok, I’ll do that out of love for the sport.

But this last one hurt, especially as my iBook laptop battery also died a few days ago, ($120 to replace) and I fear my laptop itself is running like a car missing a few sparkplugs (I do drive my “car” really hard!)

Sure, I could use YouTube for free video, I watch a lot of speedskating stuff on YouTube, and most of it is frustrating to watch, as high quality video is VERY IMPORTANT for watching skating, and I want to do more of it.

Derek informally said that he would be interested in doing some more video like what I just published. That would be great! Yet I simply cannot afford the bandwidth to do his talents justice.

So like any musician playing in a public place, I am putting out a tip jar, (clicking on it sends you to paypal), to help pay for the bandwidth. It’s super-easy to use…

Musicians play because they love to play, not for the tips; I do this website because I fundamentally love this intersection in my life between writing, skating and the good folks I am blessed to know through this sport.

So folks, if enough of you can spare a dollar or two, I will do my best to reciprocate with more exceptional video & skating vibe/culture/news.

22 Comments »
Filed under: Audio/Video, from the coffee shop

Posted on 17 Nov 05:53 pm

Parra Slideboard Video

US speedskating has just hired Olympic Gold/Silver medalist & world record holder Derek Parra to be an Inline-to-ice transition coach. He will be fantastic as a coach, as he is quite gifted in his understanding of skating mechanics.

Yesterday, he was at the Oval working on slideboard technique with North Carolina based inliner Amber Yrbor. They had already been working hard on the slideboard for over an hour when I walked over, camera in hand.

You have two options on how to view this, click here to view a 49 MB QUICKTIME FILE

It’s worth viewing if you have a fast connection… Derek has tremendous physical skills from his lifetime of hard work, so he can demonstrate exactly the technique he wants to develop in skaters he is coaching. This video shows some smoooooth slideboarding.

Option 2 is youtube. Click the play button to get it running.

If you watch all 8 1/2 minutes of this video, at the end Derek talks about what skaters he technically emulated when he was competing, and why.

23 Comments »
Filed under: Audio/Video, from the coffee shop

Ski Sprinting

The US national cross country ski team was doing some sprint workouts at the Utah Oval today. Just as some ice speedskaters skate on inlines in the off-season, XC-skiers use wheels to accurately simulate their sport before the snow flies.

This picture is not evidence of levitation, this is world-class sprinter Andy Newell, double poling with such effort he is getting air between strokes.

Actually getting air helps them go faster, as the snow is not creating slowing friction when they are up, and they “fall” into the poles the same way speedskaters use their hips to “fall” into each stroke. In the 1500m sprint event, Andy earned the first world cup medal for the US men since 1983.

Fantastic stuff, he also is an independent filmmaker as well, and can do backflips on his skinny skis! I wish him and the rest of the US ski team studs success in the upcoming season.

What does it look like? To see one of the world fastest ski sprinters ripping out some double pole speed? Skiing like this is an important skill to master, as this is how you have to start a race in the cramped quarters of big packs. Click the play button to watch.

It was an interesting day; USA national team speedskaters & skiers respectfully watching the other sport go through workouts. A couple of the skiers remarked to me about how insanely fast we go. What I noticed watching them is how complete their athleticism is, they have both endurance and power, and balanced upper and lower bodies. Ice speedskaters tend to be scary imbalanced, to the extent that our left legs even grow slightly bigger than the right, since we just turn left.

XC skiing is a wonderful sport, both classic and skating. My Madschus skate skis are waiting in my garage for me to pay some attention to them, as it’s been a few years (hmmm, about the same amount of time I have been crazy serious about the ice).

Sigh, so many cool ways to move through this world, and only one lifetime available.

4 Comments »
Filed under: Audio/Video

Posted on 26 Sep 11:39 am

Zen 10 Questions: Chris Shelly

After a long search, US speedskating has hired Chris Shelly as US All-around National Team coach. Chris has quickly made his easygoing personality an important part of the community at the oval. I have enjoyed many conversations with him on a broad range of subjects.

In one of my rare moments of clear thinking, I concluded he would be an ideal person for the next Zen 10 interview! Welcome Chris!

These pictures are of Chris competing, some years ago, in both Austria & Montana! They are from the Baystate speedskating galleries; where they grant permission to use these images “respectfully” (I hope this qualifies!)

Chris is very funny, and he made me laugh here and there as we did this interview (so forgive my giggling behind the camera). This interview is a gold mine of information about skating, training, and Chris’ memories from his decades in the sport.

Click play to listen to each interview section:

Part 1
Chris talks about his own unique path he took towards becoming a national team coach, his experiences in Canada & how the Canadian system is different than the American one, and his opinions on old school training vs. modern training.

P.S. turn your computer volume up to max, my little camera has a fairly crummy microphone, and even though I edited the audio track on this interview extensively, Chris is a bit quiet.

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Filed under: Audio/Video, Zen 10 Questions: