Nationals start tomorrow
It’s late, I’m tired, this will be brief….
You could just feel that something was in the air at the rink today. There was an energy, a focus, a quality of movement & intensity during training today, appropriate to the fact that tomorrow is the first day of National Championships.
The allarounders are racing Teusday & Wednesday, Thursday is a rest day, then the sprinters like me have our fast fun on the ice Friday and Saturday. I will try and do reporting from the races when I can grab a moment or two.
It’s funny, the first time I skated nationals, I knew only a handful of the athletes, now on my 4th trip here, there are just a few I don’t know.
I’m glad that I am not first up to race, because I stepped on something nasty skating this past weekend and it took me 3 hours of sharpening before I repaired the damage to my edges. When I stepped on the ice this morning, my skates felt awful, I had screwed up my rocker taking out the nicks & scrapes & inches of destroyed edge.
Lest you think that being an elite coach is all wine, women & song, (or beer, men & classic rock if that’s how you roll) here is Mike Koorman re-rockering my skates. I was one of many pairs he rockered, sharpened, bent, or troubleshot today.
What you can see in this photo is his attention to detail as he guides the grinding wheel to very carefully re-shape my FUBARed blades.
What you can’t see in this photo is his patience & calming words of experience as he reassures a flipping out athlete (me) that everything will be fine!!!!
I normally skate on an extremely flat rocker of 26-27m, all this rockering machine had was a 24, so that will have to do.
Modern coaching seems to be a wild soup of technique analysis, equipment evaluation, scientific physiology knowledge, and a healthy dose of psychology & understanding how to fire up or soothe the athletes in their charge. Mike does a great job.
P.S. Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement on the t-shirt post! I will do my best to live up to all the good vibes sent my way…
There are many exceptional skaters at nationals this year, one wrong step by any of us, and whoosh! Right to the bottom of the standings!
It’s a little stressful…. but in a good way…..
Filed under: on the road
With Friday race day for you you’ll have time to get the feel of your blades and make them your own again.
I’m reading a book now called, “Golf Is A Game Of Confidence” by Dr. Bob Rotella.
I don’t play golf, except Putt-Putt once a year or so, but alot of what applies to people playing championship golf feels like it was written for me, an inline speed skater.
Many Masters have been won by players with shaking hands. Even the best out there feel the rush of stress to preform when it’s all on the line.
The best have taught themselves to stay in the present, to look where they want to go and trust their training to get the ball in the cup.
They don’t do last minute fiddling with how they swing a club. They relax,stand over the ball, look where they want it to go, and let fly with their stroke.
Andrew, you know how to skate, it’s in the marrow of your bones and blood. You know you prepared the best you could, your body, your equipment, your mind. All you have to do now is show up on the line with all that preparation under your feet, look to the finish line and let it fly!
Feel the joy of the ice!!
We have everything crossed for you. Toes, fingers, etc. Have a great time.
What they said! (I figure it can’t hurt for you to read positive suggestions and expressions of confidence over and over again!)
Thwack, thwack, thwack, repeat with increasing power and tempo for 500 meters. Adjust max power level ratio consistent with integration of controlled and sustaiable tempo for desired result. Successful calculations of the above inputs will result in a controlled movement of at least 13.698 meters per second or 36.5 seconds or less depending on ambient temperature of the air, frictional coefficients of the ice and skate blade, and lastly, the human factor of “how bad do you want it”.