New coaching award unveiled in honour of former Skate Canada COO Bethany Tory

Bethany Tory’s passion, drive and commitment to excellence will be honoured with the unveiling of a new coaching award in her memory.

Skate Canada Chief Executive Officer Dan Thompson announced the creation of the Coach Education Scholarship, in honour of Bethany Tory, the organization’s Chief Operating Officer, who passed away suddenly in April.

“We are extremely proud to introduce this award for our dedicated and passionate coaches in honour of Bethany,” stated Dan Thompson.

“Our coaches and Bethany shared the same dedication, passion and commitment to Skate Canada, and we are honoured to pay tribute to her memory. Bethany was a champion for positive change and alignment within the organization, so it is only fitting we name this award in her memory.”

A former skater and coach, Bethany embraced her Skate Canada COO role with energy and determination, and was extremely supportive of all Skate Canada coaches and officials.

Over the next three years of this quadrennial, the Coach Education Scholarship will be awarded to coaches who meet the following characteristics: embrace a skate for life philosophy; exemplify the values of integrity, fairness, courage, and generosity; and are dedicated to improving their coaching skills through expanding their academic knowledge.

Skate Canada will award up to five $2,000 scholarships to Skate Canada coaches who meet the application criteria and requirements. To be eligible for the award, applicants must be currently enrolled or participating in a post-secondary program at a recognized college or university and be pursuing a degree or diploma that is applicable to their role as a skating coach. During the inaugural 2015-2016 year of the program, special consideration will be given to coaches currently teaching CanSkate.

“Our coaches teach far more than skating skills,” added Thompson. “Coaches have a significant impact on the lives of young skaters, teaching life skills and encouraging them to remain active through our Skate For Life initiative.”

Please click here for more information on the Skate Canada Coach Education Scholarship in honour of Bethany Tory.

OH, CANADA! Elvis Stojko back on native soil, working with young Skate Canada athletes

Elvis Stojko is home again.

After more than a decade living in Mexico, Stojko has returned home to Canada, the country he won a trio of world titles for two decades ago.

It wasn’t planned, the exodus south of the border. Growing up at the mercy of Canada’s relentless winters and training daily inside frigid, damp arenas, Stojko admits he had grown weary of the cold, but there wasn’t a grand plan to escape to a warmer climate. But during a trip to Mexico to visit a friend back in 2001, Stojko decided to buy an apartment on the spot.

As fate would have it, a few years later, he met Gladys Orozco, a former Mexican national figure skating champion. They were wed five years ago.

The couple lived in splendid hillside villa in the village of Ajijic, about an hour outside of Guadalajara. Stojko, always a very private person, welcomed the seclusion and the warm temperatures.

Eventually, though, Canada called Stojko home.

“To be back on a full-time basis feels great,” says Stojko, who moved back to Canada a year ago. “I loved living in Mexico, it was a great experience. But everything was just starting to pull my wife and I back here.

“This is home.”

Elvis Stojko teaches kung fu.

Photo – Gladys Orozco

Not only has the 43-year-old returned to his native country, but there is a second homecoming of sorts, as Stojko has established a working relationship with Skate Canada.

Recently, Stojko took 14 skaters and their coaches under his proverbial wing at the Skate Canada National Performance Centre in Toronto. Eighteen years after his last world title, Stojko still commands a presence when he walks into a room.

Even today, when the three-time world champion, seven-time Canadian champion and two-time Olympic silver medallist speaks, people take notice.

“It feels awesome to reconnect with Skate Canada, work with the kids and be accessible,” Stojko adds. “I have so much information and experience but unless I transfer it, it just dies with me. To be able to pass it on, that’s evolution. That’s how we all learn. In a selfish way, it feels good. As I teach, I also learn.”

“Elvis was one of Canada’s most-focused athletes throughout his outstanding career, and his ability to stay in the moment to maximize performance is legendary,” stated Skate Canada Chief Executive Officer Dan Thompson.

“We are so honoured that Elvis has decided to give back in such a tangible way and we look forward to building our relationship through these camps for a long time.”

At the National Performance Centre, Stojko spent part of the day stressing the importance of mental preparation and being aware of the body at all times. He also spent over an hour on the ice with the skaters and coaches, working with the young athletes on their jumps and landings.

Stojko, a noted martial arts expert, also offered a kung fu training session, including various breathing techniques and exercises designed to activate different muscle groups.

“Most people look at the physical aspect of kung fu, but it is the mental aspect (that is most important),” he says. “It is being able to utilize it as a focusing aid. It is for the confidence and killer instinct to help push them past a certain limit where they don’t think they can get.”

Monica Lockie, Skate Canada’s National Performance Centre Director, says the lessons the young athletes are learning through Stojko are invaluable.

“It’s funny, a lot of these kids were born after Elvis’ career was over,” says Lockie. “A lot of them can’t fully appreciate just how strong he was, and how many obstacles he had to overcome. I think a camp like this is essential for our skaters, our future champions, to let them know it is OK to go through your own challenges.

“In the end, it’s going to be how tough you are mentally that will determine how far you go physically.”

“Elvis had a great career, but he really is an icon for mental toughness and perseverance. He is trying to empower the skater to build his or her own confidence and not just look to other people. Elvis succeeded because of his own drive.

“In the end, it’s going to be how tough you are mentally that will determine how far you go physically.”

Stojko is a busy man these days. When he is not working with Skate Canada, Stojko continues to chase his own dream of kart racing, as a competitive racer at the national and international level. With the karting national championships set to go later this summer, Stojko is focused on making the world team.

Last year, Stojko also wrapped up his Broadway debut, starring as manipulative, smooth-talking lawyer Billy Flynn in Chicago: The Musical.

“It’s a lot of fun,” says Stojko of his karting passion. “I take it very seriously and really want to make the world team. I think it is a very realistic goal for me.

“I really like doing this seminar work and working with a lot of kids. I like the consulting thing, and want to do it on my own schedule.”

Stokjo also looks forward to strengthening his partnership with Skate Canada.

“That’s where we’re headed,” he says “If they like the work, and the kids like it, we’ll continue.

“It’s what I love to do.”

Skate Canada and The Mark Lowry Memorial Sport Excellence Fund Committed to Leading Edge Sport Science Initiatives

OTTAWA, ON: As part of Skate Canada’s strategic plan, the high performance program has set sights on integrating leading edge sport science into the training and monitoring of Canada’s top figure skaters. The Mark Lowry Memorial Sport Excellence Fund has allowed Skate Canada to work on motion analysis, one of the sport sciences being integrated through a generous grant.

The Mark Lowry Memorial Sport Excellence Fund is an influential leader in high performance sport in Canada, which works off Lowry’s original vision: To allow our athletes to have the very best in all aspects of their training.

Integrating full motion analysis in figure skating without losing the important intricacies of choreography and musicality has meant challenging the science beyond that typically used in other sports. The funds provided by the foundation will allow key aspects of full-rink motion analysis to be completed so that Canadian athletes can access the best motion analysis. The new initiative will be available at the Skate Canada National Performance Centre in Toronto as early as October of 2015.

Monica Lockie, National Performance Centre Director has highlighted the importance of this technology being available as a service at the centres, “As our skaters aspire to maintain their top ranking in the world, it is essential to be able to give them as many advantages as possible in their training. Using a state of the art motion analysis system will allow our skaters to evaluate more key performance indicators to hone their technique both at the top level and on the development pathway. Being able to offer this service at our National Performance Centres is ideal for athlete growth in the in the critical area of motion analysis.”

Skate Canada High Performance Director Mike Slipchuk stressed the importance of this new technology, “Giving our athletes valuable feedback through the motion analysis system will be critical in the success of our program leading into the 2018 and Olympic Winter Games and our next generation athletes striving for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games and beyond. We are thankful for the support of the Mark Lowry Memorial Sport Excellence Fund and look forward to seeing this program come to fruition.”

Skate Canada also wishes to acknowledge the continuing support of outstanding partners like Sport Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), and Own the Podium (OTP) with whom we strive together for excellence in high performance.

Kraatz honoured for his impact in Canadian Sport

Victor Kraatz hadn’t expected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the British Columbia/Yukon skating section on May 2. The memories fluttered back from long, long ago. It was a great honour.

In recent years, he’s been out of the loop. He’d moved on, left figure skating behind. He hasn’t set foot in a figure skating rink in about 2 and a half years, since he began teaching skating skills to young hockey players all over the lower mainland of British Columbia.

But the glittery Hall of Fame night came, the crowd gave Kraatz a standing ovation, and of course, everyone had to watch a video of Kraatz and partner Shae-Lynn Bourne, in green garb, skating to their signature routine, the high-energy “Riverdance” from the 1997-1998 season.

Kraatz’s 4-year-old son, Henry, tugged at his father’s sleeve and said: “That’s not Mommie. Who is that woman?”

Kraatz is married to former Finnish ice dancer Maikki Uotila, and has two sons, Oliver, 8 and Henry. ”My oldest understands that there was a figure skating background of some sort,” Kraatz said. “And that I may have accomplished something. He’s not quite sure.”

“But the little guy just thinks I play hockey. That’s all he’s known of me. I coach hockey. I work with kids all the time. I’m on the go, so the little guy was really confused.”

Kraatz’s new world doesn’t necessarily realize that he was a 10-time Canadian ice dancing champion with Bourne, a three-time Olympian, and a world champion in 2003. And that this unforgettable duo brought hydroblading to the vocabulary of skating, that they dared to be different with their Riverdance routine, in which they transferred a stationary dance to the glide of the blade with blinding footwork.

On learning of his induction, Kraatz’s mind immediately went to the people who had input into his skating career and his life.

Born in Germany, Kraatz started out as a hockey player when his family lived in Switzerland. But that all ended when a coach bluntly told him that he was too short. “You’re done,” he was told.

He learned his first skating skills with former Swiss pair champions Mona and Peter Szabo, who taught him the fundamentals and all sorts of caring life lessons. Kraatz moved to Vancouver at age 15, and coach Joanne Sloman played a major role in teaching extra skills sessions. Kraatz invited her to the Hall of Fame ceremonies.

During the early 1990s, Kraatz moved to Montreal to train with Eric Gillies and Josee Picard, also instrumental in his career.  He loved Picard’s tough work ethic. “I liked her style and I liked who she was as a person. I really respected her,” Kraatz said. It was tough for him to leave, he said.

A relationship with Uschi Keszler, was also important: she was “relentless” in having he and Bourne show communication between the two and that they remain true to themselves. Tatiana Tarasova took the team to a new level.

Most of all, there was Bourne, who Kraatz called the most important person in his life at the time. They were completely different people, Kraatz found. “I just loved the freedom that she had,” Kraatz said. “There were no boundaries. She wanted to experience the joy of life. And I was very set.

“She would always say: ‘Let’s have fun.’ And I would go: ‘No, fun in German means just not working hard. Fun is fun. And work has to be work.’ She’d say: ‘Canadian fun means just enjoying it.’ For the longest time, I never understood that having-fun part of training.”

By their final year together, Bourne’s life force rubbed off on Kraatz. Kraatz learned to trust his training and relax. It worked.

But it all ended a short time after Bourne and Kraatz won the world title. Today, Kraatz acknowledges that the breakup of the team was his fault. He had been so driven to work, even on breaks and vacations; he’d head straight to the gym. “I personally did not have the release,” he said. “I never wanted to be out of shape. I always wanted to be on the top of my game, because that’s who I wanted to be.”  Things fell apart.

Today, Kraatz has huge admiration for Bourne, who has made a career of being a world-class choreographer. “She was such a wonderful person,” Kraatz said. “It’s unbelievable what she brought to the table. I was very lucky that I skated with her, that I was able to spend that much time with her. We always had a great professional relationship and I’m so grateful for that.”

In 2003, Kraatz needed something else. He moved back to Vancouver, and taught skating for a while. But to truly forge his own path, he went to school and studied marketing. But it wasn’t easy, when all of his credentials were as an athlete. He found work at a marketing agency in Yaletown, when one day his life changed on a fluke. A friend told Kraatz he was going on a break and could he look after his hockey team? Sure, said Kraatz and promptly went out and bought hockey skates, a helmet, a stick and a puck.

His first session with the hockey players “went really horrible,” Kraatz said. But the coach said: “We want you back. You’ve got to come back tomorrow.” About 2 and a half years ago, Kraatz decided to ditch the marketing career for the open arms of hockey.

These days, Kraatz moves with ease in his new life. It allows him to contribute, to create. He has some 6-year-olds that are doing well. He has some teenagers. He has a player who was on the roster for a Junior A team in Kelowna. Like Szabo, Kraatz tries to teach life lessons to his young charges. And he has gone back to the gym, to meet the increasing physical demands of his new work.

“I’ve come full circle,” Kraatz said. ”It’s something as a kid I always wanted to do and I didn’t have the chance to do it.” When he pulled the hockey skates on, all of his muscle memory came back from his teens. The boots felt light.

He feels like he used to when he was a figure skater: he wakes up every morning and it doesn’t matter if he feels tired. He also feels energized. “That feeling is back,” Kraatz said. “I’m finally back. I’m finding myself. I am myself again.”

It’s been a long road for Kraatz.

Jeremy Ten on his own terms

Click click. Click. Click…Send.

And with that, listening to the sound of the ocean on vacation in Mexico with his skating friends, Jeremy Ten finally wrote the end to his competitive skating career, telling Skate Canada by email that he was ending his miraculous final season on a high note.

Yes, Ten has retired, after a marvelous season in which he exceeded all expectations. Contemplating retirement a year earlier after missing the Sochi Olympic team, Ten finally decided to take one more year to skate the way he wanted to with certain goals: to get a quad in his arsenal, to get a Grand Prix (he got two) and to show up at nationals in front of noisy Canadian fans, attack his programs and skate with his heart on his sleeve. And he did.

But the season went so well – he earned the Canadian silver medal and a trip to the his second world championships after a five-year hiatus, and to the World Team Trophy, an event he had always wanted to do – that he felt the urge to continue, do more of this.

“There was a part of me that said: ‘Oh just do one more year, really have fun with it, keep going,’” Ten said. And then he thought about the welfare of his 26-year-old body. And reason reigned.

“I thought about the state of my physical being,” Ten said. “I just knew it wouldn’t work. Trying to learn a quad at my age, when you’re competing against kids who have been doing it since they were 17 or 18, and didn’t have to go through injuries, it takes a toll.”

Ten did get his quad at a stately age, during this past season (delayed because of a few seasons of serious injuries) and it came far more easily than his triple Axel. In fact, it was a lovely one, and he could do it with a triple toe loop in practice. But doing it in a competition setting was another story. During the six-minute warm-ups for Nationals, Four Continents and World Championships, he took hard falls to his left hip while attempting the quad. Always that left hip.

The jump was still new, and the smallest detail could throw it off kilter. Throw in a little adrenalin and a pumping heart in a compressed time frame of a warmup and down he went. While training the quad, he had never fallen like that.

“It’s one of those falls where you land sideways on your blade and you don’t know where you are, and you come down and you smack your hip on the ice,” he said. “As the season progressed, it was starting to bother me more and more.”

After a hard fall in the warm-up for the long program at Nationals, coach Joanne McLeod came up to Ten and told him: ‘We went to Autumn Classic without a quad and you did great there. I don’t think you should do it here.”

But Ten had trained all season to get that quad and he wanted to stick to the plan. He fell on it during the long program. Still, his performance was a triumph. When his marks came up, he saw that he was second in the free, and then he saw that he was first overall (with Nam Nguyen still to skate). “I thought I misheard it,” he said. “And then I saw the screen and then I just dropped everything. I think I threw my water bottle at one point.” McLeod burst into tears into his chest. “I thought I was going to have a heart attack,” she said. Their reaction to Ten’s achievement was some of the best theatre of the event.

Ten’s best attempt at landing the quad was at NHK Trophy in Japan. At worlds and Four Continents the warm-up falls on the quad bothered him more. And he started to feel the wear and tear on his body. “I do want to walk in the near future,” he said. “I don’t want to get hip surgery before I’m 30.”

And the falls rattled him a bit, especially at the World Championships, because it was such an important event. He took out the quad for World Team Trophy, an event he said was “the funnest competition I’ve ever done.”

His short program – clean – at the World Championships in Shanghai was a triumph. “This whole season was about me trying to live out my potential and I feel that going to worlds and skating that short program was it for me,” Ten said. “I feel like I’ve accomplished everything I wanted to do. And that made it easier.”

Just because Ten is leaving behind his competitive career doesn’t mean he will be standing still. On Friday, June 12, Ten graduated from Simon Fraser University with a degree in health sciences and a minor in kinesiology.

He’s currently dabbling in choreography, with hopes his career will head in that direction. He feels music and enjoys it and his forte was his artistic side. Ten is also coaching on the side, doing clinics, workshops and seminars. Last weekend, he did a seminar for the Alberta Provincial Team. A few weeks ago, he did another one in Canmore, Alta. and before that, he travelled to New Brunswick to offer up his knowledge there. He’s trying to book some shows, too.

“It’s time to grow up,” he said. He leaves the competitive side of the sport with no regrets now. He feels that he’s in a happy place and has a lot of opportunities coming his way. “I feel like I’m leaving the sport because it’s my choice and not because I’m being pushed out of the sport,” he said.

Chan Tapping His Way Back To The Top

The first sight of three-time world champion Patrick Chan in comeback mode after a year off was this: performing to “Mack the Knife” in a chilly Vaughan arena, his opening pass was a wonder, with his patented big strokes, a big hop, his body flying, his arms spread out and up. He filled the rink with that opening pass. It was as if he was announcing, with his body movement: “Here I am. It’s me. I’m back.”

And back with a difference.

How so? He’s skating to vocals for the first time, competitively. He’s bringing what he learned from his year of skating in a flurry of about 40 shows, night after night. He’s more engaged with the audience than ever. He’s found a new charisma. He’s left behind the intensity of being intense, not that he won’t be. But he’ll skate for the love of it this year. He’ll see where his hard work takes him. And he’ll train differently, with more confidence, smarter, preserving that soon-to-be 25-year-old body, one of the oldest out there these days.

“He’s going to make this big comeback,” said choreographer David Wilson. “I’ve got to hand it to him. It takes a lot of courage for him to do it, but he seems really keen.”

Chan admits that the seeds of his comeback were planted at the closing ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics, when the Russians handed off the Olympic mantle to South Korea. “I was thinking in my mind: ‘I don’t want this to end,’” Chan recalled. “’I don’t feel this is a good ending. It’s the end of a chapter, but I want to begin a new one.’”

He doesn’t know, truthfully, if he’ll continue to 2018. He’ll take it one year at a time. But it’s the ultimate intent. He never knows what will happen. Now, he has to pay attention to recovery. The body takes a beating in this sport. “I want to conserve my body, so that when I go to a competition, I can really be fresh and keep up with the young guys,” he said.

Most of all, he wants to leave a mark on the sport, and this season, hopefully “a breath of fresh air.” He’ll do that with his new “Mack the Knife” routine, which is meant to show the love of skating, despite the intensity of competition. It won’t be just about the quads, although he knows you can’t leave home without them.

The routine harks back to his year of touring last season. He’s learned much from that experience – particularly confidence. Chan says he’s learned a lot from skating with Scott Moir and his command of the ice. “That’s a skill you learn only over time and with experience and honestly, that’s been the greatest experience for me this past year,” he said.

On the ice, Wilson wears red gloves, which accent his movements all the more. He shows Chan the way. “Add some personality in your fingers,” he says as he demonstrates Mack moves to Chan, but at the same time, his shoulders are moving, too. David Wilson came up with the idea of skating to “Mack the Knife,” firstly thinking of a traditional version with Bobby Darin’s iconic work. But then he heard the Michael Buble version and thought: “It was too irresistible.” Besides, Buble is a Canadian. And Chan has met him.

Coach Kathy Johnson first suggested the idea of having Chan learn the essence of tap dancing, to inject that flavour into the showy piece. Wilson found a friend, Lucas Beaver, an artistic everyman who was originally to have spent 1 and a half hours a day in the studio for four days with Chan. But Chan loved the work so much that he ended up working with Beaver for three hours a day for five days. “It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” Chan said. “Harder than taking hip hop or really high-level ballet.”

It’s tough for a skater accustomed to stiff boots to adopt the movement of tap. In tap, a dancer lets the ankles relax and “dangle in a way, yet show strength,” Chan said. He will not tap on the ice. He’ll bring the swagger of it, though.

“He’s become in the last six days, quite the little tap dancer,” Wilson said. “His new name is Twinkle Toes. But my friend Lucas said he learned tap faster than most dancers who had not done tap before.” Chan is now a full-fledged hoofer, with an entire routine on the floor. There are videos.

Chan’s free program is actually an altered version of the Chopin medley he used last year to win the Japan Open, his only competition of the season. Actually, Wilson found three Chopin pieces that seemed to belong together, as if the composer wrote them in the same mood. The first piece is called “Revolutionary,” a tip of the hat to Chan’s singular style of skating. “It was a labor of love for me,” Wilson said.

But it’s been reworked, with some new elements and tweaks. Chan calls it a more “advanced” version and the new difficulties of it frustrated him at first. “I already had my burst of frustration, because it’s so hard,” he said. “Skating is getting so difficult now, with all the men doing quads. I guess it’s kind of my fault. I kind of asked for it.” But from this past season, he’s learned important things: to trust that it will come, as does the choreography-learned-in-a-hurry in shows. And that a relaxed approach is best. He learned that at the Japan Open last season, when he realized there was no need to worry, he did the event, and sped off for a year of fun.

Before his choreographic session with Wilson, Chan spent eight days surfing in Costa Rica, as a last blast to his year when he didn’t have to worry about injuring himself. Now it’s time to buckle down. He knows he’s far from being fit, but Wilson says Chan can get that in order quickly. He’s determined to work hard, which will help him to relax later.

And anything that happens from now on in his career? “It’s all whipped cream and cherry on top,” Chan said.

Skate Maker to the Stars

Believe it or not … John Knebli never set foot on the ice in a pair of skates, yet he contributed more to skating than many of its champions.

Born in Hungary (Roumania) in 1904 and educated there, he became a Master Craftsman in Orthopedic Shoemaking specializing in the properties and tanning of leather, anatomy of the foot and body, the study of kinisthetics, walking, skeletal development and musculature.

When he immigrated to Toronto in 1930, all those talents came with him, although many of those early years found him scraping by to make ends meet. He did everything and anything … from working on a farm to delivering milk … and finally had enough money saved to dream about opening his own shop. By 1944, in partnership with his beloved wife, Elizabeth, John’s dream came true when he launched his own shoe store specializing in children’s shoes, soccer, and hockey and roller-skating boots.

His career hit a turning point in 1948 when a skating coach convinced him to make skating boots for a student with problem feet, a challenge he at first refused because he didn’t understand a skater’s needs or how to build a boot to deal with them.

Gerry Blair, a successful coach in the Toronto area, brought one of his students to the shop. It was a young Paul Tatton (see blog …), a talented up and comer, but like most skaters, he had foot problems that made wearing over-the-counter skates a disaster. Young Paul’s feet needed special attention, boots with strength and flexibility that were customized to fit him and his problem feet.

Gerry was convincing … and John … always with an eye to research, creativity and business opportunities … finally accepted the challenge when he received a sample pair of boots to take apart so he could study their construction. As the story goes, after fastidiously pulling the boots apart, he said, “I can do better than that!” and promptly began the scientific study of designing and building quality skating equipment.

Over the years, John, or Mr. Knebli, or Papa K, as he was lovingly called, developed a philosophy about his masterful work.

The boot should be made to fit:

  • The foot
  • The person wearing it
  • The blade attached to it
  • Its use.

To do this, he was meticulous in his measurements of the foot: the width at the ball, the width at the ankle, the length of the arch, the height of the arch, and the length of the big toe were important parts of the equation.

But those weren’t the only things he considered in his formula.

He thoroughly studied skating and skaters.

By continually dropping in on skating sessions around the city, often with his young daughter Elizabeth in tow, he treated those visits as if they were his own scientific laboratories. Sitting rink side for hours, by watching and studying the dynamics of the sport and how the body needed to move, he realized that skating was nothing like walking where the point of balance is at the back of the arch at the start of the heel. In skating he observed that balance is further forward at the end of the ball of the foot, the body leaning to ease into the push-off.

Mr. K also realized that the height of the heel shifted the point of balance and was unique to every skater, a discovery that led him to further calculations in building the boot by considering the athlete’s body mass and weight distribution as well as their body stance.

A designer, innovator, and true fan of figure skating, Mr. K was constantly investigating how to make skating boots better.

His low-cut boot design was revolutionary.

Until then the widely-held belief was that in order to give maximum support to the ankle, the boot had to be high. Mr. K didn’t buy it for a second. Initially his motivation to build a shorter boot was all about aesthetics, believing that a shorter boot elongated the leg and made a prettier picture on the ice. To create the additional strength needed for the new look, he combined the low-cut design with stronger leathers and finally, around 1954-56, made his first pair of low-cut boots for future Canadian, World and Olympic Pair Champion, Barbara Wagner.

His development of specialized leather to withstand the cold and dampness and to enhance the boot’s strength became a significant part of his success. With his previous knowledge of leathers and their properties, he worked with tanners at Braemore Leathers in Cambridge, Ontario to develop the quality of leather he wanted for the uppers and to create a chrome finished leather sole for the boot’s base to deal with icy cold conditions.

His never-ending attention to detail around the quality of his boots also led Mr. K to other innovations, including developing specialized machinery to fulfil the customized orders that came to him from around the world.

Along with Coach Ellen Burka, he also invented a free skating blade for her daughter, future World Champion Petra Burka, which ultimately became known as Wilson’s Pattern 99, THE free skating blade for champions.

Throughout his outstanding career, John crafted boots for many other Canadian champions and World and Olympic medalists; some of his most famous clients included Brian Orser, Barbara Underhill, Paul Martini, Toller Cranston, and Peggy Fleming.

As stated in his nomination to the Skate Canada Hall of Fame, “Knebli’s dedication to his craft led him to shape the sport of figure skating one skate at a time.”

Mr. K passed away in Toronto in 1997 at the age of 92.

Skate Canada will officially induct John Knebli into the Skate Canada Hall of Fame in the Builder category at the 2015 Annual Convention and General Meeting in Winnipeg.

(Thanks to Mr. K’s daughter, Elizabeth, for sharing many details about this remarkable man’s career.)

Skate Canada 2016 Annual Convention and General Meeting and National Coaches’ Conference to be held in St. John’s

OTTAWA, ON: Skate Canada announced today that St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, will be the host city for its 2016 Annual Convention and General Meeting (ACGM), in conjunction with the 2016 National Coaches’ Conference (NCC). The events will run from May 25-28, 2016, and the Saturday program will include the association’s 103rd AGM.

This marks Skate Canada’s first return to St. John’s since 2005 when the city was host to Skate Canada International.

“We are excited to return to one of Canada’s most historic cities for our National Coaches’ Conference and Annual Convention and General Meeting,” said Dan Thompson, Skate Canada’s Chief Executive Officer. “The skating family will undoubtedly feel welcomed by St. John’s vibrant east-coast culture and we look forward to a terrific week of growth and development.”

The event in St. John’s will provide skating delegates and coaches a great learning experience as well as the opportunity to celebrate the 2015-2016 season’s successes, while outlining goals and directions for coming years.

Volunteers Honoured for Their Dedication to Skating

Every not-for-profit body is only as good as its army of volunteers. While running the business and developing its programming may originate at a national office, like at Skate Canada, it’s the inspiring folks at the local level that really make the organization hum.

At Skate Canada, with some 1400 clubs in towns and cities all across the country, it takes thousands of volunteers to keep clubs operating, to run events, interact with current and potential members and to define the club’s place within the community.

Most volunteers entered the world of skating because they wanted their children to learn to skate. Then, as their children’s interest and commitment grew, their involvement grew too, to a point where offering time to help make the club run smoothly seemed like the natural way to support their child’s hobby.

They discovered the job of volunteering requires anything and everything. It could be as little as an hour of your time or as serious as sitting on the club’s Board of Directors. And it can involve a smorgasbord of tasks … planning on-ice schedules, buying ice time, manning administration and officiating, fundraising, coordinating test days, producing ice shows, designing marketing and promotion plans … and even taking on the roles of psychologist, negotiator and team leader.

If it sounds like a bucket of scary snakes, it can be … but it can also be the stuff of life-changing experiences: friendship, teamwork, mastery of new life skills and the development of highly successful partnerships.

At the yearly Volunteer Awards Gala and Banquet during the Annual Convention and General Meeting coming up in Winnipeg, you can ask the amazing volunteers being honored for their outstanding service what skating has added to their lives. The award winners come from every province and from every part of skating … club and section volunteering, coaching and officiating … yet their individual messages about the value of partnerships are consistent and often spoken with one voice.

Laurie Bertholet, the mom of Manitoba’s representative for the CompetitiveSkate Athlete Award, states, “Success definitely starts at the grassroots and moves all the way up to the elite level. Promoting that we are all partners in skating’s progress shows that all parts of the skating family are important, whether CanSkater, elite athlete, coach, volunteer or administration.”

And as pointed out by Therese Bilsborough, the award winner from Northern Ontario, using the strengths of all partners is a key to success. “I feel that partnerships with our volunteers, municipalities, fellow rink users and the corporate world are absolutely necessary for my club and community to thrive.”

These days with so many other activities vying for a participant’s time and money, the challenge for skating and our clubs is to recognize the realities of today’s recreational landscape and provide an activity and environment that is positive, productive and fun.

New Brunswick’s winner, Carole Tiffault, describes such an activity at her club, the Dieppe Gold Blades. “We promote our programs to other sports like ringette, hockey and speed skating. All our associations do their registrations together so that people are aware of all the sports being offered.”

Cindy Ramsay from PEI agrees that getting along with other groups in the rink is critical, however looking outside the rink to build partnerships can also provide unexpected results. “We need to create a good working relationship with the municipality to be in their thoughts when resources are being handed down; with local business so we can tap into their resources; with high schools so we can access potential volunteers; and with local media so our events can receive coverage.”

What does a good partnership look like to our winners?

Doug Pettapiece from Alberta/North West Territories/Nunavut section describes the key characteristics. “There should be agreement on a common goal, openness, transparency, trust and mutual respect for all parties involved.”

Newfoundland/Labrador’s winner, Susan Thistle, goes even further. “The goals should be clearly defined so that a strategy can be established to reach the goal. Each partner needs to understand their respective roles in the partnership … and to work well together.”

Skate Canada Central Ontario’s winner, Joanne Phelps, adds one simple but vital piece of the puzzle, “Collaboration and respect are critical to any successful partnership!”

It’s true that some volunteers come to the club with special professional skills to share, and certainly those resources are invaluable to a club’s success. Most other volunteers however come with things that may not be as tangible but are every bit as important … an even bigger and better bag of tricks … motivation, dedication and time.

Perhaps they had a great skating experience as a youngster, maybe their children are learning to skate at the club and they feel it is their duty to volunteer or maybe they’re an official. The reasons for getting there are as diverse as the skating community itself but one thing holds them all together … to give time to a sport that has somehow or in some way has enriched their lives.

Based on her myriad of experiences, Nova Scotia’s Sarah Miles says it perfectly. “It takes many people to grow a successful sports organization. If those partnerships are really positive, they can create a lifelong commitment, involvement and love of skating.”

Nexxice and Bezic in Synch

Noted choreographer Sandra Bezic went looking for a novel element for her Niagara skating show last January and struck the motherlode.

She discovered Nexxice.

“I knew they were good,” Bezic said. “But I didn’t realize how good they were until I stepped onto the ice with them.”

Right from the first blush, when Bezic was with them at their training base, the Appleby Skating Centre in Burlington, Ont., she was “blown away” – just by their stroking exercises.

Watching them do this 30-minute, Anne Schelter-led work, in formation, 16-strong? Goosebump worthy. Watching them win the world synchronized skating championships several months later at home, in their own neck of the wood, in front of a throng of screaming, red-shirted, flag-waving people? Priceless.

Bezic was in the audience for the free skate, a spellbinding routine to “Rhapsody in Blue.” Dressed in black from head to toe, with the light sparkling subtly from their smoky shirts, a flip of deep cobalt blue kicking up from skirts as they moved, Nexxice finally executed the complex routine the way they wanted to all season. And now the world knows who they are, too: world champions of the highest order.

Their performance at the world event in Hamilton, Ont., in mid-April is perhaps a watershed moment not only for Nexxice, but for the synchronized skating world in general as it waits breathlessly for the International Olympic Committee to vote on its inclusion in July.

“I think we are maturing,” said Nexxice coach Shelley Barnett. “Our sport is maturing. We’ve been knocking on the door for a long time. But I also think we are getting more respect from other skating disciplines. That is something I didn’t see before, certainly not after 2007.”

Barnett was speaking of the year that the world championships last came to Canada in 2007, when the team finally won its first medal (bronze), in London, Ont. It was noisy there, too. But what happened in Hamilton was beyond compare.

People who had never watched synchro skating before tuned in. So did many of Canada’s elite mainstream skaters. Barnett noticed increased turnout for their team tryouts, and also registration for youth and beginner programs has tripled since the world championships. “Many of the younger skaters had never seen anything like this at this level,” she said. “And there is more enthusiasm and interest from parents who maybe didn’t quite get the full picture of what the sport could do for their children.”

Yes, Nexxice won, but it was the way they did it that sends shivers to the bone. Barnett said Schelter created choreography for the free skate that was complicated and required nuances of expression. “It had so many complexities and intricacies in the music that had to be brought out,” Barnett said. ”The team was challenged all year to find those nuances and to be able to control their movement enough to music.”

They wanted something challenging for the team, because Nexxice members were strong skaters, and the core of the team had been together at least five years. “They were capable of handling quite a bit,” Barnett said.

Bezic, known as the choreographer for folk like Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini, Brian Boitano, Kristi Yamaguchi, Kurt Browning, Tara Lipinski, Chen Lu and for years, Stars on Ice tours, went looking for Nexxice because she wanted local talent for her new Niagara ice show. She also wanted to mix things up in the show, putting new skaters with legends (Nam Nguyen and Kurt Browning), and mainstream skaters with synchro.

But when Bezic actually started to work with Nexxice, she was stunned by their skating ability. ”Their fundamentals are just unbelievable,” she said. “And their cohesiveness as a team, and their musicality, and their professionalism. They are in a class by themselves.”

In return for taking time away from a very important season for her show, Bezic returned to Burlington several times to help with Nexxice’s competitive programs. She saw the team work four or five hours at a time, with short breaks for ice-making, without a complaint.

“They are so respectful of the process,” she said. “They were completely delightful and fun and excited.” She found Schelter’s program composition so musical and it “made so much sense,” she said. “It was all balanced and beautiful and it had the restraint and sophistication and yet [the short program to MUD] was still fun.”

Bezic thinks Nexxice played a huge role in the success of her own show. “We never really get to see that calibre of skaters all together,” she said.

As for Nexxice, for the first time, at Bezic’s show, they felt a sense of inclusion. “It was really an honour to be recognized at the same level,” said Nexxice co-captain Lee Chandler, the lone male on the team. “We don’t have an Olympic sport yet, so to be recognized as elite athletes along with the big names like Kurt Browning and Tessa and Scott, it was really an honour.”

The two skating worlds traded stories about their experiences at rehearsals and the worlds collided with great cheer. Chandler heard Browning’s sage advice: to stay in the moment, to enjoy the training and the journey, to enjoy every single moment of the ups and downs through a long season.

The world synchro championships gave team members memories that will last them a lifetime. “It was kind of a whirlwind,” Chandler said. “That was probably the biggest crowd I’ve skated in, probably the most energetic crowd, in my skating career.”

The crowd, which numbered about 7,600 for their “Rhapsody In Blue” routine, started to scream as soon as Nexxice appeared from behind a curtain. They were on their feet, and waving the flags. “We were trying to stay as focused as we could,” Chandler said. “It was so loud. It was kind of just indescribable. The noise wasn’t really something that you heard. I was something that you felt. You could just feel the energy and the vibration right through the rink, when we were standing on the ice. It was an electric feeling.”

Then, they skated. “We worked countless hours to make sure that we did it justice and we skated it with maturity and poise,” Chandler said. “I think we can all be pretty proud. We went out and we owned it. We really didn’t hold back at all.”

Much of the team has committed to staying together for next season. Chandler says he’s finished, although he says if the IOC votes synchro skating in, he doesn’t want to close the door. He has a future as a coach and choreographer.

And it seems as if Bezic will never be the same again, like many, after having seen what a Canadian synchro team can do. “I felt like it was a shot in the arm for me to tag along,” she said.

Still Coaching after 60 years!

Paul Tatton then and now.

Paul Tatton then and now

It began as a way for a sickly child to get exercise but eventually turned into a life-long love affair with skating.

In the mid-1940s, Paul Tatton was 10 when he began skating at the North Bay Figure Skating Club. “I had been in bed with Pleurisy for over a year so naturally I wasn’t able to take part in active sports. Somehow I managed to pass my Preliminary Figure Test during my second season … and with that my love for skating was born.”

Young Paul Tatton.

Young Paul Tatton

His efforts in his first ice show never indicated the kind of career that lay ahead. “While Sonya Henie was the star of the show, I was a frog along with two other young boys. We were skating on natural ice in an inch of slush and carried on so much that when we took off our costumes, we were green all over – the dye didn’t come off for a week!”

From the beginning, it was a family commitment, his parents volunteering for every job at the club, his mom eventually becoming a gold test judge. “After my second year’, says Paul, “my father drove me all the way to Toronto to get a half hour lesson with Coach Gerry Blair. At the end of the lesson he told me that I could be as good as I wanted — he could show me what to do but the rest was up to me.”

When Paul arrived back in North Bay he informed his parents that he had to live away from home to get skating time. His parents agreed and the next day drove him to Copper Cliff, west of Sudbury, got him a room, arranged for meals at a boarding house and enrolled him in the Copper Cliff Skating Club. “I was 13 years old”, tells Paul, “and got up at 4am every morning, walked to get breakfast, then to the rink and skated from 5am to 8.30, then off to school. I trained there with Mr. Blair on weekends and practiced on my own during the week.”

Paul Tatton as a young boy.

Paul Tatton as a young boy

Paul admits that Gerry Blair took him under his wing and insured he had the things he needed to improve. “I had trouble with skating boots breaking down so Mr. Blair took me to see a friend of his, John Knebli. John made shoes for handicapped people. When shown my skates his immediate reply was ‘I CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT’! He took me back to his shop, measured my flat feet … and two weeks later I had the very first skating boots Mr. Knebli ever made. The rest is history.”

Under the guidance of Gerry Blair and later Sheldon Galbraith, Paul competed all the way to third place at Senior Canadians in 1954, finishing his free program despite experiencing an asthma attack part way through the performance. Returning home to skate in the official opening of North Bay Memorial Gardens, he knew his competitive career was at a turning point. Money was tight and with strict rules regarding amateur status, Paul felt he was almost forced to turn professional.

Paul Tatton pairs skating.

Paul Tatton pairs skating

“Arena manager Morris Snyder asked me to run a Spring School for him. He thought I might have a good turnout and of course, loving a challenge, I wanted to see if I could do it. It turned out to be a success with all high tests passing.”

That started Paul on his life’s work. “The transition to coaching was easy … I’m a tremendous planner … and not just in skating.” Whether it was learning to fly and getting his certification after one month, being scouted by the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL or receiving a scholarship to develop his high tenor operatic voice in Italy, whatever Paul set his sights on, he did with determination.

Thankfully Paul’s dedication to coaching skating won out.

He worked in the US, most notably in Hershey, Pennsylvania, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio as the Director of Skating and finally back in Canada in 1976 after which he started his own school in Sundridge, Ontario. “Today I work for Riverside Skating Club, Windsor Skating Club and La Salle Skating Club in Western Ontario.”

Wherever Paul landed, he discovered it was the science of skating that kept him challenged, particularly during school figures. “I loved to see what happened if I turned my head one way, not the other. I still love doing skating research and then seeing the effects … it’s fascinating … I never get bored.”

He’s sad figures are gone. “Figures taught you to concentrate. Learning quality turns, body control and the tracing of a perfect edge was a real art form. It was the great divider; today it’s often just acrobatics.”

One of Paul’s former students, Jen Jackson, now a coaching colleague, recalls her early days under Paul’s tutelage. “I have known Paul since 1987 when I first moved to Windsor and was looking for a coach to help me finish my gold tests. I chose him because when I came into the rink to watch, even though he wasn’t teaching the best skater on the ice, he gave her a lesson filled with enthusiasm. I could see his passion for the sport … and he never watched the clock.”

Paul Tatton coaching.

Paul Tatton coaching

Paul admits his priority has always been to instill confidence in the skaters he teaches. “I like to think that with each lesson I’ve accomplished something that will help them. You learn a lot about yourself in skating. You learn to face challenges that will benefit you for life. My coaches sure gave me confidence and for that I am grateful. Now it’s my job to pass that confidence on.”

In many ways, Jen has followed Paul’s teaching model. “When I began coaching, Paul was so generous and had me work with all his skaters. Now that he’s getting older, he’s stepping back, letting others take more leadership so he can work on specific areas with the skaters. He loves teaching turns and has become the Spin Doctor. The kids just love him. He always has a kind word or a story about the good old days and how each skater reminds him of someone wonderful he used to teach.”

Getting older has meant facing other challenges for Paul. Two years ago he had shoulder surgery and also broke his back, injuries which kept him off the ice for months.

As Jen says, it may have kept him out of the rink, but it did not curtail his enthusiasm. “When I would go to visit him, all he could talk about was how the kids were doing. He never complained about his situation and instead just kept telling me that he couldn’t wait to get back and hopefully by then he was still needed.”

Paul admits, “I’m proudest of the moments when I’ve helped kids do something they didn’t think they could do.”

Teaching from the boards, although Paul doesn’t put his skates on these days, he is as enthusiastic and involved as ever, this week attending the Annual General Meeting of Skate Canada Western Ontario and celebrating his 60th year of coaching.

Congratulations Paul!

Master Coach Sheldon Galbraith Leaves Lasting Legacy

Sheldon Galbraith’s funeral was anything but quiet and sombre.

Old friends by the numbers filed in and the chatter filled the room. The chatter became a din. It was like an old family reunion. Galbraith always had lots to say. So did his family and that includes folks who felt his big presence over the years.

Galbraith was just short of 93 when he died on April 14, and it was clear from all the gibber, that the life he had lived was full and meaningful to many. He was a man who was a game-changer, ahead of his time, with a big personality that radiated gloriously through glossy black-and-white photos of him skating shadow pairs in his early Ice Follies days with brother Murray.

Photos lined the room of Galbraith’s life: an incredibly handsome photo of him in naval uniform; Galbraith toting an enormous golf bag, with an amused look thrown back over his shoulder; Galbraith going deer hunting, or perhaps it was for moose (the bigger the game, the better); Galbraith in his familiar coaching uniform – long baggy coat, big galoshes, cap with floppy ear flaps pulled over his head – as he leaned over to inspect a compulsory figure; Galbraith with family, wife of 69 years, Jeanne and their four daughters and one son; Galbraith receiving the Order of Canada.

Galbraith’s list of accomplishments is long: coach of Barbara Ann Scott, winner of the first Canadian Winter Olympic gold medal in 1948; coach of world champions in three of the four skating disciplines; coach of Olympic champs Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul, the first Canadian pair to win this gold; two-time world champions Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden, who also took Olympic silver; coach of 1962 world champion Donald Jackson, who became the first skater to land a triple Lutz in competition, coach of Vern Taylor, credited with the first triple Axel.

He also earned a string of awards: he was the first figure skating coach to be inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame (1980), and he’s also a member of the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame (1990), the Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Fame (1991), the World Museum Hall of Fame in the United States (1996) and the Professional Skating Hall of Fame (2003). Galbraith, the first president of the Professional Skating Association in Canada, also received the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario.

But reading between all of those lines is even more astonishing. Brian Foley, the Pied Piper of Canadian dance who also choreographed for Dorothy Hamill, Robin Cousins, John Curry and Toller Cranston, said he first set foot at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club in 1966, when he met Galbraith, then the head coach.

“I’ll never forget that first introduction with Sheldon,” Foley said. “He was, in his way, very polite in chastising me, that I was standing and teaching in his space.”

In a far corner of that space, Foley saw the many teaching tools Galbraith used to bring out the best in his skaters: “a homemade flying contraption,” Foley said. “Trampolines with crash mats. A few wooden poles. Some climbing apparatus and other paraphernalia that reminded me of an early Cirque du Soleil.”

And who could ever forget the video room? “I want to assure everybody that nobody was invited or allowed into that room,” Foley said. Well, international judge Jane Garden did. Galbraith showed her videos, taught her to see errors, made her a better judge. Later, he advocated for judges to pass on what they learned at skating events. Not only did he teach skaters. He taught judges.

Galbraith spent his life researching and developing his own philosophies, adapting his training as a flight instructor to figure skating. He made it all a science, but intuition worked too. Technique in figures, jumps and spins was all-important. He taught the science of momentum and balance and centre, which are elements that you need to do quality spins, Foley said. He researched the physical transfer of weight from edge to edge, carrying the weight appropriately over the ball of the foot. He measured the amount of velocity required in order to skate forward and backward with great flow.

If there is anybody who carries the Galbraith torch of technique, it is Gary Beacom, the master of the skate blade. “I am grateful that my most influential coach plumbed the depths of technique with such enlightenment and a sense of adventure,” Beacom said. “I credit my skating proficiency and capacity for innovation to decades of training the Galbraithian relationship of speed, curve, lean and rotation. Sheldon Galbraith advocated continuous harmonious motion using momentum and rhythm for both technical and artistic advantage.”

Beacom says he had Galbraith to thank for reviving the cross-foot spin as a compulsory program element during the mid-1970s. The cross-foot spin became Beacom’s signature move.

Casey Kelly, now an international judge, began to take lessons from Galbraith when her family moved back to Canada in 1973. She remembers his fairness and sense of equality. Cranston had a habit of drifting over the lines of the space allotted to him for training figures. He was working toward a world championship: Kelly was working on her third test. She would politely step aside for Cranston.

However, Galbraith told her: “Don’t you dare stop. You deserve to be here just as much as he does.” Kelly smacked into Cranston three times, before he finally moved back into his own space. “That was something I never forgot,” she said.

Donald Jackson also discovered Galbraith’s sense of fair play before he even began to work with him. Jackson had been training with Pierre Brunet in the United States, but Galbraith, the Canadian team coach, took over watch on Jackson during the 1960 Olympics when Brunet was too busy with other skaters.

Galbraith was the official coach of Wendy Griner at the time and the question became: who would take to the practice patch first? “It was always better to skate second, because the ice would be a little bit softer and more like the ice you were skating on when you skate in front of the judges,” Jackson said.

Jackson was astonished when Galbraith flipped a coin to determine who he would coach first. He could easily have saved the best patch for his own student. “That was just the type of man he was,” Jackson said. “Fair. Honest. It was what I really appreciated.” The next season, Jackson moved into Galbraith’s fold.

Galbraith changed the technique on all of Jackson’s jumps, laboriously. Then one day, he asked Jackson to do a double flip, which Jackson could do with his arms folded. But Galbraith told him to relax into a backspin position as he went up. “No problem,” thought Jackson, who promptly landed on his toes and fell, hard. Galbraith glided over and said: “I saw what I wanted to see. Don’t do it again.”

It was too late for Jackson to change that technique on a flip. But now, everybody does jumps with backspin technique. “Every time I see the skaters doing triples and quads, I think of what Mr. Galbraith developed for skating,” Jackson said. “And I think of my bruise, too. I guess I was the guinea pig.”

And yes, he was Mr. Galbraith to everybody. Hardly anybody ever called him Sheldon. Barbara Wagner said she called him Mr. Galbraith even as she became an adult. Kelly said her mother, Andra, never called him Sheldon, even though they’d sit next to each other at Hall of Fame functions, because of her husband, hockey great Red Kelly.

“He was a very special man who was way ahead of his time,” Wagner said.