The skaters left today with a much better understanding for technique and the basics.
Head Coach, Buggy Allmond, along with the other coaches Kelly Springer, Jim Larson, Karen Shields, Ross Creveling, Ricky Brock, Cathy Morante and Lind Wood, decided it was time to "stop and smell the roses". With National Team skaters even showing some difficulty skating on one foot, for at least half of the straightaway during warm-ups, it was evident that bringing these skaters back to the basics would help both the National Team and the Elite clinic skaters have a better feel for the drills that would be skated over the next 4 days.
The first session usually designed to warm the skaters up and revisit such drills as first seam, second and third seam passes, were put on hold to work on "low and slow" and over-exaggerated deep edges. They also had an opportunity to work on "foot placement" during the recovery of the "freeleg". The skaters seemed to have a great time and showed remakable improvement, whether it was due to the excellent demonstrations by Joey Mantia and teammate Michael Cheek (both recent Gold Medalists at the 2007 World Championships in Colombia) or just having the open space and time to slow things down and work on individual movements. Yesterday finished up a success and more pictures were added to the site. Visit them here at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/58909696@N00/sets/
Come back often to view new pictures added daily as these clinics (the Developmental clinic rolls into town on Wednesday) progress.
Enjoy, Linda Wood
