Stacey and David's Diary

Uphill

2010-08-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

Getting back to full fitness after the holiday is a giant uphill struggle. Most people probably can't comprehend the kind of pain and exhaustion an athlete feels when they reach this point in the season. We are just starting to attempt full programme run throughs, which means 5 minutes at 100% full throttle, no holds barred. What’s amazing is that once a week seems tough but in just a couple of weeks we'll be up to five full programmes a week on top of our normal training schedule. However at this point in training mental strength is just as important as physical strength, the ability to set aside the distractions of pain, lack of energy and keep full commitment, not to let up, just keep on truckin'. Come that first competition, we'll be glad we did!

We've completed all our Choreography for both programmes now, working off ice with Artur a hip-hop instructor who won Poland's 'You Think You Can Dance' competition a few years back. It’s been a complete change from the classical and Latin American we did in the past and just refreshing to challenge a new aspect of dance. On ice the short and long programmes get smoother the more we do them. Some of the elements are a bit scrappy at the moment but that's normal, we can't be perfect all the time, as much as we try! That's the fun part anyway, taking someone else's choreography and turning it into your programme - complete with your tricks.

So it’s pretty repetitive stuff at the moment at home in Torun, Poland. It's the ‘practice makes perfect’ rule and we keep going over and over our programmes to gain almost an auto-pilot mode so we can get past the choreography and start pushing the speed. This week we are filming a review of our training to send to our federation. We used to come home for screenings but expense is a major problem for us this season and we have to cut down on all cost if were going to reach Sochi Olympics in 2014. Our money has dwindled since we moved out to train in the best Pairs School in Europe and British Olympic funds have sadly ended. But you can always replace money; what you can’t replace is your time and place in such a competitive sport.

Well sorry there isn’t anything more exciting to report this time but we have competitions coming up real soon and this is where the fun begins!

All the best people and work hard.

Life Skills

2010-08-18T08:27:00.001-07:00

We had a great month in Krynica pinpointing our weaknesses from last season and really getting some great work done. It drew to a close as fast as it started and we ended our Polish squad camp in the mountains very pleased with ourselves. A busy schedule lay ahead, straight after a long days training we set off for home around 5pm only to arrive in Torun at 3am.

Needless to say I was very tired the next day, but it had to be done because our flight left Gdansk (which is another two hour drive) at 6am. All because our flight was cancelled a month before we flew, cheers!

We booked a hotel near the airport so we could get a few hours sleep. As we entered into Gdansk we were stopped in traffic, I put my hand break on, checked my mirror and oh no. I saw a white van speed round the corner and I could tell by his speed he was going to hit me. His brakes let out a loud screech, then tried to swerve but clipped my left side and just heard a mighty crash.

I pulled up to a lay-by and got out to check the damage. Not too bad. I had to pull the bumper out of my back left tyre and a few dents but overall it was ok. The other guy’s was mashed up a lot worse than mine but he cooperated fine. I thought ‘you idiot’ as he had his wife in the front and two children in the back in car-seats, you would think he would take it a little easier. Although annoying, luckily no one was hurt and my car at least was drivable, we exchanged our details and although a little dazed headed to our destination.

The hotel ended up being quite a trek away as we had to drive for about five minutes on a dirt track to find the place. It had a very lonely look to it and was quite under the weather with nobody around for miles. After seeing too many horror movies start this way we were a little on edge but made our way up to reception as we were both falling asleep already.

When we reached the front desk we were surprised to see smiling pleasant owners who upgraded our room for free and were very friendly. I felt very bad for expecting only bad things of their pride and joy but it just goes to show you can never judge a book by its cover.

A bit stressful and sleep deprived, but at least we returned safely just needing a bit more beauty sleep. Yet there was no time for catching up as I got back to Stacey’s just in time to be picked up by Shaun (Stacey’s brother) to go for my suit fitting. Before I knew it I was on a bus to Newcastle for Shaun’s stag do, but as juicy as it was you know I can’t say anything about the trip. The first law of the stag – sorry. What I can tell you is I had a great time and survived with only a few minor paintball bruises to the side, back, chest and legs.

On the Thursday of that week we managed to fit in a full days filming for a promotional advert at Ice Sheffield. A great day out and we really look forward to seeing the results from Rogue Frame Productions. Then to top it all off we had a fantastic weekend at Shaun’s wedding. Congratulations to them and I wish them many years of good fortune. It was a fantastic day and great to see all the families together. It pushed me and Stacey to get a few ideas together and think about the mammoth task of organising a wedding.

Anyway we are back in Poland now and had a week’s training back at base, just to see more great results. Let’s just hope the rest of our season can continue this way.

All the very best and speak soon.

Krynica Camp

2010-08-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to the latest Kemp and King blog. Were happy to be writing to you from the very south of Poland in a mountain town called Krynica. It's a very picturesque place with it's own natural spring water, quite famous and sold throughout Poland. If you were wondering yes we did bring our little cat 'Amber', we had a few days to get here so drove from our home town Torùn, up to Prague then on to Vienna, and finished up in Zakopane. Amazing drive and stopped over in 3 beautiful cities, if anything i just wish we'd had a bit more time and money to see more of the places.

The weather has been stunning with it not dropping below 30degrees but maintaining a nice breeze, which is perfect when you are running for hours. We are here training under our Polish coaches and attending their annual Polish squad camp, which includes many various activities and is set out in a very organised manor so we can just get on and work! We've been running up mountains, plenty of core fitness sessions, gym workouts, aqua athletics, sports specific stuff and of course lots of ice time. It really is all the little things we appreciate though, just great to get back from training and food is prepared for you and the maids have tidied your room so you can just collapse in bed.

This is week 2 of the camp and the 3rd season we've started our on ice training in this way. We start very basic and easy, then by the end of the 4 week camp we build to our harder elements and full programmes. Always hard at the start of a season as just a few weeks out can really hit fitness and stamina hard. Our sport requires a lot of explosive power and this time of the year can put major strains on most your big muscle groups so you spend 10minutes getting down a flight of stairs for breakfast every morning. But all is well and we are very happy with our progress so far, we are very keen to achieve major leaps in our game and can only get through hard work.

Anyway, have to get warmed up for the ice but will speak to you all soon.
Best wishes,
Stacey and David

Olympic Village

2010-02-09T08:32:00.000-08:00

Well, after the jet lag and busy training schedule has calmed down i finally have a bit of time to talk to you guys! Also there are rules to follow on an Olympic blog which i had to brush up on before i published this. Well i suppose you want to know what it is like here in the Olympic Village? Well in a word; Amazing! If you want a sentence; it is just absolutely fantastic with a cherry on top! We have the best apartment in the village over looking the harbour of false creek and all of down town, seeing BC stadium and the science museum. It is just perfect, with the weather great so far too.

Training is good, first few days with jet lag were hard but its tarting to ease off now. We start our official practices today and have a tough group so today is going to be interesting. Also a big problem is the food hall, with a massive selection of great food all prepared and ready for you 24 hours a day it will be very easy to spend most my days just eating. I will try my best not to let this happen. On that note, were off too breakfast, speak soon

Last minute checks!

2010-02-03T05:26:00.000-08:00

Olympics, that’s what we work for and every 4 years it splendours our lives for a short while. We have prepared the best we can and now is our time to enjoy the moment. We had quite a successful last few competitions, with clean skates a the British giving us a 5th senior title and winning the joint Polish Nationals. Europeans was hard after missing the spin in the short but we put up a brave long and finished in 11th. Maybe if it had gone to plan we could of been 7th or 8th but that’s sport and nobody remembers the if, buts and maybes, were all just on a knife edge with competition extremely tight. This season has also shown great excitement in the old masters coming back to the sport just for Olympic glory and showing great form. One thing is for certain, we are all in for a really good show!

Tomorrow we fly and so we check and double check the packing, look at the travel plans again and make sure everything is organized. There has been so much snow here in Poland that we need to get the train to catch our flight as the road to Warsaw is dangerous at the best of times. When we arrive I will try my best to keep up to date most days with the blog, if i get in to a routine it shouldn't be so hard now should it.

Until tomorrow people!

Two very different competitions!

2009-11-05T04:01:00.000-08:00

I know this was Graz's first attempt of hosting an international event and i know they will learn from their mistakes, but most of the competition was hard to swallow. For a start spectators were expected to pay 20 euros a day per ticket so only competitors managed to actually watch the skating. We arrived to find out the hotel we were staying at was a Marriott hotel, for skaters who can hardly afford to fly here let alone stay for the week in a very expensive hotel.

20euro each way for the bus to the hotel from the airport so with 5 of us travelling to the event it was cheaper to hire a car for the 5 days, good job because they decided to charge for the bus to the main rink and a separate charge for the bus to the practice rink. On top of that we had to pay 40 euros for the entry to the competition and 30euros a day for meal tickets…. For those of you that are good at math, that’s a lot of cash, especially with the euro so strong. Britain had a huge team there too, for a lot of our younger British skaters this was their first international and may now believe this is how all competitions are run.

Practice was at some different rink each time never on the main competition rink (I know its only ice but it does make a difference!) and one of the practice rinks was outdoor with a roof but no walls. Then on the day of the long our practice was cancelled due to a hockey practice taking place at the same time… We got a free meal ticket though. 2 clean programmes and we finished 5th... so we took it on the chin as ever, and it was a learning curve!

Time to get back to work, building on improvements already made so the next competitions can be positive experiences. The Skate America Grand Prix was here faster than we knew it! We had 6 working days to maintain our fitness and touch up our programmes. No time for new elements, we know you want us doing harder stuff but we are working on them out the programme, they are coming and we will show them when they are ready. Skate America Grand Prix was all about showing our new form and proving we British do have class.

It took us 31 hours of travelling to get to the Infamous Lake Placid home of the 1930+81 Winter Olympics. On arrival after our bus driver got lost and needed directions to our accommodation via a US team member phoning a friend, we checked in around midnight. But its not that easy is it, you all must know better by now. 3 times every hour from this moment until 3am the man on the front desk moved us from our rooms. Trust me my smile for just a little moment started to fade, only very slightly and the brighter side was setting very fast! But next morning we had a great practice and all was forgotten. Ice was great, the only problem was that huge Cancer.net signs were plastered everywhere because they sponsored the event and as you may know Stacey's Father Dave Kemp died just over 6 years ago of Bowl Cancer and this kind of threw our cool slightly. Hopefully the crowds watching didn't notice but we were always skating with a slight lump in our throats.

We stayed at the USA Olympic Centre halls of residence for athletes and it was just how an event should be run. The food was great and being in such an inspiring place brought the best from all the athletes. Competition time was tense as usual and we were skating 4th in the short which is now worked out by World Ranking points instead of the traditional draw. We skated a great short with a good twist fantastic throw triple loop and nice spins with a fast impressive press to star combination in the lift, then going in to the death spiral with the whole programme done clean and well, disaster!

Not to sure what happened all i know for sure is it didn't happen, so we lost 3.5 marks plus the deductions from the judges for an ugly end to the programme, Ooops! In the free programme we had no pressure, we weren't going to catch any of the US teams 6points down on home soil, so we skated for us and the hard work we've put into training this season. We did our best to a massive North American crowd, with only slight mistakes on the throws and last lift but an admiral performance overall. We left feeling a little more upbeat and know with nationals just next week we can show a home crowd just how far we've come.

Catch you next time

2009-10-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry we haven't blogged for a while but due to unforeseen circumstances (our camera broke!) we couldn't finish this post until pictures were obtained (most people probably don’t read the input just look at the gloss). Anyway if you've been paying attention to the website you'll already know we've competed at two international competitions. We won at Warsaw Open and finished 8th at an interesting Oberstdorf Olympic Qualifying competition in Germany. Next week we compete in Graz Austria with a huge British squad filling most discipline's in the Novice, Junior and Seniors events.

Oberstdorf didn't fail to provide all the excitement we've come to expect from the event and a lot of great new programmes were put on show. We achieved a personal best score in Oberstdorf, with only 1 mistake in the short programme on the side by side double axel and a strong clean performance in the long. It was a tough competition because for most the teams there it was the most important of the year as it was their Olympic Qualifying event and they aimed to peak here. The teams that had already qualified were using the event to show new programmes and warm up before the Grand Prix's where they would wish to skate their clinical best. We were really pleased with our performance's though and enjoyed the whole event as last season we couldn't attend due to Stacey's illness.

This years programmes have really fell into place, and still lots of room for improvements before the Olympics in February. No real big changes in general training, more ice time and a growing skating school is helping our improvements and building on the work we put in last season. August saw the start of our competitive season in Warsaw our first event, it feels like it was last year now but we had great fun and Mariusz Siudek our coach had 3 senior teams in the event all of which made it on the podium. Training has been going great and are just looking forward to a busy month of competing this November. Next week were in Graz, then a week back in Torun, then we have Skate America in Lake Placid, then a week back home, then we have British Nationals in Sheffield and then November is over!

So i hope you keep a close eye on us and if you can make the trip to see us compete it would be great if you could come down and support us in our Olympic Season. All our very best wishes,
Stacey and David

Summer

2009-09-01T01:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome back folks! Hope you've all been well and enjoying your summer. I thought it would make sense to post our first blog of the Olympic season before it all starts to kick off. Junior Grand Prixs are already under way and we've competed in our first competition of the season at the Warsaw open which we won. In a few weeks we will compete at Oberstdorf Olympic Qualifier and watch first hand the teams still fighting for Olympic spaces. Exciting times in the World of figure skating, an Olympic season is as good as it gets! Next week is the junior grand prix in Torun so we wish our British skaters all the very best there and will be along to support them.

Guess your wondering what we've been up to since Worlds? No, ok well i'll tell you anyway. A few new changes, the second ice pad in Torun, new long programme and of coarse a new arrival of Mariusz and Dorotas little Richard. Stacey had her 21st Birthday which we celebrated in style. We have new training partners the Estonian team Masha and Ilja with our junior Polish champions team coming on leaps and bounds over the summer. Also we have a new ice dance coach Sylvie who is fantastic with great presence on the ice and really compliments Mariusz and Dorota's school.

Thats the recent stuff but after LA we managed to fit in a holiday in Spain, 3 summer camps and a trip home to see family. We flew back from LA landing around 8pm then stopped the night at Stacey's mum's and 6:30am the next day we were on a plane to Barcelona with a load of our friends! We had a week at a friends Villa just outside of Tarragona (near Barcelona) and just relaxed, spending some quality time with the people closest to us. We were 5 minutes from the beach and the weather was great until the last day when the heavens opened and flooded the whole area! So i burst the hire car tire and was stuck changing it in this monsoon. Funny now but i wasn't laughing at the time.

After leaving Amber (our kitten) for so long we decided we had to get back to Poland and visit some of the sites around by us that we haven't had time to see when we were in season. A bit of us time! Coincidently when we got back to Torun it was the World Ice Hockey Championships and the Great Britain Supporters Club gave us celebrity status amongst them and treated us to tickets to all the British games (and yes GB beat Poland in the last game to gain a Bronze medal). It was very exciting stuff and we were very proud of them!

A few weeks back we had a winter Olympic conference in Glasgow, we met up with Jenna, our team leader Sue and team Dr Elanor for the weekend. I think we all had a great time and heard from some incredibly intelligent individuals who gave up their time to talk to us about their experiences and thoughts on how to progress in winter sports. The British Olympic Association are really trying to push the efforts of the British team to its limits. Along with some fantastic team bonding (and sublime cheating!) events and motivational speakers it was a very successful and productive 2 days.

We were in lite training until early may then we travelled home for my birthday... For 2 days! While i was back i was invited to my old high school Nelson Thom in Wigton to present their first ever awards for sporting achievement, i felt very proud and they made me feel very special. My birthday we went to my home town Carlisle with friends, and the next day we flew back to Poland. From there the next weekend we went to Dorota's home town Krakow and spent a few days with Mariusz and Dorota seeing the sites in a very beautiful town. From there we got our season rolling by travelling to Milan, choreographing our new long programme.

Now was time to start work again and our athletics coach came to town, his name Pan Jacek (Mr Yatsek). We went to the Polish Olympic centre on the coast called Cietniewo which was all off ice work then we went tto the opposite end of the country to the mountains to train both on and off ice. Unfortunately Stacey had to go England at the end of the Olympic off ice camp to sort out a knee problem she picked up. The weather though has been great, adding to the pleasure of the start to our season.

Its has been great reminiscing on our holidays and the start of our season in which seems to of been the fastest year on record. Its just flown by!

Well i think now your up to date, and i will talk to you again soon! Take care now

Review of Worlds

2009-04-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

So, I had a few emails saying we didn't describe very well what went on while we were at Worlds. Well, everything kind of fell into place so there wasn't too much to report on (for a change!). On the first practice, which was on the practice rink we walked into the LA convention centre and there was a small temporary ice rink slap in the corner of this truly enormous building. Simple as we are everyone found it comical and strange at the same, an idea for Tate Modern maybe? It was in fact a nice rink, and when we were drawn to skate with Mariusz's old coaches' two Canadian teams it had a good atmosphere.

We skated quite late on for us, first out to perform Short in our group and skated clean with the only mistake being Stacey getting a little excited over landing a sweet throw triple loop. I wasn't so pleased with our component marks because for us it was loads better than we skated at NHK in Tokyo yet our components were almost 4 points lower, that's a whole element! It cost us a group for the long the next day and probably a whole place overall! So not concentrating on whether the cameras were still filming I got up to leave kiss and cry but was very promptly told to stay, Ooops big fine if you leave early, but it wasn't to make a point it was just me not thinking. We didn't wait around for the draw tha evening as it was going to be gone midnight with an early start. Anne our team leader drew for us… yet another first to skate for the long.
Sometimes when you step on to the ice, you just have a good feeling about things and this was one of those moments. Just in a world of our own, and for that programme in that moment of time we skated it the best we could. When a years hard work is judged in 4 minutes and 50 seconds and you achieve to do your absolute best, it has a feeling of complete joy. In just under 5 minutes we completed six level four elements (with 2 other elements classed as level 2 and 3) and 2 clean throw triples, with intricate choreography throughout linking the programme together the whole time thinking you must go faster. With hard work this all fell in to place and we reaped the rewards a place at the Winter Olympics.

Our only goal for the entire season was reached only by performing 2 clean programmes on 2 wonderful evenings at the Staples centre in LA. As the week progressed we managed to start seeing some of the Town, unfortunately not so many of the stars. Mariusz spotted Bruce Willis on the first night, and we saw Jordan with Peter Andre were having a Californian Pizza but unfortunately that was our lot. I would like to think that some stars would have watched us in the arena? I know Haig took his cousin Eric Idle to see the mens free and i saw Stephane Lambiel and Johnny Weir too. On the Saturday we hired a ford Mustang to drive around in for the day, and it was great! I like my cars and have always wanted to drive one of the new Mustangs, so we spent the day beach hopping. Starting at Huntington beach where a surf competition was on and going up to Long beach, Venice beach and finally Santa Monica before heading back for Jenna's free skate. It was a great day and we finished it off by driving up to Rodeo drive and Stacey bought me a cool juicy couture jacket saying 'Great Freakin' Britain'. I imagine David Beckham has the same one!

We spent our final 2 days at Universal studios even the day we flew we spent the morning there. There was a lot more we wanted to see and do but i think we'd done as much as we could in the few days we had, LA is so spread out. Now its back to the drawing board and plan out what to do in our 2009-10 Olympic season. Speak soon!

We Qualified for the Olympic Games...

2009-04-12T03:53:00.000-07:00

... And that's all that matters! Ha ha, after Stacey's illness this was the only goal left on our once long list and we achieved it. We just had to skate 2 clean programmes at the final competition of the year, no pressure then. Winning Golden Spin and getting 4th at the NHK trophy this year were both just icing on the cake for this season, i would of traded both of those results to be going to the pinnacle competition of sporting excellence. First of all I'd like to thank all the British fans who made the long trip to come support us and the British team, and also to all our fans who watched on the TV or Internet. We have heard so many wide tales about how followers got to watch us in the end, we just feel honoured by the support! Thank you all.

It isn't just David and Stacey who has got us here, we have such a strong team working in the background to help us achieve what we can and this success is felt by each individual member of Kemp and King. First most the NISA World Class Performance Team who have supported us admirally from the start of our careers, our financial support from parents, Jewellery by Michael King, skate force trust, NLTG, R N Electronics, and Sue Naylor. But our most great full thanks go to the tireless workers of the British Olympic Association for the Olympic Solidarity Trust, TASS (Talented Athlete Support Scheme 2012) and Sports AID without who we could never of had the financial support to achieve the commitments that we have made! We are so very thank full you put your faith in us, thank you.

I never thought back in Dumfries that this moment would come true, tottering around the ice never being the best skater at the club and not a huge amount of talent. This just made me more determined, I'd always make achievable goals every year, and slowly making small steps to our eventual goal. Stacey actually started her skating because of Oksana Baiul back in the 1994 Olympics and this was the last time a British pair team competed at the games. It is very strange how things work out and nobody can predict what will happen, yet some things are just meant to be. After our final position in the long, i knew we'd done enough. I looked up to see the bright lights of the Staples Centre beam down and thought, David Kemp (1960-2004) and George King (1919-2008) were there smiling down as they'd know it too. There isn't much to success if it can't be celebrated with lots of supporters, friends, family even with all the commitments and sacrifices made our home still accepts us with open and praising arms along with our new overseas community.

So i hope i didn't ramble on too long, now were sitting back at home in Poland planning our next season and reflecting on the last. LA was amazing, how a World Championships should be held, and with the great weather it all just felt surreal for an ice skating event. This week the Great Britain ice hockey team are playing in Torun at the Division 2 World Champs, so we have tickets to go support them and we also start the process of booking up our season and finalising our plan.

Pre Worlds Camp, Chicago

2009-03-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

In true Stacey and David style, we couldn't just leave for a big competition without any drama. Well, we had a car crash............ Anyway the morning before we set off to Warsaw we were stopped at a red light for the tram stop after getting supplies for our long journey. As we were talking about our upcoming travel plans 'SMASH'! All we hear is a screech a skid and felt a huge bang. With our handbrake on we were still rammed 5-7 meters. In front of us people were exiting the tram, and now feel lucky we didn't hit anyone. I looked back to see a ruined blue fiat Bravo with a bonnet missing, presuming he'd left it in our little old Clio.

Our very good friend and president of our skating club Axel (also the president of our car insurance company!) came down to help and sorted everything so we could just drive off. We were staying that night at his beautiful Warsaw penthouse apartment as we had an early flight the next day, so we must give a huge thank you to Marek for helping us so much. From then on things went very smooth, we weren't upgraded on the flight but we got good economy seats and when its a 12 hour flight it really helps. I just watched the film Australia, which was really good and slept a little.

So, we arrived in Chicago and the weather was fantastic. We shopped a little just so we could stretch our legs and left for Davenport. We stayed with one of the Polish Pair teams, Liz and Patrick who train in the Quad Cities rink which i thought was a great name for an icerink. They were Bronze medalists at Polish nationals and stayed in Torun the week before, training with us and said they would return the favour. We had such an easy week because they looked after so well, loads of great food and perfect ice time. Liz's parents Gus and Irene made their home ours and i can't say there are many times that has happened to me, just made us so welcome and comfortable. One day a travelling AHL team (the division down from NHL) watched our practice before they went on and said as we watched you, you can come watch us, so we got free tickets to their game!

The week just flew past, and now were in LA at the World Championships, competing for Great Britain. It makes you feel very proud, and look back at our career in almost disbelief, that were now on our fourth senior World Championship. Lets hope for many more...

Well i hope you all enjoy watching on Tuesday and Wednesday and I will try to keep you all posted, thanks for reading.

Torun life!

2009-03-10T02:25:00.000-07:00

With only 2 weeks until our short programme in Los Angeles training just boils down to fine tuning and perfecting our routines. This point in the season feels great, you've done all the hard work through the year, its just like your really getting the best out of your programmes and then in 2 weeks its time to start a new season. This year has been such a roller coaster ride, not only with the ups and downs but also with the speed its passed, with its excitement until the end and how its coming to a very abrupt halt. With losing a family member in December then gaining a family member in January, in this last year we've really found strengths from all different places but we always had a surprisingly great deal of support from Torun. This town is a very fantastic place with a wealth of activities, we really feel like we landed on our feet here.

Life in Torun is almost all skating (that's why were here!) but you need balance in your lifestyle, skating is what i do it doesn't define who i am. So we've found out that Torun isn't just where we train, its also where we live. We now have some great friends out here lots of which are from Britain which we never would of imagined when we first came out, these pictures are all from our friend Glens birthday party held at the new Indian restaurant in town. Torun is quite a unique town, a wide range of activities and places to explore, with quirky traditions that keep us amused and frequently bemused. We don't drink alcohol when were in season so have yet to taste the night life but hear that it is very lively as it has a high student population. This also means now that i've started teaching English here there is a lot of people needing to speak with native speakers to improve their English skills.

Anyway, must go training now but i will keep you updated with how things are going! All our very best

Back off holiday

2009-01-28T06:01:00.000-08:00

Well were home in Poland now, we skated in Britain last week to keep on top of things but today is the first day of training if you get what i mean. Europeans felt a long one this year and the first one with no official closing banquet, which is like there was no end to the competition, a little strange. Helsinki was pretty, not a lot to do though, and food is just a luxury for the rich! I'm sure Worlds in L.A will be a little change from the minus degree's and feet of snow. Britain seemed to have got its own fair share though, in between our busy schedule of seeing my new week old nephew and sorting out our mounds of paper work and visits to Manchester to see one of our choreographers we did actually find time to go sledging! It seems impossible what you can fit into a week, but its also amazing what you can achieve.

We have a few programme changes to make but nothing spectacular, we'll save that for Olympics! Ha ha, the programmes mainly need to be faster, tighter, and clean. Our qualification criteria for the British Olympic Association is very demanding so we must demand a lot from our selves and we truly believe we can do it. The Olympic qualification for ISU just seems confusing more than anything, but everything aside we just need two more good skates this season! I find you just need a little luck on your side and a lot of hard work to benefit from most things in life.

Anyway its good to be back in full training, and will hope to speak to you soon. All our best wishes,

Helsinki!

2009-01-18T09:01:00.000-08:00

So, we made our flight from Warsaw! Better start than our last international already. It was an easy 3hr drive down with a short 1hr 30min flight, and quickly escorted to our pleasant Scandic hotel. Everything went very smooth and practice this morning was no different, with a nice clean short. The practice rink was a bit of a shock to most the pairs, I can only describe it as an ice rink in a cave, which incidentally doesn’t really have the head room for pairs. The first lift I only took to my shoulder as I feared for Stacey’s safety. But once we adjusted slightly we got on fine and are really looking forward to tonight’s 22:50 practice. A little late but its not for us to choose.

I love the big events where you can chat to skaters from all over the world mostly in similar situations to you, and watching the big names in skating live. It’s a great learning experience every time and you can’t learn it at your home rink no matter where you might be, you have to actually taste it. I’m sure if you can ask spectators at the rink if they can feel an energy they would agree there is something special at the big events. For now you’ll have to take my word for it but in the future you should try and make the journey.

The last two days we spent in Poland, training on our home ice and taking care of our kitty that we now won’t see for 9 days. While we were there the Guardian gave me a phone to do an article called ‘Whats Rocking Sport’ and its an insight in to athletes musical tastes, so that will be in on Monday if anyone is interested. Finland is similar weather to Poland too so we feel very well adjusted, which is great because there’s nothing worse than arriving to an event and not being comfortable. These small things can affect you but the main thing is to stay focused and just get two good skates out for all your years hard work to pay off. You can blame many things and make excuses but in the end its down to you and if you’ve trained properly you should have no worries.

Anyway, that is all for now. Were going for our dinner to keep up our strength. All our best

British National Championships

2009-01-16T01:19:00.000-08:00

Sorry i couldn't update sooner! I wasn't paying £20 for the two day wi-fi cost when I'd only be on for 20mins in that whole time. Anyway, if you didn't know already we retained our fourth senior title in Nottingham this week. We skated a pretty clean short, a few of our levels were 3 instead of 4 but corrected them for the free. It wasn't a personal best for this season but a pretty good attempt, just 2 points off and in general it was stronger than all of our other competitions this season.

Well, another national championships over with and another desired result. It was a well run event, apart from being so close to the European Championships and skating at the start of the week instead of the end everything was fine. Not a huge crowd for the short as it was a Monday but surprisingly not too bad for the long. Lots of controversy as ever at the British mainly with the ice dance, excitement you can't get from any other sport in the world it really does surprise me that skating doesn't bring in the crowds it should.

Stacey had her dress changed slightly in the free and made a big difference aesthetically, its the little things that take all season to finely tune and yet at the final competition where your just getting the hang of things its a totally clean slate and you have to start again. But like we have time to worry about things like that next week its Helsinki for the European Championships and as its our Olympic Qualifying season a personal best is pretty essential. We feel that everything is in place for us now though, we just have to enjoy ourselves. I hate getting too serious for these events as it can stop a true performance, but as long as i can say i tried my best i will be very happy!

With our flight to Helsinki for the European Championships tomorrow we will say a huge thank you to everyone who came to support us at the British Championships and hope you can watch us next week at the European Championships. We'll be in touch,

Stacey and David

Festive Period

2009-01-10T10:29:00.000-08:00

So our next set of competitions have jumped up on us faster than Christmas did. It seemed like we just arrived home from Polish Nationals and then I was there sitting in Bydgoszcz airport catching our flight to Liverpool for the holiday period. We had a short time at home, unfortunately a very sad time this Christmas but life throws us these times to help us reflect. We managed to dodge most the flu’s and chest infections that were going round, to be quite honest I think the Polish winter kills all the nasty bugs but your always left with a lingering cold. In Torun the temperature dropped to -22 which was quite a shock to us and meant most of our Christmas money was invested in warmer clothes. Training also got pretty chilly, most our sessions ended with numb hands and feet.

Skating as ever this year went well over the holiday period, playing around with new elements and skating good programmes preparing for Europeans. After last year at European Championships we have a big challenge to improve our placement but we’ve tried our very best to be in a position to try. In the rink where Mariusz and Dorota got their Bronze medal at worlds we will be fighting for top 5. Before Europeans we have the British Championships in Nottingham as a warm up. Any one whose going down on Monday or Tuesday I hope you have a great day and manage to see us skate. Its always a pleasure skating at home in Britain and it seems these days that its such a rare occasion that we can. If you can’t make it down you’ll be able to see our progress on the blog!

Anyway, Happy New Year everyone and hope to see you over the next week! All our very best,

Stacey and David

Champions of the 3 Republics

2008-12-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

After drawing last to skate and feeling good about our short we were super tired but attended our 10:30pm practice. Half 10am we had to skate our long. All the Torun pairs were feeling good after short, but i think all very tired after a long few days. But we scored a fantastic 93.17 in the long and all together 144.39, which is a big jump on Tokyo.

So we ended up winning the Polish nationals for a second time but this time we actually got a recognition and a medal, last year we just had to stand next to the podium which was rather embarrassing. I think we received a medal because each separate nation hosted their own champions in each event as well as overall champions of events. On to the gala and we decided to perform the piece we made up in Tokyo last week, although as in the short the sound quality was really bad and could hardly hear our music. Ah well! All in all was another good competition and best of all our 3rd personal best in a row, what more can we ask for when at the start of the season i wondered if we'd make the British! So back to hard work now, so you can enjoy later. All our best, Stacey and David

From One to Another!

2008-12-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

We had a great time in Tokyo and loads of fun at the gala even if it did mean missing the only day we had to see the city. In front of a huge packed arena we went out to enjoy and not worry about what scores we should get. The closing banquet was also great with bingo being replaced for a raffle but as always great hi tech prizes, and as ever we didn't win anything but the runner up prize they give away at the end. Although the top 5 competitors did get Klose make up sets, but our real prize was to get another personal best and achieve 4th place at a grand prix.

After all our troubled flight across the flight back was just fantastic, we were upgraded to business class. A remote controlled chair (with massage button) meant we got the best sleep we'd had all week! Good job too because in 3days we would have make the long trip south for the joint Polish, Czech and Slovak nationals in Trinec, Czech Republic. 6:30am the bus rolled up at our door (why is it always early starts?) Stacey and i were cramped up close and personal to our mini bus driver for the next long 10 hours. We stopped for Chinese but otherwise straight there.

Trinec is just over the Polish border and the Hotel Steel where were staying is right in the middle. We had a draw quite soon after arriving which was very professionally done in the local cinema. Not understanding too much of what was going on we drew 4th to skate which was 2nd in the second group and received an alarm clock as welcoming present. Unfortunately neither of the top 2 Czech men are here Tomas Verner and Michal Brezina but we have no time to watch anyway. We sat and enjoyed the entertainment, some nursery school kids who had rehearsed all year singing and dancing for us and waving to their embarrassed parents and to finish we had local ballroom dancers who gave an exhibition. After there was a fantastic carvery, very fine for a national championship.

The rink wasn't as to be desired for but ice is ice and we got to business. 5 pairs on morning practice meant we only just got everything done, chaos. Luckily the warm up groups were split into 2. We scored 51.22 which is yet another personal best, really enjoyed the skate. No pressure and like Mariusz said before we went on 'show our skating has improved'. We did, it was clean, and I haven't got result sheet yet but we must of got most our levels. So leading the short we drew 5th to skate in the long. Unfortunately due to the strange schedule we have practice at 11pm tonight for our free programme at 11am tomorrow... Almost unheard of but they do have a busy schedule! I will let you know how it goes.

4th in NHK GP Tokyo

2008-12-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

We stood our ground, 4th in short, 4th in long and 4th overall (it can happen that your fourth in both but drop!). It was a great feeling, being on the top group through the whole event and finishing in 4th behind some great pairs. Practice the day of the short was good but tough skating along side the teams scrapping it out for which shade of medal they want. The day went very quick, before we knew it we were back in the skaters lounge sitting getting a drink and sushi before our event started. All the tv screens on a live feed to exactly whats happening on the ice, behind the scenes at these events is quite amazing.

Our event drew close, we were warming up as the first group took to the ice. As ever we ignored what went on before us, focusing on what we need to do while lacing up our boots. Short wouldn't be televised on Eurosport which is a shame because its good when your friends and family can watch but the arena was packed with a lot of the world still getting a live feed. We stepped on closely followed by two world medalist teams and a well experienced triple axel throwing American team. We were up first! They called our names and we gaze shortly around in to the crowd, it was full. People of all ages sat in anticipation of our short programme, and we skated well. A few minor error's mostly to loose levels (points) on things but ended up with 49.36 which was easily a personal best for us.

Practice for the long went even better still, with a bit of leeway between us and the next down the list and only 5 points off a medal we felt relaxed and happy. All elements were going clean and for a personal best at this event we would need to do our elements good so we get higher points, and nothing looks better than making hard tricks look easy. Stacey almost took the Chinese guys head off on the exit of a lift, but that's the way it seems to go in this group. We stepped off the practice 10minutes before the end but we'd done everything we wanted, no need in hanging around for no reason. Home for a bit of r & r before the final event.

Our free programme was very early compared to the usual set up, again we were first to skate in the second group. We just hoped to skate the programme how we have been, with power until the last position. Our final score was 83.53 and the only poor element was the side by side flip that we threw in last week after Zagreb for safety... Ah well. But it was a personal best and we were very happy. After we skated a very polite Japanese OC worker informed us that because we were in the top 4 we managed to make the gala, which is another accomplishment for us at this event. Anyway still a long way to go from here, which can only mean bigger scores and stronger performances in our next events. Hope to see you there!

Long Haul to Tokyo!

2008-11-23T02:30:00.000-08:00

4am Mariusz rolls up at our door... Its going to be a long day! Today we have a 9:45am flight from Warsaw and we make the 2 hour journey to Warsaw in good time. Then we hit major traffic, which we did 2km in 45mins and it was still 15km to the airport and we strated to get tense. We ran to check in, it had closed! Ahh, i felt terrible. It is the only flight any of us had ever missed and the women on the desk said that we can't gon tommorows flight because it was full but the day after was ok, not for us as we would miss our short programme. So sounding very sheepish i phoned my mum to book us 3 new return flights, thank you mum!

The new flight was a good one, we had the Italian, German and Ukrainian squads on the flight so had people to chat to. We arrived midday a day later and feeling a little tired, but the Tokyo skyline woke us up. What a city, it's the third time we've been here in three years and it still amazes me. Our hotel is very grand too, right in the upscale Shinjuku banking district but unfortunately very little time to explore. After all it is just a business trip! First practice and business is going well! A good practice and still on a boost from last weeks win in Zagreb, which also had given us enough ISU points to put us in the top group, our job now is to stay there.

Blow by blow, Zagreb

2008-11-20T11:18:00.000-08:00

So we arrived at first practice, our first competition of the season and ready to do ourselves proud, usually for us the first competition is where you try things that may or may not work and experiment at a low key competition. Due to unforeseen circumstances we didn’t have this luxury and just had to get it right first time. We were a long way from Worlds in March, the adrenaline kicks in and you need to keep your cool, you get one shot to show each programme a total of 7minutes 30seconds. But official practices play a big part in judges decisions too, what kind of standard you are, and what common mistakes might be.

Anyway first practice went ok, we did everything but not everything was perfect as we still felt like we were on a plane. The ice was so fresh that when you stepped on it felt like you were going to fall through! Huge groaning cracks went right the way across the ice, like stepping on to a huge quickly melting frozen lake. The next practice the day of the short didn’t go so well, I woke to find the alarm for 6:10am had not gone off and it was now 6:45... Exactly the time our bus for the practice rink was leaving. I threw some clothes on to try and halt the bus or find some alternative transport while Stacey packed our gear. I got to the lobby only to find one of our solo men had slept in too, and moments after Stacey came down looking rather sheepish with a rather annoyed Dorota! The Organizing Committee wanted to take us in a car to get there but took way too long so we decided to cut our losses and just go for breakfast and back to bed.

Later we arrived ‘on time’ to start our warm up for the short, we drew last to skate which means you have to ignore the whole competition going on around you, while you prepare to skate. We didn’t really manage to get in to the ice for the duration of the short which looses speed and quality to cut the second mark. Our legs were still nervous and wooden not pushing to get power into our elements and holding back to play safe. We missed two major elements, the solo jump and throw and this is close to 10 points with the deduction for the fall. In a total of 42 points for the short this is a big problem and held us in second place, but not too bad for our first event.

Fired up to take first in the long we had a day off on the in-between the two programme’s with yet another early morning practice as consolation. This practice was a lot more to our ability we were powerful and commanding with strong elements and a lot better ice coverage. Only the long to go and we were ready, we made a tactical decision to miss the early morning practice as the competition itself started at 10:30am. We drew second to last to skate which gave us plenty of time to gather our thoughts. Stepping out on to the ice for your programme is a great feeling, waiting for your opponents marks (unless your first to skate) skating around with dazzling lights and an entourage of judges and the crowd who can give you hope and courage. They call your name and its all down to you and your hard work.

We stepped into our starting position confident we’d put in the hard work needed to skate well, we start our programme with a basic but strong twist just to get ourselves in thee mood then we are settled. Stacey landed two super throws with + and base marks from the judges and all strong lifts finishing with a level 4 death spiral and a very big smile! These moments last, we sat in the kiss and cry knowing we were about 5 points down after the short and just hoping we did enough. We had, and were put 6 points clear overall. All faith in your ability is restored, the programme was in no way perfect and have a lot of improvements to make but it sure feels good to put on a good performance and this is why each skater puts in the hard work, a good performance to win the gold.

Champions of Zagreb!

2008-11-18T02:16:00.000-08:00

Well, if we thought fondly of the rink before now its just a great idol for our skating. We had yet another great competition at this wonderful arena in less than a year. A good start to our very unfortunate season, and lets hope with hard work, it will get better from here on! After a shaky short we gathered our thoughts and put out a long programme worthy of our abilities and indeed the gold medal. Unfortunately the victory was very short lived as we had to catch our bus 40minutes after we skated our long and in less than two hours we were in the air on our way back to Warsaw! I had to go collect our medals from the Organizing Committee while Stacey packed our skates, and they were surprisingly understanding. We felt really bad for not making the victory ceremony and indeed the gala but our priorities lie in Tokyo for the NHK grand prix. We had a great time in Zagreb with the great British team that went, its always a pleasure to meet up with our countries finest! Also i wish Penny a quick recovery, and hope your fighting fit in no time.

So back at home now, reunited with Amber we prepare for what lies ahead. We fly Tuesday 25th and the competition will be live on Eurosport 28th+29th so check your tv guide! See you soon!

FPl. Name Nation Points

1 Stacey KEMP / David KING GBR 128.53
2 Nicole della MONICA / Yannick KOCON ITA 122.40
3 Katerina KOSTENKO / Roman TALAN UKR 114.19
4 Gabriela CERMANOVA / Martin HANULAK SVK 108.81
5 Marika ZANFORLIN / Federico degli ESPOSTI ITA 106.40
6 Nina IVANOVA / Filip ZALEVSKI BUL 93.30
7 Jessica CRENSHAW / Chad TSAGRIS GRE 92.23

Zagreb - Golden Spin

2008-10-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

So finally our first international and indeed competition has arrived. Its been a difficult build up but eventually were here! Zagreb is home of last Seasons great European placing for us and very fond memories of the arena.
Since July we only made it back home for a weekend to see family and have been in full training preparing for this tough season. We've given full focus to our training passing up tempting shows for valuable catch up time, so just hope it pays off. In the build up stage to the competition season it seems all you are able to do is eat, sleep, skate! Not that its a bad thing trying new elements, not having to worry about what people will think and just skating for the love of it. But competition is so much more exciting, having a crowd and judges watching your every move, get it right and everyone says how much you've improved, get it wrong and they say you haven't worked hard enough. Really its just a matter of did you keep your head in that 7mins 40seconds you have to show how good you are.
After a brief call to our federation the morning of our flight to make sure we will get picked up from the airport and a place to stay we made it quickly to our destination for the second time this year. We just wanted to make it a brief competition to warm us up for NHK, but the plan back fired when we booked our flight to come home early and they changed the schedule! We now have to skate our long programme then get on a bus to go home straight away. Anyway without worrying too much about this our first practice went well, elements felt great just our heads still feel up in the clouds with our flight crew. But after practice we were shocked to find ourselves thrown into a televised interview with the head of Parliament in Croatia, who seemed very interested in what we thought of her city.
That's all for now but i will update to let you know how we do!

Start of Season 08/09!

2008-07-22T09:27:00.000-07:00

A fresh, new and exciting season has arrived with a bang! After a great 07/08 season that left us wanting more we were rested and ready to jump into our next adventure.

Our first pin in the map was Montreal, Quebec Canada. We set a time scale of 3 weeks to choreograph two brand new programmes with the lovely Julie Marcotte. What a fantastic experience and great to see so much love for skating, it left us feeling so happy about the sport were in. We got on great and worked long hours in agonizingly new skates to get the seasons look we wanted. With help from a fantastic coaching staff on hand in Montreal we came back with some great ways to evolve our skating.

Fortunately enough it was my Birthday while we were out there and as we had weekends off we decided to take an 8 hour road trip to New York to meet up with our old house mate and best friend Jamie Burns who now trains in Delaware with Melysa James. His birthday is very close to mine so we had a joint celebration seeing a west end show and generally soaking up the amazing city. So all in all our visit to Canada was thoroughly enjoyable with plenty of hard work and two really good programmes completed.

It seemed as soon as our feet touched the ground in Poland we were pushing our boundaries. We had the finest fitness trainer in Poland come work with us for 10 weeks, in 3 fantastic locations throughout Poland. But unfortunately without knowing it Stacey had been struck down with Glandular fever, not seeming herself at all and not knowing why she was finding everything so hard we had a very difficult time ahead. After just buying a gorgeous kitten and named her Amber, the poor thing got the blame for all of Stacey's problems. Stacey visited 4 different doctors before blood tests revealed she had Glandular fever, we sent her on the next flight home and i didn't see her for 4 weeks. It was quite heartbreaking when we haven't been apart for longer than 3 days in 3 years! She felt bad in the first week of training and yet managed to push herself to the 3rd week until she couldn't physically get out of bed it was another two weeks of her being in bed before she was diagnosed. As you may know its a horrible illness and training with it is the worst thing that you can do, so it took her a long time to recover and put a real dampener on our enthusiastic start. After meeting back up with Stacey and reuniting her with our new kitten Amber she spent another 4 weeks on the side lines just watching and resting.

So with our game plan thrown out the window we kind of just played it day to day until Stacey started feeling herself again. We missed 1 domestic competition, and two internationals but not feeling too sorry for ourselves we just did the best we could and with two new programmes that we really enjoy we still look forward to a good season! We skated short programme at a small competition in Warsaw a few weeks ago just to get a feeling of competing again but our first competition now is Golden Spin in Zagreb, then onto NHK Grand Prix in Tokyo followed closely by the combined Polish, Czech and Slovak Nationals. That's all for this instalment but I will let you know how we get on, take care!