Nice International

It’s the eve of our first 2010/11 season assignment and we’re feeling the buzz of competing once again. We have to hit the ground running as we’ve started late this season, well it was a busy year you know! We’re ready though as ever, all we ask from ourselves is what we do in training every day and a little luck wouldn’t go a miss.

With our coaches Mariusz and Dorota Siudek

Cost of us skating is a bigger problem at the moment though as this week (and the whole of the country is getting similar news) have been hit with big cuts. It’s £28k to be precise, which puts very big doubts over our future dreams for a Sochi 2014 Olympic Medal. It’s unfortunate and more annoyingly it’s distracting but we’re trying our best just to finish this season then make bigger decisions when we can look at the full picture.
Now writing this from the plane and wondering if the 5am start was just a dream or reality. We’ve ventured on all transport today bar a boat but with all the strikes in France who knows where our journey may go next?
2pm now with a 5am start and we’re not even in France yet, well you know what they say about Polish trains. I remember once going up to a Polish training camp in the mountains and the train was literally walking pace.
The flight luckily enough is direct to Nice and we’re flying over some beautiful mountain ranges that I guess are the Alps. I’ve never been to Nice before and have heard many good things about the place, mostly about the great weather, let’s hope that it lives up to the reports.
The competition itself is a prestigious event in the International Skating Union calendar as it’s one of very few events you can achieve world ranking points. For those who don’t know much about skating, when competing skaters have to skate two programs to music with the points from each skate adding up to a total amount of points.
First skate is called the short program which is 2min 50seconds long and is classed as a technical program because you have set elements to skate. Next is the free program that’s 4min 40seconds and is often called the long.
Every element is awarded points. The harder the element the more points you get, simple. Now you know the basics come competition time you’ll understand what I say when I talk about both the programs.
Right, I’ll leave it there but got some more Coupe de Nice content coming soon!
Best wishes

Polish training

Sorry it’s taken a while to get my new blog up, we’ve had visitors the last three weeks and with training it’s been a busy time.
The weather is still holding firm with autumn leaves falling and the sun keeping winter away for a little longer. When winter hits here, it hits hard and as we train in a giant fridge anyway good warm clothes are worth their weight in gold.

Taking a stroll by the river after a long days training.

I mean driving through a foot of snow to go to a place that’s even colder at 6am is hard to get your head around. But like I said at the moment there is still sun and the last two weekends I’ve spent sunbathing on the Baltic coast.
Family or sponsors as the sporting community calls them have been out and we’ve been swapping one for the next on short turn-arounds.
Skating is steadily improving with the programmes flowing better and with movement and speed picking up this last week.
Nice in France is our first event in two weeks time (13th-17th October) and we could really do with taking a medal going in to our Grand Prix events later in the month and early November. There are some tough contenders in it and you can never tell what judges will think of your programmes first time out.
But hard work and determination always pays off and you can feel in yourself what level you are at. After Nice we travel across the pond to Kingston, Canada to compete in their Grand Prix then to Portland, USA for their Grand Prix.
After that we finally hit the UK for our Nationals late November, you’re all welcome to come and watch in the fantastic Ice Sheffield arena.
All the very best and speak soon

End of funding

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 mean five 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 trucking. 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 we’re 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!

Shauns Stag do

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. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6CBEpgWcjY&feature=youtube_gdata
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 training

We’re 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 its own natural spring water, quite famous and sold throughout Poland. If you were wondering yes we did bring our little cat Amber.


Stacey with our cat Amber in Prague.

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 three 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 30 degrees 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!

After a long days training.

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 two of the camp and the third season we’ve started on ice training in this way. We start very basic and easy, then by the end of the four week camp we build to our harder elements and full programs.
It’s 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 ten minutes 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.

Thriller show

Welcome back to the latest installment of my skating blog and I’m in the lovely Welsh city of Cardiff. We’ve just finished show number one of two, for our Chiller spectacular and are really enjoying the whole experience. A little tired now but its first show down after a full week rehearsals and it went great! Shows are very different from the competitive aspect of our training it’s all a lot more crowd pleasing with elements to it we are not allowed to attempt in competitions.
Pre-season has been pretty steady, lots of running, gym work, dance sessions and absolutely no ice. Weather has been fantastic for it though! I was training with the football reserve team here too, mainly doing drills and agility but it was great fun and a shame the season here has finished. So now I’ll probably start my rock climbing again, just to keep me active. The rest of our time is taken up by the World cup, watching the beautiful game and relishing in all the excitement that comes with it.

Skating wise, we’re back on the ice at the start of July which we are really looking forward too! We have a just been selected for skate America Grand Prix which gives us an early goal and with a bit of luck could be awarded our maximum allowance with a second Grand Prix later on.
Depending on our funding throughout the season we will try and get out to some ISU internationals as well! All squad skaters have been asked to compete at Sheffield at the end of August, which is extremely early for us but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.
All the very best and keep your chin up!

Season start 2010

Welcome to the very start of my 2010/11 season and after having such a blast last season I‘m really looking forward to it. The Olympics quite literally was a dream come true but now it is time to get on with next season!
It’s always an exciting year after Olympics to see who has used all their energy in the previous season or who has decided to retire? We are ready to work for the next games, which will take a lot of work to make that jump up to top five in four years but we are confident we can get there. It seems a long way off but you really do need that time to prepare and work towards being the best.
We touched down back in our training base in Poland just last Thursday and hit the ground running. Today our tame running coach arrives; some say his voice can only be heard by cats; and if you tune in to 88.4fm you can hear his thoughts; all we know for sure is that he’s called Jacek.
This guy is just a machine and gets me to do distances and times I would have laughed at when we were training in the UK. It’s great to have good voices around you that you can trust are truly pushing you for satisfaction instead of money. This week is all about fitness tests, so we can figure out boundaries and where we would like to be at the start of early season. Basically, reach your limit everyday… and that’s it. Sound like fun?
Anyway, all I’m saying is our holidays are over now which always seems a shame but it’s good to get back to the grind. This year we didn’t actually manage to get away for our holiday. Last year we had a fantastic week in a Villa in Spain with a load of friends but with Olympics this last season we are completely spent up.

Instead we visited family and friends, having BBQ’s and trips out to York, Blackpool and climbing stunning mountains in the Lake District. Not a complete failure then and we actually got some decent weather by British standards.
We have some Chiller shows in two weeks, 12th of June in Cardiff and 13th in Altringham so we’re looking forward to those and I will keep you posted on how they go. Shows are a little more on the glamorous side of skating but should raise some much needed funds for our training.
Have a great day and remember always believe!