Adam Prudhomme
Editor
World Champion and Olympian Canadian figure skater Kurt Browning was at Napanee’s Strathcona Paper Centre on Friday to offer tips to the next generation of skaters.
Browning led a seminar that covered both on and off ice techniques to help prepare for judged competitions. His students for the day included Napanee District Skating Club members Abby Kelsey and Avery Forester as well as members of the neighbouring Kingston Skating Academy.
“For kids at this level, when you get into seminars where everyone’s doing double axel and learning triples, it’s more of a competitive feel so kids are really looking for the secret message that gets them the axel that gets them the points that wins them the competition,” Browning said of the day’s seminar. “At this level the priority is on fundamentals to try and give them something strong to work on, more like the foundation of house. I’ve been telling them all day, if you play Jenga, if it’s not strong at the bottom, it’s definitely not going to be strong at the top. We’re working on balance over top of the blade. Being aware that you have a blade down there and how to use it. That’s really important, but also fun. Trying to let them know that you come to the rink, this is a safe place, this should be like your place. I told them the story about that little child when they grab you by the arm and they take you to their room, because that’s where their stuff is. I told them this should feel like your room. This is your skating. It’s about ownership, personal pride, fundamentals and fun.”
Browning brings with him a wealth of experience, having competed in the 1988, ’92 and ’94 winter Olympics. He is also credited with having landed the first ratified quadruple jump in competition, which he did at the 1988 World Championships in Hungary.
Napanee District Skating Club’s Abby Kelsey and Avery Forester chat with Kurt Browning following his seminar at the SPC. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
For him, the seminars are a way to give back to the sport.
“I was 14 and I was at a seminar just like this with a bunch of kids I didn’t know, being taught by somebody I had never met,” he recalled. “Just standing there with big eyes saying I don’t know what’s going on. They put on (the song Sailing by Christopher Cross) and it was just a turn with an edge with a cross over and a turn with edge and a cross over and something happened that day where I went ‘oh, wow. I didn’t know skating could feel like that’ and my skating changed. So I don’t know, maybe at one of my seminars they’ll have an a-ha moment and that’ll be really awesome.”
Even if his workshop doesn’t spawn the next Olympian, he says just encouraging kids to have fun with skating is enough.