- Joined
- Jul 28, 2003
Now that the legendary and wonderful Patrick Chan has officialy closed the curtain on his amazing career it is a good time to reflect on his legacy. While I would not say he is the best mens skater ever (although he is certainly an all time great) would you agree (as many of his peers do) he is the best pure and basic skater ever in mens skating. By that I mean things like quality of edges, flow, curves, blade work, footwork, speed, and just general ability to work the blade and the edges.
The thing about Patrick Chan's pure skating abilities is he was taught to skate and do figures by the late great Osborne Colson, who was the Canadian Men's Champion in 1936 and 1937. Mr. Colson came from the "old School of skating" and passed this on to Patrick Chan and many other Canadian and World champions - Barbara Ann Scott and Donald Jackson.
Patrick speaks very highly of his first coach:
His coach, Osborne Colson, made him spend 30 minutes a day on basic stroking, edge work, cross-cutting and balance drills.[5] Chan said, "I tell people I owe the flow in my knees and the flow I generate from my edges to Mr. Colson. He knew he had to pull everything apart and start from the ground up on the basics of skating."
This is one of the skills that is sadly lacking in some of the training today. As Kurt Browning - who is my favorite on the blade says today even footwork isn't what it used to be. Kurt says skaters used to do footwork to show "hey I can do this better than you"
I always enjoy watching Patrick skate, when the pressures not on him. It is pure beauty to watch him. Even Kurt Browning says that.