This is a knotty problem. They can say they're focusing on
rebuilding the women's program, but I don't think it was ever really
built properly in the first place. Yes, occasionally some extraordinary talent would come along , but there was no reservoir of budding talent behind them. Well, the talent may have been there, but it was largely unpolished.
Recently I noticed a thread ( maybe on another site ) titled something like "What's wrong with US Women's skating ?"..???.. I just guffawed, thinking ... high class problems , Canada should be so lucky.
In Canada's case , sadly , it has to come down to the coaching. Though our population is smaller , we may have nearly as many girls enrolled as in the States. I haven't checked stats recently , but we used to have
more.. though on breakdown, we may have had a higher percentage at the purely recreational level, I don't know.
When David Wilson cites a lack of "fire" in the girls, I think he's being PC..I'm sure our girls have the desire to stand atop the podium , like any other girls , and I'm sure talent reveals itself on a regular basis..but somehow , we're not equipping these girls to be competitive. So I wonder, for example , if our coaches are up to date on modern methods for teaching jumps ? Jumps , edges , footwork ..those are things SC can do something about through their coaching seminars. Would the girls have a bit more freedom and "fire" if they could feel more confident in their jumps ? ( for example )
Of course , the elephant in the room is the general lack of dance training. Summer before last , at BC Summer Skate, they had live commentary and people were texting in questions . Someone asked why , generally , Canadian girls didn't have more dance training. Jamie McGrigor fielded the question. He replied that SC
did argue for it , recommend it.. but SC couldn't force people to undertake it. It would mean extra money for the parents, extra running around for the parents..and put that way, it sounds reasonable . Does that mean we're stuck?
To me, the answer would be that it must somehow be included in the coaching, particularly at the younger levels.I know that not every rink will have a lot of off-ice training space , but even a set of barre excercises for stretching, and turn out , excercises in port de bras and carriage wouldn't take much room. A couple of sessions a week from early in development would make a huge difference later on. Our skaters wouldn't be constantly playing catch-up. They will have formed good habits early, and not have to undergo a major modification when they're found to be lacking in these areas. For the young skaters , it would just be part of what it takes to skate, not an 'extra' thing to take on. They'd be with other skaters, so wouldn't suddenly find themselves the duds in a group of purely dance students.
I type so slow , I can't go on
but I do want to add that I watched not
all of the big summer competitions, but a lot of each of them. My god ! The stream of young girls seemed endless..I repeat, I didn't see all of them but good posture , turnout, soft arms were rare. Even more rare than promising jumps. Of all the girls I saw only one really stood out as equally promising in
all areas, and that was Chantelle Ing at novice. She had obviously had dance, or rhythmic gymnastics ( which includes ballet exercises ), or something like it.
Surely this situation can be rectified.
For a long while, Russia seemed to make sure their pairs and ice dancers had dance training , but curiously , not so much their single ladies. We still saw some good athletes ( jumpers ) from them ,but often lacking in grace, line , attractive positions. That is no longer the case , and look at the renaissance they're having.Those girls aren't just jumping beans.
ETA:
doris.. could be , but sometimes it might be that the ladies reach a certain point and figure their jumps aren't strong enough for singles , and so move on..and too often they still need refinement type corrections.
But for the younger skaters at least , it doesn't have to be advanced training.
