Constant commitment
On-ice practice, ballet, endurance training, stretching, weightlifting, protein-rich diet — that’s what goes into making a world championship team
Near the end of each evening practice, when the clock at the arena flashed 11:11 p.m., the members of Burlington’s NEXXICE made a collective wish — to win the 2009 World Synchronized Skating Championships in Croatia that year.
The ritual paid off. After a strong short program, their free skate netted them the gold, marking the first time in the history of the competition (established in 2000) that top honours went to a team other than Sweden or Finland.
Of course, the win may have had something to do with practice of a different sort too.
Since its formation in 2000, NEXXICE senior (there are also NEXXICE teams at the juvenile, novice, intermediate, junior and open levels) has earned the kind of international cache that draws skaters from Toronto, Kitchener, Burlington and beyond. In 2010, Lee Chandler (the team’s only male skater) and Holly Peyton, both former singles skaters, moved to Burlington from Manitoba to skate with the team. So did Linda Mariotti, a singles skater from Italy.
Each of the team’s 24 members, who range in age from 19 to 26, makes a huge commitment to be part of NEXXICE.
As the season (which begins in April and runs 10 months) progresses, NEXXICE spends a minimum of 13 hours training each week. In addition to relentless run-throughs of various technical components, they practice their short and long programs on and off-ice with coaches Shelley Barnett and Anne Schelter. They attend weekly classes with ballet teacher, Simon Lalonde, to work on musicality, poise and carriage. They also meet for weekly strength training sessions with personal trainer/pro fitness champion, Mindi O’Brien.
O’Brien tailors her one-hour workouts (as well as optional at-home plans for three to four days of additional conditioning) to the team’s needs. Because skating is such a visual sport, she aims to create long, lean muscles while considering NEXXICE’s rigorous schedule. She offers substitutions for those nursing stressed joints and muscles, and emphasizes stretching to guard against injury. She eases off leg work before competitions, when an increase in on-ice time leaves skaters’ legs fatigued. She focuses on short intense, exercises — circuits of 60-second weightlifting and callisthenic moves — to develop the core and arm strength required for complicated lifts and manoeuvres.
The optional nutrition plan she offers concentrates on specific vitamins and minerals rather than a specific calorie count. For skaters at this age and activity level, O’Brien stresses four to six litres of water daily. She advises a diet rich in proteins like chicken and whey, optimal carbohydrates and essential fatty acids like the ones found in nuts.
On top of all this, NEXXICE attends intensive multiday mini-camps before most of the five major competitions that make up their season — one each in the summer and winter, one before the Canadian Synchronized Skating Championships, and one before Worlds (if they qualify).
Debbie Beauchamp, one of NEXXICE’s three managers, is amazed by the level of the skaters’ commitment. One of the girls attends university on a part-time basis so she can still skate. Another organizes her academic schedule so her course load is lighter during the second semester when NEXXICE is busy with competition-related travel.
“I give these kids so much credit for what they do,” Beauchamp says. “It’s amazing, but it’s just something that gets in their blood.”
Nichole Manahan, 20, is a perfect example.
A skater since the age of three, Manahan lives in Kitchener. She makes the trip to the Burlington Skating Centre three times a week. Between practices, she teaches skating in Kitchener and Cambridge. Her part-time office job at Guillevin International (an industrial equipment supplier) finances the $12,000 fee she pays to skate with NEXXICE each year. It also covers her tuition at Wilfrid Laurier University where she’s completing a psychology degree.
Having skated with the senior team since 2009, last year was the first year she spent as many hours working as she spent skating and going to school. It was the second year in a row she told herself — this is my last year. It was also the second year in a row she came back.
According to Barnett, this approach, something she looks for during spring tryouts, is typical of the skaters on her team.
“(They’re) usually self-motivated,” she says. “They make the commitment to skate at the senior level because they love their sport and are prepared to make sacrifices, of which there are many.”
Manahan agrees. She often misses out on social events and gatherings. Because she funnels all her money toward skating and school, she doesn’t have a car. She’s also had to forfeit the experience of living on her own and lives with her parents to save money.
However, she’s quick to cite the opportunities NEXXICE has afforded her.
“As much as some would look at the sacrifices I have made over the years as a negative thing, I look at it more as a positive,” she says. “I have gained so much with skating.”
She has attended skate camps in Boston, Muskoka, Lyon and Paris, France, and competed in Colorado, Helsinki and Vierumaki, Finland. She was part of an exhibition skate in Mexico City that celebrated the opening of an outdoor rink. In 2010, NEXXICE appeared on The Rick Mercer Report. Finally, she simply loves the feeling she gets when the team finishes a skate.
“It is tough,” she says, but it’s rewarding. “It’s something you get used to. If you’re passionate about it and willing to work hard, it's possible. Anything is possible.”
Special to The Hamilton Spectator
