SynchroNice / Third Edition / 2018

SYNCHRO NICE 89 I wear them whatever the weather ...yes even in winter, which most people laugh about ..but they know this is who I am. You will often see me at competitions in my trademark flip flops. So, if you see me about do look out for them :) hahaha. I’m Facebook friends with Esther so I’m able to follow her a little through the season, and I have to say Esther… your life is a lot about skating? Hihi yes to say that I live, eat, sleep and breathe Synchronised Skating would be quite an under­ statement! Have you always been skating? Well, it was from the early age of 6 that I took my first steps on the ice. This was in Nottingham. In a Synchro team? No, initially as a solo figure skater and to be honest… that was totally it! I was hooked on this magical place they called an ice rink from the very beginning! It soon became my second home. My coach at the time “Heather Barnes” she was instru- mental in inspiring this passion in me and I have never forgotten that. But were you any good? Yes, I even did very well at solo competitions, possessing both a fierce determination to compete to my highest ability and a personal drive to succeed at all my competitions, or if not, to do my personal best. "To be the best I can be" is my own motto and I guess that has car- ried me through my work and personal life as well. When did you make the switch to Synchro? When I was at the age of 12 I joined Synchronised Skating and that magic, the sport really is, very quickly drew me in. I was, if I may say so, extremely passionate about working as a team, striving for excellence in beautiful uniform skating but also reaching for success and enjoying life as a Synchro skater along the way with my friends. What was so special about this Synchronized Skating? I was initially particularly drawn by the camaraderie in the sport. We hear it a lot but it truly is one Synchro family and it’s in particular this, that inspired me to always continue, even on to coaching in Synchronised Skating. And how did that come about? At first, I started to coach my own synchronised ice skating team in Nottingham, which was an elementary team called the Sprites. This was at the ripe old age of 17! I really wanted to pass on my experiences to the children who were aged around 7 to 11 and to encourage them in the same way I had been inspired by my coaches at this young age. That is very young? Yes, the team was very young indeed and very inexperienced of course, but I worked with them tirelessly in one season to turn them from last place competitors in 2009 to Gold medallists in the British Champi- onships in 2010 - something that I’m immensely proud of until now (as it is where my coaching jour- ney started). You never forget that first taste and buzz of success! After Sprites, I worked across all the teams in the club, taking for example Juvenile, Preliminary, Mixed Age Basic and also Advanced Novice teams. And after that? After that, I finally settled into my senior head coaching role and incorporated Junior team "The Icicles" into my responsibilities during the 2013/14 season. Prior to that I was an assistant coach for that team. I am delighted to say that some of the skaters who were part of my afore-mentioned Sprites team worked through all of these levels with me. A large majority of them are still training and competing in the Icicles today! Coaching isn’t my job it’s a passi- on, something I love to share with my skaters and to watch them grow from young little girls to mature women, I feel incredibly lucky. My hope is for the girls to have memories that will last with them for a lifetime, and that they will have learnt many life lessons along the way that can help them later on in life. This is the sort of stuff that gets me out of bed every day and off to work... knowing that I have inspired even one young person to be the best they can be is priceless and one of the most rewarding elements of my role! What about Synchronized Skating and its deve- lopment in England? Well recently NSSA teams have swept the board at the British Championships in every category they entered. This is for the second year in succession. Many other teams across the U.K are growing and developing all the time, year upon year closing the gap and this is very encou- raging for the sport and its future position in both the U.K and abroad. I am very excited about where this journey will take us all. I hope to improve our rankings on the world stage too and my dream one day is to have a team and be in the top ten in the world championships. But it can’t be all fun or…? I have to acknowledge the sport can bring lows particularly when a com- petition or training session does not go so well, but there are so many more highs and those highs make it all worth it. Part of doing sport is knowing that you sometimes have to have disappointments along the way… they’re to make you stronger and who you are today. I’m sure some coaches will agree with me, no matter what training you have done running up to competitions, as soon as you put your skaters onto that ice, anything can happen. This sport will teach skaters some great life lessons along the way ...it’s not just the skating. It's building confidence, relating well to others, real life lessons, communication skills and fantastic team work and that’s just a few I can go on and on. “EVERYONE NEEDS A LAUREN!” ‘‘ YOU NEVER FORGET THAT FIRSTTASTE AND BUZZ OF SUCCESS!