The husband/wife team of Kurt Browning and Alissa Czisny traveled to Japan recently for a three-day camp with 14 of the nation's best skaters at the Kansai Airport Ice Arena. But the pair did so with a fair amount of trepidation.
Browning, a four-time world champion, and Czisny, a two-time US titlist, certainly had the credentials to instruct top skaters. But could they deliver and instill something that would improve them was their question.
"Quite honestly, we were a little nervous," Browning told Ice Time in an exclusive interview during the week of July 15-21. "At first, we thought we would just work with the junior skaters, but then it became the whole national team.
"We are used to teaching at seminars, where there is so much skating technique to teach that it kind of fills up the seminar," Browning continued. "Our normal seminar would not work. It wasn't going to be enough.
"These skaters, they are the best skaters in the world. You don't just come in and kill an hour teaching them how to skate. We had to come up with different ways of kind of earning our keep there and figuring out what we had to offer them."
Rather than focusing on strictly technique, Browning and Czisny chose to concentrate on presentation and how the skaters could connect with their audience and relay the joy of skating.
Kurt Browning, Wife Receive Invitation from a Japanese Coach
Browning said that Japanese coach Shin Amano approached the pair at the Granite Club in Toronto about coming to Japan and working with the country's best.
Changing the stoic faces that Japanese skaters often maintain on the ice became a primary mission for Browning and Czisny at the camp.
"I thought if they could tap into how much both of us enjoy skating, not just for the winning factor, but the sharing factor of it," Browning stated. "The trust we have earned over the years with our audiences and knowing how to use their facial muscles.
"When we watched their programs, we had to repeatedly tell the skaters, 'Use your acting skills. Trust the audience,' " Browning noted. "Our hope is that it is the biggest message we left with them."
"We wanted to give them permission to show themselves on the ice, their personalities," Czisny remarked. "Show what they enjoy about skating and share it with the audience. Be their true personality on the ice. I think they are missing a little bit of that personality right now."
"We want them to be artists and performers," Browning added.
Using Humor to Lighten the Mood
To try and get the skaters at the camp to loosen up, the ridiculous was actually resorted to.
"One day somebody put a tutu on a skater and then asked them to do a run-through of their program without jumps. Just a straight out, funny thing that took them out of their head. I knew that trick and kind of use it in comedy when I work with the kids."
Kurt Browning
Browning then provided another example of how he tried to lighten the mood with two-time world junior champion Mao Shimada.
"I took my hat off and had Mao put it on and do the first 15 seconds of her program," Browning said. "She couldn't do it because she had a hat on, [so] she came back and had this little smile on her face, and we said, 'That's it.' "
The coach recalled that she asked, "What's it?"
"And we said that natural, relaxed face makes us connect with you. It makes you special, it makes you own your skating instead of being imprinted upon."
Screaming Helps Break up the Monotony
Browning even resorted to a primal activity to get the skaters to break out of their shells.
"One time I made everybody scream," Browning stated. "It's just breaking boundaries. Kaori [Sakamoto] is special. Kazuki [Tomono] is special. Kao [Miura] has something truly special, but even he doesn't still connect. His skating does, but he doesn't."
Czisny Shares Details from the Camp
Czisny employed a tactic that she learned long ago to challenge the skaters.
"I used an exercise I learned from my first coach," Czisny stated. "You take your own step sequence, short or long, and I take a piece of music and they have to do their step sequence to it.
"Sometimes skaters, when you ask them to improv, they are fantastic," Czisny continued. "You see their personality comes out. Some others are too shy to bring out the nuance of the music.
"We had seen all of the skaters and both of their programs, so I knew what their style of music was and their personality. They have to change the style, the rhythm, the personality, their face."
An Exercise on the Final Day of Camp
The Japan Skating Federation liked what they saw from Browning and Czisny and made a special request on the camp's final day.
"JSF asked us to do that exercise for the audience on the last day, so we had the skaters look at people in the audience twice during their program and connect with them," Czisny commented. "As a member of the audience, you crave that connection. But as a skater, when you are in the middle of a competition, we understand how scary that is.
"You don't want to lose your focus and look at someone."
Misconceptions Debunked
Kurt Browning found the degree to which the skaters shared and worked together to be refreshing.
"I had been told that the Japanese are very competitive with each other and not sharing," Browning stated. "But I didn't see that. I thought the skaters were very sharing with each other. It felt like they were a team, as good as the Canadians or the Americans might be."
Ice Time wondered if Browning and Czisny encountered any resistance due to the high level of skaters they were working with.
"They were wildly receptive," Czisny remembered. "Considering they are the best skaters in the world, and they could know everything, they were receptive to everything we had to say. I saw them actively doing things that Kurt or I had said to them to do. It felt like there was a lot of respect."
Browning challenged the skaters with one particularly difficult lesson.
"I go on the ice and do a one-foot pattern on clean ice," Browning commented. "Then I take a blue marker and mark it. Then I asked them to try and trace it with two feet or one foot. I asked the whole team to do that and they really seemed to enjoy it. Because when in their life have they ever traced anything like I did or Alissa did when we were competing?"
Added Browning, "I told them a bit about figure skating and why it is called figure skating. It was mostly to break open the idea that it is OK to step on the ice and have fun."
Sakamoto, Mihara Make Favorable Impressions
Three-time world champion Sakamoto and her training partner Mai Mihara made a particular impression on Browning and Czisny.
"Kaori is such a great role model for the up-and-coming skaters," Czisny said.
"Mai came up to me and asked if she could borrow my hat to do her footwork," Kurt Browning said. "I gave her my hat and I thought, 'That is exactly what we are trying to teach.' The ability to reach up inside yourself and trust your instincts and act upon them to become an individual.
"I told her later that I had an idea," Browning continued before adding, "I said that there were two counts of eight where she was skating through the music when it was still vibrating and I wondered if there was something in her arms that she could do.
"The next day she came and knocked on the door of our room and wanted to have a little meeting. She said, 'That moment you mentioned something. Can you explain it to me more?'
"That was respect, that was interest, that was curiosity, that was connection. I really respected her."
Czisny liked what she saw from Rion Sumiyoshi and Mone Chiba.
"I had never met Rion before and she just blew me away," Czisny declared. "Mone's programs this year are spectacular. I think those programs are perfect for her personality."
Giving Credit to the Japan Skating Federation
Browning saluted the JSF for having the foresight to have a wide range of people from the skating world come to Japan to instruct their skaters.
"It was fun to see that the skaters were enjoying the attention to a different kind of set of details. I think it is amazing that Japan brings in people who have different viewpoints."
Kurt Browning
Browning then detailed an interaction with Beijing Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama that was memorable.
"One of my favorite moments was making Yuma Kagiyama, one of the best skaters that has ever put on a pair of skates, do his footwork again because he didn't do it good enough," Browning recalled. "He did not apply the exercise correctly, he just kind of blasted through the footwork.
"Yuma understood and he went back out on the ice and he applied himself," Browning continued. "It was done with the mental attitude that we were hoping for of creativity and exploration and risk. Risking your personality and being seen. That was one of my favorite moments."
Kurt Browning Compares Yuma Kagiyama, His Father
Browning, who competed against Yuma's father and coach Masakazu back in the day, said that Yuma is a chip off the old block.
"If you go back and watch his father skate, it's Yuma," Browning commented. "It's just Yuma with more of a samurai face, like a little angrier, very serious." He added, "It's the same style, the same knees."
Impressions of Miura, Sato
Czisny liked what she saw from young guns Miura and Shun Sato at the camp.
"Kao is fun. He is a little Patrick Chan-esque," Czisny said. "It is always a risk every time he takes an edge. That is exciting. Sometimes he goes into his jumps with the same recklessness. He is one of the most exciting skaters.
"Shun showed some fantastic quads," Czisny remembered. "He did a beautiful run-through on the last day. It looked like he was saving himself and we saw something spectacular from him with his skating on the last day."
Kurt Browning Analyzes Mao Shimada's Skating Potential
Browning had some interesting insight on Shimada and her potential going forward.
"It depends on her. If she can convince an audience that she really wants to be there, she will be awesome," Browning stated. "If she starts trusting the audience, she is going to be amazing. The more time we spent with her, the more she would smile. She was starting to trust us and she would melt.
"Mao did every spiral as good as the last. All eight of them," Browning remarked. "Everything she does is nearly perfect, every Bauer, every spin. She is like a technician's technician."
"But I think she is shy and it will take her longer to trust the audience," Czisny interjected.
"When you get to the last three percent of improvement, before you become Yuzuru Hanyu or before you become a Patrick Chan, that is the hardest," Browning stated. "It's the last thing. That is where she is at.
"She is very passionate with her music, but she is holding us back and doesn't let us into her skating. When she does it is going to be pretty spectacular."
Parting Thoughts from Kurt Browning
Browning concluded by summarizing the experience of working with Japan's star skaters.
"We didn't come in with a lot of technical information," Browning noted. "But we came in with a lot of emotional, acting, performance-sharing, trusting the audience, that kind of thing. We could have been not accepted as being serious.
"It could have been like, 'Help me with my quad lutz' or whatever it might be," Browning added. "The second day, when they stepped on the ice, we really noticed that they knew what they were in for. They were going to enjoy their skating and were going to bond together as a team.
"I would like to say thank you for the trust," Kurt Browning concluded. "Not only the invite, that was an honor. But thank you for trusting us and allowing us to share our love of the sport with the best skaters in the world."
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Author: Jack Gallagher
The author is a veteran sports journalist and one of the world's foremost figure skating experts. Find articles and podcasts by Jack on his author page, and find him on X (formerly Twitter) @sportsjapan.
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