Sports

[ICE TIME] Exclusive: Kurt Browning, Wife Alissa Stressed the Joy of Skating to Japan's Elite

Changing the stoic faces that Japanese skaters often maintain on the ice became a primary mission for Kurt Browning and his wife at the camp.

Published

2 months ago

July 19, 2024

Jack Gallagher

Kurt Browning (front, left), his wife Alissa Czisny (second row, center) and top Japanese skaters pose for a photo during a training camp at the Kansai Airport Ice Arena on July 6, 2024. (©SANKEI)

Read the full story on SportsLook - [ICE TIME] Exclusive: Kurt Browning, Wife Alissa Stressed the Joy of Skating to Japan's Elite

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."

Continue reading the full story on SportsLook.

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.