This blog is a collection of my thoughts and experiences from ten years as a skate dad. For those of you sitting with your jackets in the bleachers, first I salute you, but second I want to give you an honest sense of what you are in for and what to expect. Ice skating is both a trying and a glorious sport, but it doesn't happen without the special group of folks who cheer, support, and console the participants. This is dedicated to you.


Monday, January 13, 2014

- hypnotism


The best skaters hypnotize with their performance. They do this not through their artistic arms nor their skillful jumps and spins, but rather by focusing where they hold their own awareness.

Even on practice ice one may easily discern which skaters have hypnotic power: they are able to concentrate and hold their awareness continuously at a point of high Qi, between their third and fourth Chakra. Physically this is a location about half way between their actual center of gravity and their heart.

While contemplating the hypnotic skater you watch their Qi glide smoothly as it effortlessly slides around the rink in gentle parabolic arcs through jumps, resting perfectly fixed in space during a spin.

When a skater focuses on her Qi rather than on what she is practicing, she will follow the natural hypnotically expressive path that her skills and physics allow.