Figure skating off ice training chat with Angela Kim - Founder of Balanced Skaters

Phill  0:00  
Welcome to Ice Twizzle  created by figure skaters for figure skaters.

Hello, and welcome to the show. Here again. I don't know how long it's been since the last show. I don't know week couple of weeks. It's all kind of gone into a blur now with Christmas. Hopefully everybody's had a good Christmas. And I'm back with Angela Kim from balance skaters. Hello,

Angela.

Angela  0:30  
Hello. Thanks for having me.

Phill  0:34  
You're very welcome. All the way from Seattle. I think today. Yeah. You're not normally there. Are you normally

on the 

Angela  0:44  
based in New York City.

Phill  0:45  
Yeah, you can't see. everybody listening. Can't see what I can see. But Angela actually has got an amazing view. She's at the top of what looks like a dizzying zillion storey building, which would freak me out. But he has got a very good view.

Angela  1:05  
The Pacific Northwest is beautiful. Lots of mountains and trees. So very lucky.

Phill  1:10  
Yeah.

I'm glad that you came came on the show I you know, connected with you over the the balance balance skaters thing that you're doing. And for people that have not heard of Angela Kim. Your resume is pretty pretty impressive really compared to mine or compared to anybody's to be fair. So you know, you're sort of an aerialist, a figure skater, a coach, you've done things with Cirque du Soleil. And it just goes on and on only shows America's Got Talent and blah, blah, blah. So I feel like I feel I'm hitting the at least semi semi famous mark now.

Angela  1:54  
No timing, locking opportunity. But yeah, I there's a lot of experiences here that I'd love to talk about. And that's all kind of part of balanced skaters, actually. So yeah, we're lucky with all the opportunities, but it's all stemmed from being a figure skater. So that's really cool. 

Phill  2:09  
Well, I

sort of, I came across you, through the adult, off ice sort of training. And I think I first came across you and you do something that you were doing on Instagram. And it was to do with off ice training for adult skaters. And the more I looked into it, I thought, Crikey, there's really nothing like this out there. At the moment, all of my off ice has been kind of just what I know, was General fitness, you know, in terms of try and do a bit of strength, try and do a bit of flexibility. And it was all sort of stuck together in a haphazard fashion. And I saw, I saw what you were doing and was quite surprised. So how did you? How did you come up with the idea of balance skaters?

Angela  3:04  
Yeah, so there's a there's a big story behind that. But basically, I felt the lack of structured off ice training in the skating community. And I think that just with the knowledge that I've had, and seeing how the sports really progressing, it's important to have that kind of structure. We have it on the ice with moves in the field as we sell tests, DSS, whatnot. And I think it's also important off the ice, and just taken my knowledge from my own training, especially as an adult, you know, I started acrobatics, and contortion at 27. So understanding like the learning curve that adults have with something, taking something super difficult, like figure skating, and then trying to break it down into pieces. So that one, you don't injure yourself. And through you are sustaining a longer career and your skating path. And three, just learn faster. I think that's those three things that really compelled me to create this for adults, knowing what it's like to learn something new as an adult, and just being really curious about how to connect the dots quicker and faster. As opposed to like you said, you know, you you do your strength training, you do your mobility training, or your flexibility training. But you know, you're, it's not quite necessarily something that you've, you intrinsically understand why you're doing it, you just kind of follow along the video. And I don't know, my, how my brain works. I think it's important to understand why. And this ultimately makes you a better skater. So yeah, there's a the the program itself is really a collection of many different brains on this. And I'm really I love structure I love. I think that's what actually brought me to skating as a little girl. But I think that as adults, we also are compelled to follow structure in a sport that is very highly, you know, skilled and that's what keeps us motivated. So the off ice, In the same way, from a psychological standpoint is, usually we have these benchmarks. And we really follow this, this plan of from step one to two and three, and how they all kind of seamlessly work together with a greater goal to get you better on the ice.

Phill  5:16  
Well, I mean, I was to everybody listening, I was, I was very lucky, because Angela gave me access to the program. So I could, so I could have a look at it. And I must admit, the first thing that I thought was, there's a lot here, this must have taken you a million years to record all of this and write all of this, and, you know, I create things myself and do it do you know, videos, and this, that, and the other and write articles and whatnot. And it always takes phenomenally longer than you think, even for the smallest little bit of creative material. And I was looking at this catalogue of these hundreds and hundreds of videos that you've done, and all different people in them, and the examples and photography and things like that. And some, you know, the long videos on there, that whole programs of strength programs and stretching, stretching things, like a walk through an hour or so long. It must have taken you, you must have started when you were about minus 23 years old.

Angela  6:25  
Exactly if that's true. Yeah, no, it definitely has been a project that I've been working on for a while. And back when I was on tour, and just performing full time, you know, after the shows, or on our days off, I was just in front of my computer, just thinking things through writing programs. And, you know, I never imagined to launch a business during a pandemic. But here we are. And, you know, a little side story, I never wanted to be the example or the forefront of showing the exercises. But with the pandemic, I had no access to my skaters or other professionals. So it's me in my basement, basically, so a lot of those videos you see is my bedroom Actually, it's just kind of funny, with all my furniture around and just did the best that I could. But through that process, I realize how hard These exercises are, for even me as a professional, you know, I had to go back to the basics. And it's been really cool because, you know, there's profoundness in, in simplicity. And a lot of the programming within balance skaters is not about necessarily killing you with these Tabata style workouts and making you sweat necessarily, these are very much like into it like intrinsic exercises, again, they're we're we're, we're trying to, like get you as an adult to understand your body better. And I feel like I'm a better mover just going through the program myself, gone back to the basics of a plank, no, like, what should I be feeling, I think that's all tied to my Pilates background, and just trying to understand articulations better and placement and alignment, because that's all skating really is really is, you know, we just want to sustain that edge longer, we want to learn how to, you know, check that hip back and understand you know, how to make a cleaner, three turn or, you know, edge quality, all of this stuff. And that really applies to off ice. And just being more body aware just gives us I think, a deeper enjoyment of the sport. And also just preserving our body.

Phill  8:30  
Yeah, I mean, none of its wasted is it really because I sort of tend to think that of flexibility stuff that I may do for skating or not, or yoga that I've always done for years. And, and that these are things that really they are gifts on and off ice anyway. Because if you've got the strength and the mobility to still be carrying your shopping bags for a neighbor, you know, when you're when you're sort of twice this age, then that's a skill worth having anyway, isn't it? You know, just full stop. And of course, they, they carry out on the ice and I have had 99% of my ice skating career has been this doesn't feel quite right. But occasionally, I say career that even that word was massively overstated. 99% of my ice skating passtime as an extreme amateur. Over the last 10 years. There's been moments where you're, you're over a strong leg, and by that I mean you've hit something right in your skating or you're off ice training. And your leg feels like you know, as strong as you know the jib of a crane. You just you just sit in on it and you could sit on it all day and and you do something and you have flexibility in a turn works really well. And occasionally, I get these little glimpses of grandeur before they are snatched from me. And so and that happens to me sometimes in yoga as well, because I have a lot of a lot of the time, we sort of recovering or you're weak, or you have no time to fit it in in it. And I always go to yoga before a build up any other exercise, I start from that, and I build on that if I've had a break, or anything. And then occasionally, you'll do something you think this is strong, this is a side plank with my arm up, you know what I mean? And, and you've done something, right, but you don't necessarily know what you've done. And when I looked at the program, your program, what sort of struck me was the fact that this might be a program where that identifies all of the correct things, the reasons why you might feel better in one thing, and the reasons that you may be better at a certain element in skating, or to give you more strength or stability. In other words, in my own very long winded way, you knew what you're on about.

Angela  11:04  
And no pause about your long winded explanation, because I was, I 100% agree with you in that I love those aha moments we have, you know, it's like, even that two degree difference can be huge, especially as adults, you know, kids are different, you know, they do the monkey see monkey do when they're, you know, a lot more spongier. But as adults, you know, we're definitely in our analytical brain. And when we can find that right, align in that position. Like you said, it's a score. You know, I think that's, I mean, for me, that that keeps pushing me, you know, I'm almost 39 and I'm still, I still feel like I have so much to improve on and learn and why I have all these goals, I still have in mind I think with my physicality.

Phill  11:48  
Really, really, I was looking at the videos thinking, Man, she's pretty ripped, you know, she, I'm a long way off from that.

Angela  11:57  
Yeah, it's the process, right? I, I never think about the result as much. Now as much as I have the process, and there's only so much you can learn and do and hopefully through the app, you know, I know that a lot of adults are already very aware of our bodies, people, you know, have their thing, they have yoga, they already have a maybe a plan, per se, but they do off the ice. But hopefully this kind of gives an extra layer of understanding of maybe why you're doing this and how it relates to skating, just get to think differently about these exercises. Again, there's my iteration from my experience, you know, as, as a figure skater pilates instructor. But after I had my hips  re-done five years ago, both of them were reconstructed. And it gave me this whole other insight about our muscles and our bones and how they move, and how, you know, I move to start my years of strengthening my hips. skating's all about hips and your lower body. So with that said, I learned I've learned a lot. That is that I hope has also been expressed within the app in terms of like, looking at your movement, from a neurological standpoint, not necessarily just kind of, can you do 25 sit ups or 25 push ups, it's really more you know, how you do it from a bone level, actually, even. So within the program, you know, we have two sets of exercises, one is resilient training. And the other is skill building. resilient training is more about like, how well how your joints articulate opposed to the skills, which is obviously, you know, can you do a spiral off ice? Do you know how to stack your hips, kind of those type of things that's more related to the shapes you'd make on the ice? And can you sustain and hold them with stability? So I think combining those two is really cool. Because you can connect not just off ice being your fitness, General fitness, but you can then apply it to your skating. So yeah, again, my long winded answer is I love the process of why we move and I hope that the app expresses that.

Phill  14:04  
No, I was quite surprised when I was looking at the app. And and I thought about it that. I mean, when it comes to skating tuition, there's some there's some brilliant, brilliant tuition and programs out there. And any ability that I've got it all is all on the shoulders of my coach. It's certainly not my natural ability. But when I looked at the app, I thought this unless you specifically ask a coach, and you really go out of your way to try and find a program or if you're at such a level that a program is almost handed to you because you're such a you know, amazing skater, then off-ice training is not really covered. Not in I mean in this. I guess it's the same in America. In this country, there's not really a direct route into an off ice program, you sort of you go along, I can, remember, when I first started skating, and I was having problems, I think controlling my ankle, or stability, stability on my ankle stability on my knee, and things like that, and, and saying to a coach, I don't think I've gotten the muscles in my ankle, I can remember the coach saying to me, you haven't actually got any muscles in your ankle, they're the control muscles further up your leg. It's those I think you need to work on. And they sort of developed in time with just loads of skating, but I dare say, I could have done that. quicker, you know, if I'd have been working off ice and actually building those muscles, had I have known which ones I should have been working and how to work? You know?

Angela  15:54  
Yeah, absolutely. That's it. It's efficiency. You're right. It's kind of like you said, like, I learned from doing things wrong most of the time. And then after like, go five steps backwards, move 10 steps forwards, or, you know, we learned this through our own mistakes. And that sense, well, not necessary mistakes. That's what you're talking about your ankle, but it's it Yeah, yeah. But yeah, no, that's it. These are, we really look at the general imbalances. skaters tend to have. And being a skater of myself, I understand that, you know, and so it's something that makes the program unique is, you know, it's not just going not just but it's, it goes a little bit more, further than getting personal training from somebody who doesn't necessarily know the sport.

Phill  16:43  
Yeah, well, I mean, to be fair to, you know, if you're obviously, you know, skating coach, and done all of this, all of this other stuff, which is, which is sort of in the media as well, but on top of all of that, as well as the whole sort of Pilates kind of background. But on top of all of that, I have more time for somebody, like yourself that's had two reconstructed hips. It's a bit like a shiny new young soldier coming to you and saying, Let me tell you about being a soldier, and then a really old soldier with one leg saying, Let me tell you what war is like, you know what I mean, who you're gonna listen to, you're gonna listen to the one with one leg aren't you, let me tell you what war is like, because, because I've seen it from both sides, and and with your hip reconstructions, and things like that, then it's kind of forced knowledge as well as you have to learn.

Angela  17:41  
Yeah, absolutely. It took me a year to relearn how to walk. And I was just completely humbled by how many muscles it takes to take one foot strike, you know, and, and then taking that further about, you know, going onto the ice and relearning how to jump and to spin and to go back into more of that higher level skill development. It's, it's fascinating, and I think, is a such a blessing in disguise, because although I started skating at six, coming back onto the ice, I had this fresh mindset of what it's like to learn how to skate again. And that was a really beautiful experience, because it made me a better coach made me understand maybe the process of somebody, you know, in their 20s, or 30s, learning how to skate? What was that like? And it's actually a little side story, when my mom starts getting a 65. And it's really cool to kind of talk to her about like, what it's like to be on an inside edge, you know, just take you back to the simple things I took for granted as like a little kid, you know, like, I can, you know, so it's, it's, yeah, it's, again, it's been a it's been a blessing. And I, you know, I not sure if I mentioned this, but I had my hips re-constructed because of my childhood, of coaches and trainers, not necessarily, you know, it's not necessarily their fault. But I had a genetic disorder where I could not internally rotate my hips. So I had these beautiful spreadeagles beautiful flexibility. I got praised for it. But actually, those were the things that were causing a lot of pain and destruction within my hips. But nobody could identify that. So that's why I'm really passionate now. The program is about giving kids and skaters, you know, like a resource of preserving their bodies for the long haul.

Phill  19:32  
It does take its toll Oh, doesn't it? I mean, it does. I've seen it like in the media with some famous people. It does and even changes in the skating rules to try and sort of reduce some of the impact. I mean, it is a very impactful sport, isn't it in terms of your body?

Angela  19:48  
Oh, yeah. I mean, it's crazy. I mean, we're now pole vaulting ourselves in the air and, you know, rotating four times, you know, back when I was younger, I mean, a triple you know, obviously level was a big deal. You know, I mean, it was it's incredible how much the sport has evolved. And the science of it, you know, when I was little, it wasn't about load control, it was like, you just keep falling until you figure it out, you know, just again, again, again, there be that right side again, again, and we take these crazy falls, I think we're a lot more, I think thoughtful about the process now. They're understanding more about load management, you know, making sure kids aren't jumping over a certain amount of times. A lot, like I said, off I see became a big player now, which I think is great. Especially in North America, I know and in Europe, you know, they don't have ice full time and off ice has been a thing for a while, but it's a perfect timing for the program to come out in this sense. And yeah,

Phill  20:53  
Its a perfect time as well, when there's no ice for a lot of people. So you can you can be doing your you can be doing your sort of off ice. And I've sort of been trying to do my own version. You just try and sort of keep your ice legs as much as you can don't you whilst you have got no time, but having looked at sort of what you have done, you know, there's there's a proper way to do it. And and it's definitely out there for for people and it's, I think it's probably a great shortcut to a better a better skating body. Probably a better body full stop I wouldn't mind.

Angela  21:26  
That sounds like a good book ready to happen. A better skating body? Yeah. Yeah, no, timing is great. I off ice, you can always get better, right? I mean, even if you don't have ice, I know we don't have the factor of momentum and velocity. But you know, your squat can always get better your ankle strength can get better. Are you hinging in the right places? Do you can you create more balance in your body? Skating is a very imbalanced sport. So yeah, there's, there's so many things. And within the program, we have five categories. They start with first stability, and then mobility, we look at balance next, and then plyometrics for dynamic strength, and then we go into rotation. So if you are a jumper, we have these very thorough breakdown of how to rotate and like what to look for in those rotations. So that you're not just throwing yourself into an off ice jump necessarily as an adult. And just like hoping and praying, I'll go well, you know, we make sure that these that you're proficient through all the different prerequisites before you get to the end goal that what you want. And that's the structure I'm talking about, I think makes the program super unique, is we we look at deficits, we look at imbalances, we make sure that all the steps are there, so that you are setting yourself up for success. So when you actually do the skill, you know, your body has all those pieces is just now getting your motor, your thinking brain to put all the pieces together. 

Phill  22:56  
Yeah,

I mean, I looked at I looked at one element of it. And there was sort of a section for coaches, as well. And speaking to you It sounded like Originally, it was a coach's resource that you were, you had created.

Angela  23:15  
Yes, yes. So this was for coaches only, it didn't become a platform for adults until the pandemic hit. And then I had to make that pivot. But it was kind of a blessing in disguise. Because it made me really think about the program from the side of a complete beginner or somebody who's not body aware where the coaches resource was more a collection of exercises and a structured view of how to look at different components of skating and the physical conditioning that's needed for the skating ability. So it was so yeah, we it within the app itself. We have videos, hour long videos that are basically iterations of this, the kids class plans, obviously, it's not the same 100% but it's, it's based on on those modules of those five categories that I just explained. So it's all progressive. I think that's really important. I think as adults, you know, we don't have that structure of like schooling that, what our coaches tell us we can do, we just do where we go out on our own to find programs of different kind of physical training. What's great about this is that it is tailored towards making sure that you understand the exercise before moving on to next as a pose to just going to take, opposed to taking a class here and there and, and having something that's a little bit more disjointed.

Phill  24:42  
Yeah, absolutely. And that as well sort of, kind of gives me the sort of feel that this is this is proper stuff because a lot of its original design was already going out to coaches. So you're you're being judged by your peers on it. So yeah, you know, Trying to be a man amongst boys so to speak, it was out there being judged by your peers. And so I think that the fact that that then became available to adults is kind of like a really good insight to something that they would have never seen, they would have paid hourly for that information and that kind of thing. But it's, it's there as a resource for them. You know, a direct resource, so to be taught by you to to themselves directly? So I think that that sort of like, adds weight to it. And to be fair, I mean, the web, the website, and the app is pretty swish as well. I was I was impressed with the app. I'm like, I need an app like this. Well, first. First, I need an available skill that I could teach people. Okay, first, I need to learn an  available

skill, then I need a really good app to teach it to somebody. So I don't know what that skill is, could be anything could be knitting, you know?

Angela  26:01  
Absolutely.

Phill  26:02  
Not. It's not going to be ice skating, let me tell you, but so yeah, and I thought, yeah, this is pretty slick. So it's definitely definitely worth checking out. So it's in the it's in the App Store is available on iOS, or is it available on on Google?

Angela  26:19  
Both Android, iOS,

Phill  26:22  
Android, and iOS. So if you search for the balance skaters, then then you'll pretty much find it.

Angela  26:30  
Yeah, and can I plug a couple features within the app? for a second? 

Phill  26:35  
Plug away, plug away.

Angela  26:36  
Plug away, okay. Yeah. So this is all customized this app, and I really put on my coach's hat and thinking, what do coaches really need? So you'll see there's like a video comparison there, you can just take out your phone on the iPhone or your iPad and just go on your skater there.

Phill  26:37  
Oh yes actually I forgot to mention that it's really cool. You can like do a video comparison of yourself versus it's like, what I should look like what I do look like.

Angela  27:03  
Yeah, in the most posative ways! Yes, yes. So that that's, that's, I think, a really great feature about the app, but also, it's to be used loosely. So I keep saying structured programming, this is true, but you know, you know, learn differently, whatever. There's an exercise library with hundreds of exercises that's categorized within those five pillars that I talked about. So you know, if you're one of those people who just like want to just take out your phone, just do a couple exercises, you can always go to the exercise library, you don't have to follow the program to the tee. And, you know, big point, part of the balanced skaters i'm going to call it a platform, not just the app, is it's just to build communities, we offer classes monthly to adults, so that in real time, myself or somebody on the team who's coaching that, that month can look at your form and be like, Okay, well, you know, try this instead, because, you know, we all need that sometimes, like you said earlier, this is to minimize that hourly rate. You can do this yourself, but it's always nice to have that extra eye. And how cool is it that we can do that? digitally? Now? Do these Zoom classes? So?

Phill  28:11  
I saw something, something on the resource that said about these live classes, but I didn't know that they were sort of live to way, I think so they live two ways. So you can see us we can see you.

Angela  28:25  
Yeah, yeah. And the way I like to teach is I don't necessarily like the whole follow along. kind of format, like I love being able to maybe demonstrate if they need a visual, but to actually watch people, and in that moment, trying to catch their movement, and then finding those those moments of like, you know, did you feel that? Did you understand that? And, you know, it's nice, I mean, it's like it is it is the humanists that, right, like, we talked about, like, what are your sticky spots? And, you know, whatever XYZ exercise, and, you know, what are you having problems in, and, you know, those of us so much more receptive, we know, our body, so well, we know, those little niggles and pains that we have, and to problem solve is something that I love to do with adults. So this is a great opportunity to connect with the subscribers. And then we're all on the same page of understanding the curriculum, the syllabus of what exercises are doing and why we're doing them. So yeah, I really, that's a big aspect to the program is that community vibe.

Phill  29:29  
And a funky little timer, I was well impressed with that,

this is going back to the app. It's a huge to everybody. This is a huge resource. You know, there's a whole website and loads of other pages and downloadables and all of that. But on the app, there's a funky little timer as well. So when it says when it says you could, you could do something for 30 seconds, you can just hit 30 seconds, it starts timing down for you. And there is a spotify. I can't say it a Spotify plugin kind of thing as well, isn't it? Yeah. For music. I was like, yeah, this is well cool when I learned a skill And finally get an app to, to demonstrate it, I'm gonna have one of those.

Angela  29:33  
It's the little things right that make it easier. Yeah.

Phill  30:08  
But I jest I jest but it's it's a huge resource and it's very good in terms of being out there on the web being available to people and offering off-ice to adults, which is something that I've never heard of before. It's a huge is a huge niche that needs to be filled. And above being a niche, it's actually a genuine need. And so you're leaving something out there on the web, which is, which leaves the world a better place than you found it, which is lovely, in terms of being there for adult skaters, because I think that we're an under, under represented group of people, but a huge group of people. And so for, for doing this, and for sharing this with the adult skating community, I hope that you get the devotion of, of all of those 1000s and probably hundreds of 1000s of adult skaters that can take benefit or make the most of what is your extremely expansive career, I'm not even going to go into the contortionismn. And that's some some crazy stuff. I have watched some stuff on it. And I'm like, people you can, I'm sure you can Google it, but you know, huge expansive career, and coming back from from not being able to walk and getting back on the ice to perform in these these amazing feats helps anybody believe in you. And when you see the resource, then you really do realize how much effort you've put into it. And I really do wish you the very best with it. And thank you for coming on the show.

Angela  31:47  
Thank you so much for having me. So it's always nice. It's a gift to be able to share my story. And like you said, it's making those meaningful impacts that that really drives drives me to do this. So thank you for letting me share this.

Phill  32:00  
You're welcome. If anybody wants to catch up with Angela then they can do so by visiting the balance skaters website which is balancedskaters.com.

Angela  32:11  
Yes it is.

Phill  32:12  
or emailing contact@balancedskaters.com or by Instagram which is which is a we first got in touch, which is just @balanced skaters on Instagram.

Angela  32:25  
Yep, that's it.

Phill  32:27  
Absolutely. So reach out and DM Angela, and she'll be delighted to hear from you. Thank you once again for being on the show. That's all we've got time for I'm afraid. So till till next time. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you Angela. And take it easy. Bye. Bye. 

Angela  32:44  
Bye. Bye. 

Phill  32:47  
You have been listening to the iceweasel podcast. Don't forget to subscribe.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai