[group laughing]
- What? [laughing]
- Ready?
- Nope!
- We're ready, yeah!
I can do that, no problem. [laughing]
[energetic violin music]
[laughing]
- I'm Jen, I've been skating for 24 years,
and I'm a skating coach at Chelsea Piers.
- I'm Eliot, I've been
skating for 23 years.
I teach at Chelsea Piers in New York City
and I'm an international choreographer.
- My name is Angela,
and I've been skating for over 20 years.
I teach at Chelsea Piers
and I'm also a performer.
- My name is Nichelle,
I've been playing ice hockey for 20 years.
I currently play center
for the Metropolitan Riveters in the NWHL.
- My name is Bulbul.
I'm from Kazakhstan.
I've played hockey for 12 years.
I play left wing for the
Metropolitan Riveters.
- Hey my name is Ivo, I've been
playing hockey for 27 years.
I used to play professionally
in the Czech Republic,
Canada, and the United States.
Currently I'm the head coach
of the Metropolitan Riveters.
[bell dinging]
- The first challenge we have
for you today is a spiral.
Which is essentially a one-foot glide.
But the thing is that we
have to make it look good.
A spiral requires that you
have two legs straight.
- Aw, come on.
- Aw, come on,
you've gotta be kidding me right now!
[laughing]
- [Nichelle] Whoa, okay!
I thought this was the
easiest thing first!
- I have a question, I have a question.
Can I drop F bombs?
- Yes.
- I can?
- We can?
- Actually, [beep] right, let's go.
It looks like it requires
way more flexibility
than I would expect
and I don't think I'm gonna be able
to pull that one off.
- Yeah, that looks like I'm
gonna toe pick on this one.
- Hockey skates don't have toe picks,
and figure skates do.
A lot of the tricks require
the use of toe picks,
the jumps, and the spins, and the hops.
- I think I can go home guys.
[group laughing]
- We're gonna start learning
the spiral on the wall.
So you're gonna put one hand on the wall.
Use your arms for balance.
And extend one leg back.
Okay, let's just see if you guys
can balance like that first.
Leg straight, turning out the foot.
Oh, look at that, that looks good!
- Is that me, ah, there you go!
- Not you.
[group laughing]
Point your toes.
- Oh [beep]
- Turn them out.
[group laughing]
And then tip your body
and see if you can extend your leg higher.
That's it, and then you
wanna lift your chest
and your chin up, that
way you don't tip forward.
So the next step is to try this
gliding out on the ice.
Are you guys ready?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
[laughing]
[bell dings]
- Nice!
- Not bad!
- [Ivo] Yep, you go B!
- Keep looking up, look up, look up.
Straighten your legs.
- I'm trying.
- Look up.
- I'm trying!
[giggling]
Please tell me that was good.
Yep, there you go.
[group laughing]
- You okay?
- Yeah I'm fine.
- Got himself spread.
- Just my ego.
- [Nichelle] Just my ego!
- All right, let's try that one more time!
I saw some bent legs,
so remember both legs
have to be super straight.
Point that toe, look up.
You might wanna keep your
tongue inside your mouth.
- Okay.
- Smile, point your toes!
[group laughing]
- This one actually hurt!
[laughing]
[bell dinging]
- You turned, too.
- Good job,
and you turned!
[group laughing]
- They did pretty well.
Nichelle actually had
a really nice extension
in her free leg.
Evo took a few spills...
[gasping]
[laughing]
But he did try. [laughing]
We're gonna see if they can get better
and get used to their figure skates.
- Being in figure skates absolutely sucks.
It [beep] hurts.
- The balancing with the leg up
and the chest up all at
once, and the arms out.
- It requires way more flexibility
than I have, and I believe
us hockey players have.
[bell dinging]
- All right guys, the next challenge
we have for you, is a spin.
Pretty self-explanatory,
in the sense that it is a rotational move,
you will be spinning.
So the version I'm gonna teach you today
will look something more like this.
- Nope.
Nope.
That looked exactly the same.
- I have so many questions,
I have so many questions--
- So many questions--
- That looked exactly the same to me.
- Yeah, it almost looked impossible to me.
I do not get the mechanics behind it.
So I cannot wait
to hear the instructions on this one.
- I think I'm gonna throw
up just watching this,
[laughing] let alone doing it.
- We need to try. [laughing]
- I would like for you to all start
with your left hand in front of your nose.
So we're gonna start with
a move called a pivot
and this gets us doing our first rotation.
We're gonna bend both knees
and send right toe out.
Good, you're gonna press
ball of foot into ice
and find that first rotation.
That was very good!
Ivo, I haven't seen you do anything!
Try to keep up!
- Okay.
- There you go,
visual look good!
- Oh, I'm so gonna throw up.
- So we're gonna keep,
that was very good, that was very good!
[group laughing]
- Thank you!
- For a pivot!
Okay, from here,
we're gonna feel a really big squeeze
with the arms.
There you go, good!
- Whoa, look at that, look at that!
[laughing]
- There you go!
You got your first rotation
in on the two foot.
We're gonna try to slide right foot up.
So we're gonna finish the pivot,
the one rotation, and
slide that right foot up.
[upbeat music]
Okay!
Down, rising up, there you
go, there you go, good!
- Hey!
- Pressing down, rising up, good!
- Yeah!
- Yeah, good job!
There you go!
- Make it better this time.
- [beep] whoa, god dammit.
- It's that walking thing
that really gets him.
[bell dinging]
- There you go!
[laughing]
You got really excited
about lifting your leg!
- Was I really excited?
- That was awesome!
[laughing]
- One foot!
- Oh, I'm gonna barf.
- I definitely think B had a fun time
with that one.
She seemed pretty fearless.
You really have to go for it.
If you hold back in a spin,
you're just not gonna spin.
Which is why Evo didn't do so great
with this element.
Evo just needs to get on
board with that rotation.
- It was again, harder than I expected.
'Cause when we skate in hockey,
we just skate, right?
But there were so many other things
to focus on in this.
So, it was definitely challenging.
- I think that the spinning
is just making me sick.
But I actually get the concepts
of this one pretty well.
She explained it very well.
- I don't wanna say nothing.
[group laughing]
(upbeat jazz music
- The third challenge
today, is a bunny hop.
Deceiving name, we're jumpin' up,
we're pushing through those toes
that you don't have in your hockey skates.
Get ready, here we go!
[laughing]
- What the [beep] is this?
Jesus Christ.
[ice scraping]
[laughing]
- Nope!
- Oh, I'm excited to
jump around on the ice!
Let's get air!
- I'm not!
- We can try.
[group laughing]
- Okay, so we're gonna start
with one push to the left.
When you push to the left,
you're gonna swing your
right arm to the front
and your left to the back,
you're gonna like kick a
soccer ball, right, sports.
You're gonna kick your foot through
you're gonna jump up,
land on your toe, and
push back to the left.
- God, that was confusing.
- So.
- What'd he just do?
- We're gonna push,
we're gonna push to the left,
with the right arm in the front,
kick the soccer ball,
up and over, land on the
toe and push forward.
- Oh, it makes no sense.
- When we jump, you're
gonna switch the arms.
So just stand here and
get the arms moving.
Nice and easy, totally.
So, push to the left, swing through,
and then let that foot
come down to the toe
and push to the other one.
- Which foot goes in the air first?
- The right.
- The right, the foot that pushes?
- Right.
That's it.
- That's not so hard!
- Not so hard!
Swing, right, exactly.
Okay, Evo.
- Nope!
- Yes, okay!
- [beep] you!
- That was good.
- God dammit!
- I'm gonna say though,
[beep]
Evo was the jumpiest.
- The jumpiest!
- Swing your arms!
Lift!
Hey, this looks great, very nice!
Swing, that's it, nice!
- [beep] god dammit!
- I don't wanna go! [laughing]
[bell dinging]
- Yes, gorg.
So I knew they were nervous
about their toe picks
and I could see some nerves,
I think they were being a little tentative
I think they all have a bigger jumper
inside of them, perhaps.
But at the end of the day,
there are harder jumps for them to learn,
so this is just step one, you know?
- First it looked terrifying,
but at the end it was actually
the easiest one so far, I gotta say.
Eliot really explained it well
and once I tried a couple of times
it was actually not that bad.
- Yeah, that one was actually giving me
some comfort level with the toe picks.
I was really scared of my toe picks before
so I kinda like 'em now.
I kinda want to use
them a little bit more.
- It looks like I broke my leg!
[speaking in foreign language]
- We are going to do a waltz jump.
- So this is a jump, not a hop?
- Yes, before you learned the bunny hop,
and now we're doing the waltz jump.
So the waltz jump,
you're gonna take off
forwards on your left foot,
left forward outside edge,
and finish backwards
on your right back outside edge.
[laughing]
- Aw, come on, there's no way.
Come on, let's be realistic here.
- Well I think we've been
taught all the basics
so this should be easy
except that looked absolutely frightening.
- I don't know. I don't
even know what to say.
I feel like I need all
my hockey gear for this
because I don't think
this is gonna end up well to be honest.
- I don't wanna do it.
[group laughing]
- All right, ready to do the waltz jump?
- Ready!
- Sure.
- All right, so I'm
actually gonna assist you.
- Oh!
- You're gonna start
with the left foot in front
this is called a T position.
I'm gonna hold my arms out
and you're gonna jump from your left foot
to the right foot, right?
So from here, you're gonna glide, kick.
[laughing]
- Yes!
- Seriously?
- To land backwards,
you're actually gonna pigeon-toe
the right toe a little bit,
so it comes down backwards.
- Yeah.
[laughing]
- Go left foot and then
over to the right foot.
That's it!
- [beep] off!
[laughing]
- Next!
- Nope, you go!
- Push.
- Okay, mom, dad, bye!
- Yeah!
- That's it, you got it!
- Let's go, let's go.
- You got this coach!
- You got this coach!
- Ready?
- Ready, let's go.
- Push and jump over.
- Yeah!
- Oh!
- [Nichelle] Oh yeah, that was great!
- Are you guys ready to
do it unassisted soon?
- No.
- What you wanna do is when you land,
you wanna land with the
left arm in front to check
and stop the rotation.
Your leg is gonna be extended behind you
so that you can glide out nicely.
Actually, maybe we can try,
bring your hands together,
bring your hands back,
and you're gonna do a little hop.
Hop, that's it.
One, two, three.
[beep]
- So those are the arms
you're gonna do on the waltz jump.
One, two, three.
[bell dinging]
Save it, nice.
- What's wrong with you.
- Now, left arm was late!
- Ah, but I got it!
- They did great!
As hockey players, I was
expecting them to be athletic,
which they were,
so their jumps had nice height,
and they were able to stay on their feet
so it was good.
- It looked way scarier watching it
than actually doing it.
But I would rather block
a shot with my face
than doing this again.
- I think we could do this
a little better probably with some pads on
so we were a little more
confident in falling,
but I think we got it pretty well.
- We just need more practice.
- Are you ready for your final challenge?
- Yeah, let's do it!
- Sure!
- It's time for a routine!
So we're gonna string together
everything we just learned.
We're gonna start with our pivot,
our waltz jump, some bunny hops,
a spiral,
and to finish, your big ol' spin.
And that's it, easy!
- Eliot looks pretty amazing doing that,
so I'm extremely intimidated
and I don't wanna let our coaches down
so I have a feeling we're gonna struggle
with this one.
- Yeah, I will try, don't
forget what we need to do.
- Yeah, could I get a
cheat sheet or something?
There's so much stuff going on
I don't remember anything.
- We're gonna start with
our arms behind our backs.
Standing proud, we're all proud
to be here today.
We pivot around with our left arm out.
And you're gonna give us a yes!
- Come on, actually. [laughing]
- Come on Evo, I know you're proud,
I know you can yes!
- Yep, yeah!
- Exactly, give it your
own flair if you must.
It's time for the waltz jump!
Just give it a go!
Big waltz jump!
Okay, B's got it!
Yes, okay.
[beep]
- Yes, indeed!
We're gonna give our bunny
hops another attempt.
Bunny hop, bunny hop, on
the other foot this time.
[screams loudly]
- [beep] god dammit!
- Bunny hop, bunny hop.
- Yeah, B!
- Wow.
Lifting your right.
Indeed.
[grunting]
One nice stop to the front.
From here, it's go time,
it's the big finale,
give me your best spin,
one foot if you can!
Okay, our spin.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, okay.
And we reach up to the sky,
and that's your final pose!
Roses on the ice, applause
applause applause.
Olympic glory is yours in true sports!
Okay Nichelle, it's all you!
Start with our pivot,
the arm comes out to the side,
pivot around, muster the strength,
arm from the top,
it's waltz jump time.
[classical piano music]
Wow, better than before even,
bunny hop bunny hop,
gaining speed, spiral,
didn't even put her foot down!
Give me a stop.
Come on, it's the spin,
wow!
Reach down, rising up!
Wow, really, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
You did it, Nichelle, you did it!
Make it flat and strong.
A fist from the sky
and a waltz jump,
hold your breath, okay,
and bunny hop, bunny hop,
a spiral, make it snappy.
Okay, and a stop to the front.
A spin to finish.
[soft classical music]
And reach down, palms up, finish.
Beautiful, beautiful really.
[group applauding]
You really did it!
- Good stuff, good stuff.
- I'm proud of you.
- Yes, Evo!
- Okay, we start with our pivot.
She knows it all by herself.
Fist from the sky, waltz jump.
[quick piano classical music]
And, bunny hop, bunny hop.
Spiral with extension, arms up,
and come to a stop,
a spin to finish,
and our ending pose,
reach down, rising up.
Up, up, up, up, beautiful.
[group applauding]
- Yeah, B, yeah, B!
- Really, really great!
I was intrigued to see
how these hockey skaters
would handle a routine but
I think they attacked it
with that same hockey energy
and I was really impressed,
they really nailed it.
I think they're bringing home the gold?
Yeah, the gold.
- Well, learning how to figure skate
was a lot harder than
I thought it would be.
I give a lot of credit
to the figure skaters
'cause it looks like they're always
falling on their butts and knees and stuff
without any pads on.
So I think if they can do that
I'm pretty impressed.
They've got my respect for sure.
- So my favorite was just like this
and [laughing] this movement.
It's pretty simple, easy and fun.
- Despite the fact it was
the most challenging one,
the waltz jump was definitely my favorite
because it seemed impossible to me first,
but I was actually quite surprised
how well I was able to perform it.
After learning all those movements,
and kind of putting it together,
it was not bad,
it was actually fun, to be honest.
- I think they should be
impressed with what we do.
And it's not all just
glitter and costumes.
It's courage and grit.
- It was fun to watch them
really kinda struggle with the toe picks
but they kind of got used to the equipment
as the skills went on,
so it was nice to see them improve.
- You know there's always this sort of
battle from childhood,
is a hockey player better,
is a figure skater better, who's faster?
Who can do this, who could do that?
And it was kind of fun to see
just kind of come out and prove yourself.
[upbeat music]
[audience cheering]
