What must it be like to wrestle with Elvis Stojko every day? To live with quad attempts every time you turn around? To watch a tempestuous thing like that wrestle down the Fates?
Knowing you could not do it yourself, but having to teach someone else how?
Elvis pushes you everywhere. The jump timing must be perfect. Footwork -- even better. Lines -- must come from the soul.
How does a mere mortal cope with all this?
To watch someone constantly and systematically try to break the boundaries of human achievement...every time he puts foot on the ice....be shepherding others too....and then have to live with something like Nagano silver?
That's harder on the coach than it is on the skater.
Doug Leigh is a Canuck's Canuck. "Just hit the good edges, eh?" Edgework. Line. That's all he sees. Froufrou? His rink? Bring it in yourself. And justify it. For the skater. Not the TV people. The skater.
You can see it in his skaters. Down to business. Earthy. Good edges.
Someday the Doug Leighs of the world will rule skating.
Frills are nice. If they don't overwhelm the skater.
But it's the skater's that first.
God, what a drain.....