Figure Skating

At 23 and with experience in seven world championships and an Olympic Games on her CV, Joannie Rochette knows what works for her and what doesn't.

So don't expect to see her grunting around a weight room, building biceps and quadriceps as she prepares for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

"I am already very athletic and I am strong enough," says Rochette, petite at 5 foot 2. "I don't need that any more."

For her, it's more important to be quick, light and precise with her feet and body. And with the demands of the new judging system, it's important to be fit, to carry a difficult and intricate performance to the final second of a 41/2-minute routine in the long program.

On Sundays, Rochette sees a personal trainer, but not for gymnastics or strength.

"It's all about timing and not about strength," said Rochette, who won the Japan Open on Oct. 3, defeating world champion Mao Asada in her home country.

"In the past, I've been doing lots of muscular exercises, but not any more."

She used to force her jumps physically. Today she emphasizes precise timing to launch her body into rotations and gets height without less stress on muscles.

"It's a lot easier," she said.

World champions Kurt Browning and Jeffrey Buttle have given her advice about rhythm along the way, particularly when they've been together on Stars on Ice tours.

"Kurt will look at me and say, ‘Breathe when you extend and when you go in [to a jump]. That's when you need to contract [muscles].' But I was always contracting everywhere," Rochette said.

"I guess I was too excited to jump. Now it feels much easier to do my jumps."

Last year for the first time, Rochette's personal trainer reinforced the importance of muscle memory during intense competition. The exercises are ever-changing and part of a circuit in which Rochette has little time to rest, moving from balance exercise to stationary bike and onwards.

The exercises are shaped smartly for her sport. For instance, Rochette steps around an obstacle on the floor in 30 seconds, as the trainer counts the number of patterns she completes.

"That's just to work on my quickness and lightness," Rochette said.

"If you're heavy, you'll be slow, so you have to be quick moving. At 20 seconds, your legs start to burn. ... Skating is like that. You're tired at the end of the program, but you need to connect your brain to your muscle and do the same rhythm."

Another day, she'll do a jumping exercise, leaping a half-turn, then a whole turn, then two turns, all the while having to land in the same spot - a sticker on the floor.

She occasionally wears a patch on one eye, like a pirate, to do the exercises to get a better feel for her body.

She also does quick stepping exercises over an agility ladder on the floor, trying not to miss any of the rungs. Her trainer goads her with her cheerfulness and her intensity. She cranks the music up really loud.

"It's been helping a lot my skating, my impulsion on ice, my rhythm," said
Rochette, who this season will skate to a well-known tango, La Cumparsita, during her three-minute short program and to Samson and Delilah in the long.

What Rochette does on the ice is not easy, although it's every skater's goal to make routines look easy.

The new judging system, brought in after the judging scandals of the Salt Lake City Olympics, has exacting requirements.

"It's a lot more difficult to do the Level 4 spins," Rochette said, referring to the highest level of difficulty. "It takes more energy. When you finish the spin, you need to go right away into a jump. It's not necessarily easy. You are still dizzy.

"The three spins we have to do [in the long program] take about 40 seconds, and fitting all of the elements into a program, and having time to get [presentation marks], it's quite challenging."

Fortunately for Rochette, the system rewards difficult jumps in the second half of the program. With her athleticism, punctuated by the customized training, she can pull off triple jumps late in a routine.

She does a triple-triple sequence near the end, and although sequences are worth less than jump combinations, she compensates by doing the sequence in the second half.

Flexibility, always a challenge for Rochette, affects layback spins and spirals.
As a young skater, Rochette spent every spare moment stretching while watching television or doing homework. She would spend an hour stretching every day after skating. The discipline is finally paying off.

"It is not a problem now," Rochette said. "Once you have it, it's not as hard to keep it."

Over the summer, she worked on spirals because every fraction of a point will count enormously at the Games. But she didn't cloister herself in a rink, worrying and thinking about the looming Olympics.

She recently moved in with her boyfriend, short-track speed skater François-Louis Tremblay, took off the month of June, and spent a week in Peru for World Vision.

"I think it's important to allow yourself to have a little more fun times with friends, and allow myself to go out sometimes," she said. "I'm 23 years old and I've been so disciplined all my life."

Observers questioned her decision to participate in a skating tour after winning a silver medal at the world championships last spring.

"What am I going to do at home?" she said. "I have no motivation, the season is over, so at least I can stay in shape, perform every night, work on other things. I think this is all part of my Olympic preparation."

Rochette opens her Grand Prix season at the Cup of China in Beijing from Oct. 29 through Nov. 1. Her next event is Skate Canada in Kitchener, Ont., from Nov. 19 through 22.

If she finishes among the top six women during the six-event series, she'll go to Tokyo for the Grand Prix final that begins Dec. 3.