Evolutions and revolutions: Q&A with Berkley Villard
Berkley Villard was among the first generation of figure skaters to emerge from Spokane onto the national scene, and is now coach to a new breed of hopefuls. She is also a skating consultant to the Spokane Chiefs hockey team. She sat down with The Spokesman-Review to discuss the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, an event she will blog for the newspaper at spokesmanreview.com/skating.
Q:What was it like here in Spokane as the local skating scene developed?
A:Lonely, definitely lonely. It’s definitely hard training in an atmosphere where you’re the only one of the elite skaters. But I have to say that the coaching here in Spokane has been very good. We’ve been really lucky to have a good foundation of strong coaches throughout the past 30 years.
Q:Since you’ve started coaching (17 years ago) and have seen the sport from that side of it, what has been the evolution of skating in Spokane?
A:It’s actually quite amazing. The Lilac City Figure Skating Club has sent people from here almost every year, except for a few, to Nationals. Some of our skaters have gone multiple times. It’s actually really amazing that a small community has done so well.
Q:Talk about the time when U.S. figure skating evolved. Wasn’t a lot of it due to the Olympic Games and skaters such as Dorothy Hamill becoming superstars?
A:Yes, definitely. I think that America kind of got a taste and a craving for skating. People like Dorothy Hamill, Peggy Fleming and Kristy Yamaguchi and, of course, Michelle Kwan just dug right into the heart of America. People really connected with them, really emotionally united with them. And really the Olympics have not always been our strongest, so figure skating really seems to stand out, particularly back in the olden days.
Q:When you were going through the ranks, was the U.S. Figure Skating Championships a big deal on the national scene?
A:It was THE scene. The only thing bigger than that was the Olympics and Worlds. Once you made it to Nationals, you were basically on the path toward that. You were then part of the U.S. team and they look at that time there as time to cultivate you to become their next Peggy Fleming or Dorothy Hamill.
Q:So, really the more casual fans might be coming to see a skater they’ve seen on TV, but really there is – at the heart of this – an underlying competition.
A:Yes, that’s exactly right, and I also think there’s something that’s important for people to do and that’s to check out some of the younger divisions: Go to the novice events, go to the junior events. That’s where you’re going to see – or get the autograph – of the next Sasha Cohen that’s coming up in the next four to eight years. That’s what we’re going to see. That’s kind of an exciting thing, to see them evolve.
Q:So, that is one of the best opportunities of this event, to be able to have that first look at the up-and-coming stars?
A:Yes, and to make that connection with them. You can see fame. You don’t have to be an expert to see somebody who’s got the fame and who’s going to make it all the way. You can see that a mile away.
Q:How is the new scoring sytem different?
A:The new system actually assures the skater that they receive scores for every element they’ve done. So, it’s taken the subjectiveness out of it: A judge just can’t decide that they like or dislike their skating (though they can still grade the execution). … What they’ve also done is added what they call a technical specialist (former national-level skater or coach) and a whole technical panel. … We also work with instant replay now, so if there’s any doubt in the technical specialist’s mind that a jump was not fully rotated, they will recall it on the video and check right then and there. So, that is a huge thing. … This is a more number-based system.
Q:What do you think of the new scoring system?
A:I do like the system. I like that there’s some control as far as skaters getting credit for things that are done well and skaters not getting credit for things that are not done well. I do think that it has made a particular recipe or formula for skating and, by doing that, they’ve taken a little bit of the creativeness out of it – in the sense there is one formula that works and everyone uses it. … They have taken that artistic side out of it, a little bit, but I can’t say they’ve done it completely. But I do think it rewards people for doing things properly.
Q:Tell me about your blog for The Spokesman-Review.
A:I’ll be covering the Senior Dance, Senior Pairs, Senior Ladies, and Senior Men. I plan on attending some of their practice sessions and just kind of get an idea of what is going on. It’s always fun to see the skater who pulled it together after skating horrible all week, or had an injury but still skated through it, or was skating fabulous and just blew it. I plan on talking about what I see and, from a coaching standpoint, what I might have done differently or not.