RIU Skater Shares Expertise
Every month, TheBurg Podcast introduces listeners to some of Harrisburg’s most fascinating people. Their stories start on the pages of TheBurg magazine, and are expanded on TheBurg Podcast… because “there’s always more to the story.” As a complement to its feature profile on Revolution Ice Unity (September 2021), TheBurg Podcast also interviewed skater Kasey Jordan. Read Kasey’s conversation with longtime Harrisburg-area journalist, Karen Hendricks.
Ice skater Kasey Jordan of Harrisburg explains how she helps her Central PA-based adult synchro skating team, Revolution Ice Unity, with both physical and mental health. And, she shares her thoughts on the greater conversation about the mental health of athletes.
TheBurg Podcast:
You managed to connect with other Harrisburg-area skaters and form a team, Revolution Ice Unity, a synchronized team, and no small feat as you’ve done this through the pandemic. Here you are, ready to launch into your first season of competition and I have to ask you, how are practices are going?
Kasey Jordan (RIU):
Practices are going great so far. We have a bunch of new skaters who are brand new to synchro, and we have some skaters who have been doing synchro for many years. But, we’re all on the ice, learning from each other, and we’re just having an absolute blast.
TheBurg Podcast:
Kasey, you shared with me that you are one of RIU’s two coaches and are one year away from earning your master’s degree in sports psychology, after which you are going to go on and pursue your doctorate in sports psychology. As a skater, and a coach, and as someone who is studying the well-being of athletes, tell me how skating and your team helps you psychologically?
Kasey Jordan (RIU):
For me personally and for many on our team, the ice is our “happy place.” You might think it’s crazy that we wake up at 4 a.m. and drive to the coldest place in our town just to skate, but for us, it’s just a way of life and we can’t imagine our lives any other way. Skating gives us that place to be creative and learn something new. We can kind of tune out from the everyday stressors—especially the stressors that have come along with this pandemic. We can move our bodies and connect with people face to face, which has been something we’ve been really missing over the last year.
TheBurg Podcast:
Through the pandemic, we’ve heard a lot about the importance of psychologists helping people cope with a multitude of issues related to the pandemic, but we’ve also heard a lot over the past few years about a growing sub-shoot of the field and that’s sports psychology, your field. So, that conversation has really intensified over the last few months, primarily because of two prominent athletes, tennis player Naomi Osaka and Olympic gymnast Simone Biles. So what is your take, Kasey, on what’s going on in our culture, our sports, and our minds?
Kasey Jordan (RIU):
Our culture heavily relies on sports for entertainment, and because of that, we expect so much of these athletes. We’re seeing professional athletes playing and training longer than they have in the past. We’re seeing Olympians return year after year to defend a title and we expect that of them. But because of this, the athletes are training and competing well into their adult years which extends the time that they physically have to remain in peak condition. The problem is that the athletes are not training their minds the same way they do their bodies and their brains end up tapping out long before their bodies do.
So the demand for sports psychology as it grows, I’m hoping that we can see more athletes who can benefit from taking of their mental health the same way they do their physical health, and that will improve their performance and longevity as an athlete.
TheBurg Podcast:
So what are your personal goals when it comes to your career? What you hope to do in the field of sports psychology?
Kasey Jordan (RIU):
So I would love to obviously work with skaters and help them become better competitors. There’s a certain aspect to being in a performance sport that is so different than other sports because you get one shot. You might get two minutes in front of a judge to give it your best. You don’t get another chance to score that goal or take that shot. That’s it. Your two minutes are up and you’re done. So if you really go out there and fall down a ton and have tons of nerves, and are not prepared to compete, you kind of gave it away. You lost your chance to win. And I think having the mental game and the physical game will help those competitors give their best in that two minutes they’re on the ice.
And so for me, I’d love to work with skaters, but I would love to work with any athlete because I love to see people achieve their goals. Being an athlete myself, I know what that feels like, so I can put myself in their shoes and cheer for them in all aspects.
TheBurg Podcast:
You mentioned something… not only is skating athletic, certainly, but there is definitely an artistic element to it that you don’t find in all sports. So talk to me a little bit about how unique that is.
Kasey Jordan (RIU):
Well with skating, one of the major components is choreography, so it’s very dance like. And with synchro, specifically, we get more into the shapes and the transitions as you move together as one unit. That’s really what makes synchro so special in comparison to individual skating.
Our team has the independence to do whatever we want, really, within the rules of the competition and whatever we’ll be judged on. But we have nobody really telling us what we can and can’t do, so we get on the ice, we try some things, we find out what works and what doesn’t, and we pick the best things that we like to do and we do those. It’s been really fun to have that creative freedom this year.
TheBurg Podcast:
I’ve got to imagine that your team is staying attuned to the latest COVID news. Are you at all worried about what this will do to your upcoming season?
Kasey Jordan (RIU):
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worried, but we were born out of a pandemic through Zoom. We are planning our regular competition season assuming that everything will go as planned but are prepared to adapt and overcome as per the limitations that impact our season.
TheBurg Podcast:
Well, we certainly wish you all the best, Kasey. It’s been such a pleasure chatting with you. Is there anything I didn’t ask you about that you want to be sure to add?
Kasey Jordan (RIU):
I’d like to reach out to all the skaters in the area and just say that Revolution Ice Unity is the right team for you if you are interested in doing synchro because we will take anybody who wants to be on the ice and learn something really, really fun and new.
