A Canadian professional skater and Choreographer, Alex Anore Hamel has urged Nigerian youths involved in skating to imbibe the spirit of teamwork to enable them to excel in the sport. Alex, along with his wife and little daughter were in Nigeria under the invitation of the Big Heart Skating Club, to see how they could further develop the sports in the country.
In an interview with newstap.com.ng, he noted that the country’s skaters are talented but they need more teamwork and synergy to progress further in the game.
”The style of Nigerian skaters is very powerful, full of energy, well trained, and have talents with a lot of physical skills but what is lacking is that synergy to work together as a team instead of making it an individual sport”.
”I also want to state that my visit is to study the style of Nigerian skating and offer some advice on how they can get it better”.
”The next step is to boost the collaboration with Big Heart Skating Club to see if we can organize other shows and do things together, maybe in a theatre, and then the skating can be real-life fun”.
Alex whose wife, Pascale is also a professional skater and Choreographer explained that they skate on ice unlike in Nigeria where skating is done on hard surfaces but was quick to add that skating on hard surfaces is more difficult”.
”Over there in Canada, we skate on ice but when I came to Nigeria, I discovered that they skate on hard surfaces which is more difficult. This is why skaters here are strong and that’s why am curious to see what will happen when you have these skaters try their talents on ice”. He stated.
Alex who said he started skating when he was three years old was overwhelmed with the skating ball invented by the President of Big Heart Skating Club, Kendron Nkisa with a promise to introduce it in Canada and probably form a skating ball club in his country.
During their three-day visit which ended last Saturday, he took Nigerian skaters on various aspects of the sports with the highlight being the demonstration of Choreograph skating to the athletes.