Price, Paul – Interview

Paul Price
3-time World Pairs Champion/USARS Hall of Fame

What was your significance to artistic roller skating?
What a great question to start this interview. I guess in some way any athlete always wants to leave his mark on his sport. I would have to say that for me it was attaining the highest quality and athleticism I could achieve at a time when artistic roller skating was at its peak. People may only remember the World Championship medals I won or the way Tina (Kneisley-Dulong) and I pushed pairs skating, but I considered myself an individual athlete as well as a pairs skater. Although I never achieved skating as a single skater on the World stage, I was proud during the 1980 and 1981 season to be the only male skater to make it into finals in three World Class events (pairs, freestyle, and figures).

What has life been like for Paul Price since you've been out of the sport?
It’s hard to believe that I have been away from competing longer than I was in the sport. Where does the time go! After I retired from the sport of skating I moved out to California to teach for a year and then back to Chicago where I had the pleasure of teaching one of the most talented young skaters (Chad) I have ever met. In 1985, I married a former artistic roller skater, Annjanette Gerig, and moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I taught skating for a few more years and started my career in accounting. I am now a Chief Operating Officer for a broker general agency, Universal Insurance Services. I have two children, Kassi (19) and Karlee (10). I wanted to space out my college expenses. My oldest daughter, Kassi, attends the University of Alabama on an athletic scholarship for gymnastics. Kassi was on the USA international team for six years and she had the pleasure of traveling the world competing against and beating some of the top gymnasts in the world. My youngest daughter, Karlee, is in fourth grade and is a diver. At eight years old she won two US National titles diving on the one meter and three meter springboard. This past summer she defended her titles and also place 3rd on the five meter platform against girls eleven and under. Annjanette is a stay at home mom, who has put her time in taking the kids back and forth to their respective sport as well as putting up with me these past 24 years.

What was your mind set going into practice?
I actually loved going to practice. To me it was as good as competing because at some point or time during practice you hooked up with someone and started competing with them by playing horse. Because of the distance Tina and I shared throughout our career we didn’t have a great deal of time to practice, so we took advantage of every minute. If people understood that we could practice a total of 6 to 10 hours a week back then they wouldn’t believe it, but we were very focused and got our job done. Now figures were a different thing for me, I would practice three hours a day and believe it or not loved every minute of it. Figures taught me focus since people and skates were normally flying around you. Practicing singles was just pure joy. Trying new jump or spin combinations was always fun.

Do you believe there is any difference in training back then with work and school than it is today with work and school?
I know just from my children and how we have to work around school that it is more difficult to get them quality training time, but with that said I think back in our day the opportunity for practice time was more readily available. It seems like today catering to the public versus the athlete is more important. Then again you probably make more money from the public then the athlete.

How important was it for yourself to have coaches that taught you the correct basics? Could you have succeeded the same without them?
There are some people who believe an athlete is only good as the talent they possess while others feel that although talent is important it is the basics that they are taught and the work ethics they have which really matter. I guess I would fall into the latter of good basics with a good work ethic. I have had the pleasure of being taught by some of the greatest coaches ever to grace artistic roller skating. My first coach was Louie Pannunzio, what can be said about Louie except he was amazing. He gave me a foundation that I use in my everyday life. I remember one year where Louie won every pairs event but one. He had a method that would get the very best out of you. My second coach was Tim Abell. Tim taught me that there was so much more than the skill. Tim taught me to explore my artistic side and believe it or not there are basics to being artistic. Tim was an amazing coach I will be forever grateful for everything he taught me. As some of you may know that Tim passed away about two years ago. During his sickness we reconnected and even then he continued to teach me (about life) as I was traveling with my oldest daughter. The final two coaches of my career were Petra Daney and Peggy Yambor. I can tell you that Petra was fantastic. Not being known as a good figure skater, Petra worked me harder in this discipline than any other coach and it paid off. I qualified for World Class Figure finals at nationals twice place fourth and fifth against skaters whose focus was primarily figures. Peggy was the perfect coach for Tina and I at that time in our career. She wasn’t going to teach us new skills, but she taught us how to skate as a single unit better than anyone could have at that time.

You've coached on and off throughout the years. In 1984 you coached a primary boy to a 2nd place finish at the National Championships in freestyle. How great was that experience?
Anytime you can express your thoughts into another individual and see them accept those thoughts and watch them succeed has a type of high that is rarely experienced. When Chad placed second it was if I had experienced my first national success all over again. To this day I try to teach as well as be taught by those around me.

Back on a serious note, kids seem to get so discouraged by failure these days. When you took on Chad, the year prior (in '83), he got 12th at Nationals. The year before that he was second to last at Regionals. It almost seemed like a natural progression back then. But now, the instant gratification seems to outweigh the work. What would you say to coaches or younger skaters today that are at that crossroad?
First and foremost the coach must have a realistic expectation and not also require the instant gratification that is running wild in our society. Coaching is like parenting in so many ways, we watch our athlete rollover, crawl, walk, and finally run. Too many times as the athlete is in the crawling stage we try to make them run. It is all about progression and balancing the pace. Sometimes you get the extraordinary athlete who has immediate success, while you may also have the sleeper athlete whose success is not recognized until later. For the athlete, the struggle may be harder. If the athlete has been satisfied in all their wants and needs without any type of struggle or effort it will always carry into his/her athletic endeavors. When confronted with this I would sit the athlete down and show him current examples of individuals who have success and the amount of struggle and effort it takes to achieve his/her goals.

What skaters motivated you and why?
I don’t think there is enough room on this paper to go through everyone of them, but here is who is at the top of my list. First and foremost, Tina because she trusted me with her life on a daily basis and until I had children of my own could not really appreciate that part of our relationship. Others who had an impact on me were Michael Jacques, Joseph Maffei, Ric Elsworth, Paul Jones, Tim McGuire, April Allen, Natalie Dunn, JoAnn Young, Ron & Gail Robovitsky, Ron Sabo & Sue Mac Donald.
All of these skaters possessed athletic determination and all of them have taught me to be a better skater as well as a better person. I want thank all of them for impacting my life whether they know it or not.

Today pairs skating seems to try and fit as many positions in a lift as possible. Do you think pairs skating today (if you've seen any lately) is missing something that was around back when you and Tina skated?
I must be honest in that I haven’t watch artistic skating in many years, but if what you asked is factual then my recommendation would be that it isn’t how many tricks you do but how you do them. Everything Tina & I did we made sure would have the least amount of deduction. It is true that we performed multi position lifts, but only after each lift in its own right was done correctly. The worst thing in the world is seeing the girls being tossed around like a rag doll and never really hitting clean positions.

When you skated was it a difficult adjustment when you started skating in the international scene? The long flights, the close attention to your practices ... you guys seemed to fit right in like you've been there all along.
Tina & I had a great time traveling to international competitions and exhibitions around the world. Back when we were much younger we were so excited to travel that I think the adrenaline kicks in and you handle whatever situation you are faced with. As I mentioned before, Tina & I could function on very little practice during competitions because our schedules didn’t allow us a great amount of time to practice anyway, so when we did practice at these meets we were in and out fairly quick.

If you could say one thing to inspire current skaters (beginner or World Class) what would it be?
Be true to yourself and put the efforts into whatever you do that will give you the results you are looking for. Be proud of your accomplishments whether you are first or last. Unfortunately in competition there can only be one winner, but that is what pushes us to be better.

What was artistic skating's significance to you?
Skating was everything in my life for a very long time. It allowed me friendships that I still have today and with the invention of facebook has gotten me back in touch with people I haven’t spoken with in 20+ years. It taught me the value of working hard and what you can achieve if you have the right support system from your family, coaches, partners and friends.

I also want to thank everyone at CanAm Crew for allowing me this opportunity to answer these questions.