When I entered the studio this week I felt a real sense of how few teams were left and how much was at stake and how much more difficult it would be for a team to Skate Home after so much effort. Once again it reminded me (and Camilla) of our competitive youth (in artistic skating and ballroom dancing respectively) where we both learned to deal with the pressure of being judged, of not performing our best, of learning to get up and practice some more. We often talked about this while in make up. In a few ways Camilla and I connected in a shared sense of past but also a current interest in spiritual ideas and personal growth. Camilla was in the process of qualifying as an NLP practitioner and I am glad to say that now she has finished much of her training and I think she will be an excellent facilitator and motivator.

Sam and Mark had their (metaphorical) popcorn at the ready for this week’s movie-themed quarter-final. Going to the practice rink (as I liked to do before heading into make up), I noticed how focussed the energy was and how much time the teams had spent learning another new routine and rehearsing it. In a week. With school and jobs. The idea of winning the first-prize trip to the World Games in Taiwan had become more of a reality for the remaining four teams, who still have to produce a top quality performance, please 3 judges and the studio audience. Crimping, light savers, broomsticks and ogres all featured as the teams took popular films as their inspiration.

The competition becomes that bit harder this week as, in addition to their routine, one member of each team will be part of a slalom “face off”. This involved one team member having an hour training with Naomi each and practicing a few slalom moves for the face off. Some teams had only seen slalom for the first time at Skate Camp and had probably not touched it since. Their starting points were radically different. I was impressed with their progress since Skate Camp, and amused by Naomi’s filming experiences that we shared later.

Interestingly, I noticed that each of the four remaining teams specialises in a particular skating skill – speed (Rapid Rollers), artistic (Roller Rockets), freestyle (Essence), and slalom (Coast Bladders) and as a way of pushing some comfort zones, the competitors were made to try one of the other disciplines.

I had wondered how with half the teams in the competition there would be enough ‘stuff’ to put in these later episodes, but I was impressed with the creativity and ideas that came for testing the teams and I loved this section of teaching them another skating discipline. Personally I think the whole show could have taken on this flavour instead of being focused on dance (which isn’t really anyone’s discipline as such). Idea for series 2 perhaps? But the ideas worked well and I was particularly impressed with the Roller Rockets getting on ramps. As an ex-artistic skater I can tell you it’s even weird skating outdoors when you are used only to smooth rinks, let alone half pipes!

Rounding off the programme, the special guests are a team of break dancers who “pop”, “lock” and “down rock” their way through a breath-taking routine. These guys were really extraordinary, and they rehearsed the routine 3 times in a row before doing it for the cameras. I can verify. They had excellent aerobic capacity!