Episode 18 with Madison Chock and Evan Bates

[MUSIC] Welcome to the Ice Lab Podcast. We are your host, Michael Marinero and Trent Mischo. We are going to take you deep into our labs as well as many different high-performance professionals we've connected with on our journey as we strive for excellence. [MUSIC] Welcome to episode 18 of the Ice Lab Podcast, Michael. How are you, dude? I'm good. I just got back from Finland, started the year out with a comp. A little bit jet lag coming home was a quick trip home to get back for my grandmother's funeral. She passed away on my flight out over there, but other than that, it's going good. Had a good Thanksgiving. Finland didn't go as well as planned, but excited now to string a couple competitions together and have a little bit of a normalcy in the schedule. Think at 30 years old, the competition should be like riding a bike, but after the past year, we've been through. It's a little bit more difficult out there on competition ice, unfortunately. Got to get it rolling again, but with a couple of comps in the schedule over the next two months, definitely looking forward to getting the ball rolling. Yeah, for sure. As before, I said it before, I really saw it here about your grandmother, Mike. It seemed like it was a thing that was coming for a little while, but still is not fun to go through. It also, my condolences to your family, to Bev and Albert and everybody in the family. But happy Thanksgiving to you, besides the fact. This is one day after the Canadian Thanksgiving, but happy Thanksgiving, buddy. I'm very thankful that you're in my life and a big part of it. So thanks for being there, man. Very thankful that we crossed paths also, buddy. I love you. Love you too, man. So also on top of my skating in Finland, he did play disc golf. I did. I checked out a European Pro Tour Championship course in Finland. It was a couple of kilometers from the RENK. It was quite the experience. It was very, very difficult. And it was jammed back. There was a couple of hundred people out there. 12, 13, 14-year-old kids, nonstop. It was quite the experience when I finished up. There was a 15-group weight to get onto the course. So it was almost an hour weight to even get on the course, which is not normal for around here. It's quite the sport over there in Finland. Yeah, that's awesome. It was a weekend field of disc golf. For me, I had my first two-day tournament, went okay. And then I won my league for the first time on Sunday. So that was pretty exciting. First win in the league. Best ever played at the course so far. Minus one. Nice. I knew you did well, but I didn't know you got the W. Yes, sir. Two more. And I got to move up the gold division. Seems like a good time to get your first win because I think the club championships are this weekend. Yes, sir. Sunday. Two rounds. Riding into the championships with the W. I love it. I love it. Exactly. Riding into that and then just getting prepared for skate American as we can last Vegas. Super excited for that. I might have to go roll some dice, Mike. I think you should. I think you should maybe hit a little roulette table, hit a red 23 for me. I know that's your number. I'll hit it for you. So on top of that, I think our guests are going to be there the next week. This is also the first time we've had two guests on at the same time. This is pretty exciting, Amyk. Yes, it is. Double the fun. Double the fun. So who do we have on here this week, Michael? We have two very special guests and close friends, two time Olympians together, two time world medalists, two time US champion, chips champions, multiple Grand Prix medal finalists and extraordinary, extraordinary athletes, obviously, but even more extraordinary human beings. It's a pleasure to know you guys and call you guys friends. Please welcome Madison Chock and Evan Bates. Hello. Thank you so much for having us. Trent, Michael, what an intro. I just the two of you, your relationship, your banter. I just love you guys. Thanks for coming on, man. It's the pleasure is all ours here. I feel like I didn't know that Trent was as into disc golf as Michael. Mike, I knew you were a big disc golf guy. Trent, with the club championship, did they give you a gold jacket? That'd be pretty cool. I think it's just a little trophy plaque trophy, but unfortunately, I feel terrible for this. I chirped the living crap out of Mike for a year and a half about disc golf. And then I went once and then it was over. After one trip, he got the bug deep and started to get in all the gear, all the fancy discs, fancy backpacks and spending all the money. Took me getting them out one time and he was hooked after making fun of me for a year. I love that. I love that you got all the swag immediately. Had to. Yeah, absolutely. It's the only way to have your driver. There's like, you got to have different frisbees, right? It's not just your generic recreational ultimate frisbee. Frisbee, it's like, you got your drivers, I mean, I don't know. I've only played a few times, but you'll have to school us and take us out. How many, I think I have, I run 18, 19, 19 in the bag and then I saw extra ones in the trunk. Yeah. More expensive than golf golf. No, but it's free to play. Oh, cool. Yeah. Okay, less expensive than golf golf. Less expensive than in faster than golf. Yeah, super fast. We get around in about an hour. Next time I'm in Montreal, we'll have to go out for a round. It'll be fun. I love that. Definitely. We're so down. Awesome. So, you know, talking about hobbies, you guys just started a new hobby. Pretty similar to this, hey? Yes, we did. Last week was our first ever episode of our new podcast, Unlaced, With Truck and Bates. Yeah, it's been a project we've been working on for, well, we were working on it for a while. I just trying to, you know, it's not that easy to just get it up and running. So, you know, we were training and was an idea that someone proposed to us in the summer. We thought it'd be fun. And it's taken us until now to launch. That's fun. So, can you tell our listeners a little bit about what your podcast is about? The first, like, they're going to have to go over and listen to it. We'll make sure we put it in the bio to this. But what do they, what should they be expecting out of your podcast? Well, we're basically using it as an audio journal of our season this year, going towards the Olympics in Beijing, 2022. We're going to take everyone week by week as our season progresses through competitions, through training, through all of it. Just bring everyone along for the ride. Yeah, kind of, I mean, a first-person experience of what it's like to be a figure skater. And, you know, I think that, you know, people see us on the ice for four minutes at a time. And they enjoy that. And I think people know that there's a lot of work that goes into it. But we thought it would be a new and kind of interesting way to shed some light on what life is like as a figure skater. Taylor, Taylor, that's a super sweet idea. Definitely going to be checking those out. So, these will be dropping on a weekly basis. Yeah, every Thursday. That's the plan. We might put our days off. Yeah, I mean, so we were in Finland with you last week. And so that was our first experience, kind of like, you know, we brought the mics with us. We didn't know how it would go. We landed. We tried to do, we tried to record one episode the day we landed. And we were just so jet lagged. And it just, it didn't go well. So we were like, you know what? We'll try again tomorrow. Let's rest. So the next day we ended up recording a short episode and putting it out and just kind of announcing our music and just, you know, reflecting on past experiences in Finland. And I don't know, it's fun for us, you know, because we're together all the time. And someone was like, you just started podcasting. We're like, what are we going to talk about? Like we spend all our time together. But then we actually had a really good time. And I feel like just getting the opportunity to sit down with your friend like in talk on a weekly basis and in a structured way. It was just really fun. Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest and coolest things about podcasts is that they're meant to do so many different things like you can, like there's so many different kinds of podcasts. You can go and just listen to one that just tells you facts about stuff or just information. But, you know, Mike and I. Like you guys know us, we like to talk and be with our friends and talk with our friends and you know So it was like that was the whole idea. I was just listening to Joe Rogan like just having like a great time talking to I can't remember who who which episode it was that I was like I want to do this like I've been on a podcast once And there's so much fun to like just be on so I think I could host it. I need a good host Yeah, Mike would be good with this we talk a lot And that's just how it started so it's really cool It's a and it's awesome that you guys are doing it. It's like more of an experience of your week to week lives Like we do a little bit of that obviously like just through like like our little intros But it's definitely be really cool to see to be able to talk through the whole week too as well of like what you guys did and what you guys felt Yeah, thanks. I mean your podcast is amazing like Last time I saw Mikey walked in the door with his ice lab podcast hoodie and I was like you guys have merch like This is this is some professional stuff that you guys have put together in Kudos man just really impressive stuff and in yeah, I listened to a couple of episodes with the Patrick and Alash and Caitlin and just yeah, it's awesome. Love it. Yeah, we're just making it up as we go Wasn't quite sure if we were gonna still have listeners at episode 18 But people are still downloading them. So we're gonna keep producing them. Love it Excellent. Well, we will keep downloading them. We love it. Thank you. Appreciate it So do you think this is like that kind of like Something you guys will do after this season as well like post-Elympics or Just kind of gonna see how it goes sort of thing Yeah, I think we'll we'll see how it goes We're certainly having a good time doing it now, but we're pretty fresh. It's only been one week It's difficult to say, but no, we're I think we're gonna have a lot of fun doing it and yeah, hopefully we can Keep it rolling after the season Awesome, so you know you guys kind of touched on it before you guys are always together, you know your Partners on the ice and off the ice so you know, there's not a whole lot of them There's sometimes this but like of that in this skating world when it comes to dance and Depeire skating look how do you guys deal with that like you guys spend like literally all day long together like how does that dynamic work You know it's surprisingly it works really well Not to tutor our own horns, but we get along great and We love our dogs. We just have a really chill time Most of the time I don't know. I mean yeah, I think you think I'm tired of me No, but Yesterday we got home after the long you know the long trip home from Finland and You know the apartment is a little messy and whatever and we were cleaning up and stuff and Maddie I think you looked at me and you were like it's so cool. We lived together and I didn't say anything back because I was just jet lagged Tired and just like zombie mode and just like walk best. It's so cool. We live together. I'm just like radio silence All right, that's that's okay. I'm not offended by that But I think that our love for each other is just known, you know, and it's just like We laughed about it, you know, I think that's that I think that's an important thing is like You know Being together 24/7 and skating and you guys know what it's like, you know pouring so much into your time on the ice and then you take it home with you and stuff But you know in in in frustrating or difficult moments I think we've learned to just kind of find levity and let it roll off our backs as best we can and I think that like the core Like functioning part of our relationship is that it started as a friendship and that we both like to laugh a lot And it's just like comedy based like a lot of the time and it's just it's fun. We we have a good time together You just touched on it a little bit, but how do you deal with uh Rough training day rough training week Bodies are sore feeling the fatigue uh, how do you deal with uh bringing that home? Do you try to leave that at the rink or uh, do you bring that home with you? I think Since we both are in it we know Pretty much how the other person is feeling and usually we feel the same way so I would say the only thing that suffers is our ability to Cook and feed ourselves You know us really is willing to go in the kitchen we get home and we just Want to lay on the couch and cuddle with the dog so I think that's the only thing where we're like okay. We really Gotta do this rock paper scissors who's gonna do it um But otherwise Yeah, I think we we bring it home a little bit, but like in a good way like oh do you need an ice pack? Yeah, I need an ice pack. Oh do you need heat pack? Yeah, please give me the heat pack Yeah, I think also we have help like we have a really good team um You know patrick maghi and also You know steffani handlin who works with a lot of the skaters at ice academy at Montreal where we train and um Just experience over the years, you know working with different sports psychologists and You know working and seeing them and talking them together. It's almost like In a way like a great way to work through problems together and I don't know I feel like it's almost coupled therapy at some point like when we're going through difficult things we're super comfortable to just be able to talk about it and Like know that we're not gonna be judged or are rejected and and that there's sort of Like a long-lasting love that's just they are at the core of the relationship and like Maddie said I mean we we share so much of the same experience that like I think we kind of we know how the other person's feeling without even saying it and um Yeah, it's just like constant open communication like we always just have a line open So if one of us isn't feeling great we just Will let it be known and then the other one Either just like listens and here's the other person out or helps and in a way, but sometimes it's just more venting and Just letting letting each other feel what we need to feel Yeah, it's all it's okay to have hard days like it's as normal normal. It's it's part of it, right Yeah, that's pretty awesome, you know There's that like a big part of it too. I feel like you know, there's some days where you know Some personal stuff is going on at home and you go to the rank and you try not to always like to take like you know When you go to the rank you put everything aside and you're just working on What's needs to be done at the rink but sometimes that Personal stuff creeps in and then you guys are pretty much already said like if there's any of that stuff It's you kind of already know for the most part so you can help each other out on the ice you know with those hard days and sometimes you Um like Mike I can't speak for Mike, but but for the most part like you just want to Try to push through that for your partner and just because you're like no, I like they they don't deserve like you know I can't shouldn't be having a bad day because I need them doing this for my partner as well. I'm not just doing this for me But that's kind of really nice to know that you're able to You know communicate and feel that a little bit easier and almost in a way not feel so guilty in that sense would to admit like I'm just not Not with it today or you know, this is experiencing I'm experiencing this in more than I would like to be Yeah, I mean sometimes it's hard and you know having a bad day is warranted like Mike, I'm so sorry to hear about your grandma. I had no idea we saw you last week I can't imagine like getting on the plane and getting that news and then you go to a competition First competition since worlds That's so tough. You know, I'm so sorry to hear that that's that's that's really tough and Like you know, I'm sure that didn't make the competition easier and that's sort of like That's the reality I think of being an elite athlete It's like when it's you when your name is called it's time that you have to kind of show up and And deliver and like make all the hard work show and it's just you know, it's not that easy. I mean we have partners. I think that's That's great like you know, Evelyn and Kirsten and You know, I and I was like they're great people and are helpful, but like Those single skaters man, I don't know Yes, it's definitely much much harder I bet as a single skater not having that team not having that accountability not being able to Share those moments Positive and negative with somebody else just makes it so much easier Yeah, I do feel like the skating community. I mean, I'm probably biased in Saying this, but I do feel like the skating community is such a great A great community that you know like I'm just thinking about when Kegan went through last year and the way that NAM you know became a such a brother to him and how everybody In our in our little world like steps up for each other when when we know something like that is happening or someone's going through a difficult time And even like at the ice rink you train with skaters every day you get to know them so well And you can tell when somebody's struggling and it's just like a hug or You know a conversation that needs to be had. It's it's so helpful Yeah, for sure. There's a big part of um, I've talked about this before but there's a big part of being Elite at anything not just in sports, but um, like in business or Anything else really when you're at the top there's there's moments where you actually feel pretty alone because like you're You're there's whatever everything you're doing and pouring into you feel pretty alone. So um, I feel like I've said this before I've been very lucky that I'm so close with Mike and um JL and other people people for that reason because you can kind of reach out and they can help you either out of that or they have been in the similar situation or similar feelings that you have so it kind of makes you feel like you're not stuck in there. But it's easier with partners too, definitely that you don't feel quite as alone because you're holding on to somebody on the ice. But anything at the elite level, you can definitely get that feeling sometimes. So it's really nice like you said our community is so great to each other in that sense. On top of that, so you guys train at the, your training center is the ice academy of Montreal with pretty much like how many different countries and how many different like top contenders were on there. So how is it training there? You guys were you were in Detroit before that, right? Yes, yeah, we were training in Nova Michigan and the change has been just fantastic going from a suburb in Michigan to living in the heart of a city is just fantastic for your quality of life. There's so much to do. We have so many friends here to answer your question. I don't exactly know how many countries we have. I haven't done a head count recently, but I know in Finland we had what, six teams in Finland. Is that right? Six or maybe seven? No, six. Yeah. So it was a big crew and it's just so nice to have that, that training family and go to competition and again, like you said at the elite level, sometimes it can feel lonely at times and when we go to competition, we feel like our family just comes with us when we have so many teams at any given event. So it's really from the travel together and share that experience with them. What's it like training with Maddy and Zach? You're a direct head to head US competitors. What's it like seeing them on a daily basis at the rink? Honestly, it's great. We have a really good relationship. I've trained with Maddy Hubble since we were really young, like 10-year-olds and we trained together back in Michigan for a full decade. Then she moved to Montreal and then we followed a few years later, but they're great people. The rivalry between us is pretty friendly, honestly. I just feel like with a lot of the teams in our school, the culture is so symbiotic. Everybody is benefiting from the other teams being there. I think that that's understood that the training environment is special because you are getting on the IS every day with some of your biggest competitors and there's a lot of benefit to that. I think if you have the right mindset and if you have the right kind of culture and the rink, which our school does, we're so grateful for that. I think it's been wonderful since we moved here. They've been nothing but friendly and welcoming and we've known them for so long. Yeah, they're sweet. They're so nice and sweet as people. The first day that we moved to Montreal, we came in for, well, our first day of training. We came in and Evan went to go change his shirt until he went into the bathroom like shower area and he didn't realize that the showers were automatic. So, he had a shower with his clothes on. And he comes out and he's like, "Oh my God, does anyone have an extra shirt?" And Zach just gave him his shirt and he's like, "Here, man, you can use this one and have a fresh one." And just like, not even a question, he just like had his back literally, his wet back was dry after that. And yeah, so they're just fantastic. But that's a funny little story. Yeah, they're great. I mean, honestly, it's just like good energy from them all the time and even a competition. I think after so many years in the experience, you understand that skating is super important but it's not the most important thing and the friendships that we have are probably the most important thing and certainly will last longer than the competitive career. And I think we all get that. And I think we all have less years ahead of us than we do behind us. And I know that we're all going to be friends in the future and that's like, that's what is truly valuable. You speak of the culture in the arena, which is extremely, extremely important in any training center. I know you guys have a pretty amazing group of athletes and some pretty special individuals in that group. But is this culture mostly made up by all of these amazing athletes there or is this something that the coaches have instilled into the group or somewhere in the middle, I guess? I think the coaches do a fantastic job of fostering a good team spirit. But honestly, the skaters, like everyone who is training here at the ice academy, they're just good people. Like they're all good eggs, honestly. And that makes it easy to foster that kind of symbiotic relationship like Evan was speaking about. And it's just fun. You go in and you're, you get to spend the day with your friends and I don't know very many jobs where you can do that in like, I don't know, the regular non athletic world. So I would really feel very fortunate. Yeah, no, I know that that's a, that's a part when you think it when you put about it, sorry, excuse me, I can't speak today. When you put it that way, it really makes it even more fun because you are going to the rink and you're seeing and working with your friends all day long. Because that's actually, I never really, I trained with Michael a time we just chirp each other on the ice and try to chirp each other jokingly. But yeah, no, it is super fun that you get to go and do like what is your sort of job and thing that you love to do with all your friends. You know, I always, it's, it's, I'm trying to think, you know, Mike, the one thing, I think it's very much like a similar, similar situation to the way that like RevCon is, you know, when somebody builds starts off with a, like with their, their rink or their training location and they start right away with the culture, start breeding a culture and then the culture just continues to breed itself. And that's what it sounds like, you know, Marie-France and Patrice have done. They started it in a certain way and now they, you know, they obviously, they probably have to check in on it sometimes. But you guys are the ones who are breeding the culture themselves, which is really, really impressive with that many people and that many different, you know, maybe we said you guys have so many countries there. There's so many different, like I, I, it's pretty crazy that there's so many people there. And the schedules I can imagine it just nuts for Patrice to manage. I want to know how he does it. I know he spends at least every Sunday just working on the schedule and then of course there are always some little changes maybe that need to be made. But we have to submit all our scheduling requests for the week, a week in advance just so they have a better grasp on it and I think it's still very difficult. Yep. I think, you know, when we first moved here, it wasn't called the Isacadabee of Montreal. So we've really seen the transformation that they have, you know, undertaken. So they, you know, the second year we were here, they kind of rebranded and they, it's just been really impressive to see the way that they have made this skating school into something more than a skating school. It feels like in many ways they have the, the branch in Ontario with Scott Moir. And you know, I know that they have a lot of people who work behind the scenes administratively and, you know, communications wise and I, you know, I'm not privy to all their plans but I just know that they have their stuff together in a great way and we're the benefactors for that, you know, all the skaters are in really good hands and it's just like, we're just lucky. We're just lucky to be in the in the school. That's awesome. So, you know, you guys are, we're going to talk a little bit about your actual skating. You guys are, you know, you guys have some of the coolest and most creative lifts and the sequences and they're probably as technical terms for them. I don't know what you are. But, um, I don't know what, Corio slides maybe something like that. But where does that, you know, inspiration come from? Because you guys did like, there's, what was the, the, the snake one from last year, the one lift in your program where I think like, Maddie, I don't think you touched, looked like you touched the ice for like two minutes. So go Evan like, I also, I also just watched your free dance from last week about 10 minutes ago. Holy smokes. It's absolutely phenomenal and how the heck do you come up with that? Where does the inspiration start and how's the process come about for you guys to end up with such an innovative and cool program? Thank you. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO] I think we're constantly on the hunt for inspiration and we always have our eyes and ears open. So that definitely helps. But as far as the seasons programs go, it was, we picked the music a year and a half ago before the pandemic actually. Do you wanna use that? - Yeah. So yeah, just about this year's free dance quickly. We picked the music a long time ago, almost two years ago, no, a year and a half ago. - A year and a half ago, yeah. - And then just kind of kept it to ourselves and we've been dying to debut it in just last week, finally got the chance to. But yeah, just in general, I think we take a lot of pride and in being creative and we like that kind of process of trying to reinvent ourselves every year and trying to come up with something unique to offer the sport. So, you know, lift wise, we, I don't know, try to find inspiration watching YouTube or, you know, scroll in the gram and seeing what comes up in the Discover tab. - Or reimagining elements that we've done before and that we've liked and we're like, okay, how can we turn this into something even better and different and add on to it in a way? - And we really, I think kind of spur each other on a bit and inspire each other. Like, Maddie did all the design for the costumes and completely, you know, that comes from her brain and, you know, I love listening to music and just hunting for music like for hours and hours in the off season. And I think we just have like complimentary skills, I guess, outside of the ice rink that we can kind of parlay into what we love to do, which is perform and skate. So I feel like we were so fortunate to have skating and to be able to use all of our interests that we have to create something, you know, for skating. It's just-- - And that's unique to us. - Yeah, it's super cool. I think like, I know Alison has a journal besides her, beside her bed, 'cause she's like told us stories before she literally will wake up in the middle of the night with a lift idea. Like, she's like literally jumped about and then writes it down. I've done the same thing. I'll just be laying in bed and I'm watching like, like YouTube videos from dancers and older, like, parachuting videos and stuff trying to figure out lifts and everything. So it's pretty cool. So that's like, do you guys, I guess, the way do you guys come up with ideas for your lifts and then you work on them with your coaches and stuff to continue it? Or does it like, they kind of give you an idea too and then or back and forth sort of that way or? - I mean, a little bit of everything, I think it depends. Sometimes we listen to the music and we place our program and then we decide, okay, what needs to go here? A straight line lift, a curve lift, what is the music evoke or rotational? And then we go from there and just, so it kind of, it's different every year and how the lifts come together. - We also, I think. - And also changes too when we are continuing the choreography of the program. We put a rotational lift in and then maybe for the combo lift, we have to use something different instead of another rotational. It's, I'm getting technical, so excuse me. - I think we have a good bag of tricks too 'cause we've been skating together for 10 years and we've been so fortunate to work with different people, Christopher Dean, you know, just really creative minds in the sport. - Big bads, yeah. - And we've been working with Acrobatts for, you know, since 2011, since we first got together. And yet, just like acquiring skills and little tricks and transitions that we have like a little treasure chest of just old videos and things that will just kind of pour back over. - Yeah, sometimes you make and then you don't use them but you still have the log. And then so it's helpful to go back, especially when you're in a pinch. - It's so helpful. And then we'll, you know, we might find a video that's like seven years old or something and find a lift that we never use. And then we'll show the coaches and it'll probably become something similar but different, you know. So it kind of evolves, changes over the years. And but yeah, I think just the experience and all the years that we've, you know, and we work pretty fast together, right, too. I think we've choreographed so many programs together that it's, - Yeah, we made our current rhythm dance four weeks. - Four weeks ago. - So it was just four weeks old. So it was pretty, pretty new. - We went to Camp Camp with a different program and then left Camp Camp. - With a new idea. - With. - We wanted to explore. - With the homework assignment. - Yeah. - No, it wasn't a homework assignment. I shouldn't say that because nobody told us, "Hey, you have to change your program." But just after the feedback session, we were like, - We should change it. - We should change it. (laughing) You know, it wasn't as well received as we'd hoped in this year for the rhythm dance, it's hip hop. And I feel like it's such a cool opportunity to skate to something that you wouldn't otherwise skate to for a competitive program. So, you know, we decided to do Billie Eilish and to do something that was like just really contemporary, like something you might hear on the radio right now. - And what's great is she had just released some new songs in what July. - And July 30th, her new album came out. (laughing) - It's gonna be easy because everyone already has a program. - That's awesome. I know I'm pretty jealous that I stance does that. Like it's actually really cool. Like I think it would be cool like if singles and pairs did it too, like a rhythm short dance for everybody 'cause then you're really like you just said, you have to try things you'd never would have tried before. - Yeah, it's so fun to have a theme to work off of. So like the rhythm dance is so different from the free dance and you're able to really have some contrast and show different sides of you. - Yeah, and I feel like it's just good for the sport in general just to like not have the same flavor every season but to let you know, from year to year let the audience see something totally different. I think that's really cool. - Yeah, I'd like to see Mikey with a hip hop program. - I would love to see that. - Just tell you, just be fist bump in the whole time. (laughing) - I need a couple more classes with J.L. before I do a hip hop program. - J.L. is great man. J.L. He's got a natural swag. That guy can dance man. Oh my. - He really can. - It's insane. We were at the wedding, like at Mitch's wedding and the guys just like literally everybody's just standing there. Like everybody starts dancing J.L. Start dancing, everybody just stands there and watches them. (laughing) - So entertaining to train with too. Like just such good energy and just like, you know, you get on the session and usually someone goes and takes the ox cord and plays some music and just J.L. It's just so like fun. Just his energy is so great every day. - And he gives us hugs. We love J.L. - We love J.L. And not I didn't even think about that. How does the ox cord work with so many different people? - Well, luckily Hugo Schwinard, wonderful man who cuts all of our music. He is just-- - Skate mix Hugo. - Yes, he's just outfitted the school with a really long ox cord so it can reach all our phones lined up on the boards. And also-- - Yeah, he gave us one of those dividers. - I don't know. - I don't know what they're called, but it's like you can plug four or five phones into them at once. But that literally just happened like right before we left for Finland, so I don't know how that's been working. But in general, I don't know. - He's been upgrading our system. - There's no like one given person who is the DJ because you might skate with different people every day with such a big school that kind of happens. But I'd say Olivia Smart is really great on the ox cord. She usually goes out and plays some bangers. - Yeah. - And it just depends. I mean, honestly, it's who gets on the ice first. Who's the most punctual? - Normally, Mike or I, like we're the music people, but sometimes we get told to put different music on 'cause Mike and I are the only ones who like country music. We get some different requests. - Yeah, we get like one country song a session and then it has to be changed to like pop. - Yeah, nobody plays country at the Ice Academy and I can't really say that I've ever listened to country music while training. I'm no offense to you guys. - I know. - Drunk on a plane, right Mike? Classic. - Awesome. So, you know, touching back quickly before we get into some more fun stuff. A little bit more about your hobbies and stuff. When Maddie said, well, Evan, you said, Maddie designs the outfits. That's because, correct me from wrong, Maddie, you're pretty good at drawing in general. - Yeah, I like to dabble. I definitely have been trying to hone my skills. - She's like a Rembrandt. - A Demick, no, Rembrandt. I like, I always love drawing and honestly the pandemic gave me some great time to really practice and actually learn techniques and just, I don't know. - She's taking one art class. She took one art class and she was like, I got this, I'm good. - No, I'm not going to take more classes. But yeah, I dabbled in some just like pencil drawing and some painting, but I've really been in drawing drawing pencil portraits. I honestly though can say that I haven't. really done much since the season has begun. The last thing I drew were my costume sketches. Human busy. I've been tired busy. If any of our listeners want to actually see it, if you go to Madison's Instagram and you just like scroll down a little bit, you can see some of her pencil drawings and when she says she dabbles, she's quite a real life. Little more than dabble. We'll say. That's awesome. So Evan, do you have any fun hobbies like that besides your now podcast and walk the dogs? No, I mean, I like to play the guitar. I'm pretty decent guitar. Like I like sports and playing golf with clubs, not the disc golf. But I've got to try to try to try the disc golf out. You had to try it before you knock it. But you guys like how do you find time to do like you're in Finland at a competition and you find time to go and and find the disc golf course and like when did you do that after the long? Practice day. We were done practicing at 12.30. One practice had the day wide open. So a little walk in the park was the perfect pre-competition activity. Yeah, when I go to Vegas, I'm either going to the day of practice or the day of the gala. We'll be there. The course is there. I think you can beat on the day of the gala, don't you? Yeah. What kind of jams are you playing on the guitar, Evan? You know, I haven't played much either, but yeah, I don't know. I mean, jazz standards, goals, you play like an array of things, I would say. I mean, I would say I used to like take lessons every week back in Michigan and you know, be really into it. And it's just like, it's sort of something that I pick up or put down, you know, just depending on whatever's going on. But honestly, yeah, like we've been, we've been just pouring so much into training lately and getting ready for the season and making a new rhythm dance in a month. And you know, it's been, it's been tough to find time. Like I'm literally looking at all of my guitars and they're sitting in their cases right now. But you have to put them away for when we leave, put them away for the trip to Finland, but yeah, any vocals, any vocals on top of your guitar playing? No. No. But yeah, we jam with Gabby, Papa Docuus, and she's a great singer. And so she came over and we played a little bit and she's saying and it's fun. That's awesome. So, you know, this is what do you guys have any, I guess the best way to you guys have any post-career plans yet, you know, it's a big question and now with a lot of athletes and everything of, you know, make the, what, what they're going to do post-career and how to get into it. So do you guys have any plans for that yet or have you thought about it? Definitely. I'm thinking about it. It has been circulating my mind. No definite plans yet. I think I would definitely want to go down the root of some design, maybe interior or fashion. I'm not sure, but something along the creative lines there. What about you, Evan? I don't know. I mean, I always thought maybe I would go back to graduate school. I did get a bachelor's degree. So maybe going back for a graduate degree in business or something, but I don't know. I mean, if that was a paid position that'd be amazing. I don't know. I think, yeah, we're not sure, honestly. Like we're not even sure when retirement will come, we're just kind of taking it one competition at a time at the moment. And we'll, I mean, we'll see at the end of the year what we're going to be up to. But I don't know. It's hard question to answer. What about you guys? Any plans? Michael, you're up first. Definitely. Something skating related. We'll be coaching to some capacity probably for the rest of my life. I knew it was going to be a hobby of mine when I was done competing would be coaching. And then I realized if I can get paid and make a profession out of my hobby, why not love going to work today, work every day and try to make a difference in a couple children's lives? Yeah, for me, hopefully it's still a long ways away. But my general plan, same thing, like I'm not stuck to anything. The life changes a lot. But coaching a lot. I already coach right now and I absolutely love coaching skating. And I also want to get into S&T strength and conditioning coaching as well. I want to kind of dabble with both of those and being a figure skating coach and then doing training elite athletes as well at the same time I think it would be pretty fun. And they kind of help each other out to begin with. So maybe Mike and I will have our own school, the M&M skating school. Oh, I love it. Yeah. And then we might be professional disc golfers. You never know. Yeah. And so Trent, are you from, are you from out west? No, I'm from Ontario. Like I'm two, two hours from two hours east of Toronto. Okay. So are you guys planning to stay in Ontario afterwards? Who knows? Who knows where the wind will blow us to where we find the destination for the M&M school. We don't know yet. Maybe we'll maybe we'll build our own so we can put a disc golf course in the backyard. It's part of the race. Yes. So awesome. Guys, this has been really awesome. So now we get to do a little bit of fun stuff before we get off. So first of all, do you both, we're going to ask both of you. See, we got to ask both questions. Yeah. But we got to go back and forth. This is different. Normally it's one person. So do you guys have a book recommendation for our listeners? So let's start with Maddie. Yes, I do. I'm currently reading all the light we cannot see. And it's fantastic. I highly recommend it. It's set during World War for one. Wait. Why are we ready? I don't know. You're supposed to be able to know these answers. I'm sorry. All of you cannot see is fantastic. It follows to young people as they have different experiences through the war. And it's just really beautifully written and such an interesting story. Nice. Yeah. And I books, books, books. No, I've been reading a couple different books. That's why. But I think a book that I read this summer that really has like influenced the way that I've approached this year has been essentialism. It's a book that was recommended to me. And it's about determining what in your life is truly essential and what contributes most to your effectiveness in you being able to reach your goals. And what is frivolous and not that necessary. I'm a person who struggles to say no to people. And this book is empowering and has helped me realize how to claim your own time, how to say no in a way that garners respect. And just at the end of last season and after the pandemic, I just felt like spread too thin and too many things going on. And then reading this book helped me pick and choose the things in my life that I really want to invest in and highly recommend that read for people, you know, just for overall productivity and just like quality of life and just happiness and relationships. I mean, it's just. Yeah, knowing your boundaries. Right. Yeah, sorry, what was the essentialism by who? It's called essentialism by let me look at that up. It's called essentialism by Greg McCown. Greg McCown. Awesome. Cool. That's a great, that's going to be a great read for, you know, I think a lot of our listeners as like you just said, the pandemic spread a lot of us then. Yeah, it's been really good. I like it. Awesome. You cannot see us by Anthony tour. We're definitely going to check them out. Let's finish it off with some nice fun rapid fire, some nice light questions here. Normally we're asking one person. So we're going to have to ask both of you. So first question, nice and easy, goldfish or animal crackers. Animal crackers. Nice. Cool fish. That's right. Well, like, what flavor is it just regular cheddar, original cheddar? That's the only kind of goal first there needs to be. All the other ones can go. A main vocal. And then pizza. Oh, no. Oh, there's a flavor blasted. No animal crackers all day. Who is your favorite Harry Potter character? Peaves. Harry. He's just, I feel like he's not depicted the same as he is in the books. And the Harry in the books. Yeah. Don't get us started on Harry Potter. We're gonna need another hour. We'll have you back just for a Harry Potter episode. I'm okay with that. I love Harry Potter. I can talk about it all day long. I'm just like, as Harry Potter, just more like the overall character of Harry in the books. Like, he's so smart and intuitive and like, he just figures things out. And then they like divvy up all the responsibility in the movies a bit. Yeah. It's like, you know, I guess, I guess, but in the book, Harry is like, oh, yes, Harry. Yes, Harry. Yes. Harry. Yes. And this pumpkin, you can't see me, but I'm this one. You get what one of you to is it need her. Neither. Yeah, I think we neither was could really claim that fair enough. NFL or college football NFL. Fair enough. What was your most recent binge watch of? Oh, man, we watched the so bad. We watch like, I mean, it was really my doing it. It was completely your fault. I didn't finish the last season. The circle on Netflix is embarrassing. I haven't watched it yet. And, you know, like, I saw it on, you know, Netflix, like a long time ago, and I was like, this sounds so dumb. Like, I'm not watching this. And then I don't know what happened, like two weeks ago. We watched like, yeah, we watched like three seasons. There are only three seasons watched all of them quickly. And it's like 10 hours per season. So it's I couldn't see that I just couldn't. That was me with too hot to handle last year during the pandemic. Everybody was talking about it. I mean, no, not going to watch it. No, not going to do it. One o'clock in the morning, one night I was like, screw it, I put it on and then was like hooked to it. I'm like, no, I'm not watching anything like this ever again. I'm in Cam. I love them. Yeah, we love to have to handle. Of all of all the Netflix reality shows. That's one of the better ones. I would say love is blind is below that in the circle. Maybe below that. Yeah, for sure. Okay, well, I'm not going to watch any of the other ones. Thank you. Thank you for giving me a reason not to. We couldn't. That was so bad. No, there's a new season that just came out. And I was like, get off my screen. Not related to all these reality shows that we've watched and it was never have I ever and it was so cute. Yeah. It was written by Mindy Colling. Very cute show. But we're always kind of like that we have a healthy rotation of like the office, parks and rec, shits Creek. They could just go on at any time that we're kind of constantly binging. Nice. Minds how I met your mother is my constant one that I put on. Yes. That's how I feel. It's my favorite 12 times all the way through done. Oh, wow. 12 times. 12 times. Yeah. Wow. Like when I literally don't want to watch anything else and I just need something on I just put it on because I know I don't have to pay attention and I know what's going on. It's great. I can't wait for the how I met your father with Hillary Duff coming out soon. I think we're only a couple months away. I forgot about it. I just remember. Yeah, it's going to be dope. I just saw today they're making another home alone. It's coming out in November and it's like a British kid and a British family and it's like buzz. You know the older brother buzz. He's the police officer that like comes to the house. That's great. And then I don't know. I saw the trailer today. I was like, wow, remaking in classic. Yeah. Let's check that out. Okay. Next question. Who is your favorite athlete of all time? Oh, that's tough. I mean, like I say Tiger Woods probably, but I used to I remember like back in middle school or whatever being so into Lance Armstrong and then it was just so disappointing. He turned out to be like not a great role model. Not a great person. Sorry. I mean, I've always loved Michelle Kwan. That's as far as figure skating goes. But I think she's a great person and a great role model. I also. Definitely. Oh, there's so many Michael Jordan. He's just like such a Tiger. I love his mindset and he's just like do whatever it takes kind of thing to just get it done, which is really inspiring. Yeah. Good. And for our final question, what is your favorite part about living in Canada? Okay. Oh, all that's important day. How about that? That was really good. I would say like just the overall quality of food, like even from the grocery store is just like the regulations or stricter or something, but I just feel like overall healthier. Yeah, I really do love Canada. If they let me stay, I'm I it's really nice up here in Montreal. The city like specifically to Montreal, I can't say that I've really been in other parts of Canada for a long, Canada in Canada for a long enough time to give them a good, like a really thorough review, but I really love Montreal, the lifestyle, all the restaurants are fantastic. And yeah, I love Montreal is great. I love it. Can I answer the athlete one again? Because now I just remember who I actually go for it. Okay, favorite athlete like growing up, I was really into Michigan football. So Charles Woodson was like a huge, huge idol of mine when I was in third grade, he won the Highsment trophy. Still the only defensive player to ever win the Highsment trophy. Derek Jeter was also an athlete I really liked. Tom Brady, he's our all like Michigan people, but you know, and then Tiger Woods, I would say. I like Roger. He also does a hip hop as part of his training scene. What? Yeah, yeah, actually, Federer does for his footwork, to work on his footwork. I like him even more now. Yeah. Cool. Thinking outside the box, it's how you keep winning for a long, long time. Yeah. Yeah. It's awesome. All right, well guys, thank you so much for coming on the podcast with us. It's very exciting that you guys get to start have your own release now. So for all of our listeners, can you tell us one more time where they can find it and what the name of it is again? Yeah, our podcast is unlaced with chocolate baits and you can find it and subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. And thank you guys so much for having us. It's been so fun catching up and Trent will see you next week in Las Vegas. Yeah, baby, Vegas. Thank you very much guys. I know you got a bit of a schedule. You just got home, I think, less than 24 hours ago from Finland. So hopefully we're helping you stay up and get rid of that jet leg here. But thanks for fitting us in. We really, really appreciate it and good luck next week in Las Vegas. Thank you so much. Thanks again for having us. Good luck is getting Canada Mike. Thank you. Awesome. All right, ice labbers, I hope you get to work in your labs and peace and love and be kind to one another. This episode of the ice lab podcast was produced by Trent Mischo and Michael Marenero, music produced by Hugo Schrinnerd. If you haven't already, share with your friends and leave a review. Follow us on Instagram @icelabpodcast for more information and to stay up to date. [BLANK_AUDIO]