Ask Jason Brown how life has been going since he moved to Toronto late this spring, and you get exactly the answer you would expect from the ebullient skater: It's great.
Exploring the city, getting to know two-time World champion Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia, spending time with Medvedeva's mom, Zhanna Devyatova, has all been fantastic. Evgenia's English is excellent, and they've got a workaround for Zhanna.
"We just use this translation app, talk into our phones and go back and forth all day long," Brown said. "Hopefully, the translation is right."
Scratch the surface a bit, talk about the changes new coaches Brian Orser and Tracy Wilson are making to Brown's skating, and his smile never slips. But he doesn't disguise the struggle.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It hasn't been an easy transition," Brown said. "It's been exciting, though. No matter how tough the days at the rink are, I'm always excited to come back for another session, try another new thing. No matter how horrible a session is, how much I'm struggling, I can't wait to get on another session and try again."
Some aspects of training at Toronto's Cricket Skating and Curling Club are right in Brown's wheelhouse. Wilson holds her renowned stroking classes every day, and Brown is eating them up.
"When I first got to Toronto, I worked with Tracy for three hours a day just on stroking -- the way you bend your knees, the way you move," he said. "And I was exhausted, did I ever get a workout. Having a coach focus on the look of the crossovers, the knee bend, and the feel of the ice -- that's really cool."
Working with Orser and associate coaches Lee Barkell and Karen Preston to change his jump technique is a lot tougher, but will hopefully pay dividends. The team isn't just tweaking Brown's triple Axel or quadruple toe loop; they are, in his words, "picking apart everything."
"We're taking the time because we're looking at it as a four-year thing," Brown said. "I don't want to say I don't care about this year, but I want to peak in four years. I want to start from the ground up, and I told them that. If I was going to make the change, I'm going to make the change. I wasn't going to have one foot in, one foot out."
The 2015 U.S. champion, who trained under Kori Ade for nearly two decades, thought long and hard before leaving his former training site in Monument, Colorado. After placing sixth at the 2018 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships, then going on to win bronze at the 2018 ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, the 23-year-old skater wasn't even sure he would compete this season.
"I was planning to take the whole summer off, train back up in winter and maybe be ready for nationals," he said. "And I took basically two months off; I went to New Zealand with my sister (Jordan) for two weeks, and I spent six weeks in Palm Springs with my family. And that break brought the hunger back."
At the Cricket Club, he shares the ice with an extraordinary group of skaters, including Medvedeva; Junhwan Cha of Korea; and, of course, two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu.
"I've never had to be so alert on practice sessions," he said. "There are so many top international seniors and a lot of great juniors here, so obviously there is really great energy, but you have to know where people are at (on the ice) and it's a fast-paced session."
Brown's longtime choreographer Rohene Ward, who worked with the skater and Ade for many years, fully supports the move to Toronto.
"A change of environment is absolutely what he needs, more than anything," Ward said. "Taking these risks and making life changes, it will totally show up in his skating. A lot of these skaters are figuring out who they are as young adults."
While Ward choreographed Brown's new short to "Love is a B****" by Two Feet, the skater worked with David Wilson on his free skate, set to a Simon and Garfunkel medley.
"I was very against it at the beginning, but I trusted them," he said. "They said, 'If you choreograph the whole thing and you want to scrap it, it's ok.' And so we choreographed the whole thing and I loved it."
Something else has changed: Brown's signature pony tail is gone, replaced by a sleek new 'do.
"You know, some people say shorter hair helps you jump higher," he says. "I'm not sure they're wrong. I do feel lighter."
Brown begins his 2018-19 campaign at the 2018 Autumn Classic International this week, and is assigned to Skate Canada and Internationaux de France for the 2018 Grand Prix Series.
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