Zachariah Szabo Used Library Books to Learn to Figure Skate!

When Zachariah Szabo was about seven or eight years old, he became serious about figure skating. He was participating in basic skills group lessons at the time, but knew he needed more instruction. He wanted to take private figure skating lessons, but his parents couldn't afford private coaching.

Zachariah was determined. He discovered the section in the library that included figure skating books. After each library visit, he would come out of the library with a large stack of books in his arms and also a laundry basket of books. All the books had something to do with figure skating. He also checked out books about figure skating at the Olympics.

The most helpful book he took out was by Carlo Fassi. It had fascinating diagrams that showed the phases of each jump in detail. He studied the book at home and tried to apply what he learned off the ice to what he was attempting on the ice. Sometimes he would take the book out on the ice.

Eventually he reached a point where private instruction was needed, but, up until then, he had saved his parents a lot of money!

Today, as a competitive skater, Zachariah visits libraries as a guest speaker. He gives presentations to children explaining what he did at their age. If they are not interested in figure skating, he tells them that it may be possible to do the same thing in their sport of interest.

• Zachariah Szabo - A Figure Skater of Many Talents
• Zachariah Szabo Photo Gallery
• Figure Skating with Carlo Fassi
  Figure Skating Books

_{Zachariah Szabo - 2006 Liberty Competition Long Program - Zachariah Szabo Personal Photo Collection}