rambling about dd's comp

[Logan3]

OMG, it went so bad! A pure disaster in all levels. By far the most disasterous appearance of the whole comp. Poor girl she is devastated. She never immagined it would be like that. She said to me that when she went to the ice her mind when blank and she counted the seconds to get out. Pure torture. Last time she competed was about a year ago and she did ok. She just turn 7 and I am wondering if she is now fully conscious of what is going on (judges at al). Actually, thinking back the younger she was the better she competed. She also told me that she got disoriented at the rink (not the rink she practices). I do not know what to think. I have to say I am discouraged myself. Maybe she does not practice right, or she is not "made" for competing. She is a beautiful skater but apparently something is missing. Her routine was simple so we can not blame that. She always had trouble with her spins, she cannot control them yet and often falls . I was watching all the other girls doing beutifully out there and made me think if she is in the wrong sport.... She did not bring the "quit" thing up yet and she seems willing to keep working on her skating. Should she do more competitions for experience or do none of them and just skate for fun? She now skates FS2/3. As I said that's a rambling email. PLEASE offer any advice or experiences you had. Thanks!

[Isk8NYC]

Awwww. I was hoping for a "DD Brag" thread. Sorry it wasn't a great experience. I wouldn't let her give up, but I'm a "stick to it" person. One of my twins had the same thing happen to her a few years ago. Went out to skate and totally forgot what she was supposed to do.

The disorientation was probably caused by the rink being arranged differently than what she's used to at home. Our kids get all mixed up at the Show because they enter the ice via the zam door instead of the usual rink doors. The placement of the judges and/or the crowd can also get the skater "turned around." Perfectly normal for the occasional show/comp skater.

Talk to her coach, but I'm sure the answer will be that it's a growth experience.
BTW, did her coach "put her on the ice" for this competition? Usually, a coach can anticipate the differences and prepare the skater, even if it's just at warmup.

Make a list of what went RIGHT and what she LEARNED.
Emphasize sportsmanship (she didn't have a meltdown, right?) and having fun.
Tell her how proud you were to watch her skate.

(Assuming she's an ISI skater, there's always another competition coming up that she can try, try again.)

I almost forgot - give her a hug and an "attagirl!" from me, please!
It takes a lot of courage for a seven year old to get on the ice for a comp!

[dbny]

I'm so sorry your daughter had such a bad experience. I think it's too early to tell whether or not she's cut out for competition. I also think that there is a lot more to skating than competing. I don't see why she or you should consider her quitting just because she might not want to compete. Skating, or any athletic/artistic endeavor is a joy in itself, and there is much to be learned in the process of becoming accomplished.

[phoenix]

One bad experience at 7 years old really says nothing about whether she's cut out for this sport, for competing, etc. Everyone blanks out in competition once in their lifetime (at least), especially the little ones, but I remember watching a comp on tv where Kurt Browning wandered around the ice for about the last 45 seconds of his music because he drew a total blank. Lots, lots, lots of kids get turned around on a strange rink & it freaks them out.

That she went out there, STAYED out there, (and I assume did something while her music played), says huge things about her ability to overcome panic, use her head & think on her feet. Use this experience to praise what she did accomplish, rather than focus on how it didn't go well. Skating takes a huge amount of moxy just to put yourself out there. I always tell my kids, if you compete/test for any length of time, things will go wrong. They just will, and part of the deal of being a skater is to roll with the punches & look ahead to the next one.

Don't dwell on it; she did it, it's over, you'll know better how to prepare for next time, if she decides there will be a next time. Back to practice, back to work. Life and skating goes on. No competition is the end-all, not even the Olympics. If she wants to compete, let her compete. If she wants to just skate for fun, that's fine too.

The only time I'd say a skater isn't cut out to compete is if they've been competing regularly for at least a couple of years, and fall apart every single time. And heck, even then if they are enjoying it, who cares?!

[Mrs Redboots]

Sounds to me as though your daughter did very well. Sure, it was a nightmare - we've all had them! I got turned around once in a competition and it was a total disaster.... it happens!

If your daughter enjoys competing, she will want to carry on. If not - well, as the others have said, you can have enormous fun, and make enormous progress, in this sport whether you compete or not. Let her enjoy skating for its own sake.

[TreSk8sAZ]

I'm so sorry she had a bad experience! BUT - If your daughter still wants to go skating, still enjoys going to the rink and working on things, and is not fighting you kicking and screaming everytime you mention going to practice, then why question whether she should quit or not? This is a sport that SHE apparently wants to do, and enjoys. At 7 years old, I don't see why that shouldn't be the main focus right now. Many kids go through the blank program. As long as she still wants to go skating, then that should move to the back of everyone's mind. If she wants to compete again, when the next competition rolls around, she'll know what to work on and her coach will know what to work on. Many of the girls at my rink (and we're talking pre-teens/teens) still get turned around on rinks that are situated differently than ours. Try making sure she knows that she'll always start to/away from the judges, and make points where she should be facing the judges during he program. That may help her stay oriented, and if you have certain moves she purposely practices stuck in her head, it may overcome the blanking out. What also very well may overcome the blanking out is the fact that it happened at all. It's somewhat rare for a skater, once they know it can or has happened to them, to do it again very closely after.

But the most important thing is for her to HAVE FUN!

[BatikatII]

Definitely a learning experience. She now knows that it is possible to get disorientated on a strange rink and to go blank and survive the experience. Next time she can be better prepared.

If it's a strange rink then make sure to take a good look and find things that can equate to your rink. Eg if I go to a strange rink I note where the entrance to the ice is and if it is the same as at our rink, and where the judges sit and the AV room. If you can have some points of reference that equate to the home rink it's easier to correct yourself if you come out of spin the wrong way say. Eg our AV room may be another rink's cafe so I look at the cafe adn say OK that cafe is really the AV room so when I start I should be going that way (or whatever)

My daughter had a similar experience at age 9 in her first competition at a different rink. It was an inter-club comp so there was added pressure. The rink was much smaller and had no advertising on the boards which was what she tended to navigate by at our rink. She got completely lost and nearly came off but her coach hissed at her to keep going so she just made stuff up for a bit til the music finished. At least she got 1 point for her club team for finishing!

Another helpful preparation is to have a contingency plan so that if your mind blanks you do a some crossovers or something and that gives you a breather to plan what to do next.

Daughter never had that problem again (though she refuses to ever compete at THAT rink again!) and has been known to win the odd competition so its no indicator of future success.

[Logan3]

You guys are great. Thanks for the enligthment.
Obviously I did not share any of my discouragement with my daughter. I tried hard to make her feel good. Right now she seams willing to keep practicing and I am proud of her.
Unfortunately she needs to upgrade her routine to her current badge. So in her next comp (maybe this summer) she will have a new routine. Her coach suggested to keep the same program and just upgrade the elements. I hope that's a good idea and will not further confuse her.....My dd also said that next time she will want to go and have free skate in the comp rink the week before. She thought of that byherself so I am happy she is showing some constructive thinking.
My other kids play hockey and often have dismal plays but somehow it is never a big deal. I guess it is the fact of being by yourself in the middle of the ice that melts my heart.... A great lesson for me!

[twokidsskatemom]

Im sorry she had some troubles.Here are some ideas for next time...
If the comp offers practice ice before, use it !!Even program run thoughs with no music help.
Most of our comps are away so we always go at least one day early so they are used to the rink.
Does your rink do exibitions/ recials anything?Our kids always do everything they can find . Its the experience that helps.Every little bit helps !
I would talk to coach re helping with spins, comp nerves, what she can to overcome things.She does need to be able to go with the flow as far as we cant control some things. An example my son did an ISI fs 1 comp in Nov.His Cd skipped the whole 1 30.It was the sound system, not just the Cd. He went and did his whole program, didnt stop or let it bother him at all.

My daughter did USFSA comp last month. Her Cd didnt play, she had to leave the ice twice before they got it to work.You just gota learn to not let those things bother you.
Does she practice her program alot?My daughter coachs has her kids write down the programs while they are waiting.It help them focus.
Good luck !!!!!!!!!!!

[Logan3]

Yes she did practice her program a lot. During her practices she had trouble with her first spin and sometimes she upgraded the half flip to a toe loop. The last couple weeks she did not once forget what to do next. She went through again and again and again. She seemed ready. I think it was totally mental. The place she skates is not a real club and they only have one show per year (coming next month). I totally think she needs more experience. The one comp a year I do not think it is working. Of course her skating does not compare to girls that skate everyday with multiple privates (she has one private and 2 group lessons a week).

Her spin story: She always had trouble with it. She could not do the 2-foot at all. She did a dismal one foot spin. She actually had a breaktrhough late this fall learning her scratch spin. She can not really control it though. She spins really fast and then falls in the exit. Coach said that her problem is that she can not hold her body straight in position and that's because she tends to slightly bend her knee. My dd knows that but she can not help herself. I was thinking to get her an off ice spin trainer and have her knee wrapped so she can not bend it (LOL)....
She is a very athletic skater (great swimmer / gymnast) and she tends to be sloppy in the details. Never falls on jumps.

[blue111moon]

One suggestion for people learning a new program: use reference points that don't change from rink to rink in remembering the program. I always ghoreograph a program based on where the judges generally are (or should be) and then orient everything around that view. So I'm thinking "Come out of the spin and look at the judges." or "Land the flip and skate toward the judges." It works better than thinking "Okay, come out of the spin and head toward the music box." or "Go away from the Zamboni gate." Then it doesn't matter which side of the rink the judges are on, or where the windows are, or if the ice has hockey lines or not (some don't.) because everything is in relation to the judges.

But competing is a learning experience in itself. Sounds like this lesson is just that yes, you can mess up and still survive and go on and nothing really bad happens from it. Which is valuable training for real life. :)

[Isk8NYC]

At an ISI competition, I messed up my own kids' tapes. The night before, I realized that they needed cassettes, not CD's, so I made two tapes for each child. And mislabeled them. Badly. Fortunately, they were only skating against each other, so no other skaters got rattled.

My then-five year old was a trooper. After the first two tapes turned out to be the wrong music she told the ref that "it's okay, just play that music." She then skated her routine to the wrong music, even adding a few choreo touches stolen from her sister's routine!

Her sister then went out and, with the right music playing, proceeded to TOTALLY forgot her routine and just make stuff up. She had a blast, but I'm sure she got lots of deductions for leaving elements out and adding above-her-level items.

The trooper got the gold, her sister got the silver. They were both very happy and very good sports. The ref came over to me later and complimented me on their "grace under pressure." LOL

[Tennisany1]

...Her spin story: She always had trouble with it. She could not do the 2-foot at all. She did a dismal one foot spin. She actually had a breaktrhough late this fall learning her scratch spin. She can not really control it though. She spins really fast and then falls in the exit. Coach said that her problem is that she can not hold her body straight in position and that's because she tends to slightly bend her knee. My dd knows that but she can not help herself. I was thinking to get her an off ice spin trainer and have her knee wrapped so she can not bend it (LOL)....
She is a very athletic skater (great swimmer / gymnast) and she tends to be sloppy in the details. Never falls on jumps.

I'm sorry about the competition, but it sounds like she is taking it in stride. She sounds a bit like my dd. Until recently my dd could not spin to save her life. Great jumps, good stroking, nice spiral, terrible and I mean terrible spins! Unfortunatly, great spins are often the only difference between the skaters at the lower levels.

I found two things that have improved her spins immensly. First, ballet. It has given her more core strength and better posture and has taught her to straighten her knees. It will allow her to better control her speed and keep her balance. Second, she now does an exercise on the ice before she practices her spins. She does a one foot forward spin with the free leg out to the side with a straight knee (I don't know the technical terms, but her free foot is about 18 inches from the supporting foot.) She does three revolutions slowly and then comes out of the spin slowly and finished the landing position completely. She is not allowed to spin quickly, and her posture and finish (right down to her finger tips) must be perfect each time. I watched her do this 5 or 6 times the other night and when she went on to practice her spins the difference was quite amazing. I'm not sure of the theory behind it, but I think because she is quite athletic and likes to go fast, it is a way of making her control her movement and get the technique right so that she can maintain control.

[cathrl]

Aww, what a shame! My daughter's done that a couple of times, once the very first time she did a competition away from our home rink. It was at Bristol, which has a reputation in the UK for being the rink where everyone forgets their programs! She must have been seven at the time. She was so upset.

Now we have a routine going into a rink - we look at where the judges are sitting, and then we look for features round the rink and relate them to features in our home rink. So, for instance, in a rink with no windows like Sheffield we look at the corner where the hockey screens have a gap in, and that's "skate hire". The opposite end where the Zamboni comes out is "the window end". And she then sits down and talks through her program saying where everything will be on the ice a couple of times. The only other time she's forgotten her routine was when she decided she didn't need to do this.

It is a scary thing to do when you're seven, going out there on the ice all on your own (heck, it's scary enough at 37 :) ) If a kid can do that, they've learnt a really good life skill - it's much worse than interviews, written exams... Having gone out there and skated is much more important in the long run than how it went.

[Mrs Redboots]

Now we have a routine going into a rink - we look at where the judges are sitting,
Which explains why everybody forgets their programmes at Bristol - the judges sit at one of the long ends, as there are pillars which would unsight them if they sat in the normal place! Most disconcerting, I find it - and I'm usually only doing compulsory dances there!

[Clare]

My then-five year old was a trooper. After the first two tapes turned out to be the wrong music she told the ref that "it's okay, just play that music." She then skated her routine to the wrong music, even adding a few choreo touches stolen from her sister's routine!

Her sister then went out and, with the right music playing, proceeded to TOTALLY forgot her routine and just make stuff up. She had a blast, but I'm sure she got lots of deductions for leaving elements out and adding above-her-level items.

The trooper got the gold, her sister got the silver. They were both very happy and very good sports. The ref came over to me later and complimented me on their "grace under pressure." LOL

That's a really sweet story! The kind of situation that could cause an adult to crumble and both of your daughters just did what they had to do :)

Clare

[sk8rmom2006]

Sorry to hear that. But similar thing happened to my dd last summer (she was 8 yr old). First, she was totally in the beatup position even before she went to competition rink because her friends from her skating school told her that in this particular competition the judges never like the skaters from her skating school. So she was told that she never would get anything even she did great. Then the ice rink opening is totally different from hers. She could not start her program in her warmup time because she was so confused. And she fell in one of jumps. I did not know how she managed to get thru that. But she did. And supprisingly, she got 1st in her group. I had a long talk with her. I told her that she should not listen to anyone saying things like that. If any problem, she should always look for how to improve her skills. As long as she is real good at what she does, nobody can take anything away from her. She would be champion even she did not get a medal. 2nd I would love her unconditionally no matter she gets medal or not. 3rd, she should practice her program in the future in all different entry just to prapare for different rinks. But she told me her coaches would not allow her to do that. I said just practice it when coaches were not at the rink. Maybe this is not a good idea. But I could not find any good theory to back what her coaches said. 4th, I said she did very good by not letting the fall distract her. She got up right away and kept going. I said that was right "fight spirit". You never give up until the music stop. Finally, she should have confidence on herself because of all those hardwork she put on. She should enjoy the music and skating at the competition rather than thinking about medal.

She seemed to have a good lesson from that competition.

The more competitions your daughter goes, the better she would get.

[sk8rmom2006]

My then-five year old was a trooper. After the first two tapes turned out to be the wrong music she told the ref that "it's okay, just play that music." She then skated her routine to the wrong music, even adding a few choreo touches stolen from her sister's routine!

Her sister then went out and, with the right music playing, proceeded to TOTALLY forgot her routine and just make stuff up. She had a blast, but I'm sure she got lots of deductions for leaving elements out and adding above-her-level items.

The trooper got the gold, her sister got the silver. They were both very happy and very good sports. The ref came over to me later and complimented me on their "grace under pressure." LOL

Your daughters are so cute and smart.

[litigator]

And thinking of the funniest memories of my own doing that (yep, she even did it this year at 14 yrs old twice at two comps after missing a double loop in one and forgetting her 2sal in the other)...

ours has orientation issues-if the rink is arranged really differently-strange judges table set up or something, or its really big and empty she sometimes draws a blank-espec when she has had significant changes to her programs...which happens more often than not with the inevitable tinkering....(we finally learned to be firm and say no more working on the next level jump trying to force a landing a week before comp, or adjusting the program yet again two days before)

we have found over the years (this year being the exception year-lots of nerves when the jumps come and go) that looking at the rink about an hour before she competes fixes the problem as well as running through the elements of her program off ice...

oh, and her lucky cheetah comes with her-even still...

a smile now: we have what we think is one of the funniest videos ever (of course we're biased)-wish we weren't in Canada-grin b/c we'd love to do the America's funniest home vids-its a comp tape---she was a little doll at 5 years old, first comp ever-and she stopped in her program, middle of the ice, looked up at me (not her coach-that was not a good thing-new parent got in trouble ha ha) and yelled out to me-what do I do now?...I then called out waltz jump (she did it-that was what she was supposed to do) and without so much as another pause, continued, completed her program on time and then flounced off the ice all huffy....(huffy as in embarassed annoyed, not angry with anyone)...the funniest thing-and somehow still placed second....

the point is, it happens. to the best of skaters, all the time. might be nerves, might be too many changes to program, not enough run throughs, might even be the layout of the rink...

best to you both!

good luck with your little one-