How did you become a Competitor?

[FSWer]

Ok all competitors here!!!! I've asked you how long you've been competing and what it's like for you TO compete....NOW it's time to please tell me how you BECAME a competitor? Please include how your coach prepared you FOR and got you used to competing.

[Clarice]

Well, obviously the biggest thing was to prepare and train the program. As the competition got closer, though, we practiced things like skating out from the door and taking my starting position, and bowing at the end. Sometimes my coach would even announce my name over the arena microphone so I would get used to that. At a competition, you usually only get about a 5 minute warmup, so we would practice what I would do on that warmup so I wouldn't waste time. When I practiced on my own, I would do my 5 minute warmup as soon as I got on the ice and then do my program right away, so I would know what it would feel like to skate with only that amount of warmup time. The last couple of weeks or so, I would practice in a skirt or dress (usually I wear leggings), and without gloves. At least once in the last week, I'd practice in my competition dress.

[skaternum]

I became a competitor by filling out the application for a competition and then showing up to skate that day. ;)

[jazzpants]

I have NO CLUE!!! It was part of the whole "snowballing effect" that came from being a budding FS skater. It was like when I went from public sessions to taking group lessons, to having a private coach and then testing Adult Pre-Bronze FS!!! It just sorta "happened!!!" LOL!!! :lol: :P

But yes, there is a lot of prep work that goes into preparing for a competition... and the higher up you test, the more time you need to prepare for it!!! I think when I was doing Skate SF 2001, it was a couple of months from nothing to doing a program! But now I'm Bronze lady and it takes 6 months at least, never mind the down time (another 6-9 months) to do my technical "catch up." When you're doing your choregraphy and program runthrus... your lesson focuses on the OVERALL program, the choreography, how to keep your program "well balanced", the presentation AS WELL AS the jumps, the spins, the MITF... eh, technical things...

Are you thinking of competing FSWer??? You should! Go try out local ISI comp for the experience. Have a coach put together a program for you! :)

[CanAmSk8ter]

I became a competitor by filling out the application for a competition and then showing up to skate that day. ;)

Beat me to it ;)

[Muskoka Skater]

I became a competitor because I wanted to compete!:)