Bad Competition Performance

[fsk8r]

How do people deal with having a bad skate at competition without beating themselves up?
I competed yesterday, did relatively ok placings wise, but had a terrible skate for me (don't even really know why, it just didn't happen) and feel awful for it.
I think I'm currently just tired of competitions and tests and want to just skate for me again for a bit. But was wondering how other people handle the emotional side of competing. I'm actually getting quite good of the nerves before hand, but I've not had much experience of competing and so am struggling to know how to handle me afterwards.
I know my emotions tend to go with my perception of success (I work with computer simulations and when they go well I'm in a good mood and when they're bad I'm not).
Just curious as to how everyone else handles this sort of situation.

[katz in boots]

I feel your pain. My last performance was so abysmal, when I came off the ice I just hugged my coach for a while with my eyes shut tight to black it all out.

I suffer very badly from performance anxiety and the whole program was just dreadful. I have never skated well in the 4 competitions I've entered. I have to consider the idea that I may never skate well in a comp.

Although the last one was really bad, the way I have approached it is acknowledging that it isn't the end of my world. I know there's another comp later in the year (I only get 2-3 a year to enter).

I know I am a better skater than that, and I focus on continuing to be a better skater than that even. The people who know and love me know that I am a better skater than that too. They know that, and they love me, no matter how badly I skate. It helps get me through.

[Rusty Blades]

It happens, it's part of the sport. Sometimes competition comes along when you are on a high and sometimes when your skills are at a low.

In the 2 months leading up to Nationals I was on a downhill slide. My Toe Loop, Waltz jump, and Sit Spin had deserted me and my Freeskate was so bad it was embarrassing! Everybody was commenting how much I had improved over the previous year but I knew how much WORSE it was than practice a few months earlier. My coach asked me how I felt about it and I said "Well it wont be hard to do better next year!"

I think (I hope) that a large part of being a figure skater is recognizing that bad skates happen and having the courage to keep going.

[sk8lady]

I usually disintegrate after competitions and tests even if I've done okay. I've taken to locking myself into a bathroom somewhere till I feel better! I think it's just the emotional letdown after all that work.

This will be the first year since 2003 that I haven't tested anything over the summer. Thought I would feel crappy about it but it's actually a huge relief--I feel quite gleeful watching people grinding away frantically trying to get ready while I work on things I've always meant to work on and never gotten around to.

I think sometimes we all need a break.

[fsk8r]

I usually disintegrate after competitions and tests even if I've done okay. I've taken to locking myself into a bathroom somewhere till I feel better! I think it's just the emotional letdown after all that work.

This will be the first year since 2003 that I haven't tested anything over the summer. Thought I would feel crappy about it but it's actually a huge relief--I feel quite gleeful watching people grinding away frantically trying to get ready while I work on things I've always meant to work on and never gotten around to.

I think sometimes we all need a break.

Thank you so much for saying that. So it's normal to feel lousy after doing well in a test. I did always think I was a bit odd for that emotional breakdown. (Although I've got better since I've done a couple of multiple test sessions, I can keep it together now until AFTER the last test).
But I think you're right about needing a break. Not sure how it will go down with the coach. She's only ever seen me in highly driven mode and hasn't ever come across the needing to skate but take away the target mode. I skate because I enjoy it, and I take lessons to achieve new goals, but I don't always have to have a target to make the goals achievable.
I think I'm going to suggest to her that we take a few weeks to regroup, have fun and learn new stuff (while continuing to work on the next elements for the next test), but we're not setting any targets for tests and competitions until after the summer and then we're not seeing a test session until closer to Christmas. (I've done 6 tests in under 12months and that's quite enough for an adult, it's more than most of the kids have done! But that's the NISA system for you as none of them are about level 3).

[RachelSk8er]

It happens, it's part of skating and part of any sport really.

I used to be REALLY hard on myself when I was younger and didn't have a good performance in a competition or test session. But as an adult, while I do get a little bummed/upset (especially when you think about how much $$ was spent on being there!), I realize it is just part of the sport...look back on when you did not have your best performance, was there a reason? Were you overtired, were other factors in your life stressing you out, was your placement or concern over beating certain skaters getting to your head, did you have an injury, was the program new, etc. Use these performances as a learning tool to help you move forward.

[fsk8r]

It happens, it's part of skating and part of any sport really.

I used to be REALLY hard on myself when I was younger and didn't have a good performance in a competition or test session. But as an adult, while I do get a little bummed/upset (especially when you think about how much $$ was spent on being there!), I realize it is just part of the sport...look back on when you did not have your best performance, was there a reason? Were you overtired, were other factors in your life stressing you out, was your placement or concern over beating certain skaters getting to your head, did you have an injury, was the program new, etc. Use these performances as a learning tool to help you move forward.

That's the problem. I don't really know what went wrong. It just didn't go right! (If you understand the difference). OK there was a momentary black out when I forgot I was doing waltz-loop and did just a waltz and realised my leg was in the wrong place when I landed, but two footing the flip I don't know why I did it, although I was possibly a bit slow into it. Maybe I'll blame it on the monsoon conditions and the fact that we ended up competing with cones on the ice to avoid the drip-drip from the leaking rink roof.
But you're right about it being a learning experience. It's just in most sports, you can blame it on the other person/team being better than you. Skating's soooo subjective that I can manage to avoid knowing waht the skaters before me did and don't watch until afterwards, but I know I did bad in myself even if the judges didn't really slate me. I'm just trying to work out why I had a bad skate so I can at least predict it for next time and hopefully avoid it.

[Thin-Ice]

My coach used to refer to it as "post-test release" or "post-competition release". She says we get so fixed on whatever the performance was for.. and then seem to realize the goal has gone away (no matter how we did on that particular day) -- and it makes us kind of loopy and our world slightly disintegrates.

I have a friend who runs marathons and her husband refuses to allow her to make any important decisions (not even what's for dinner) for the two days after a race. She doesn't run them to win.. just to do them.. and MAYBE set a personal record. But he says she's an emotional mess after every race... he likes it better when she's training and says her best emotional stability is the two weeks before a race, because she's hyper-focused.

Don't worry about it.. unless of course you do something like stand in the middle of the arena and wail and bawl so everyone thinks you're being attacked or that you're in great pain.

[RachelSk8er]

I also remind myself that NOTHING will ever be as bad as my synchro team's senior short at 1996 nationals in Chicago....pulling out of our circle into our block (2nd element), 1 girl fell, took down 8 others. We missed basically the rest of the block and the first intersection because people were getting back in. 2 girls got into the wrong spots and crashed into each other and both went down in the 2nd intersection. We finished 14th or 15th (2nd last). Luckily no one was hurt. We were able to pull up to 6th overall with a strong skate in our long program, but it was pretty devastating knowing we would have been higher if the short hadn't gone so bad.

When I think of that after a less-than-ideal performance, I don't feel as bad :)

Another thing...the beauty of adult skating is while we can be quite competitive, we're all here for fun and because we love to skate. We've all had a bad performance, and we all understand what you're going through. So talking to someone after helps.

[fsk8r]

My coach used to refer to it as "post-test release" or "post-competition release". She says we get so fixed on whatever the performance was for.. and then seem to realize the goal has gone away (no matter how we did on that particular day) -- and it makes us kind of loopy and our world slightly disintegrates.

I have a friend who runs marathons and her husband refuses to allow her to make any important decisions (not even what's for dinner) for the two days after a race. She doesn't run them to win.. just to do them.. and MAYBE set a personal record. But he says she's an emotional mess after every race... he likes it better when she's training and says her best emotional stability is the two weeks before a race, because she's hyper-focused.

Don't worry about it.. unless of course you do something like stand in the middle of the arena and wail and bawl so everyone thinks you're being attacked or that you're in great pain.

That sounds like my old boss's rule. Never do anything major on a Friday and that includes deleting files on the network. There's nothing more embarassing than the Monday morning call to the IT department to ask them to put it all back. But I'm glad that the release is a normal reaction.

As for bawling on the ice, at the end of the 3 day open, apparently we'd not finished the lady putting us all on the ice was only down a box and a half of tissues she was able to take some away with her for next year. Thankfully the adults weren't bawling their eyes out, but from the sounds of it some of the kids had to go through some serious life lessons because of some rule changes that the coaches hadn't accounted for. Apparently some of them were due negative marks because there were so many deductions for illegal elements and time overruns (6.0 system), but the judges took pity and gave them something.

I also remind myself that NOTHING will ever be as bad as my synchro team's senior short at 1996 nationals in Chicago....pulling out of our circle into our block (2nd element), 1 girl fell, took down 8 others. We missed basically the rest of the block and the first intersection because people were getting back in. 2 girls got into the wrong spots and crashed into each other and both went down in the 2nd intersection. We finished 14th or 15th (2nd last). Luckily no one was hurt. We were able to pull up to 6th overall with a strong skate in our long program, but it was pretty devastating knowing we would have been higher if the short hadn't gone so bad.

When I think of that after a less-than-ideal performance, I don't feel as bad :)

Another thing...the beauty of adult skating is while we can be quite competitive, we're all here for fun and because we love to skate. We've all had a bad performance, and we all understand what you're going through. So talking to someone after helps.

I think I'm going to remember your synchro team next time. Because that does sound like a horrific mistake. And I've yet to do anything that bad. (Fingers crossed my new synchro team don't do that to me as I'm not normally the fastest to jump up after a fall). But I think I prefer synchro because the mistakes are collective rather than individual.

Glad I'm not the only one who goes through this. The bit which confuses me is that I've got the same place as the last competition when I was ecstatic about the result and skated well and this time, I skated bad and feel quite negative. The coach said the second one would be the harder one, because my expectations have changed. I'm just too new at the competition scenario and was shocked I did well the first time as I was competing up a category, but this last one was actually quite fair standard wise.

Skating is just a bit fickle.

[Isk8NYC]

That sounds like my old boss's rule. Never do anything major on a Friday and that includes deleting files on the network. There's nothing more embarassing than the Monday morning call to the IT department to ask them to put it all back. But I'm glad that the release is a normal reaction.We must have worked together in a prior life, lol. I learned this lesson as a trainee after I blew away six months' programming instead of the test data files. I was CRYING on the phone with the Help Desk in Dallas. lol

[Rusty Blades]

.... there was a momentary black out when I forgot I was doing waltz-loop and did just a waltz and realised my leg was in the wrong place when I landed....

That's the strange thing about the difference between a "good competition" and a bad one!

I did a local competition last fall where I was having a GOOD DAY and forgot where I was in the choreography half way through so I ad-libbed the rest. When I came off the ice my coach and the head coach were raving about how well I did and didn't even realize it WASN'T what I had been rehearsing until I mentioned it!

On a BAD day, I remember the choreography but the old body just isn't GETTING IT!

[looplover]

I beat myself up - particularly when I see the video - but then I try to think of it as part of the journey and all. My first competition (ISI) was so godawful I still cannot believe it...oddly, I had my flip though...but it was humiliating in terms of my presentation. Particularly my attempt at the interp event. In this last one that I did I had a waltz-half loop-salchow...a sequence I can usually do very easily and have done in competition - I dunno what happened. I waltzed, I did some awkward step, I did a salchow. Eh.

I think if one thing goes wrong you try and go on but if your mind is on that one thing it can affect everything to come! Maybe it's a matter of training your brain that if something went wrong to block it out and think of the next element coming up.

[Rusty Blades]

I think if one thing goes wrong you try and go on but if your mind is on that one thing it can affect everything to come! Maybe it's a matter of training your brain that if something went wrong to block it out and think of the next element coming up.

Fer sure! You can sure see it among the high level competitors and you can usually see it on their face, whether they have "brushed off" the fall or mis-step. If they haven't brushed it off, the rest of their performance usually goes down the tube!

[doubletoe]

Sometimes things just fall apart in competition for no apparent reason, which is exactly what happened to me at AN this year. I had an awesome warmup, then. . . WTF? So yeah, I beat myself up a lot. When I was done beating myself up, I decided I needed to just stop focusing on new skills until I had increased my clean program run-through ratio in practice. I figured if I regularly skate clean in practice, my chances of skating clean in competition would naturally go up over time, even with nerves and all the other factors. So far, it seems to be working, since I made just one mistake in my last competition, and it wasn't a huge one. Having said that, I also realize that sometimes the skating gods just throw you a curve ball no matter what, and the more you dwell on a bad competition, the more it will mess with your next one!

[Skating Jessica]

For me, I think it's knowing how much time and money went into preparing to test and then failing that is frustrating, especially when I fail and I know I didn't skate my best. Worse yet is going back to the rink the next day and having a great practice. I just keep thinking, 'Man...why couldn't the test be today?' ;)

[coskater64]

When I was in my early 20's I worked for a brokerage firm, I started working in the "cage" wiring buys/sells/puts/calls ect...to the floor of the various exchanges. One day I sent a buy for 100 shares of iBM as 100,000 shares an error of epic proportions, we had to sell the 99,900 shares later that day, luckily the stock went up and we made several thousand dollars but if it had gone down I would have lost my job. I went on to be an institutional broker handling huge trust accounts but I remember that day very well. Skating poorly ... it happens ... stuff always happens. We all have ups and downs you have to learn to go with the flow. If you stress about it, it will usually go poorly.

Just my 2 cents.

:D

[fsk8r]

I've been thinking back to the competition and the one before it, and I'm coming to the conclusion I wasn't scared enough going into the last one. I skated a blinder at the first one, came off thrilled and didn't came where I placed because I skated well. This time, I knew I could skate well and didn't properly respect the competition. No jelly legs, and no good skate.
I know that for school exams I needed to do badly before hand to pull out a good performance. Skating tests I generally have a rotten skate just before the test and so work doubly hard mentally and physically to get it right for the test and the fear side of it makes it work. I think this time I was possibly a bit over confident and so didn't have enough respect.
However, in having this experience I think next time I will be absolutely terrified and so hopefully it will go better.
I now just have to work out how to face the coach tomorrow. She ended up with some really bizarre messages from the emotional aftermath. But I'm still incredibly grateful that she made time to come down and put me on the ice. (I might be all big and grown up, but it doesn't mean I don't like someone to hold my hand!)

[vesperholly]

My coach used to refer to it as "post-test release" or "post-competition release". She says we get so fixed on whatever the performance was for.. and then seem to realize the goal has gone away (no matter how we did on that particular day) -- and it makes us kind of loopy and our world slightly disintegrates.
That's a great description. I am pretty good at handling pre-competition stress, but I can be a mess afterward. For some reason, tests don't have the same effect.

I'm going to throw in a plug for a great book that I bought before this year's ANs: Body Mind Mastery by Dan Millman (http://www.amazon.com/Body-Mind-Mastery-Creating-Success/dp/1577310942/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215762516&sr=8-1). The author is a former competitive gymnast (another high-stress performance sport). It speaks a lot about training smartly, preparing for competitions, and controlling your emotional reactions.

I had a really bad performance at Sectionals and I was an emotional wreck afterward. The stress completely undid me. I read this book a lot before ANs and it really helped to control my emotions. I didn't skate perfectly (but much better than Sectionals) and I wasn't too happy with my placement, but I felt like I was in a much better place mentally, especially after the performance. I tend to put ridiculous amounts of pressure on myself to succeed and then crumble. For me, seeing video of myself is usually good, because then I realize I didn't skate nearly as poorly as I thought!

[RachelSk8er]

I think I'm going to remember your synchro team next time. Because that does sound like a horrific mistake. And I've yet to do anything that bad. (Fingers crossed my new synchro team don't do that to me as I'm not normally the fastest to jump up after a fall). But I think I prefer synchro because the mistakes are collective rather than individual.

That was only the first time I was on a team that had a major pile-up. I went on to skate collegiate and at 04 nationals (alwayas happens at Nationals!), we had one fall early on. Later, one girl got overexcited, lost focus, went down...she was leading a line and the next 4 went down on top of her. And in the following intersection--2 crashed and one of them went down. I think we ended up 2nd last. My team was devastated, I was kind of like "eh, been there, done that!" Total deja-vu.

I actually took the switch over to IJS for synchro kind of hard. I used to NEVER get nervous (well, maybe my very first few competitions way back when I was skating juvenile but I got over that). Nationals? No big deal. Internationals? No big deal. I just went out there and skated. But switching to IJS (which I only skated under in adult) was much more stressful and I got in this strange mindset of "if I put my foot down on a turn/my entry or exit edges aren't deep enough/if I fall" my team would lose points on the step sequence, or points due to the fall plus the mandatory hit on your GOE. And when teams are all within a point or less of each other, it can mean the difference in placement. Granted with a step sequence, 3 people need to botch it to lose the call, not just one person...but still...I'd let these thoughts run through my head, and because of it, never felt 100% happy with my own performance, even when my team won. I can't do synchro any more due to my law school schedule (I had a long commute to my last team), but I think it would have been easier the 3rd year.

As for singles, IJS? Bring it. I'm competing silver and WISH I had a sheet handed to me after my skate at my last competition to see exactly what I earned or lost points on so I could see exactly where I needed to improve, and compare that to the next competition. I'm planning on 2 yrs at silver because I don't think I'll have a consistent 2toe and 2sal for next year (as in 2009-2010) and my spins need work, but will probably skate up in gold at nonqual competitions offering IJS for gold (there are a few--Wyandotte in Sept, GRO, etc) just to get the experience. I also noticed that there are local comps where open juv has no upper age cap so I could do those....and probably get my butt kicked, but I'd be there for my own score and benefit, not to beat teenagers.

[fsk8r]

Interesting that you felt switching to IJS in synchro put more pressure on you to do things right. I've yet to compete synchro (my last team couldn't get a program together fast enough before I had to leave) but my perception is that being team will be less nerve racking (I coped with the christmas show on the basis of camarderie).
I hope that you get to skate synchro again when the schedule allows. I've just discovered that synchro makes people do some really strange commutes. I think nearly half my team seem to be doing incredible drives to get to practice, and I thought I had it tough trying to get across London in rush hour but everyone else seems to be doing a similar journey. We must be mad, but I think synchro is in the soul.

But your thoughts on IJS for singles make sense. It would be quite nice to know where you've gone wrong or right and what you're doing well. I'm new to competing and still struggling to understand why they bother putting the 4,5 and 6 in the box of numbers if they're not going to use them. But given that it is so subjective, it's only after the event when I've calmed down (about now two days later!), that I become interested in the mark. At the time, I pay little attention. At the first competition I had to ask the coach what my marks meant in a relative sense, although this time she made me call them out as she wrote them down. I still didn't take them in.
The one thing I've noticed from the two adult competitions is that we're all concerned about getting the technical content in and making it hard, but those doing well generally don't always have the hardest program but go for the presentation mark. Then again the UK system is a bit messy at the moment as we test under NISA and compete under ISU categories, and no one seems to have made a definitive, you've tested this therefore you're in this category rule yet. We're apparently able to make our own decisions on this.

[frbskate63]

I've been thinking back to the competition and the one before it, and I'm coming to the conclusion I wasn't scared enough going into the last one.

I can totally relate to this. Although I hate that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach before a competition, I worry more if it's not there. If you're nervous beforehand, you can sort of acclimatise to the feeling - but if you're not, it has a nasty habit of hitting you like a ton of bricks when you step onto the ice, and I always have my worst skates when that happens.

[RachelSk8er]

Interesting that you felt switching to IJS in synchro put more pressure on you to do things right. I've yet to compete synchro (my last team couldn't get a program together fast enough before I had to leave) but my perception is that being team will be less nerve racking (I coped with the christmas show on the basis of camarderie).


Having teammates does help (I just started freestyle again for the first time in many years, and trust me, I freak out when I'm out there all by myself). But I think the expectations that are placed on your team also makes a big difference. I've been on a variety of teams over the years, and with some teams, we did get upset over national medals that were not gold...and I've been on teams that were just ecstatic to qualify for Nationals, or finish 5th at Nationals, etc. If you're a team that's expected to win (or place high enough for an international assignment, etc), there is a lot more pressure placed on you. Under IJS, screwing up and not getting a step sequence called may not just cost the entire team a point and a placement, it can mean the difference between a national title and being upset with a silver medal. Pre-IJS, if you needed to cheat a turn in order to stay lined up with the person next to you, catch up to someone, etc--it didn't matter.

In singles, you're the only one placing the pressure and expectations on yourself. (At least as adults...I guess as kids you get it from parents, etc.)

[Mrs Redboots]

I so totally relate to this whole thread!

Which is worse - to come off the ice really pleased with how you skated and then have the judges hold up 1.5, or worse still, 0.8 (it has happened!); or to come off really cross about how you skated and then find you actually placed relatively well! Both have happened to me, and neither is pleasing.

[fsk8r]

I so totally relate to this whole thread!

Which is worse - to come off the ice really pleased with how you skated and then have the judges hold up 1.5, or worse still, 0.8 (it has happened!); or to come off really cross about how you skated and then find you actually placed relatively well! Both have happened to me, and neither is pleasing.

I'm also slightly perplexed by the coach's response to this. Apparently she thinks that us adult skaters take it a bit too seriously for a "leisure activity" and that we shouldn't be getting so uptight over marks and placings as it should be fun. I have a feeling she didn't enjoy singles skating (she's more a synchro person) and therefore doesn't really want to put anyone else through that pain (and yes she gets REALLY nervous watching). Yes I'm annoyed with my performance and it's more to do with me now skating as well as I know I can and not about marks (I can't actually remember what I got, I only know my placing) and yes I stressed about it before and after, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to put myself through it, because the fun bit is the challenge. And I really liked having to pick the music, find the dress, make pretty hair slides to go with the dress. The competition to me was as much about the chance to dress up and look pretty as it was about doing well. But I've very competitive and I wanted to do better than I did the time before. The fact that I didn't skate as well is really disappointing, but I'm new to this and part of the learning about competitions is about learning to handle the emotional side of it.
I'm rational about this all now, thanks to some excellent words of wisdom from here, but it doesn't mean that I won't get mad at myself next time it happens. But then again, I get mad at myself on a fairly regular basis when I go skating because there's just sooo much that I can't do.
Thankfully my other coach didn't push me to keep going with our test prep work today and I had a fun session of messing around doing swing counters. Not sure why I needed to learn how to do them, but I like a good challenge, especially one I can just about rise to.

[doubletoe]

Well, I definitely relate to this thread right now. In my competition last night, I survived every element and got a pretty good 2nd mark, but I am reeling from the "tough love" shown by the technical panel, which was particularly strict. Not only did I get a weird call on one of the spiral features, but I had *four* elements that got zero credit! 8O I got an under-rotation call on one of my axels (which looked less than 1/4 turn cheated when I watched it in slow motion) and I got "Mrs. Dash" on all three of my spins! 8O On two of the three spins, it was due to IJS technicalities, so I clearly need to plan my mistakes better to make sure I get at least partial credit on spins that are a little off.

After working so hard to make the "clean program" the new norm, this is pretty disappointing. What do I do with that? I guess just use the information to try to fix these particular mistakes and figure out how to make sure I don't make the same mistakes next time. If you make different mistakes each time, that can be considered progress, right? ;)

[sk8lady]

I'm also slightly perplexed by the coach's response to this. Apparently she thinks that us adult skaters take it a bit too seriously for a "leisure activity" and that we shouldn't be getting so uptight over marks and placings as it should be fun.

We discuss this a lot around here...sometimes it seems as if the coaches feel that adults skaters aren't as important as kid skaters, and therefore we are the first to have our lessons canceled if there's a conflict or a problem, and the most likely to be considered unreasonable if we are upset or have a hissy fit when we skate badly, have a horrid practice, or get placed last in competition.

Probably we should make a point of telling people that since it's about a hundred times harder for an adult to schedule time to skate and have lessons around all the other responsibilites we have, it means we care about skating about a hundred times MORE than the kids do, or we would all quit!!!

(Sorry to get up on a soapbox about this but, as I said, some of us in this area discuss this a lot and it's a pet peeve of mine!!)

[fsk8r]

Well, I definitely relate to this thread right now. In my competition last night, I survived every element and got a pretty good 2nd mark, but I am reeling from the "tough love" shown by the technical panel, which was particularly strict. Not only did I get a weird call on one of the spiral features, but I had *four* elements that got zero credit! 8O I got an under-rotation call on one of my axels (which looked less than 1/4 turn cheated when I watched it in slow motion) and I got "Mrs. Dash" on all three of my spins! 8O On two of the three spins, it was due to IJS technicalities, so I clearly need to plan my mistakes better to make sure I get at least partial credit on spins that are a little off.

After working so hard to make the "clean program" the new norm, this is pretty disappointing. What do I do with that? I guess just use the information to try to fix these particular mistakes and figure out how to make sure I don't make the same mistakes next time. If you make different mistakes each time, that can be considered progress, right? ;)

Youch! I think I prefer 6.0 because at least the judges are blind to some of the mistakes.
I'm still struggling to work out how you "plan" mistakes. Maybe we're all meant to do video replays of our practices so that we can analyse the things the coaches miss, or are these just little mistakes which happen when nervous. But you'd think there'd be some credit for trying.
But if it's any consolation, I'm discovering that the pain does become less with time. Or rather the determination grows more!

[fsk8r]

We discuss this a lot around here...sometimes it seems as if the coaches feel that adults skaters aren't as important as kid skaters, and therefore we are the first to have our lessons canceled if there's a conflict or a problem, and the most likely to be considered unreasonable if we are upset or have a hissy fit when we skate badly, have a horrid practice, or get placed last in competition.

Probably we should make a point of telling people that since it's about a hundred times harder for an adult to schedule time to skate and have lessons around all the other responsibilites we have, it means we care about skating about a hundred times MORE than the kids do, or we would all quit!!!

(Sorry to get up on a soapbox about this but, as I said, some of us in this area discuss this a lot and it's a pet peeve of mine!!)

Oh I don't think my coach is one of those coaches. I know the sort you mean and I find a lot of our adult skaters seem to think in that mentality, but generally when they have kids who skate as well. Not having kids means that I think I'm most important!
But I've also met other coaches which put their "competitive" kids before others as well and then it doesn't matter if you're a kid or an adult. I've yet to work our what the definition of "competitive kid" is, as you see some kids at a low level being worked really hard because apparently they've got some mythical talent and others not and at that level I can't really tell the difference between them. Once you get up the test system it's a bit more obvious, but at beginners how do they tell?!
But what I was meaning about my coach's reaction is that she finds the whole judging / competing so subjective she finds it really hard to explain curve ball marks. She's adament that she's not putting her kids through this and will let her kid play around on the ice, but she's not going to start coaching her. (I wonder if she'll change her mind if the kids come back and ask to skate when they're slightly older). I think she's just got an odd attitude when it comes to competitions. She's got another adult skater who gets incredibly nervous testing, so she doesn't push her to test and just lets her learn the elements and pushes her to the limit. I'm still breaking her in with regards to tests and competitions, but I do know that she makes sure she's got time to teach me each week (and my lesson schedule shifts around because of my work timetable) and she does make the effort to come to tests and competitions so she's not taken the attitude that I'm old and not worth it.
I think she just worries that us adults have a strange attitude to our leisure activity in that we are so passionate and thinks that perhaps we should treat it more like pottery class. But I think she doesn't realise that we'd end up making pottery class competitive, the passion is in the personality and we're just like this.

PS I thoroughly agree with your pet peeve. I'm sick of being the old adult doing things as everyone else says it's for the kids. And guess what the kids don't mind me being the only adult. Some of my best skating friends are 6. I guess I'm just lucky in getting coaches who don't share the attitude.

PPS I had one coach once who'd taken up golf as an adult and he was brilliant for adult learners. He understood the drive and the passion and he also understood the frustrations of learning a new skill. I think a lot of coaches could learn from his experience because they'd either raise their expectations of what we can do and our potential or they'd lower them by understanding the failings of the body with time.

[Mrs Redboots]

The thing is, as my husband often reminds me, at our level it's "only a game". Which it is - we do it for fun, and I hope we have fun doing it. But that doesn't mean we don't take it seriously, and that we don't go out there and do the absolute best we can. For our own gratification, if for nobody else's. Ottavio Cinquanto is on record as saying that adults skate against themselves as much as against one another, and that's very true!

But it's a rare competition when I don't end up in floods of tears one way or the other - I think it is due to adrenaline and the subsequent crash. If I skate badly I'm upset, and if I skate really well (and the judges agree!) I weep for pleasure! Chocolate helps, I find, as does a hip flask..... (hmmm, do you think the RIDL match this evening is sufficient excuse to fill my hip flask?).

[sk8lady]

I think she just worries that us adults have a strange attitude to our leisure activity in that we are so passionate and thinks that perhaps we should treat it more like pottery class. But I think she doesn't realise that we'd end up making pottery class competitive, the passion is in the personality and we're just like this.

Now that I think about it, my father-in-law took a pottery class as an adult, and wound up building his own wheel, followed by building his own kiln, filling up half the basement with pots and eventually showing them and I think selling them as well!


PS I thoroughly agree with your pet peeve. I'm sick of being the old adult doing things as everyone else says it's for the kids. And guess what the kids don't mind me being the only adult. Some of my best skating friends are 6. I guess I'm just lucky in getting coaches who don't share the attitude.



I was complaining to my coach about how one of my friends, who's the only other adult skater at my home rink at my level, seems to pick things up so much more quickly than I do when I suddenly realized that the other "adult" skater is actually substantially closer to my 12 year old son's age than mine! No wonder. :D

[slusher]

as you see some kids at a low level being worked really hard because apparently they've got some mythical talent and others not and at that level I can't really tell the difference between them. Once you get up the test system it's a bit more obvious, but at beginners how do they tell?!


By the size of the parent's checkbook ;)


PS I thoroughly agree with your pet peeve. I'm sick of being the old adult doing things as everyone else says it's for the kids. And guess what the kids don't mind me being the only adult.



The kids I skate with have all had bad competitions too. We shrug, and get over it. I don't mean to be flippant but there is solace knowing that the kids don't expect skating to be perfect every time, and maybe as adults we do, because you know, we're more mature. :P I've also learned, from my coach, to cherish the one good thing that I did in a program eg "that was the best combo spin ever", although, and this will be the only mention, there was a competition where we could not find anything to compliment. My coach would not allow skaters to utter anything negative right after the skate, your first words had to be positive ones. Tears were my words that day. Coach said "you're still alive". Didn't feel like it. I quit competing for quite a long time after that.

[Thin-Ice]

I so totally relate to this whole thread!

Which is worse - to come off the ice really pleased with how you skated and then have the judges hold up 1.5, or worse still, 0.8 (it has happened!); or to come off really cross about how you skated and then find you actually placed relatively well! Both have happened to me, and neither is pleasing.

I don't know about anyone else.. but if I come off the ice really happy with how I skated, I don't care (well not nearly as much) what place the judges put me in. But if I don't skate as well as I think I should have anything other than a "retry" on a test or at the bottom on the results from a competition feels like a "consolation prize". At AN last year, I knew I would come in last since it was my first year at Silver and my lutz forgot to make the trip to Lake Placid. I was THRILLED with how I skated (it was the best I could possibly have done on that particular day) and didn't even bother to look at results until a friend dragged me off several hours later to see I had come in second-to-last! In contrast, when I took my Silver FS test the 2nd time, I knew I hadn't passed and so did my coach. I found out about 20 minutes later I had passed, but it felt more like the judges were saying "we're feeling sorry for you, and we know you didn't do well, but it's probably the best you could possibly skate.. so we'll give you a mercy pass.. but don't work on anything harder because you'll never get there". So now my goal is to skate as well as I can at Silver to prove that was a really bad day... and I CAN skate much better than I did on the test... even in competition with another panel of judges watching.

[jskater49]

I don't know about anyone else.. but if I come off the ice really happy with how I skated, I don't care (well not nearly as much) what place the judges put me in. ..

The only time my placing really bothered me was in an artistic event. The two other skaters were WAY better (one did a lutz) skaters than me. HOWEVER ...one of them just basically did a freestyle with lyrics and the other one did act it up but she would break character in order to do a difficult element. I stayed in character the entire program. No I didn't do difficult elements, but I don't think that should be the point in an artistic. I see now it was really unrealistic for me to expect to be competitive against silver level skaters ...but I still think artistically speaking, mine was the better program!

j

[Sessy]

I've only done 2 skating competitions so far, but I've done some dancing competitions as well. I think the main point is to realise that if you did badly in one competition, this does not determine that you will do badly in the other one (unless your programme or concurrents are way above your ability, but then you probably weren't expecting much from a competition in the first place). There's lots of different factors involved, such as:
(for us ladies) time of the month - illness (from severe to small little flu that goes hardly noticed) - what you ate - stress from daily life affecting your concentration - the time you skate (and get up!) - the warm-up you had - the practices you had lately (sometimes, an element just disappears at a most inappropriate time, then comes back better later on) - the competition you skated agains - the judges - just plain luck, good or bad...
And it's a combination of those factors that makes you skate (dance, play etc) well or not so well, and that combination is never the same. So the main thing is to leave that bad performance as that 1 bad performance, and not to take it as a prediction for other performances.