Competition warm-up advice

[san]

I'm competing at the end of the month for the first time in about 30 years. 8O

It usually takes me at least 15-30 minutes of warming up on ice to be ready to skate my program. Obviously, I'm going to have to make it work in the 5 minutes that I'll have to warm-up at the competition. So today at the rink, I did a 15 minute off-ice warmup (jogging, stretching, jumping, walking through the program), then got on the ice and experimented with how I felt after 5 minutes of on-ice warmup (stroking, spins, some jumps).

Ummm....not so good. I couldn't get steady on my spins until after about 10 minutes on the ice.

So, that's my concern--how am I going to make this work on competition day? I've never bothered much with off-ice warm-up before b/c I have found that I really need to warm-up on the ice, getting the feel of it, to be able to skate well. Today I found the off-ice warm-up, although it did warm me up as far as getting the blood going, tired me out. So by the time I got on the ice, I was tired on top of not feeling steady on the ice.

From your experiences, have you found the warm-up issue gets better with practice? I'm intending to take the approach I took today every practice session until the competition (I have almost 4 weeks). I'm also wondering if skating earlier in the day the day of the competition will make a difference in how comfortable I feel on the ice for the 5 minute competition warm-up. I will have a 30 minutes practice session the morning of the competition.

Any thoughts/advice are appreciated--thanks!

[doubletoe]

There are two things that help me warm up on competition day:
1) Skating for 30-45 minutes somewhere a few hours before the competition.
2) Walking through my program with my iPhone right before the competition, thinking about what I need to focus on for each element as it comes up in the program.

Half of this stuff is mental, which is why #2 is such a big help.

[sexyskates]

You need to train yourself to be ready to skate your program right after the 5 minute warm up. You can do a shorter less intense off ice warm up if it's making you too tired. I find that if I warm up at home with stretches and walking through jumps and spin positions, I only need 5 minutes of off ice warm up at the rink to be ready to jump when I get on the ice. Do stroking when you first get on and cross overs, then go to the spins and jumps. You could also try doing 10 minutes of on ice warm up for a week and then cutting it down to 5. And don't be too hard on yourself - competition does not feel like practice.

[sk8rdad59]

I'm competing at the end of the month for the first time in about 30 years. 8O

It usually takes me at least 15-30 minutes of warming up on ice to be ready to skate my program. Obviously, I'm going to have to make it work in the 5 minutes that I'll have to warm-up at the competition. So today at the rink, I did a 15 minute off-ice warmup (jogging, stretching, jumping, walking through the program), then got on the ice and experimented with how I felt after 5 minutes of on-ice warmup (stroking, spins, some jumps).

Ummm....not so good. I couldn't get steady on my spins until after about 10 minutes on the ice.

So, that's my concern--how am I going to make this work on competition day? I've never bothered much with off-ice warm-up before b/c I have found that I really need to warm-up on the ice, getting the feel of it, to be able to skate well. Today I found the off-ice warm-up, although it did warm me up as far as getting the blood going, tired me out. So by the time I got on the ice, I was tired on top of not feeling steady on the ice.

From your experiences, have you found the warm-up issue gets better with practice? I'm intending to take the approach I took today every practice session until the competition (I have almost 4 weeks). I'm also wondering if skating earlier in the day the day of the competition will make a difference in how comfortable I feel on the ice for the 5 minute competition warm-up. I will have a 30 minutes practice session the morning of the competition.

Any thoughts/advice are appreciated--thanks!

Competitive skaters typically do their off-ice warm up about an hour before they go on the ice. Depending on level they warm up lasts anywhere from 15-30 minutes the rest on the time before the on ice warm up is typically spent in mental preparation. Some of the coaches here will likely be able to expand on this or provide their recommendations. But you seem to already be doing the right thing by doing some trial runs of competition day to figure out what works for you.

[aussieskater]

I'm not a singles competitor but a synchro one. We get one minute warmup. That's right - one minute. Just enough time to form a series of lines and skate once around the rink to our starting positions. Our average team age is 50ish, and our old bones really don't work well after one minute!!

As we get close to comp season, the coach puts us through a combination off-ice and walk-throughs, which takes about an hour. Then we put our skates on and get on the ice in our lines, do the one-minute warmup as if it was comp day, and immediately do the program. Twice. And hope we all survive.

The 3 things we all notice help our preparation for comp day are:

(1) Being able to skate some time the day of the comp, even if it's only for 15 minutes. The closer to the comp time, the better, but whatever you can get is good.

(2) The coach's preparation of us described above. This really helps being accustomed to having to "just do it" cold.

(3) Mental walk-throughs as suggested by other posters above.

Enjoy your competition! The best thing about comp is that you don't have to share the ice.

[san]

Thanks so much for the feedback, everyone. It's very helpful.

sk8trdad59--good point about having a rest period between the off-ice and the on-ice warm-ups. Maybe that's what I need. I will try warming up at home, then drive over to the rink and see how that goes, instead of warming up at the rink and then immediately hopping on the ice.

I'm glad to hear that skating the day of the comp helps--I'm banking on that for myself.

Wow--aussieskater--one minute!!! Holey moley. I'm impressed.

[rsk8d]

15-20 minutes of dynamic off-ice warmup is sufficient to get your body fully warmed up for that dreaded 5 minute warmup. During this period, you should not do any strengthening exercises that make your muscles sore or tired.

Our "Ultimate Dynamic Warmup" DVD gives you a catalog of over 30 exercises to create the warmup that is best for your body and flexibility demands. Dynamic stretching is so much more important for a warmup than static stretching, as it brings each joint through its full range of motion while getting consistent blood flow to the muscles and raising muscle temperature.

[Query]

:twisted: Gee, maybe only rinks with a second ice sheet for warm-ups should be allowed to run competitions. :twisted:

I don't compete.

I took a course from a dance kinesiologist where we all created warm-up routines that met the teacher's ideas of what a good warm-up was. I used fall practice (level changes require energy) - which didn't work well for some of the other students who had never done it. And I took an aerobics instructors' course where we created routines too. But for me personally, a jog works the best as a general warm up. An outside jog on a cold day doesn't work. And people who bounce a lot when they jog might get too much impact to be healthy. I concentrate on making everything smooth, and on using as many different muscle groups as I can.

The kineseologist said small movements help lubricate the joint and protect cartilage, progressing towards full range of muscle movements (but she believed, no stretches prior to warm-up) to complete the lubrication. She recommended combinations of movements that used all your muscles at once. The idea is that warm, oxygenated tissue is more pliable and less likely to be injured.Warming your muscles also makes them more likely to stretch than your ligaments and joint capsules, which is best for most people. Oxygenation and high heart and breath rates also make you more alert and less likely to make mistakes.

I think jogging is great for using lots of muscles at once, especially if you concentrate on doing so (e.g., use hamstrings and quads equally, bring the other core muscles into play, and move your upper body), and it gets my hear heart and breath breath going better than anytihing else I've tried.

Available surfaces at rinks vary, and some rink buildings are quite cold, making fixed warm-up routines difficult to design.

If the building is too cold, you might try wearing extra clothing that comes off easily just before you skate. "Boof Gear" - essentially a big long thick pile nightshirt designed as a public clothes changing garment - will cover everything, as would a nice warm bathrobe. But neither is very stylish. Surprisingly, hat and gloves help keep the rest of the body warm too.

So - just hang around in a big bathrobe, gloves, and a neoprene diving hood! The pictures should be quite memorable. :)

[aussieskater]

:twisted: Gee, maybe only rinks with a second ice sheet for warm-ups should be allowed to run competitions. :twisted:

That would be lovely in theory but (unless the new facility in Victoria has opened by now, which I don't think it has), there is not a single double-pad facility down under!

I would say that one of the most imortant things for me is warm boots. A couple of winters ago at one competition, our official practice ice was in the morning, and we then did not compete until after 11pm! Sadly, my rice boot warmers did not last the distance, and the comp was in a rather run-down rink with no facilities for reheating boot warmers. That was tough.

[san]

Well, I'm happy to report that I was able to skate my program for my coach after 5 minutes of on-ice warm-up today. Not a great run-through, but really not that bad, considering I'd never done it that cold before.

I am really, really lucky in that the competition rink does have 2 surfaces. I just found out my event time today (it's in the very late afternoon), and that time is going to allow me two 1/2 hour practices during the day, one early in the morning and the other one ending 105 minutes before my event warm-up. So I should be good-to-go. I am, however, going to keep practicing the off-ice/5 minute on-ice routine the rest of the month.

Query--I think you're right about the jogging. One of my friends showed me her jogging routine today, which is really pretty involved, with directional changes, feet crossing, etc. I tried a little bit of it, and I think it really helped.

Now I just need to figure out how to keep up with the rest of my competition group--I saw the competitors list, and am thinking I should have skated my test level instead of skating up a level. Alas.

[techskater]

:twisted: Gee, maybe only rinks with a second ice sheet for warm-ups should be allowed to run competitions. :twisted:

What about when both sheets are being used for the competition??:halo:

[Query]

What about when both sheets are being used for the competition??:halo:

Rent another (temporary) ice sheet???

I wasn't being serious. Any proposed rules change would be voted down without serious consideration by the majority of clubs, whose rinks have only one sheet. I doubt they would consider it even for the Olympics or Worlds.

I do notice nearby rinks get busy on the days one rink has a competition or test.

If jogging isn't enough fun (backwards walking and jogging can be an interesting challenge), there is always roller skating - unless you injure yourself on the asphalt. But how would you know when to come inside for the competition?

[Lsk8]

My most recent competition (with a new coach) was the first time I actually had a planned warm up. It really helped me feel more confident.

a few weeks before the competition we planned the warm up-- stroke forward/backward, each jump in order it is in program, then each spin, hen footwork. Each time I skated I did off ice warm up, then the five minute planned on ice warm up, then my program. It was hard, but got easier each time.

By the way if you have trouble with an element during your warm up, go on to the next one. repeating it right away will most likely cause you to repeat the error. after you have done all your elements, go back to the difficult one if there is time.

be sure you know when you skate in relationship to the warm up. if you are the first skater after the warmup, you probably don't want to skate full out for the entire warm up.

after the warm up and until you skate, keep warm and keep moving until it is your time to skate.

good luck and let us know how it goes.

[doubletoe]

Well, I'm happy to report that I was able to skate my program for my coach after 5 minutes of on-ice warm-up today. Not a great run-through, but really not that bad, considering I'd never done it that cold before.

I am really, really lucky in that the competition rink does have 2 surfaces. I just found out my event time today (it's in the very late afternoon), and that time is going to allow me two 1/2 hour practices during the day, one early in the morning and the other one ending 105 minutes before my event warm-up. So I should be good-to-go. I am, however, going to keep practicing the off-ice/5 minute on-ice routine the rest of the month.

Query--I think you're right about the jogging. One of my friends showed me her jogging routine today, which is really pretty involved, with directional changes, feet crossing, etc. I tried a little bit of it, and I think it really helped.

Now I just need to figure out how to keep up with the rest of my competition group--I saw the competitors list, and am thinking I should have skated my test level instead of skating up a level. Alas.

I find that it's hard to skate well when I have to warm up, cool down, then warm up again on the same day. I would recommend doing only the 30 minute warmup session 105 minutes before your event. If you warm up and stretch off ice before your practice and plan your practice time well, 30 minutes should be plenty.

[san]

Thanks for the input, doubletoe. I've already paid for the morning practice ice, so I think I'll just go ahead and skate it, but kind of take it easy. It's official practice ice for the comp and will be very crowded, so I wasn't anticipating getting much done during that session anyhow. The ice available right before my competition time will be public session ice, which also may be very crowded, but all I need, really, is to be able to stroke around and get the feel of the ice under me for a few minutes.

[Skate@Delaware]

My most recent competition (with a new coach) was the first time I actually had a planned warm up. It really helped me feel more confident.

a few weeks before the competition we planned the warm up-- stroke forward/backward, each jump in order it is in program, then each spin, hen footwork. Each time I skated I did off ice warm up, then the five minute planned on ice warm up, then my program. It was hard, but got easier each time.

By the way if you have trouble with an element during your warm up, go on to the next one. repeating it right away will most likely cause you to repeat the error. after you have done all your elements, go back to the difficult one if there is time.

be sure you know when you skate in relationship to the warm up. if you are the first skater after the warmup, you probably don't want to skate full out for the entire warm up.

after the warm up and until you skate, keep warm and keep moving until it is your time to skate.

good luck and let us know how it goes.

I find that it's hard to skate well when I have to warm up, cool down, then warm up again on the same day. I would recommend doing only the 30 minute warmup session 105 minutes before your event. If you warm up and stretch off ice before your practice and plan your practice time well, 30 minutes should be plenty.
Both of these are excellent! I also compete and follow guidelines similar to these. We plan out my off-ice warmup and plan out an on-ice warm up for that particular competition. We know when I am to take the ice and schedule a start time to begin my off-ice warmup. The on-ice is just to "get the feel of the ice" and to get adjusted to that particular rink. That's it. If I'm not warmed up by then it's too late. If I know that particular rink is a meat locker, I put toe warmers in my boots. $2 is a small price to pay to prevent frozen toes!
Thanks for the input, doubletoe. I've already paid for the morning practice ice, so I think I'll just go ahead and skate it, but kind of take it easy. It's official practice ice for the comp and will be very crowded, so I wasn't anticipating getting much done during that session anyhow. The ice available right before my competition time will be public session ice, which also may be very crowded, but all I need, really, is to be able to stroke around and get the feel of the ice under me for a few minutes.
You will get the feel of the ice during the official warmup. During your practice ice, do a light run through of your program, paying attention to laying out: direction you will face, where the judges will sit, etc. Don't worry as much about doing the jumps/spins 100%...this is a test drive. Run through your program 1-2 times (with all the traffic you will be lucky if you can get a good run-through). This is not really a good time to go all-out, you don't want to injure yourself but to become familiar and relaxed. You can push a bit harder during the official warmup.

good luck!!!!!