has anyone ever gone to state games? I am curious, if a skater in say the basic skills levels, qualifies to go to State Games, do they have to skate in the same level they skated to qualify? I ask because we're hoping to move my daughter up to either non-test or pre-pre by June/July. State Games are in August. Will my daughter have to stay in her current level or could she move up and still compete in state games? State Games is 6 months away and I can't imagine keeping her in basic skills until then. Anyone have feedback on this?

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skating mom to 3 angels on earth and 1 in heaven

Never mind. Discovered the comp will be in 2011. LOL. So, I would HOPE she can skate higher then her current level by then! She may be prelim then. Who knows!

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skating mom to 3 angels on earth and 1 in heaven

sort of odd. My dd qualified by winning the gold medal in Basic 6, yes the summer BEFORE last summer. She got a letter saying she qualified and was doing pre pre by then.

We didn't go to it and we didn't go to the state games this year as our state changed the rules for the categories and they didn't line up with USFS rules anymore. It wasn't worth having to change her program for that one competition.

The State Games of America are only held once every two years. You compete at the level you are currently at, even if you qualified at a lower level. You need to read the competition announcement very carefully, since they use a combination of USFS and ISI rules. I went to the very first one in St. Louis, and had a lot of fun, although I don't consider it a very meaningful event.

They have separate USFS and ISI events now. And no, you don't have skate at the same level you qualified at. Qualifying just means that your name gets put on the list of people eligible to go in the specific sport.

interesting

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2010 Skating Goals

1) Land Double Axel
2) Pass Junior Moves at the end of January
3) Pass Novice Free at the end of January
4) Pass Senior moves by september
5) Consistant double flips and double lutzs
6) Learn a new cool spin!

State games can be a wonderful competition - especially for skaters in the non-qual levels of pre-juv and below. These skaters have no other 'qualifying' chance as they do not have Sectionals or junior nationals for them, while there is a 'State games of America' to shoot for.

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blades, gary, Lucy, Emily, take care of Aiden and Sami. Sami is my sweetest heart, and always will be, forever. RIP Cubby Boy, my hero dog.

This board is mainly populated by adult skaters who don't have regional competitions. Adults are excluded from many of the US Figure Skating competitions and many others only skate in Ice Skating Institute (ISI) competitions.

In addition, there are no "regionals" for skaters below Juvenile level.

The State Games in most areas are a valuable experience that gives a little local glory to the skaters. The volunteers work very hard to create a challenging competition for the participants. Several organizers are members of this board; hope none of the Colorado LOC "heard" your statement.

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Kind of off topic, but what levels qualify for State Games of America? Can adult skating levels qualify? Their website isn't really clear.

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~Always Dream!~

Check my progress at www.freewebs.com/sk8tegirl06

But we do tend to have a nonqualifying competition for the below-juvie crowd the day or two before regionals, run by the same LOC at the same venue, at least at New Englands. Although it's not a qualifier, it is as close as you can get to one!

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blades, gary, Lucy, Emily, take care of Aiden and Sami. Sami is my sweetest heart, and always will be, forever. RIP Cubby Boy, my hero dog.

interesting

All levels qualify. I know several adults who've got to SGA.

I participated in State Games for many years, until ice skating was dropped from our state's event. I also competed at the SGA when I qualified. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was the biggest competition I've ever been a part of and I'd love to do it again, if we could get skating back on the role of events for or state.

Is that considered the same thing as "going to regionals" though?

Where I've lived, a skater would be corrected if they did use that term to mean they were skating in the open, non-qual competition. Perhaps the terminology varies from place to place. *shrugs*

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Well no, going to the non-qual at Regionals isn’t the same as going to Regionals. However, I’m not sure I’d correct anybody if they wanted to call it “Regionals”.

I’m sure it differs greatly region to region, but in our region (at least for the last two years) it has been the biggest non-qualifying competition in terms of numbers of skaters (around 70 pre-pre girls as opposed to around 30 at the other “big” competitions and 10-20 at the smaller ones). There is also more of a geographic mix of skaters than at other comps. So, while my dd didn’t have the opportunity to qualify for other events at our Regionals, the non-qualifying competition did provide an exciting event which she worked hard to prepare for and a nice culmination for the season.

Thanks!

There was an earlier post (now removed by the poster) that said to "just go to regionals" instead of the State Games. AFAIK, not just anyone can "go to regionals" and I wondered if maybe other areas used that phrase to mean the non-qualifying competition as well.

I'm not discounting the non-qual experience, given my ISI background. I was just making sure I had the terminology correct.

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Our regionals is the same, in fact my DD group of pre juv had 24 girls, Juv had less.We call our regionals, even for pre pre groups.Held at the same time.
Edited to add, in fact anyone Juv and above can go to regionals qualf.You dont have to do anything special,just pass the tests.Which is why regionals with big population bases have more skaters than smaller ones.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/alaskanmom

I believe there used to be certain qualifications that had to be met before going to regionals, but not any more. We also call the entire competition here regionals, even for those skating in the non-qual divisions.

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blades, gary, Lucy, Emily, take care of Aiden and Sami. Sami is my sweetest heart, and always will be, forever. RIP Cubby Boy, my hero dog.