It might also help that skaters will now be limited to 3 events instead of 4. Any idea how many skaters entered 4 events this year?

__________________
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

That was part of the rationale behind doing it, but additionally, for year after year, the schedule came out late because the referee had to figure out how to juggle 500+ competitors around the same 4 to 5 people who entered multiple events. So 4-5 people affected 500 other people's travel plans. And every year people complained about the schedule being late. Well, that was one of the big reasons why!

__________________
Listen to my Figure Skating Podcast!

Rogue Element, Inc

I 'd like to see the number of entries limited. The quality of the programs increases, and scheduling is more reasonable. With limiting the entry to two events, you put you best "skate" forward.

__________________
Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Then you get the people who were in only 2-3 events but had odd combinations (high freestyle/low dance and vice-versa, low free but masters for interp--I can't tell you how many people I had to go through and explain my situation to in order to get my interp fixed because they didn't understand how I was in bronze free but signed up for masters interp because I have high enough dances but can't find a partner, wanted to compete, so I just started doing freestyle).

Really the whole schedule is a logistical nightmare and I'm amazed they are able to work it out every year with so few conflicts/issues.



By the way, an email for the ice dancers yahoo group explaining/clarifying the solo dances came out. There will be only 3 levels, bronze, silver and gold. Initial round will be one lower dance (IR) and one higher dance (FR) for each level (so for silver, one pre-silver and one silver). They didn't do the pre-levels this year basically because with the number of events and this being new, they didn't want to ask for too much. You need one pre-bronze to compete bronze, one pre-silver to compete silver, and one pre-gold to compete gold. If, by the time applications are in, there are huge groups, it will be up to the referee to further split it (either by test levels of the competitors or by age). The exact dances haven't been announced yet.

Is there going to be a new championship singles event? I read one of the comments about people moving down from masters and up from gold...??

Yup! Champ Masters is going to be split into 2 separate events - Champ Masters Int/Novice & Champ Masters Jr/Sr.

__________________
I've got mad salchow disease!

I totally agree - if one does solo dance, interp, and freestyle and champ dance or pairs...thats a nightmare - bc it throws off other people.

Hopefully Adult Nationals will just do freestyle events and leave the interp at another date & time

__________________
Tim David's Website

Shall we begin the interp. debate now. Personally, I have done interp. in the past, simply to get more ice time. Sometimes you drive hours and hours to get to a compeitition to do a 2 minute or so program- at least interp or compulsory events gives you more bang for your drive.

Having said that, put me down for taking out interp at Nationals. I believe that there is a Nationals event already for interp during the year (I got an announcement once). I know people put tons of time, money and effort into interp but since AN is so crowded with freestyle events - and interp is for entertainment purposes - they should be seperated. Recently, a friend of mine asked a judge what they wanted to see in interp (after she got crazy results) and was told that they DO NOT want to see a lot of elements but just be entertained. HMMMMMM.

No disrespect to interp (as I said, I've done it) but AN has become so large and being that it is an ADULT event - how many adults have 5, 6 or up to 7 days to give up to go to the competition. If interp was left out - could it be done in 3 or 4 days??

I am open to suggestions/comments, etc.Thanks

I so hate Jazz. Friends at work think it is great but I just can't stand it.

I was playing Taboo once and my wife was trying to describe a word to me. She says "The music we hate" and I said "Country?"

So she says "No, we really hate it" and I said "rap".

She says, "We REALLY hate it!"

"Ohhhhhh, Jazz!"

ding ding ding

Anyone remember Johnny Hates Jazz from the 80s? Loved that name.

Tim

__________________
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
People dream of flying, birds dream of skating.

+ I think, competitors will have better focus on their freestyle.
I overheard the standard skaters say that they think AN is just playing dress up and playing miss piggy and or dressing up like a frog.

I do get artistic/dramatic events - but I think all interp should just be not part of AN - it would save a lot of time for practices and early morning start times for competition.

__________________
Tim David's Website

Personally, I love the interp events and like the challenge of coming up with something that the audience and judges will 'get' and understand. Interp for me is the event that I use to work on presentation and hope that I can transfer that to my freestyle program.

As the focus of adult nationals is 'inclusion', I think that interp should stay as part of the competition. There are several skaters who want to participate at AN, but haven't been training for freestyle (or are coming back from an injury) -- while they don't feel a freestyle program is something they can do at this time, they do think they can do an interp and are happy to participate. Also, prior to solo dance being added (just approved at GC for a 2 year trial period), interp was an event that dancers could participate in, particularly when they don't skate freestyle.

The reason interpretive events are included in adult skating is that we adults sometimes end up with physical limitations that prevent us from competing in freestyle at our test level. For example, one of the medalists in Ladies Masters Interpretive III (who would kick my butt in Gold if she skated a technical program, BTW) has developed knee problems and asthma, so she has had to stop skating programs over 1:40 and stop doing axels and doubles. But if you see her program, there's no denying the incredible skating she's doing! And did you see the Charlie Chaplin program that won the Masters Ladies Light/Comedy competition? Holy cow!! If they did away with any of the interpretive categories, they would have to do away with all of them and we would not see any of these wonderful programs.

__________________
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Im not saying that it should be rid off completely, just move it to another date and time instead.

__________________
Tim David's Website

Interp won't be gone any time soon. I mean, we just added the ability to enter two instead of one!

Another poster hit the nail on the head by saying AN is about "inclusion," and as doubletoe pointed out, some adults physically can't do a FS program anymore. What's more, Interp is a cash cow for AN -- extra entry fee, doesn't take up a lot of ice time.

What will be interesting to see is how the Oberstdorf competition handles Interp for the first time this year. It will be scored using only the Program Components in IJS, rather than on a 6.0 scale. If it works, it could be the solution to those wacky ordinal sheets we always see for Interp!

I don't see why they don't have the first day and a half or two days of ANs be ALL interp events only, then start the initial rounds for dance/free over the next day, then end with all the final rounds Friday afternoon through Saturday night. That way people who want to do interp can do them, and people who don't want to or aren't able to get almost a week off of work can still go and compete freestyle or dance by taking a long weekend. There are a lot of teachers and other people who can't get enough time off work and therefore unable to attend at all (this would also help the whole "inclusion" idea...).

Yup.

And at least on the Chicago schedule, there were no interp events on Saturday anyway. Interp was exclusively on Thursday and Friday, and initial Freestyle rounds on Wednesday. Again, to accommodate people doing multiple events.

__________________
Listen to my Figure Skating Podcast!

Rogue Element, Inc

The first day of the competition has to be initial-round 6.0 events. You have to get as many 6.0 events that have initial rounds done on the first day as possible, because the IJS panel comes in on the second day and takes up one rink. It would be expensive to have to bring in the technical panel for an extra day.

There are so many factors that go into scheduling. One issue is the Championship events - this affects pairs, dance and freestyle. Those skaters should have their open events on another day. Then, you have skaters who are doing pairs and singles or dance and singles - the referee will try to accomodate these 'multiple event' skaters by spreading things out (if the referee is able to - this doesn't always work out). With dance having an initial and a final round, their events would all be on two days like it was this past year -- this was out of the referees control as she was limited to when she had her dance tech panel which was only Friday/Saturday -- the dancers weren't thrilled with this (two ODs in the same day for some teams), but they did what they had to do. Typically the pre-gold/gold dance events are opposite days of the Championship Gold dance. For gold ladies this year, some of the skaters were in championship gold as well as Gold III open which had a qualifying and final round - this was spread out over 3 days.

It would be pretty difficult to schedule skaters in multiple events, or qualifying and final rounds in just a couple of days, as well as give them official warm ups.

I absolutely LOVE doing Interp! It's a way to be creative, develop the transition moves, and put arm motions and emotion into my skating without worrying about rushing to the next difficult element. The freestyle program feels like a race to get all the elements in. Interp programs focus on the artistry which is very important to skating.
I would consider going to Obersdorf now that you say there is Interp! I wouldn't want to fly all the way to Germany just to do one freestyle program(and my flutzy Lutzes).

Yes, that Charlie Chaplin routine was great! There were quite a few enjoyable Interp. programs at AN and the dance skaters did beautiful footwork routines! I am now inspired to expand my footwork ability.

Interp isn't my thing, but it's in the interest of all adult skaters to see AN continue to bring in enough money and interest to keep the event healthy. So long live interp!

So what about the teachers and other people who only do interp?

I almost have to, don't I? I'm seriously considering it.

I was actually at Chicago on my little knee scooter, but didn't really get to met a lot of people due to not being able to do stairs. I'll be in GR though, and already have it on my calendar. Competing is up in the air, but I'm toying with the idea of interp. My coach has already been warned.

I'll try solo dance (which I have never done, even for a test - I am a freestyler all the way!) if you do interp. Deal?

__________________
"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

skater1964, I'll have to make sure to check that out!