Well look what popular music with vocals has done to ballroom dancing!! Dancing with the Stars would never have made it using no vocals music, imo.

Yeah, but some would argue that what they do on DWTS is not strictly ballroom. (Ooh, I've been looking for an excuse to use that phrase for years. Hurrah!)

USFSA has put out a doc detailing the URGENT matters decided at Governing Council:

http://www.usfigureskating.org/Conte...%20Council.pdf

Rob

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Geriatric Figure Skating Crew - President for Life!
Georgia Figure Skating Club - President (again)
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"I'm too old to die young, and too smart to be happy" - Kinky Friedman, The Mile High Club

2010 Adult Nationals - earning a gold - "Priceless"
2009 Adult Nationals - competing with a cold is not much fun.
2008 Adult Nationals - Too little sleep, too much vodka!

Touché!

Cheers,
jazzpants, who wants her money back for her ill fated Argentine Tango class at the Cheryl Burke Dance Studio. (Seriously, it was okay -- just had a really bad dance partner and end up dancing with the more experienced students and the young 20 year old kid who took roll. But never EVER want to dance in those pointy 3 inch high heels!!! )

And many will argue that the vocals on DWTS do more to kill the songs chosen than to enhance the dancing, whatever it is.

Given that the musical tastes of some of the coaches I know aren't much better than whoever is picking the songs on DWTS, I shudder to think about the atrocities I will have to endure at future competitions.

ooooohhhh!!! I would love to learn any of the tango's! You must have a great partner for dancing tho! I had a fantastic one several years ago and he was actually TALLER than me (even with me wearing 3" heels)! LOL!

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Well, here's where you can get a good tango dress! http://www.tangoleva.com/index.html

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

Yes, in my case, I need a partner who knows how to LEAD. Of course, the partner I had at the time was just learning how to tango too but at the very least he should go and practice the dance and not just take the class once a week and just leave! (Those who read the Parlor a while back know who I'm talking about...)

Thankfully we are encouraged to switch partners and often I get a good partner that knows what he's doing and THOSE partners I do very well with.

Word to the men: If you are going into ice dance or ballroom dance to pick up women, you better be practicing your dance with your partners (since you're the guy and therefore need to learn how to lead...) If you're going to a dance class to pick up women and don't practice, you're not gonna get ANY respect from ANY of the women!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Heh, that's the reason I got back into skating <mumble> years ago. I had so much fun with freestyle I never got around to ice dancing. I get asked every now and then to ice dance with somebody. There is one tall girl who keeps asking because of my skating level and the fact that I'm a six footer. I have to decline because I don't have enough time to practice dancing and keep up with my freestyle. It really takes a commitment I can't make. Otherwise I'd do it in a second.

The combined report of action is now available:
http://www.usfsa.org/Story.asp?id=43041

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Good think to know that I'm considered an athlete:

55. EXHIBIT G – APPROVED to amend Article XXII, Section 2 (page 17) as shown:
ARTICLE XXII
Prerequisites to Participation in U.S. Figure Skating Activities and the Definition of Athlete
Section 2 Definition of Athlete. For all purposes set forth in these bylaws or the official rules of U.S. Figure
Skating, an athlete shall be defined as a member meeting the prerequisites of Section 1 and:
A. Any person who competes in a sectional championship in singles, pairs or dance in a qualifying event; or
U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships or the U.S.
Synchronized Skating Championships; or
B. Any person who places first through fourth in singles, pairs or dance in the U.S. Collegiate Figure
Skating Championships or the U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships; or
C. Any person who has met any of the criteria in subsection (A) or (B) within the prior five years; or
D. Any person who has competed for U.S. Figure Skating in an international competition as a member of
the U.S. Figure Skating team as defined in ICR 4.01 and ICR 9.01 within the prior 10 years.

Rob

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Geriatric Figure Skating Crew - President for Life!
Georgia Figure Skating Club - President (again)
Facebook
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"I'm too old to die young, and too smart to be happy" - Kinky Friedman, The Mile High Club

2010 Adult Nationals - earning a gold - "Priceless"
2009 Adult Nationals - competing with a cold is not much fun.
2008 Adult Nationals - Too little sleep, too much vodka!

Well, that pretty much does it for me & David as far as competing in pairs goes. We'd hoped to get back to it once I rehab this last surgery and he passes his MITF test, but these rules force us into Gold. And that's ridiculous; we simply don't belong there. We are most definitely silver level skaters, both individually and as a pair. I don't think we're even going to bother. In the few years we've been skating together, we've been classified as Adult, then Gold, then Silver, now Gold again.

What are the specifics that force you into Gold? Which test? Which one of you?

Rob

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Geriatric Figure Skating Crew - President for Life!
Georgia Figure Skating Club - President (again)
Facebook
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"I'm too old to die young, and too smart to be happy" - Kinky Friedman, The Mile High Club

2010 Adult Nationals - earning a gold - "Priceless"
2009 Adult Nationals - competing with a cold is not much fun.
2008 Adult Nationals - Too little sleep, too much vodka!

Wooo I met 3 of those but one just expired (last synchro international was just over 10 yrs ago).

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

It's David's Juvenile Free Skate that he passed about 20 years ago. Under last year's rule, if you passed it before 1994, you could skate silver. This year, there is no consideration given for having passed it prior to the Juvenile test changing in 1994. And neither of us have taken a pairs test, so the exemption doesn't help us.

So our options are spend the time and money to take, collectively, 4 tests (bronze & silver pairs for each of us) or compete in a level in which we are clearly not suited.

It really kills me, because if David wanted to compete in singles, he would be able to skate Silver. But because of the way these pairs rules are written, he's forced into Gold. It makes NO SENSE.

Yup, and the wording for the exemption at gold states that you can compete at gold if you have a juv or gold pair test even though you may have an intermediate free or higher. It's absurd. So in gold pairs we can have a team at silver level fs (the juv test taken pre-1994), and a pair with intermediate or higher fs with a gold or juv pairs test and those of us with the pre-1994 juvenile pairs tests (which is a silver pair test).
We may as well throw all the pair names in a hat and draw them out to choose a level.

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Look at the following thread, http://www.skatingforums.com/showthread.php?t=13582. I noticed the numbers dwindling at AN a while ago.

I've been skating and competing for 13 years, started at age 28. I am not yet even skating Silver level, and after seeing the top 5-6 Silver level skaters on IceNetwork, really am not wanting to.......looks like you need to have your novice moves down at speed to be competitive. I lost count of the number of counters/rockers I saw in the top 5 programs...and we're not talking slow counters/rockers...we're talking fast...and in straight-line footwork. I'm still just trying to get my Silver MIF 3's down.

My point is that I've been competing for a while and the numbers of AN competitors IS getting smaller. When I was 29, I skated in group 1 and there were 5 qualifying groups at just my age level for Bronze...that's almost 60 ladies. I remember there was even one age level (I believe it was Silver 1) with 6 qualifying groups.

So I guess I'm saying that I've been around a while and have seen the changes in AN and have been competing against kid-skaters for a while now. As hard as I work (and obviously I've been working on it for many years...we're talking between 6-10 hours a week for 13 years), I will never be competitive against those who skated as kids....and you're right...I shouldn't let that bother me...I should skate for the enjoyment of it....which I am, but I am constantly in conflict with the competitive spirit in me that desperately wants to be able to compete at a level-playing field.

I'm honestly not sure where the "happy medium" is in the situation you described, lskater. The Silver I group was very tough. But they are age class I, they are the "kids". I didn't watch Silver II or III yet, so I don't know if those top 5-6 skaters in those groups were doing the same moves and footwork the I's were. You're not in class I, so saying you can't compete against the skaters doing higher level footwork like they were in I isn't really comparing apples to apples.

How do we help this "problem" then, since some do percieve it as a problem, of having to compete against returning kid skaters? There will be more and more of them, especially since they now know they don't have to stop skating in college and have a place to compete again right when they turn 21. Is this an issue over every age class in every level? I guess my question is....how do we "level the playing field?" What would you like to see done differently?

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

Good questions. I also remember 5-6 groups back when I started. It would be a good survey to find out why these skaters stopped. Some decline in that cohort would be expected due to changes in economy, interest and other matters, but the majority of those factors would not be exclusive to that group. There is not only a decline in those skaters but also a decline in the numbers and make up of those taking their place.

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Not directing this specifically at you Stormy, but I think it's important to remember that not every "I" started skating as children. There are young skaters out there who started after college.

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What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Yes, very true. I guess another one of my questions would be then, do these Class I skaters that did start skating after college find a problem competing against those that did start skating earlier?

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

So here's a hypothetical 'solution'

Have a silver ladies 1 event for those that started to skate after 18 ys old, another one for those that started at 14 years old and another for those that started even earlier. Wouldn't that make a mockery of adult skating? Of course it would. Age groups and test levels are the primary buffer already in place to level the playing field. At a certain point, you have to say enough is enough, not to mention simply being realistic as to what is ever going to receive serious consideration. As I pointed out earlier, Adult Nationals may not be practical for everyone but local competitions are a place for everyone to have a fulfilling competitive experience. If the AN experience is inordinately tough for some, then it's just a step closer to being a truely 'national' competition as opposed to a giant scale 'local' event. It's my observation and opinion that all competition; kids, elite and adult, are gradully getting a lot tougher, technically, so things like a footwork passage with just 3 turns and bunny hops in silver 1 will never again be competitive at an event like AN.

Well, kid competitions have begun the Test Track events precisely to get and keep the less-gifted skaters from getting discouraged and quitting.

If Adult Nationals is going to remain an Open event, then they have to come up with ways to encourage participation at all levels, not just the elite/best ones. Introducing solo dance is one positive thing I see. Maybe we need a form of Test Track for adults?

As for the hypothetical example, frankly, looking back over decades of skating, I don't think there's really a lot of difference in the learning curve between someone who starts at 18 and someone who starts at 14 and then end up in the same group at 21 other than four years of practice. There is however a large difference between someone who started at 14 and someone who started at 34 when they end up in the same group at 48.

I'd just like people to remember that the US Adult program was started to bring adults into the sport, not just hang on to skaters who started as kids. It seems like, that in focussing on the latter, the former have not just been forgotten, they're being actively discouraged from aspiring to anything beyond Basic Skills.

Why can't the non-qual events be treated like the test track events for std, with restrictions?

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Bluemoon - Exactly!

From above:
"Then it's just a step closer to being a truely 'national' competition as opposed to a giant scale 'local' event"."

How condescending can you be? If the adult national experience is so beneath you , then please feel free to enter the standard events. If the AN numbers keep declining and the make up keeps shifting to aged kids, then the further we will be from our original goals. I do not want a copy cat standard event for the adults. We are not the standard program and do not wish to become so. The great difference between the adult and standard program is what should be encouraged, not diminished.

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