Hi, i am competiting at the Boston Pizza coming up in a few weeks in , and i have found out who is in my flight from the confirmation list, and i know some of those people are good skaters, and i am nervous. i know i shouldnt care about anyones skating but my self, but is there anything you can do, eat, or something before my competition for nerves.? thanks

It helps to decide your warmup routine ahead of time and practice both your off-ice warmup and your on-ice warmup. You want it to feel familiar, so that you are in your comfort zone. Before taking the ice for the official warmup and for your actual program, breathe very slowly and deeply for a few minutes because slow, deep breathing actually stops the symptoms of nervousness brought on by adrenaline.

Another reason for the slow, deep breathing is to allow you to breathe properly during your program. Sometimes when we're nervous, we tend to hold our breath or breathe too shallowly while skating, and that makes it harder to get through the program, so focus on breathing freely throughout your program.

Also, keep bending your knees before getting on the ice and make sure you keep your knees bent and butt low as you skate your program so you feel like you are skating "in" the ice, not on top of it (knees stiffening up is another common symptom of nerves).

Finally, don't look at the skaters who skate before you. Focus on what you need to focus on. Run through your program in your mind and think about proper technique on each element, and breathe.

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

Does music help you at all? I listened to Enya on my Ipod before my Bronze moves test and it really slowed my heartrate down and boosted my good, calm feelings.

You could try taking a little valeriana if the nerves are really creeping you out, unless you're allergic to it.

My last competition, last february or so, I had pretty much the same thing you do now. I was up with a programme with only one waltz jump and two scratch spins against people who had axels and camel-to-sit-spins in an artistic competition. I went and did my hair and make-up very extensively, like I always had for dacing competitions - this helped a lot to stay calm - and I kept telling myself I was going for the experience, NOT the medal and that I had every right to be on that ice. I also told myself I was going to end up hopelessly last.

Guess what? I did end up last, but only by a quarter point difference with the one-before-last! That sure felt like a victory.

Oh yeah and I didn't watch the skaters before me, except the last batch - the one I was in - cuz I was afraid I'd miss my turn otherwise. I was there without a coach after all. I watched everybody after me though.

Also, once with a dancing competition my partner and I had to dance a "level up", meaning we each had about 2 years dancing experience and were up against people with about 8 years. Again I told myself we were gonna lose disastrously and were going for the competitional experience. My partner freaked out though and had a blackout. I didn't quite get why he'd freaked himself out that way but he did. I said, we're dancing a level up, I'm not even expecting us to make it to the quarter-finale, are you? He said no. I said relax and there's a re-try coming up in a half an hour. We danced that just fine. We were 1 judge away from going to the quarter-finale eventually, meaning we left plenty of those couples that were dancing those 8 years behind us. I kinda think that's because both of us were realising at this point that hey, we're just here to dance, not for the score at all. And that dropped the pressure, allowing us to dance our most relaxed best.

Basically the morale of the story is: expect to fail miserably and end up last, and just have fun skating. Do it for the competitional experience, do it for the glitter, and the make-up, and the having the ice all to yourself thing. Do it to show off or to have a funny new homevideo.

Dr Bach's Rescue Remedy is great. Also learning how to become centred and grounded - use your breathing to help you.

Once you have warmed up and dressed and put your make-up on, you'll know whether you need to stay quiet and focussed, or whether you need someone to distract you - the skating world is divided into two halves! I'm in the distraction camp, myself - I'd far rather be talking to someone about something totally unrelated to skating, but others find they need to be quiet and focussed.

And yes, you will and should feel slightly nervous - USE those nerves. That bit of adrenaline they give you? Great, use it to jump that much higher, to spin that much faster..... Go out there when they call your name, take a deep breath, smile at the judges (they won't necessarily notice, but smiling will help you feel better), and go for it. At the very worst, you make a fool of yourself - but you probably won't! Just go out there and have fun.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Nerves get easier with experience for many people. My advice is to take advantage of as many performance opportunities as possible.

Don't worry about other competitors. Don't think about where you would like to place. The expectations make the nerves worse--instead, focus on what you CAN control and goals you CAN meet (i.e. smiling, not rushing, nailing your hardest element). I know this can be hard, particularly if you are a competitive person (I am ), but it helps tremendously.

I only watch competitors after I am done skating, with the exception of interp...it's so subjective you really can't go into it with placement expectations, I am just doing it for fun and another opportunity to perform, so I think of it more as a show. Truthfully at my last comp, it even helped relax me--I was a little nervous about doing a new program I had just finished the week before, but the first skater in my group was doing a Richard Simmons routine....it was so hilarious and having something to laugh at calmed me down.

Testing nerves...those never seem to go away!!!

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

If the fact that you are skating against good skaters is making you nervous, just accept that they are good skaters. Now I know more competitive people won't like this advice - but it has worked for me for nerves---

Just accept that you will not win. Better skaters will beat you.

Then decide there are other reasons than winning to do this. Because you like it. You will have the whole rink to yourself for those few minutes. You are proud of what you have accomplished and you are going to show the audience and the judges what YOU can do and how happy you are that you can do it.

j

I agree with you. You can't control what other skaters do. You can only control what you do.

And who knows, the ice is slippery- better skaters can have bad days too.

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

Oh, one more word of advice: You will feel adrenaline, and you will be tempted to try to make your jumps bigger, power your spin entries, etc. DON'T DO IT. Skate *exactly* like you skate in practice because if you put more power into your jumps and spins, it will change the timing and body position and you are likely to flip yourself over on a spin entry or get crooked in the air on a jump (or have no outflow on the landing because you jumped bigger without adjusting your takeoff technique to compensate for it). I say these things because I have made that mistake, LOL! I have learned instead to use my adrenaline to hyper-focus during my performance. By that, I mean being highly aware of my body position and what I'm supposed to be doing at every moment of my program (i.e., technique and timing).

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

I so agree about the breathing. This morning during a program run-through it occurred to me that I may not have taken a breath during the entire first half. I'm not sure if that's possible - but it felt like it !

I have major major nerves that extend to practices before the competition. My coach and I were discussing it this morning and felt it was good competition prep in a way...

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

I agree! there was a thread not long ago about how having the rink to yourself can lead to botching jumps because you can skate faster & bigger than you are used to. I have seen this even with our skate school kids, going faster into elements and falling.

Oh man, I want what you're having. I skate like a robot in competitions usually. (apart from my last artistic comp, where I performed really well but skated really badly)

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Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

OK, then, you asked for it! People think I'm nuts, but I actually put together an element-by-element study guide that I review and memorize as I'm waiting to take the ice to skate my program! I swear, that is what I do so that I don't get "monkey mind" during competition. It's just like studying your study guide until the teacher passes out the tests and makes you put it away!

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

That's exactly what my coach wants me to do. She wants me to write down all the tips for each element in order for my program, and then go through them in my mind right before competition. Since she doesn't come with me to competitions, it is like a coach in a book. That would have helped during my last competition, where I mysteriously lost my lutz in the warm up and then of course completely missed it in the program. It's a good idea, because I can't always remember each little thing for each element, especially when I get nervous.

But, you see, that is exactly what we were taught not to do - you stopped studying for an exam at least 24 hours before it, and spent your time studying for the following one!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

On that basis we should stop worrying about the programme as we stand there waiting to go on and start worrying about the drive home / what's for dinner / or the next test!

I agree with not worrying about what other skaters are doing. I find that the last few minutes before I skate, I need to focus on just me. I wouldn't necessarily say I'm worrying about what I'm about to do, but I'm not thinking about what those before me are doing either.

I do know from all the music exams and public speaking I did when I was younger that adrenaline makes you go fastes and that you've got to SLOW DOWN. There's always more time than you think there is.

Not me... I've been known to cram two or three chapters (that I didn't know were also going to be tested) into my head 15 minutes before an exam.
Except the funny thing is, I remember what I crammed even years later, although everybody says you forget everything you cram last minute. I think the adrenaline does something to my mind, sending it into some hyper-drive.

I am hardly a "veteran competitor" (twice to Nationals) but for whatever reason I get my attack of competition nerves a week to ten days before the competition. For a couple of days, I am a wreck, can't skate, can't remember choreography. (Freaked my coach out the first time it happened!) But after the 'advance case of nerves', I am fine.

I like to visit the venue the day before the competition and familiarize myself with the layout - where the dressing rooms are, the walk to the waiting area, where the judges will be, etc.

A couple of hours before my first competition, I go off to a quiet place with my MP3 player and go through my routine over and over. About 45 minutes before hand, I go to the dressing room and get dressed. 20 to 30 minutes before, I put on my skates. When I take to the ice, I am not at all nervous - on the ice is "pure performance" - like acting.

The head coach suggested I teach the young competitors how to go on the ice "with attitude" but I don't even know I do it - it's not like I am a "good" skater - it's just all a performance.

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Well, that old addage, "If you don't know it by now, you aren't going to know it" never proved true for me, LOL! Even in my MBA program a few years ago, I would make up a study guide and keep reviewing it up to the time the tests were passed out. In fact, I'd say that short-term memory studying was accountable for at least 5 points on every test I took!
I think there's also a lot to be said for giving your brain specific things to focus on when you compete, since destructive thoughts love a vacuum. If you have specific technique cues to focus on--and cue words that give you both the body position and the timing for each element--you will not only take your time and execute each element correctly, but you'll also keep your mind too busy to get distracted or allow negative thoughts to creep in. Everyone is a little different, and some people do better when they don't think, but this sure gets me through my competitions (I had one today and my cue words saved my butt once again, LOL!).

Yes! I think the adrenaline burns the learning into your brain. I can't say that was true of the tests I crammed for in school, but when I do a skating competition, the technique lessons stick so much better than if I'm just doing a practice run-through!

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

Hmm. I did ask for it

I definitely see the merit of having a set 'script' that you can run through in your head leading into each element on the ice. I can see how that could help focus and get the timing right.

I am not sure about studying a written guide before competing though. Have to think more about it. If it works for you, it may well work for others, including myself.

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Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

Works for me! I tend to think of other things while waiting to go on. And there was that time at Bracknell when we totally misjudged the effect that adrenaline and fast ice would have on our lift, and had that spectacular crash (were you there?) and all I could think, while scrambling to my feet and helping Husband to his, was, "Oh ****, I'm going to have to drive home and I do so hate driving on the M4!"

I tend to do that, too. I call it "darkest hour syndrome", on the grounds that the darkest hour, so they tell us, is just before dawn. Always as well to get it, and the sleepless night, out of the way a couple of days in advance!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I'm one of those people who remembers things better if I've put them into writing, but I know everyone is different. I don't always resort to the written script (because I should have the cue words committed to memory anyway), but it provides a focal point for me when I'm nervous. The more nervous I am, the more you'll see me looking at my script.
In my competition yesterday, I read through it just before putting my skates on, then as I was waiting to take the ice, I walked through each element with its cue words, not looking at the sheet, but looking at the ice surface and envisioning where each element was going to be on the ice. My only goal when I take the ice is to say every cue word in my head for the entire program, then whatever happens happens. That takes the performance pressure off, while also helping me actually skate a clean program.

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

I can see that helping, but I do wonder whether you find that can make you rather introverted during the program. Or do you have cues to connect to the judges/audience?

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Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

I spent a week thinking "oh God I've got to drive to Sheffield" before the last competition. By the time we got to the last practice I was a jibbering wreck with toepicks everywhere. Thankfully as it was synchro I had people to hold me up! By the time I got to Sheffield the thoughts had turned to the drive home... I think I've got a week before I start worrying about that drive again. But I've worked out that I'm best worrying about things I've got control over, so I've stopped thinking about the drive but worry about what I've got to take, when I'll find time to pack, etc... and hopefully blank out the bit about having to actually skate!
And fully agree with the darkest hour syndrome. I had all the teachers at school in a panic once as they thought that one of the brightest kids was about to fail their exams because I had a mental blank in the last practice paper. I was fine on the day. My teacher knew I did this so didn't worry, only the marks had been seen by others in the staff room so I had people asking me if I was alright all week! It's really good to get all the bad stuff out in advance. I plan all the falls about a week in advance and then I've had my quota for the month and I'll be OK in competition.

Sleepless night? I start losing sleep 4 months before a comp. I have to choose program music that is calming because I run it through my head lying in bed at night. Anything fast is guaranteed to keep me awake.

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Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

I had this during my last lesson. My coach had me do a five-minute warm-up and even though it's been nearly a year since I've competed or tested (off the ice most of this year because of injuries) I could feel all the "performance nerves" kick in. In some ways that's very comforting for me... I'll do that again every practice and lesson this week.. and by the time it comes to competition on Saturday, my body and brain will be at the "Oh geesh, here we go again! What's the big deal? Why get nervous?" stage. In other words, I'll have made myself tired of and bored with being nervous and just ready to get through the programs, so I can finally relax and watch my friends skate!