Hi!!

Ok, I feel really stupid, but I just realized that LP is an Olympic Sized rink! I have only skated on that size once (thanks Jen!) and I am not sure how big, if any, of a difference that will make? Any thoughts/suggestions anyone?

See you all there!!

Danielle

I personally hate skating on Olympic-sized rinks! I refuse point blank to do solo dance on them, because if you're a skater at my level they are terrible to fill! Give me a hockey-sized rink any day. My own rink is Olympic-length but hockey-width, which is a nice compromise, and makes hockey rinks feel really small!

Seriously if the ice is great - and it's usually better in competitions than in practice - you shouldn't have too much trouble. If you start your choreography in the middle of the rink, you won't be disconcerted by its being wider or longer than you expect! If your programme starts at one end of the rink, you may find you are due to put in an element when you aren't quite far enough down the rink - if you get an opportunity to run through it, you might want to start your programme a little nearer the middle of the rink than usual.

On the third hand, I'm sure that a skater of your ability will be able to fill an Olympic-sized rink with no trouble at all!

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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 knew you had 3 legs at one time, but didn't know about hands!! ;-)

Thanks for the compliment, although I am not at all sure I am up to it! I *think* my program is forgiving enough, but I am not at all sure of that either! I will get some practice time I am sure.

Hugs!
Danielle

Right now my coach (who has 4 skaters going to LP) is chasing us around the rink when we do our programs, screaming "Push" every other beat! She's been to Placid 4 times, once for the last AN's. I'll trust her advice....

I'm lucky that I get to skate on a big rink (NHL, I believe), but to show good ice coverage, you have push on every stroke. But I hear the ice surface is very good.

My training partners who are on the 1980 rink are travelling the Edge in Bensenville to get the feel of skating in a stadium-like setting. If you don't have that kind of opportunity, make sure you're well-trained and make sure you can PUSH, PUSH, PUSH on every stroke of your program!

Erin
(who now wants to do endless run-throughs of the freestyle program!)

At my University, there are 2 ice surfaces, an NHL sized one (the red rink) and an Olympic sized one(the gold rink). I find that the red rink is much less accomodating for me, since I'm quite tall, and skate fast. I find the gold rink is the perfect size, and is much better to skate on.

Dani, I'm sure you'll be fine once you get out there and skate on the surface. Adrenaline will help you get more speed and power, and will enable you to fill the rink. Best of luck!

My home rink is NHL size and I take my lessons in that rink during the week. My WEEKEND rink though is Olympic sized! There were times where I would practice my Bronze Moves on the weekends and find that I run out of room when I'm back at my home rink to take my lessons!!! Now my coaches are telling me to practice my patterns SMALLER when I'm at my weekend rink, so I wouldn't hit the walls!

SkateGuard: "PUSH!!! PUSH!!!!" Yeah that sounds vaguely familiar to me!!! (I just had my primary coach do that to me this past week on my forward alt. crossovers!!! Geez, give me a break! I just got back from an injury!!!)

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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!!!

I've only ever skated on an Olympic sized rink but I worry that perhaps one day I may need to skate on a smaller one. Since my coach ensures good ice coverage in all of my programmes this is a bit of a worrying prospect!

Nicki

Yes, Skateguard is right - we're working on a trip to a full arena. The problem is more the full arena seating than the rink size (one of our training partners got lost coming out of a spin before the last AN's in Placid at the rink in Bensenville but skated great when it counted). My program already goes end to end on a 190 rink, so filling up the other 10 feet is no biggie. Same goes for the sides of the rink - the additional 10 feet is no biggie since it goes very close to the boards on both sides.

Dani, you'll be fine. Just remember to find some landmarks off the ice....

Don't ever do dance at Queens then!!

Hi Nicki, are you talking about Bracknell? I think that AP is International but it has 'strange' corners (difficult to get out of!), I loved the corners at Bracknell LOL

Hope that you're ok


Lx

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The best whisper is a click

Olympic size is 200 feet long by 100 feet wide and NHL size is 200 feet long by 85 feet wide. From my own personal experience, generally olympic size rinks have very good, fast ice, which sometimes tends to make up for the increase in width. It's much easier to go from a small rink to a larger one, than the other way around. Try fitting a cha-cha in a 190x85 rink after training it in a 200x100. Not fun!

I'm fine thanks Lynne. Hope you are too!!

Yep I'm talking about Bracknell - Britain's first Olympic size rink (so it says in big letters on the side of the building!). No problems with the corners at our rink!

Are you coming to the Bracknell Adult Opens in June?

Nicki

I hear you there! My home club does their test sessions at a rink with three surfaces, each a different size. The last time I tested, I was on the small rink for dance and the medium-sized rink for moves. My everyday rink is larger than the small rink, so I was too busy trying not to crash into the boards to get that stupid Swing Dance mohawk on beat 1! Retry again!

Erin
the eternal swing dancer....

My home rink is Olympic sized, & I almost always end up testing on an NHK size rink. Being a dancer, this causes problems, as I'm used to filling up the larger rink on my practices. I usually try to get to a smaller rink at least once to make adjustments.

On the other hand, dances that tend to have smaller patterns (Kilian, for example) end up looking huge on the smaller rink, because I'm used to having to skate them bigger--which can be an advantage.

Oh duh! How many times have I been there and not seen that??

I doubt that I'll be down in June because I'm now living in the North and I haven't skated for ages so won't be competing

All the best


Lx

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The best whisper is a click

So? You can come and watch, can't you? Skaters come all the way from Edinburgh down to compete.....

I find AP a bit small for dance, and often find myself stuck in a corner! But dance and rink size is catch-22 - you learn to do your dance to fill your rink, whatever size it is, and then you are told that if you are filling the rink, it means you are not on steep enough edges. So you work to deepen your edges, whereupon your dance promptly gets smaller and you are told to push more..... But it does pay off - Queens is tiny, but the dancers from there tend to have superb edges!

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

The complex I skate at has one of each size. Some days I'm on the NHL rink, some days on the Olympic rink. Usually our dance test sessions are on an NHL size rink, so I "sort of" train to that size, although I'd rather be able to fill out an Olympic size rink like the competitive teams do. When actually doing the test run-up, if we're on the Olympic rink, coach mentally cuts the rink size down to NHL width and we do one side of the dance about 15 feet in from the barriers.

For MIF, it doesn't matter... I am working towards doing the same end pattern on each rink, just pushing a bit harder on the Olympic-size rink. Some days it works, other days, I have to add in 1 extra crossover around the end (5 vs. 4, counting the transition and the first crossover on the repeat)

You'll be fine on the LP rinks. Just start thinking of your program in terms of maneuver placement. If you know that the axel is across the blue line in your rink, that's where it belongs on all rinks. Just add some extra strokes to get it where it belongs. Start working on power pushes to pick up the speed and tempo.

Be wary of footwork: the set patterns have to be done properly. You'll need to be sure you hit every step. You have the spacial luxury of stretching out the steps and making the swing rolls, etc. really swing!

Relax and enjoy yourself and you will do your best. That's all you can ask of yourself.

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I like having the extra room of a large rink. It takes more effort for dancers and pairs to adjust because of the nature of their skating patterns and such, but it's not that difficult. The rink I primarily skate in is not olympic, and probably not NHL, and I'm always running out of room. I remember one competition where my coach said "remember this is a small rink, don't push!" Never thought I'd hear that.
After a couple of practices on the larger rink, you'll be fine, and probably enjoy it - like putting on sweats after a body hugging dress! As for practicing now, I make sure I skate board to board (without crashing). I usually have more problems going back to a small rink after nationals.

I used to skate at lunchtime with a friend. We went to Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, which is incredibly small compared to ANYTHING! My friend didn't wear her contacts to skate and kept mis-judging where she was on the ice. The guards were terrified -- she kept doing jumps and spins in the middle of the traffic!

The first rink I skated on was not at standard-sized, it was incredibly HUGE. It was designed for recreational skating in a park, not for any one sport. To cover the ice there took a lot of speed and strength, since it was outdoors!

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You're not talking about Central Park, are you?

Speaking of Central Park -- it's lovely there! I just wished I wasn't forced to go there early Dec. (this was like 2001) on a WEEKEND! It was incredibly crowded...and I had only 3 days to go to three different rinks in NYC. And I wanted to visit Chelsea Piers too!

Rockefeller rink was incredibly small alright! (About as small as our seasonal rink in SF, actually, but our seasonal rink is only two months out of the year.) Also incredibly EXPEN$IVE too!!!

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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!!!