Our club/rink had its competition this weekend, and thought I'd give a quick lowdown on impressions, since I was there from setup to tear down, all three days.

Bravo to the coaches and skaters who picked music this year! I don't think I heard a single Carmen or Malenguena! There was a considerable effort to break out of the box in picking music. Can you believe some young child actually skated to the Ramones this year?!

HOWEVER the most overused music this year was from Chicago, esp. "All that Jazz," which popped up, at least when I was in the arena, no less than 5 times. I could complain, but my synchro team is guilty of using it too. A close second would be Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This," which was used in the same flight by two different girls. Plenty of Josh Grobin, lots of Elvis and the Beach Boys.

Costuming was another refreshing change this year. Little girls looked adorable, older girls looked elegant, the adults looked grand. Costuming for the more fun events like interpretive, spotlight and entertainment were every entertaining. My favorite was the girl who dressed up like an octopus and did an illusion spin, with her tentacles flying, very effective. With the revived interest in Elvis, lots of poodles skirts. The other favorite was black dresses with top hats, and bathing suits with hawaiian print skirts sewn on.

As an adult skater, I either compete "against the book" or in such a small group that we always root for each other, so I was, unfortunately, exposed to a negative I haven't really ever experienced before. The first group were the "sore losers" who griped that thier kids were unmarked fairly, or the kids glared, said rude things, or blatantly accused their competitors of cheating. Then there were the "Bad winners" who egged on their competitors, made fun of those who lost, or waved their medals in other people's faces. *sigh* It's not my place to discipline someone else's child, but in one instance, I couldn't help myself and told one girl to sit down, be quiet and quit being a "sore winner".

But I had a good time, some of the adults came over to my house to have an ice dance/men's final viewing party since a friend taped the final in Michigan and it wasn't shown here. I won two gold medals, one in synchro for "That Thing" and one in team compulsories to "Roller Derby Queen." I announced most of the competition, so I had the best seat in the house. Special thanks to Gary for helping me out on Saturday so I could break out of the box and skate myself!

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

This was an ISI competition, right? Seems to me that a lot of popular songs get overplayed. When I did ISI competitions, songs that were constantly overplayed were (in no particular order, of course):

1. Grease (This happens to be my all-time favorite movie, but enough already!)
2. Surfin' USA by the Beach Boys.
3. Who Let the Dogs Out? by the Baja Men.
4. Disney anything.
5. Elvis anything.
6. All That Jazz. (I love Chicago, but enough already!)
7. Smooth by Santana. (doesn't even sound like the Santana I grew up listening to!)
8. Genie in a Bottle.

Here's what I'd love to see people skate to:

1. Songs from The Electric Company.
2. Game Show themes. Check out the CDs out there, or download an mp3 or two!.
3. Songs by Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers (Sweet Freedom, What a Fool Believes).
4. Songs from commercials (see #2).
5. My sister would like to see someone skate to songs from the TV series Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. She's not a skater herself, but she's loves that show!
6. Songs from Japanese anime series (including Sailor Moon ).
7. Songs from The Simpsons (again, see #2!).
8. Songs from the 1985 movie Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. The CD is painfully rare, but there are plenty of LPs, cassettes, and mp3s out there.

I know it sounds like a long shot, with the legalities and/or ethics of downloading mp3s and all, but even without those, there is still a wealth of new original ideas out there. Come on, people!

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This space has been put on hiatus for retuning....

Just wanted to say I enjoyed your report. We aren't going to competitions anymore, and I miss it.

Black Sheep, yes it was ISI. Here's how your overplayed list played:

1. Grease - one couple, one spotlight, one synchro team.
2. Surfin' USA - partially used in one team compulsory event.
3. Who Let the Dogs Out? - nobody
4. Disney - a wide variety of Disney, most overused was Lilo and Stitch (back to bathing suits and floral wrap skirts)
5. Elvis - yes, as mentioned before
6. All That Jazz - ditto
7. Smooth by Santana - nobody
8. Genie in a Bottle - nobody

Here's what I'd love to see people skate to:
Dig a little deeper in the Elvis catalog, there's more to the King than "All Shook Up".
Dig a little deeper in general. There's lots of great music out there with potential for great interpretation. Go back in history and dig up some Ella Fitzgerald, The Platters, etc.

I guess I'd also add the soundtrack to "Chicago" to the no-play list, along with the obvious disco tracks.

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

That was a cute outfit for the music, "Octopus' Garden" by the Beatles. Her arms were both tentacles and she had six look-alike fake tentacles attached at her neck so that when she spun with her arms out the tentacles streamed around her.

I was at the competition on Saturday and must say it was extremely well run. One grandparent of a skater at my Monday night rink couldn't say enough about how organized the competition was.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Sounds like a good AN interp program idea to me.

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"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

Like, I Will Survive and Y.M.C.A.

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This space has been put on hiatus for retuning....

There's a cool photo of the "Octopus Girl" on the SPFSA.com site!

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This space has been put on hiatus for retuning....

exactly!

If anyone wants to peek at pictures of the event, and see the infamous octopus costume, photos are up at www.SPFSA.com.

Yes, Gary, that is what I did for my day off yesterday. After 7 days of eating, sleeping, skating, and off-ice practice for skating, not to mention putting SPFSA labels on 500 York Peppermint Patties, I'm glad it's over.

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

oop, BS beat me to it.

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

Why are those girls wearing numbers on their backs?

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This space has been put on hiatus for retuning....

And then you went to synchro practice Sunday night.
Can you say "glutton for punishment".

You did a great job, Mel!!!

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Girls are wearing numbers for the stroking competition. All four stroked around the ice clockwise and counter clockwise, then were judged on the quality of their stroking. Very low level, I think that was beta or gamma.

One of the little girls shown was a tough little cookie - she took an adult skate blade to the chin, was stitched up and told her mom she still wanted to compete in all 5 of her events. Happy as a clam, I caught her eating half a pan of brownies on Sunday, her medals clinking on around her neck.

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

I've skated countless times at the rink you're talking about, but I wasn't able to make it to the competition to watch or participate. Maybe another time...

If I ever compete, I want to pick out a less overused song. Hopefully I wouldn't have to encounter too many sore losers or bad winners. Talk about immature!

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Andrea

I just don't get why the parents get so worked up about competition results at that level. If your kid just likes to skate and compete and have fun, who cares how they place? If they really are serious and want to make it to the top someday, there are going to be hundreds of competitions in the meantime. What does it matter where they place in Freestyle 3 Artistic when they're seven years old? It's important to skate weel at competitions, and it's fun to place, but the point of ISI and Basic Skills events is to have fun. There's no trip to Nationals on the line! Let the kids have fun! If they really want to succeed in skating, the pressure will be there soon enough.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

Most parents don't, but there are always a few....

I stay far away from them. They're scary.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

I think part of the parent's reaction at the lower levels is because they really don't know what they are looking at. Some eventually educate themselves, but some never do. It has been a great advantage to have taken up skating myself, rather than let daughter have all the fun.

I have to admit as I watch daughter learning those senior moves, I don't know what the heck I'm looking at!

I'll always remember the one mom at her daughter's first basic skills comp. She placed second and the mom demanded a judging critique. I swear she was practically hysterical....