I was wondering about the difference in skating between the Young Adult Bronze and Young Adult Silver levels. My coach and I are debating the merits of staying back in Bronze, or moving ahead to Silver for this season. I will not have an axel in my program regardless, and I was wondering how competitive I would be in Silver without one. Neither of us have a whole lot of exp. with young adult competition, so I would like to hear what you guys think?
Thanks, Andrea

PS Thanks for the music suggestions. We just decided on Shostakovich's Jazz suite #2, using 2 or 3 of the movements. I am so excited.

I've done both Bronze & Silver. I'm actually doing Bronze in my next comp, since I don't have an axel. In my program I have (in order), flip, camel-sit-back sit, loop/loop combo, lutz/loop/loop combo, layback, inside/outside change spiral, salchow, flying camel. I had pretty much the same elements in my silver program. I never even tried an axel in Silver, and I know several people I've competed against in Silver didn't have one either.
What elements will be in your program? Good luck this season!! Young Adult skaters rule!

are doubles allowed in young adult silver? i'm looking to try to compete young adult (cause i'm not interested in competing against kids half my age in prepre) but i'm not sure what its like, cause its just getting started in my area (and i guess all area?)

I don't know about Young Adult, but in regular Adult (US), doubles are not allowed except for Gold and Masters.

Says the Adult Gold me, still trying to land that *&%^$$ double toe!

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Is the "Young Adult" category at US Adult Nationals? Cool!

Nope. It's only at local and nonqualifying competitions.

It might be none of my problems... but I'd like to give you a tip or two... If you don't like my comment then just ignore it! (That's the coach in me talking...)

But you should think about changing one of your combination with loop. You have 4 of the same jumps in your program so it doesn't meet the criteria for a well-balanced prog.

You could always do a flip-loop combo so you'd have one more flip in your program and you would get rid of one loop.


But you might have good reasons to have build your program as it is now! Tell me!

Here's a thought...most local competition allow you to skate up a level. We have always tested the waters, so to speak, by skating up for a competition or two prior to testing the higher level. That gave us the confidence to go ahead and test.

I have never seen the young adult category, but I have seen a few silver level competitions that had adults in their 20's. I've seen several programs where axels were attempted, but few completed cleanly. The major difference between the bronze and silver competitors have been an overall command of the ice, speed, flow, etc. better spins in combination or flying spins not usually seen at bronze. I find that the level of skill at local comps. can be far different (all over the place really) than at adult nationals, at least in my region, EGL.

Thanks for the replies, it lets me know where I stand at least. I don't have a program yet for this year, we are just starting to work on it, but a partial list of elements anyway are lutz-loop-toe loop, flip-toe, loop or loop-loop, salchow or toe-loop, camel-sit-change sit, scratch-back scratch, maybe a layback, and various spirals and footwork(my coach likes to push me, can you tell!) I would prefer to work toward a silver program, if only because it seems pointless to use a program for only a competition or maybe two. We'll see.
Andrea

Sounds like you'd be competitive at either level. What competitions are you doing?

PointBleu: Yeah, I know I have a lot of loops in the program. Loop is my best and favorite jump. I should put a toe loop in there somewhere.