You guys CONVERTED them!!

Did I miss some sort of gathering in the morning where the organizers introduced themselves? I mean, I couldn't tell who was running the show.

At 8am on Saturday morning, everyone gathered on the bleachers by Rink 2 and Craig fully introduced everyone and gave their background.

ETA: We also had registration on Friday from 2pm to 6pm and on Saturday from 7am to 8am. Did you pick up your folder? It contained a detailed schedule for your group. If you did not pick this up, it's possible that you rotated with the wrong group. That would explain why you ended up in a jump class when you should have been in a choreography class. If you were rotating with the wrong group it could also mean you took that jump class with the lower level competitive group which contained skaters that were working on flip and lutz. In which case, it would make sense for a coach to ask if anyone had an axel.

"At 8am on Saturday morning, everyone gathered on the bleachers by Rink 2 and Craig fully introduced everyone and gave their background."

Well, drat it all. I was there at exactly 8 and had no idea this was taking place. Cripes. I'm a wreck.

Oh man, I feel so bad for you. If you missed the intro and getting your registration materials, then no wonder you had no clue what was going on. And I'm sure you ended up in the wrong track based on what you've said. It must have been like being in an airport in a foreign country and just not knowing where to go.

I see you live really close to me, so if you ever want to get together for some instruction I'd be happy to pass on some things I've learned to you. I'm not affiliated w/ the camp at all, just an attendee like you, but I do have some experience teaching beginning adults up through the half jumps. Just bring me a cup of coffee and we'll be even. I'm just sad that you lost all that money.

Tim

__________________
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
People dream of flying, birds dream of skating.

Sounds like the rink/camp needs a "traffic coordinator" to make sure everyone knows what's going on and where to go. And lots of signs.

Since it now appears that maybe the expectations for the groups weren't as wacky as I thought, let me ask this: What would be the appropriate group for someone in my position (competes, but not all singles, but passed through Bronze MIF)? Would I have felt OK (not over my head) in the competitive track?

__________________
Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

I definitely was in the recreational singles group. That much I got right. I followed a bunch of people who had the same registration packet.

The funny thing is, I'm not angry about the cost of the thing. Just disappointed because I had been looking forward to it so much. Sigh. Oops. The keyboard appears to be getting wet. What's that? Tears? ... Next year will be good, I'm sure. Sniff.

Thanks, Tim, for the offer. First I'm going to master the stoopid three-turns and mohwaks -- it's really time to get over that hump already -- and then I may be in touch.

From what I recall, the lower level competitive group did have skaters who were in the midst of getting their flips and lutz jumps consistent and other skaters who just had waltz jumps, toe loops and salchows. I think you would have been fine in that group. However the only way to know for sure would be for you to come to next year's camp and try it out.

Take care,

Frank

There were two recreational singles groups. Each of those groups was divided according to the criteria listed in the application (i.e. highest moves test passed, highest freestyle test passed, most difficult jump landed consistently). If I recall correctly, there were a few skaters in the higher level recreation groups that did list loop and possibly flips jumps as their most difficult jump landed consistently.

FDGB, did you pick up your own folder? Are you sure you were with the correct recreational group? I'm pretty sure that each group schedule was followed as listed in each of the folders. So, if you had a mix-up in your classes like you said you did (edge jumps instead of choreography) it might be possible that you were not in the correct group of the two recreational groups that were offered.

Totally CONVERTED! While all the dancers were doin the Cha Langa Kanga, Naomi and Peter were throwin death spirals out there!!! I told Naomi how to CONVERT on the FI Death Spiral (aka. Life Spiral), so YUPPERS, they are CONVERTED!!! GO NAOMI GO NAOMI

Falldowngoboom,

I feel so bad...you should have just come to the pair teams and we would have helped you out. You can always come to the pair teams for help...always...never forget that...just go to the pair teams.

I have a feeling that you ended up in the wrong level of rotation, too, because I saw one group working on very beginning stuff.

Honey, I think it's worth a try to write to Craig Maurizi, the director of Ice House, tell him what happened and ask if it is possible to be refunded. If he refunds you, come join us for the Adult Week in Lake Placid (last week in August) and we'll take care of you.

lovepairs

Absolutely! This will be my 7th August Adult week at Lake Placid. I also went to the June one this year as well.

I am really a semi-crappy figure skater but I always have a great time and am not intimidated at all. Please come and join the fun!

__________________
Keeping School Figures Alive!!

Thanks for giving the Adult Week a plug, FigureSkate!

While we are on the subject, we just need one or two more pair teams to make the first ever Adult Pair Track at the Lake Placid Adult Week work. It's a tremendous opportunity to study with the legendary Protopopovs. So, if there is a team out there who can attend, please come join us.

I might mention that I have a pairs lady at the bronze level who is dying to attend the Pairs Track at Lake Placid, but her partner can't go. Her pair partner was good enough to give her permission to attend with someone else in order to bring home the wisdom. So, if there is anyone out there who would like to partner with her and have a great experience, please contact me at: acooper19426@earthlink.net

The phrase "semi-crappy skater" sent me into a fit of giggles.

I love the concept of the adult camps: None of these punk kids (giggle) and definitely none of these punk kids' parents (non-giggle.).

FallDownGoBoom - I'm sad that your experience wasn't what you wanted. But I totally admire any new skater ready to put themselves out there for an intense experience like this camp. Not to beat a dead horse, but are you sure you were with the right group? What color was your folder?

I don't wany anyone to read my post and think there might not be a place for them at this camp. I was in the highest competitive singles group, and there were only 3 of us landing Axels with any sort of consistency (and consistency is not a word one would normally use to describe my Axel). Most in my group were working on cleaning up and perfecting their lutz and flip. I think the other competitive group probably had skaters landing through a loop, but I'm not sure. From the little I saw of the recreational groups, there seemed to be a wide range of levels. I don't compete, but I called to ask for information, and I was told based on my level the competitive track would be a better fit for me. I was initially placed in the other competitive group, but I talked to Craig and he was more than accomodating about a group switch. I actually called them a few times because of a registration mix-up, and every time they were more than willing to answer questions or ask Craig for more information (doesn't mean they got it right, but they were always willing to ask!).

I think there was some confusion among some of the coaches about what to expect from each group. Someone here (can't remember who) commented about a coach coming in and asking for Axels, a jump not appropriate for their level. In my group there were a number of people definitely working on Axels, but the coach for that class seemed to assume that we weren't. Those of us with consistent (or something) Axels went ahead and did them anyway, but I think others would have welcomed the chance for feedback. Frank, you probably know who I'm talking about, so feel free to agree or disagree here.

I wonder if the smaller size affected the groupings this year. There were a few times I felt I could have been challenged more, and it sounds like a lot of people felt overwhelmed. With fewer skaters, they may have had to compress a wider range of levels together with not quite perfect results. But I've never been before, so I could be making things up.

My comments to pass along would be that, first of all, I had a great time! A map of the facilities would be helpful, as would nametags (and not crappy ones that you throw out after an hour, but good ones that we can wear for two days because I can't remember names). Our group was too large, and when an instructor would send us all out to try something, the results were scary. I'm already neurotic about jumping near people, and trying to set up for any jump on half ice with 16 people made me crazy. You can thank Craig personally for me for finally making a toe loop make sense! And as a much more general comment, I was incredibly impressed with the quality of the adult skaters who train primarily at the Ice House. I would stronly recommend that rink to any adult skater in the NY/NJ area.

Just to round off Kelli's post, I have to add that the Pairs Track was excellent this year compared to last year. There were a few mix ups with ice assignments: one being that about 28 free skaters came onto our ice (we were suppossed to have our own surface this year in order to do lifts) about half way through our session, while rink 3 was totally empty. I went up to Craig and asked him if we could move the pair teams to rink 3 and he was totally discombobulated with the schedule he had infront of him, couldn't figure it out and couldn't tell me what to do. As far as I was concerned, it was a no brainer, so the pairs moved to the empty ice to finish our session. The only other time we didn't have lift lanes available to us was when they put a "Dance" group on the ice with us during one of the final sessions on Sunday. We all had 1/2 ice, which I'm sure was frustrating to the Dancers as well (by the way, contrary to popular opinion dancers and pairs don't do well on the same surface together--every body thinks that we are all "teams" so we should be able to share the same ice--not true--pairs do much better with freestylers for obvious reasons if you give it a seconds thought.) So, the pairs stayed to one side and did Death Spirals. This is when Naoimi and Peter were CONVERTED! So, I guess it was worth it!

All in all, it was so much better for the Pairs this year! We learned a lot from Marci and Aaron and had a great time! It was a wonderful experience!

With the very low attendence, do you think they will have it again next summer? I can't imagine that it was very profitable this time around. I might be mistaken, but about 3, or 4 years ago when I attended there were close to 300 skaters there (the ice was dangerously crowded then.) Anyway to put a limit on the number of skaters to keep it safe, but still have enough attend to make it profitable for the rink?

Hey there Kelli,

Thanks for the post! I'll go ahead and make a few comments.

I do agree that there were instances when some of the coaches were not 100% sure what we were working on when it came to jumps. However, I also think it's up to each of us to communicate what each of us is working on at the time, should there appear to be any confusion, so that we get the most out of our experience. In the instance Kelli was describing, the instructor had just come off teaching the other competitive group where I don't believe anyone was working on axels yet. So this instructor started off talking about waltz jumps based on his experience with the other group and asked us each to try a waltz individually. As Kelli said, those of us with axels took that opportunity to try them. The instructor did seem a bit surprised that a few of us were trying axels but he adapted. In all cases, each skater got individual feedback from this instructor whether they tried a waltz or an axel.

Thanks for your comments, Kelli. I'll be sure to pass these along as well. The idea of nametags actually did come up several times during the weekend. I do agree that our class was rather large (I think we started with about 16 skaters and we had a few people join us the second day). I think that the small enrollment limited the ice that we could purchase from the rink and that, in turn, affected class size. However, I do agree that having a gaggle of adult skaters go out and try and jump all at the same time on half a sheet of ice was frightening. I'll definitely mention this to Craig and hopefully we can come up with a solution and I'm sure he'll be very happy to receive your thanks for his toe loop philosophy. Thanks for the kind words regarding those of us that train at the Ice House. I was very impressed with your skating and all of the camp participants really. I think we all bring something to the ice that is unique to each individual and seeing everybody at the camp this weekend really reaffirmed that belief for me.

Take care,

Frank

Hey there,

First, I'd like to clear up that the Ice House and the American Academy Figure Skating Club are two separate entities. Any ice used by the club for any activities has to be purchased from the Ice House. Although I'm sure Craig would have been more than happy to put you on rink 3, it's quite possible that ice time for rink 3 had not been purchased in advance because of the small enrollment. So when you went up to Craig and asked to be moved, chances are it wasn't just a simple matter of him waving his hands and making it happen if the ice had not yet been purchased for that purpose. This may have caused his hesitation to just give you the go-ahead immediately. I realize that the situation may have seemed to have a simple solution from your point of view but there are times that there is more information to consider to achieve an acceptable solution for everyone involved.

I do agree that there were a few administrative glitches at the camp this year. However, by and large I think things went fairly smoothly considering the ice constraints and personnel contraints that were in place because of the smaller enrollment this year.

It is still way too early to tell whether or not the Ice House will host the camp again next year. From what I understand, management at the Ice House expected a smaller turnout this year because the camp was held on a holiday weekend so I don't think that there is a big concern about next year's camp, provided a different weekend is chosen and efforts are made to improve the camp to address any issues that popped up this time around. I certainly hope they hold it again next year.

Take care,

Frank

Thanks, Frank, for taking the time to respond to everyone's thoughts and questions.


I can't speak for any other skaters, but I know my main reason for not going was the cost. It was what, $300 for the competitive track and $250 for recreational? That buys a lot of lessons and ice time for me, and I decided that economically, it made more sense to put the money toward my day-to-day skating then go to a 2-day camp. I have a pretty good job (no more starving grad student -yippee!) but the cost of the camp, plus hotel for 2 nights, plus gas expenses to drive up (which I thought would logistically and financially be the best option as opposed to the train and then cabs), just made everything too much for me to justify.

The fact that it was a holiday weekend may have had something to do with the low attendance - actually, for me, that was a plus, b/c I'd get 2 days to "recover" and relax before heading back to work.

Is there any way to reduce the cost? It's that age-old dilemma - what's the critical point where your price gets you enough money but doesn't discourage customers. I feel like the price of this year's camp surpassed the critical point. I know that ice and instructors cost money, but does all that really cost $300 a person? The USFSA (I assume they're the ones "profiting", or is it all the Ice House?) is a non-profit organization, after all. One of my regular rinks had a day-long adult workshop on a Sunday in early June and the cost was $85 a person for 8 hours of ice time (4 on-ice classes, 1 off-ice, and 3 open FS sessions for practice or private lessons with the instructors at their regular rates).

__________________
Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

Thanks for the clarification, Franklin, about Ice House and the Academy being two separate entities. I didn't know this and it certainly does explain Craig's hesitation.

Thought I let everyone know that as of two years ago, USFS stopped subsidizing the training camps, due to budget cuts, thus the Ice House is responsible for this one.
Also to add in another factor for low camp turnout, there was a Adult Camp held the weekend or two prior in Atlanta.

__________________
Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

If the Ice House absorbed the full cost of the camp then that would explain the entry fee. When you consider that six forty-five minute sessions had to be purchased on two separate sheets of ice (or three sheets depending on what happened with the pairs' program), the rink staff (who came in solely for this camp, the Ice House, other than the fitness center, was technically closed to the public on Saturday and Sunday) had to be paid, the cost of food for the buffet lunch, the instructors' fees, the t-shirts, etc...I can see why we ended up paying what we did this year. Hopefully, next year we can come up with a plan that is more beneficial for everyone financially.

The article about camp is up on the USFSA website. I thought it was an accurate reflection of camp, and a lot of the little side anecdotes made me smile.

Hey Kelli,

I just finished reading the article. I thought it was very entertaining and I loved the new blog format. It's funny.

In the article, Michelle talks about enjoying her trip to the camp each year. I can't tell you how many of the camp regulars love having her there and catching up with her. She's the best!!

And I just found the perfect opportunity to pick on FrankR again ...



What a nice spin position!!!

And no, I'm NOT gonna comment on this shot with Edward either!!! LOL!!!

__________________
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!!!