I'm sorry if that is the way that you interpret my opinion but it is just that. My personal opinion and you will note that in one of my posts that I stated that words to the effect that every person competes, skates or whatever with their own personal motivation in mind. I never trivialise anything that others do just because it is something that I would not do. Everyone has their own personal situations and motivations for doing what they do and if what you do makes you happy, then you have succeeded in that aspect of your goal. Personally, I could never be satisfied with competing for the fun of it but I appreciate that there are those who enjoy the experience in itself. I too enjoy this but I need more from it. perhaps it is because I have no family or other element of my life (except my girlfriend) that requires my attention so I can afford the time to dedicate so much to my sport but that is purely an assumption on my part as I don't know your situation. I have always been a competitor and I guess that aspect of my personality doesn't die easily.

Well, I just love the car analogy, that its like buying a racing car and then just looking at it.

As if, you can buy a race car and still drive it and enjoy, but who says you have to go out onto the track and die a firey, flamed filled death while racing the thing. You can join the car club association and do time trials, or gurkhams, sort of like scavenger hunts you don't have to race.

The point being you started a discussion and you diss everyone who disagrees with you, ( your p-o-v is different---) -- you say you are competitive but the mindset you have is that of all the small children who want to make it to the olympics, which is great if you are 11 on your sr moves and skating Nov, and making it to sectionals.

The other thing you seem to forget is that in competition very few people can really suck it up and make it all work during those 2-4 minutes. Those people who can, are real competitors what the competition brings, i.e. 15 people who all skate clean and you just end up with the lowest score doesn't make you a loser, so long as you tried and if you skated clean and got all the points and all the levels how in the world can you be a loser? If you thought that you would be...

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

And what about your friends from the Great White North, ah hemm, Canada? ROTFLOL

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

Can't speak for coskater64 but I sure love my Canadian friends here!!! (And I'm not just saying that b/c my choreographer is from Canada either... LOL!!! )

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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 hate to be nitpicky but... isn't Oberstdorf an "Open" as in open to anyone who can afford the time and money to compete.. rather than an "Invitational" in which you must be invited to compete?

Of course you can buy a race car. They have them advertised all the time in the classifieds of autosport international magazine. Thats what race teams do with them when they can't cope with the stresses of full time racing anymore. Plus I never actually said that you had to race a race car. Why can't you just drive it at a track day. At least that is doing something with it instead of just looking at it!!! Perhaps you are reading into this a little too deeply.

actually invitational means its open to anyone....I used to compete in lots of invitationals which are just open competitions (different terminology but it means open)

All it takes to be invited to take part in an Invitational (at least in the US) is to get hold of an application form.

In olden days, the host club invited other clubs to join their event by sending out the announcement - and only the clubs that got the announcement were allowed to enter. That's changed over the years, although the names of the competitions haven't.

So Opens - meaning "Open to skaters outside of the host club" and "Invitationals" are pretty much the same things.

Thanks for the clarification!

Yeah, and what is the point of that? Adult skating should be about more than a bunch of aged-out elite skaters. Quite frankly, I don't give a rat's patooty about those kind of events. Show me a 40 year old who started skating at the age of 30 and just started landing axels -- there's an event I can get behind!

Agreed. We don't even have "championships" for the lower levels at Adult Nationals; why would we do it for a "world championship"?

Yep. Meaningless as a championship.

Nonsense, Mel - I've seen skaters who are a lot worse than you were three years ago (remember I haven't seen you skate since then, and I know from what everybody else has said that you've improved enormously), including myself, still out there and competing! And having a blast.....

That's what it's about. Ottavio Cinquanto, the head of the ISU, said in my hearing that adult skating is as much about competing against oneself as against other skaters. It's about increasing one's IJS scores (for those lucky enough to have them) year on year at the same competition.

We all go out there hoping to win, but many of us know that, realistically, we have very little hope of doing so (at our level, we know our opposition - often rather too well!) unless everybody else withdraws. However, we can't control what other skaters do, and we can't control what the judges think - all we can do is go out there, skate our best, and hope for the best. Actually, that applies to all skaters at whatever level, not just adults. None of us can. Okay, there are those who try to maximise their chances by skating in a level lower than they should (thankfully rare at adult competitions), but even they can't be sure that they'll win....

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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 love my Canadian friends as well....

The only championship adult event I know of are the Championship events at the Adult Nationals in the US. For those event you must go to your sectional and qualify in the top 4, of course if you are a guy you can come in 6th and sometimes still make it thanks to the fill-up rule and the fact that there only are 12 gold men throughout the US. The championship events in the US are in Pairs(gold & Masters), Dance(gold), Gold FS/Int&Nov FS/Jr & Sr FS for both men and women. So there are 10 National titles up for grabs at the AN's. US figure skating also uses all tests passed to determine your level so even if you are 80 and managed your 7th figure in the 60's you still have to skate Jr. Luckily the open events are age leveled.

I also know of the Canandian Adult Nationals but is it all open? Are their levels that where you qualify via a sectional event? How does the Canadian system work?

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

This was so well said I see no need to add to this at all . Well Done Coskater

Yes, Skate Canada Adult Championships are open events as most of the provinces don't have enough adult skaters who compete to have their own Sectional events at their province's StarSkate Sectionals which includes kid StarSkaters from Pre-Prelim StarSkaters to Gold StarSkate and Adult Bronze, Adult Silver, Adult Gold, Masters (Junior Silver, Senior Silver & Gold) and Competitive (Novice to Senior if there are at least 2 competitors) for freeskate, kids' Interpretive (Pre-Introductory, Introductory, Bronze, Silver, Gold), Adult Interpretive (same categories as kids'), Dance Preliminary to Gold partnered for kids and dance for Adults.

This means those of us who do compete at the StarSkate Sectionals compete knowing that it doesn't mean a thing where we place at Sectionals because it's just a showcase event for us (practice event). Although until the sections mark us under CPC it's not quite the same as Adult Canadians where all of us from Adult Bronze all the way through to Competitive are marked under CPC. Some provinces only have one skater in an event category. And there are events in which only 2 provinces have skaters for Adult Canadians. So we here in Canada are not ready to have qualifying events at StarSkate Sectionals or at any other event in the sections. You've got to remember the Skate Canada Adult Championships are only 5 years old and the first one wasn't even called an Adult Championship. It was only at the adult meeting after the first AC that most of us wanted to change the name to Adult Championships so Skate Canada changed the name.

At present any adult skater who has most of the elements to compete in pre-prelim or higher in freeskate, Junior Bronze or higher for Dance, prelim freeskate or higher for pairs and anyone wanting to try interpretive events for pre-introductory interpretive and higher can compete at Adult Canadians so long as they fill out all of the competition forms and have their test chair sign the forms along with their coach. Plus for freeskate, pairs and couples dance all adult skaters must fill program content forms online.

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

The national Skate Canada adult event is open to anyone with a chequebook and a stamp. There's no club or coach signature required and it is possible to compete in freeskate and interpretive without having ever passed a test. The quality of skating is varied, to say the least.

Sectional (eg provincial) competitions are slightly different. There still is no test requirement but forms have to be signed by a coach and club, thus proving at some time you have had a passing relationship with both and know what you are doing.

All of Skate Canada programs are under review at the moment for the Long Term Athlete Development model, so the structure of adult competition for 2010 is uncertain.