We will be skating gold pairs if we do pairs. My juvenile pair test, which I took before there were any adult pairs tests to skate at the first AN, puts us in gold. The pair rules, which are always a moving target have changed to allow two gold fs skaters to skate silver pairs.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Yes, the rules are a bit "scwewy."
But welcome to gold pairs (again)--I hope you to choose to compete with Tara and myself.

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Hi Nova - not really sure. At this point my partner is still learning pair elements. He's doing a great job, but it's alot to expect to go from zero to gold in such a short time. If we skate, we may just do a silver level program and keep it for the next year when the rules change - yet again.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Gotcha. Though I thought y'all looked very good in the Halloween event!

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Thanks! We're having a great time. Looking forward to seeing who ends up in what group and catching up with everyone.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Anybody else besides me having trouble registering online for AN? I had no trouble registering for Mids online, but I keep getting error messages for the AN one.

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

I always get the "Error Processing" message when I get to the music. I must have done this five times already. Why won't they fix this???

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

Thanks so much for posting that! I was surprised to see that that rate is considerably lower than the lowest rental car rate on Orbitz!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I just tried registering for AN on a different browser and successfully completed it!

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

I'm bringing this thread back from the doldrums, because we are three weeks away (or is it 2 1/2 now?) and as a first time AN attendee - I NEED HELP!!

My program runthroughs this past week have been less than stellar. This afternoon my secondary coach, who is a IJS TS, wrote out the value of each element I did after I did my program for him on lesson. What it added up to was that I'm gonna get killed in my QR!!

Yes, I'm Bronze and yes, I do know that I'm judged under 6.0. But from what I've seen, we 6.0 folks are subliminally judged under IJS.

How do I handle the last two weeks without getting a nervous breakdown or killing the clueless kids that I skate with?

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Work to get everything as nice as you can and let the chips fall where they may, TerriC. Focus on each element at a time and doing the best you can with what you've got. FWIW, Bronze typically WOULD really suck under IJS, it's one of the reason it's not used at ANs.

I'm a judge, and I don't know what this means. I can't do math on the fly consciously, much less subliminally! LOL!

Remember, judges basically do the same thing they do under 6.0 as they do under IJS: They judge quality. They have nothing to do with calling levels of spins or step/spiral sequences, and they have nothing to do with how much an element is worth. So don't worry about being judged "subliminally" under IJS. Just go out there, take a deep breath and show how much you love to skate!

Focus on having fun and enjoying the experience. Have no expectations. Do not judge yourself against others or some sort of internal standard. When you are out there skating, don't focus on anything but how you are feeling and enjoying the experience of being at AN after all that you had to do to get there.

That's what I did in my first AN, and I think it was my best performance!

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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

My first AN was the first AN and no one knew what to expect. I loved the training, getting the costumes, the music... I skated pairs and was ready to go out and show the program. It was great and we took home the silver.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Just enjoy yourself and your first ANs will be awesome. I had the best time in Kansas City in '05.

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

Wang chung!

Being that I was the newbie last year, I can tell 'ya this is a moment to enjoy the fun of competing, meeting a lot of your board friends (LIKE ME! ) for the first time, and enjoying the "after after parties!!!" (Alright! Truth be told, I didn't go last year. I was too tired to go!) This is NOT the time to worry about making it to the final round. When I went last year, I fully expected to be in the cellar (and I did in the interp... but was surprised though that I wasn't at the cellar in the technical.) But that bottle of champagne from Mel On Ice beats ANY gold medal!!! LOL!!! (See my sig on the support from all the people here on this board and the other board I'm on. That was added just after I came back from AN!!! )

I have long since given up on trying to catch up with the other skaters!!! There's always someone that's gonna sandbag one way or another. My skating still sucks and I'm still expecting to be in the cellar, but I have new goals to reach this year in my programs and I'm hoping that the judges and other skaters will notice the change. (Or maybe not... those damn nice crossovers that my fellow skaters at my rink and my coaches commented about doesn't want to make its way over to my programs!!! )

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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!!!

The point of any competition is to meet old friends and make new ones, to skate as well as you are able, and to have fun. Don't forget, you can't control what the other skaters do, and you can't control what the judges think, so all you can do is go out and have fun.

And it is fun, even though all of us go through the "Why on earth did I think this was a good idea?" phase, and also what I call the Darkest Hour syndrome - when our programme is simply Not Working, and Never Will Work, and your going to make a Total Fool of yourself, etc, etc, etc. That usually means (I hope - I'm in that phase at the moment) that your programme is about to come together and work well.

And if you do skate badly and come last - so what? Yes, you'll cry (that's the adrenaline crash) and swear Never Again - but like the rest of us, you'll be back next time! Chocolate helps, by the way, as does a stiff drink (afterwards, not before!).

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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!

Everyone here is correct.
And so is the Judge who made the comment to enjoy and love the skate. Remember
The training is over once you get there, all you can do is feel the ice bend your knees and smile and the rest will happen.

Im not going this year but those who know me know that I go for the show.
If you can relax and entertain people and flow with it you will do great.
Do what is required in the rule book then let fly . I often do and sometimes I bend the rules a little just to make the performance entertaining even if it gets me no extra points ( or even cost me points ) ( Iv done that too.).
Its not all about the numbers, judges, spins or jumps, its about the experience of entertaining and achieving great things for yourself.
When people stand and applaud your a winner, regardless of where you finish. Don't just skate, Entertain and the judges will love you.

My Best wishes to all , I will miss you.