Judges--Thinking Positive

This is a tip from my coach Miss Bianca about testing....


"When you test, don't think 'I'm not good enough to skate for these judges'.....Instead think 'These judges came all this way, as volunteers, just to see me skate.'"

If you think of judges like this....

And you'll think about your test like this...

"They just pick, pick, pick at my skating!"

Or you think....

"They're staring at me just to find errors!"

 What about thinking about the judges as if...

"Judges love skating and they've come all this way to see me skate!'

 Then when you skate, you can think about your test, thusly...

"Hi Judges!"

The "F" Word at the Rink

You're not supposed to swear at the  rink. Maybe it's because there are so many little monsters darlings around, that rinks have developed the 'no swearing' rule as a defense mechanism. Never mind that the some of the parents of children are slack jawed yokels who can't string together a sentence without dropping an f-bomb or two, coaches never swear, and adult students pick up on the rule pretty quickly.

I never ever swear on freestyle. Not once. But on public, I've been known to drop a bomb or two (it shocked my dance coach), 'cause on public with the music and the screaming.....

Meh, who can hear me two feet away?

Honestly, there's other F-words I'm more worried about hearing on the ice, and would rather never, ever hear....

Fall

Faceplant

Fail

After any of the above, I'm sure you'll hear a few F-bombs floating around.

If it's one of mine...pretend you didn't hear. Okay?

The Ice Dance Industrial Test Process

People used to ice dance for fun, on dates, at all ages.

What happened?

The heyday of ice dance was between the 20's and the 50's. Rock and roll had a hand in killing it. The rhythms just were too popular to ignore and appealed to the younger crowd. The old dance standards died out and ice dancing became stuffy, and too hard, and the bar was raised too high.

And at one time ice dance was ragingly popular! So popular that, ice dance testing was introduced in the US (the earliest testing record is from 1928 in Canada, but the US dance test structure was adopted in 1939). You had to learn the pattern dances, and test them.

By 1941:

"...as dancers became test conscious, they did not want to spend time learning non- compulsory dances. With the focus on new dance  test requirements, the social dances that did not make the test schedule would gradually disappear...Serious skaters are goal oriented. They work on elements that offer a visible  measure of progress, such as a passed test, entry in competition, or the ability to skate a Silver level dance" (Figure Skating History: The Evolution of Dance on Ice) 

So in the fifties, when Rock and Roll took over the music world, young people must have looked at the  time and testing requirements for ice dance and abandoned the sport in droves. They wanted to ice dance for dates--who wants to spend months (years!) learning to ice dance when you can go out on the floor and dance right away! And who wanted to test to go on a date! It was too much commitment! Skating required commitment! The social aspects of ice dance were already beginning to die.

And now, 70 years after testing was introduced what do we have? We have the Ice Dance Industrial Test Process, where you test so you can take more tests.

And hardly any social dance sessions to dance on.

Or any male partners to dance with.

Test Hair

Testing is a nightmare. Not only do you have to worry about skating you have to worry about your hair. And I have the classic baby fine blonde hair with all the body of a well cooked noodle. It just hangs there, and escapes from just about any barrette, pin, ribbon or headband. I've tried bun doughnut that's supposed to be a net form for you to arrange your hair over. Said baby fine hair just won't cover the form. You can see right through the hair to the doughnut underneath. Even if I hot roller my hair, use a can of spray, and enough gel to decorate the set of Aliens, by the end of the five minute warmup, my hair is straight and floppy.

I finally found a way to keep my hair neat in tests. I wear a hair scrunchie.  These also go by the name pony tie, circle wiglet, hair wrap, and pony fastener.

Hair scrunchie

I started with a cheap one from Ulta, but I just bought a nicer one from a wig shop. We'll see how that goes and if it's worth the money. Anyway, I've seen some decent ones for $10 or less, so they're cheap enough for an experiment.

They're dead easy to use. Pull your hair back into some kind of ponytail, bun, or doubled over pony (depending on the length of your hair) and plop the scrunchie over it.

When I wear this for work I just use bobby pins to keep it in place. But for skating, I use Goody hair screws called a Spin Pin. Trust me those things are never coming out. And if perchance they do, they're easy to see on the ice.

Goody Spin Pins
How to Use

Maybe you want something more elegant than a fluffy/spiky set to your hair. I find the scrunchie useful for that too. I just plop a hairnet over the scrunchie before I put the pins in, and tug the whole kit and caboodle into something that looks like a bun. Then I screw the pins in.

Total time, 5 minutes.

And now for the obligatory cat picture. A cat in a bun.

"Coach, what do you mean this isn't the kind of
bun you wanted me to wear?"

Graceful Hands

While I was at Lake Placid I learned a graceful hand position from Coach Amazing. She has training in dance and ballet and taught me a lot about arm positioning to stop me skating so stiffly.  Anyway, she taught me what I'll call "Ballet Style Graceful Hands".  The middle finger is bent slightly down, while the index, ring and little fingers frame it from above. Coach Amazing even had a device which I wrapped around my hands to teach me how to do it properly until it became a habit.

Ballet Style Graceful Hands

You can imagine, given the position of the middle finger, that this is a hand position that must be held palm down. Hold it palm up and it looks like you're shooting someone the bird.

Dance Coach wants me to hold my free hand with the middle, ring and little finger together, and the index finger slightly separated. I looked at hundreds of pictures, and this is the only one I could find that shows anything close to what I'm describing.

God's Hand on the right is close to
"Dance Coach Graceful Hands"

After a lively exchange between Dance Coach and I about hand position--I like ballet style, he likes his style, so yes, I do his style--I realized there are other styles out there. Here they are:

Jazz Hands

Bollywood Style

Adele Style--not recommended

Vulcan Style--only if you're feeling Trekkie!

Actually, I'm surprised I've never seen a Star Trek skating program. I'm sure boys have done Star Wars over the years, but Trek has been sadly ignored by figure skating. And it's got the short skirts and everything. Tell me, doesn't this just cry out for ice dance?

Test Dress Disaster

My perfect test dress is no longer in production in my size.

I am not a happy kitty

I originally ordered this dress.

Sooo perfect for the busty adult ice dancer

Either, I have to lose 10 lb between now and the test to get in the smaller sized dress, or I have to order something else. There's a probability I'll lose 4 lb between now and the test, but my skater's butt is not where the pounds are leaving from. (Man, and this dress was perfect. But, I have ordered it in the smaller size for future tests.  It's been three weeks since I've tasted chocolate--I will get down to that dress. . . Eventually.)

So I'm substituting, this skirt:

With this top in plain black with nude sleeves:

And since it's a Tango, I'm wearing a red lace bolero, that I ordered from FunkyDiva in the UK (along with some of the cutest skating skirts).

And I have a fake bun the size of a supermarket bagel.

So, if everything goes well, I'll look pulled together.

After all this trouble Dance Coach better approve this costume

Dance Coach vs the Test Dress

A while ago, just as my lesson was beginning I said to Dance Coach, "Now that I'm not having a test until August, I'm thinking of having a test dress made."

"Finally," Dance Coach murmured, in what I am sure is his 'did I say that out loud?' voice.

I gave him the eyeball. Lots of women just test in slacks. "I have a picture on my phone. Would you like to see it?" He assents so I pull out my phone and show him The Perfect Test Dress.

"Yes," he grunts. "Is okey."

"And I thought, I could fix it so that it matches the theme of the dance." I scroll down so he can see the bolero for the Tango, and the gloves for the Blues, then the idea for the Cha-cha.

And in one of the rare times since I started skating with him, his eyes light up with enthusiasm. "Yes, I like very much."

And it strikes me, he must have the soul of an artiste. So many students just gliding through the dances to pass tests (he had fifteen to partner last test session) and just showing up in trousers or an old freestyle dress, it must become just a job.  The occasional student like me, who wants to play dress up for compulsories, maybe he actually enjoys tooling us around like it's a little performace. Or maybe he's pleased that we show respect for the dance. I guess I'll never know.

Over on www.skatingforums2.com someone asked the question, "At what level in compulsories do you have to wear a dress to match the dance." The answer was 'never'.

Bucking the trend! (Besides, it will give the judges something to look at other than my feet!)

Look at my dress, please, not my extension, toe point, posture, power,....

Prepping for a Test--Off Ice

Since I just went through my first test, I thought I'd write some notes for a pre-test checklist for those of you who have never tested and are interested in testing in the future. I'm sure it's not complete.

When you decide to test:
1. Get a copy of the test paperwork. This turned out to be the hardest thing about the test. Despite a request, I never received anything from the club or my coach. Finally, someone I knew who worked behind the rink desk gave me a copy and showed me how to fill it out. This may have been a one time thing because it  was my first test. Now that I know the ropes, I don't think this will happen again.
2. Get your coach's signature on the paperwork to submit to the Test Chair.
3. Submit the paperwork before the deadline. Yes, my club still uses paper. I've heard of other clubs who use an on-line system.
4. This may have been peculiar to me, but my coach was fussy about approving what ever I was going to wear to test in. So, I had to arrange a time when he could skate with me in my test dress.

At this point there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes. At some point your coach will tell you your warmup time, and test time. I got a text message. All hail the modern world.

The night before:

1. Gas up the car. I forgot this and almost ran out of gas on the way to the rink.
2. Polish the boots. Some people replace their laces. I'm too lazy for that. Besides these are my lucky laces. I don't know what other people use to polish their boots, I just used some Kiwi shoe whitener. I had to run out and buy it at about 8 in the evening in a panic. So, now that I have it on hand, I won't have to worry about that again.
3. Go through the skate bag and make sure everything is there. It's a good time to clean it out, so why not throw away the old passes,  worn out gloves, and pens with no ink in them.  I wish I had put a banana or a snack bar in to munch on.
4. Put fresh batteries in the camera.
5. Attend to your costume. Make sure all the pieces are ready to go.
6. Get your make up together.
7. Go to bed and get a good night's sleep. I totally failed on this. I got about 4 hours sleep.


At some point: LOAD THE CAR. Don't forget your skates. Apparently this happens.

The day of the test:

1. I got to the rink about an hour before my warm up time. I checked the schedule. No changes.
2. I used the time to do lunge walks in the lobby  to get the blood flowing to my leg muscles (there was a rainstorm and I couldn't walk outside), and some yoga poses to open my hips and get my knees ready for skating.
3. Change into test outfit. Put on makeup.
4. To calm myself, I took out my Flip and recorded the tests of some people I knew.
5. Deep breathing exercises. Several of us gathered together and did group deep breathing.
6. My coach checked on me, and I suppose all coaches do this to.

The test:
I just followed my coach's instructions. During the warmup, the dances for the tests are played and the skaters get to skate with their partner to their music. At test time the skater's are announced (totally unable to understand it) and skate out to their start point with their partner.

So what did I feel I didn't do right?
I wish I had gone to a test session before mine, in order to see how they're run. But as an adult with a job, I couldn't find the time.

I always skate with skating protection on. When I tested, I didn't wear any. That really rattled me. I wish I had skated with my coach, without my protective stuff on, a couple of times. It felt weird and all.

I felt I need to have a 5 minute warmup planned, that goes through all the elements of the dance. I was more concerned about getting some knee bend and getting the feel of the ice. Also, I should have practiced my extension. So bad on me.

So, I know some of you have tested, and have better ideas than I've presented for testing. What do you have to suggest?

Prepping for the Dance Test--It's more than just skating

There was a last minute addition to Freestyle session on Saturday, so Coach and I finally got to skate to the Dutch Waltz as if it was a Test Session. For the first ten minutes we were the only two people on the ice. And the ice was excellent! Coach kept stroking around making yummy sounds.  He was so happy I hated to subject him to my skating.

After a little warmup we got into the dance. Meh, I hope the proverb "bad dress rehearsal, good performance" is true. No, honestly it wasn't that awful. In separate go rounds, I did a 1, 2, 3 progressive, when it should have been a 1, 2, 3, 4 progressive. once missed the second pattern because my mind went to its default setting of 'one pattern', and stepped to the wrong foot on the presentation glide.  Coach wasn't pulling out his hair, but he had his 'serious training voice' in action.

But here comes the fun part, he trained me in the 'introduction to the ice'. We stand at the gate and he mockingly announces, "Number 38, Miss Babbette Duboise and partner".  The 4 kids on ice laugh at him. Then we skate 4 strokes, presentation glide and a stop. I asked him "Want me to do a T-stop?" Him: "Can you do a T-Stop?" Me (in irritated tones): "How long have you been coaching me?" Men!

I am duly presented. One of the kids starts the dance music on the CD player. We do my one minute of fame.  No errors. Coach is content.

This is followed by costume approval. I had to skate around stroking and crossovers in hold so he could be sure it wouldn't ride up. For those of you who care, I'm wearing a vintage red, cashmere jacket, black slacks, and a silk blouse (vintage too!). I've reached that age that clothes from my youth are now 'vintage'. Advice for your old age, never throw anything away. It may come in handy for skating.