Basic Skills Competition Figure Skating Levels

I was poking around in the Ice Mom Blog site statistics and found that someone typed in this question in a search engine:

Can a figure skating coach have a student who is skating Freestyle 2 compete in Basic 6?

Good question.

First a disclaimer: Ice Girl was one of these kids. It wasn’t because we were trying to wipe out the competition, though: that kid just wouldn’t get off the ice. I put her on every open skate in Dane County for six months partly because she was begging me to do so and partly because I had a demanding job and could work on projects from the various rinks. She jumped from a Basic 3 in November 2007 to a Freestyle 3 in May 2008. That’s six levels in six months. (Me, I jumped from a miserable, demanding job to one I really love.) The problem we had was that we’d sign Ice Girl up for a Basic Skills competition after she’d finished, say Basic 6, but she was way ahead of that level by the time the competition day arrived. I swear: we were not trying to cheat the system.

A coach I know offered some possibilities about why kids might be higher or lower levels for Basic Skills competitions.

1. The skater signs up at her current level, but by the time the competition has arrived, the skater is way above that level (see disclaimer above).
2. Some Learn to Skate programs are very picky about passing kids up from one level to the next; others pass kids when they demonstrate skills, but the skills are still shaky. Here’s an example: a Basic 4 kid can do crossovers, but she’s unreliable with them. The instructor passes her into Basic 5, but the skill isn’t good enough to go into a program.
3. A coach keeps a kid at a certain level for a while to build the kid’s self-esteem and smear the competition.

Now, I’m not saying that’s right or anything, I’m just offering an explanation about how it can occur.

I learned something about Basic Skills the other week: losing is just as important as winning.

Sure, we all want our kids to win, especially when they put in hard work and we feel they deserve it. Ice Girl won second place two weeks ago at a little Basic Skills competition. Her jumps and spins were more difficult than those of the first-place skater. And the first place skater was a brat.

My mom and I were not good skating parents. We grumbled quietly to ourselves and asked Ice Coach how this sort of thing could happen. Ice Coach said a few words, but it was clear she wasn’t taking it well, either. It was like she was keeping her mouth shut for fear of what might come out of it.

You know who took the second place ribbon well? Ice Girl. She smiled and acted like a champion. She was proud of the second place and beamed in the photos. I feel ashamed of my petty behavior.

That’s what Basic Skills is all about. Sure the skating is important and we all want fairness. But that’s not the point.

Character. That’s the point. Trying hard and accepting the judges’ decision with pride and class. Congratulating fellow skaters. Being happy no matter what the outcome. Skating for the love of it, not the hardware.

Ice Girl has learned this important lesson. I’m sure I’ll learn it someday, too.

How-to: Spray Paint a Figure Skating Dress

Remember how I ruined a figure skating dress for Ice Girl last fall? http://tinyurl.com/monssp Well, I did it right over the weekend.

If you’ve read the previous post, you know that constructing the figure skating dress before spraying with Simply Spray fabric paint is a disaster. There’s no way to prevent the dye from spotting through to the panties and back – I don’t care how well you cut out tag board shields.

Here’s how I spray-dyed the figure skating dress:

1. Cut out all of the pieces from white lycra.
   
2. Cover an old folding table with an even older sheet. Ice Dad, a wizard with an iron, ironed the sheet flat using steam and spray.
3. Let the sheet dry for 30 minutes (the steam and spray need to evaporate).
4. Set out the pieces, matching notches and hems.
5. Spread out the pieces just a bit so they’re not touching, but so the seamlines and hems match up. Make sure they're flat, flat flat. No wrinkles.
6. Spray with Simply Spray fabric paint in an arc starting off the fabric and ending off the fabric.
7. Allow to dry for a good 24 hours (the package says 1 hour, but I had trouble with this last fall).
8. Sew as usual.

The fabric is stiffer than unpainted lycra, but it looks really pretty. I used 1 ½ cans on this dress.

Cautions:

• Shake the can away from the fabric or you’ll have spots.
• Don’t use all of the paint in the can – it spots as you finish the can.
• Start and end off the fabric or you’ll have spots.
• Dry well or you’ll have weird shadow images from whatever is behind slightly damp fabric.
• Paint and dry on a perfectly flat surface.
• Be careful to wear an apron or old clothes and spray in an area that you don’t mind covering with fabric dye spots.
• Don’t spray in the wind or where leaves, twigs, and bugs will fall on your fabric while it’s drying.

Figure Skating Sportsmanship

Last weekend Ice Girl competed in a small Basic Skills figure skating competition. A skater who has competed against Ice Girl a bunch of times this year entered the locker room with her mother and sister. Mom belittled, berated, and complained the whole time. She ranted and cussed, then finally went to sit in the stands.

Ice Coach and I exchanged looks. So that’s where the kid gets her bad attitude.

Indeed, according to a report by a team of researchers from the Universities of Missouri – St. Louis, Minnesota – Twin cities, and Notre Dame, researchers found that kids model their sportsmanship habits from their perceptions of their coach’s and parents’ behavior. And it doesn’t get better with age, either. Older kids are poorer sports than younger kids.

Later in the day, Ice Girl was skating her freeskate. The kid has an amazing straight-leg sit spin (she calls it spin-the-duck). It’s pretty cool.

After the event, Ice Coach told me that bad-attitude skater said while Ice Girl was spinning, “I hope she falls.”

It took my breath away.

I thought it might be a teachable moment for Ice Girl, you know, about sportsmanship. It turns out she was way ahead of me.

“Mom. No big deal. I’m fine.”

Well, I’m not. I’m on a tear and Ice Girl is completely uninterested in my preaching and ranting about bad-attitude skater.

So, I’ve been reading up on how not to create a monster. Here are some suggestions I’ve found:

• Develop the person first, the athlete second. That’s NCAA basketball coach John Wooden’s philosophy. “Coaching for character” is the primary responsibility of the coach. Coaching should emphasize successful character skills that have carry-over both on the ice and in life, Wooden said. Emphasize optimism, courage, patience, perseverance, effort, honesty, and responsibility.



• Don’t put pressure on your kid to be the best. Encourage your kid to love the sport and work hard.



• Be the person you’d like your kid to be. I’m not always good at this, but I try. I try not to be a sore loser when every man, woman, child, and dog beats me at any card or board game invented. I try not to be a poor winner, either. Of course, that so rarely happens that I’m too stunned to do a victory dance.



• Encourage hard work. This is from a cognitive scientist, but I think there’s carry over to sports. Daniel Willingham wrote, “Students who believe that intelligence can be improved with hard work get higher grades than students who believe that intelligence is an immutable trait.” When Ice Girl doesn’t do as well as she would like, I always tell her, “Just work harder.” Of course, she turns into a figure skating maniac before competitions and begs anyone who can drive to take her to walk-on ice. But, there are worse things than hard work.



• The best revenge is living well. Fine. I didn’t find this from any expert. This is my own naughty-ness, but I think it’s good advice. Concentrate on yourself and your own success. Don’t let the trolls and their tolls bring you down. Living well will shut them up, anyway.

Do you have a good tip about sportsmanship? Do you have experience with figure skating trolls? Feel free to share in the comments.

References:

“Raising a good sport.” Scholastic Parent & Child. Feb/Mar 2007, Vol. 14, Issue 5.

Wellman, Chris. “Positive Coaching: A Guide to the Productive Teaching of Athletics.” Coach & Athletic Director. January 2007, vol. 76, Issue 6, p 97-08.

Willingham, Daniel T. Why Don’t Students Like School? Jossey-Bass. 2009, p. 140.

“Youth Sports.” Education Week. 12/12/2007, Vol. 27 Issue 15, p5.

How-to: The sock bun part two - creative use of hairnets

Some folks expressed concern about the sock bun method for figure skaters in an earlier post: http://icemom.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-make-hair-bun-with-sock-method.html The concern is that the figure skater in the photos has shorter hair. The mom just blends in the ends of her daugher's hair with the hair on the rest of her head.

I agree. I am a member of the hair net club for sock buns. Here's my method (Ice Girl is in the photos, along with all of our skating stuff - in a disorderly heap.)

Step one: Start from the fountain stage. In other words, make the pony tail, put sock bun form around it, and then have your skater bend over so the hair falls over the sock bun form and covers it completely. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read the earlier post.

Then, wrangle the hair into a swirl using the hair net.

Step two: more wrangling. I pull the hairnet out and twist it over itself, then come back and cover the bun some more.

Step three: the bun. You can see it's kind of enclosed with a hair net. At this point, you can pin it down with bobby pins. Be sure to use two at each spot. Bobby pins should cross over one another to hold each other in place. In other words, make an X with two bobby pins. That way, your skater won't sprinkle bobby pins all over the ice. You can also secure the bun with just another pony tail rubber band.

Step four: Hide the bobby pins with a scrunchie. By the way, this one is made from that sequin fabric that gave me fits. Pretty, isn't it?

Bonus: Using the hairnet not only holds your skater's bun in place, but she can serve lunch when the competition's over.

What to say before your figure skater takes to the ice

If you’re the parent of a teen, you know that no matter what you say, your teen will twist your words and create pre-competition drama.

Maybe that’s just my teen, but I don’t think so.

Ideally, you leave your figure skater with her coach, grab a cup of hot cocoa or coffee and huddle under a blanket in the stands until your skater’s event. Leave the coach to handle the unpredictable hormones and angst.

But sometimes you are with the kid before she takes to the ice. What do you say?

What you say: Skate great! Yeah, it rhymes and looks good on a license plate (sk8gr8), but it’s loaded.
What teens think: What if I don’t skate great? What if I fall on my butt?

What you say: Good luck! It’s a good thing to say, right? Wrong.
What teens think: My mom thinks I’m a terrible skater and I need luck to succeed.

What you say: Have fun! This seems pretty positive, pretty harmless.
What teens think: This isn’t fun; I’m a wreck.

What Ice Dad says: Kill! Hello? Competitions are not your comedy stage, Ice Dad.
What teens think: I’m worried someone will notice that he’s my dad. Why does Mom let him out in public?

What you say: Be careful on that landing. Remember to keep your head up.
What your teens think: She’s not my coach. She doesn’t even know how to tie a skate. Why is she telling me this?

What you say: Now, listen to your coach, honey. We’ll be watching you from the stands. Everything’s going to be O.K. I’m sure you’ll do well. Hey, these words are reassuring to you as the parent, but not to your figure skater.
What teens think: Mom’s worried. I should worry.

Here’s what to do.

Say: I love you.
What teens think: My parents love me no matter how I skate.

Outwitted the little buggers, haven’t I? Now, if you could just tell me how to keep my husband from opening his mouth and we’ll all be fine. Muzzles haven’t worked. So far.

Figure skating dress fabric and Jalie pattern #2801

I did some more sewing over the weekend and completed Jalie pattern #2801, a dress with a large keyhole back for Ice Girl’s compulsory program.

As always, the Jalie instructions were good and it went together without any major sewing mistakes.

The mistake I made wasn’t in sewing; it was in the fabric choice. Again, I’m here to be your horrible warning.

I used this beautiful black stretch velvet with a pattern of sequins all over it. I made the white dress you see in the picture and cut out appliqués of the main fabric for the bottom of the black mesh sleeves. I thought I was so wise: all those sequins made for great sparkle. No crystals necessary.
So far, so good, right?

Well, the collar facing, the keyhole opening, and the leg openings are all in the sequin fabric, which is scratchy. Not the velvet part, but the sequins.
Just terrific. I spent hours on this beautiful, classy dress and Ice Girl complains that it is painful to wear.
My solution is to try to remove the sequins on the facings with some kind of solvent. We’ll see how that works.

Bottom line: Use fabric that won’t itch or scratch the skater. As much as I wanted to wring Ice Girl’s neck when she tried on the dress and began to whine, she had a point, darn it. Of course, this is the same kid who can feel a pea under her mattress, so maybe she’s blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Still, I’ll never buy fabric that even looks like it might be uncomfortable. I don’t care how much it sparkles.

Figure Skating Pattern Review: Jalie 2684

I finished the figure skating dress I've been working on for Ice Girl. It's Jalie pattern #2684 and it looks pretty good. I tell you: I was worried. We've got some bright fabrics working here.

Ice Girl and Ice Coach selected a lycra that's like chrome. I kid you not: you can see a reflection in this stuff. Think aluminum pop can and you'll have it.

They also selected a holographic hot pink, a holographic blue/purple, and a holographic lime green. That's a lot of shine.

I combined the two bodice pieces into one (see photo at left) and then traced out where I wanted the colored pieces to go. You can see where I added extra seam allowances to the pieces. If you've never pieced anything together, realize that when you sew the pieces, it's a good idea to sew a stabilizing straight stitch just inside the seam line and clip the seam allowance to the straight stitch. It makes pinning and sewing so much easier and pucker-free.

Tip: use sew-in stabilizer or sew-in interfacing to trace patterns. The stabilizer or interfacing is pretty see-through and very sturdy. It irons well and holds up to multiple cuttings. Sew-in stabilizer is pretty cheap, too. I think I spent $1.09/yard at Wal-Mart for it. I always buy 10 yards at a time because I don't want to run out in the middle of tracing a pattern.


Tip: I also use medical paper tape when I need to tape my patterns together. Irons don't melt paper tape; they melt Scotch tape really well, though. You can see in the photo with the iron that I cut off the top part of a pattern piece. I repaired it with the paper tape and moved on with the project.

Jalie review: Again, I like the Jalie patterns. The instructions and diagrams are clear and sensible. The patterns come with 22 sizes, so adjusting it to fit is pretty simple.

My complaint with this pattern is that I had trouble with the collar. It gapped. When Ice Girl tried on the dress, the collar sagged like a cowl neck instead of fitting to her neck. It took some creative sewing (darts) to make it lie flat and not look funny.

Otherwise, Ice Girl loves the dress. As I said, it's bright, but not so flashy that I'm embarrassed to have passed it through my machine.

The problem? Ice Girl can't figure out where the crystals should go. Um. No crystals, Ice Girl. You'll blind everyone with that much shine.

Bottom line: would I buy another Jalie pattern? You bet. The gaping neckline isn't enough to deter me from their figure skating dresses. Overall the fit is good and I can fix a gaping neckline pretty well.