Bracknell Ice Skating CLub

BISC - Newsletter March/April 2004

Bracknell Ice Skating Club Newsletter - March/April 2004


No Big Surprises in BISC Free Competition


This year’s free skating competition attracted 30 entries — about the same as the previous two years. But there were so few boys that those who did enter had no one to compete against. And once again there was only one pair.

Until last year, the club had a tradition of boys competing in the same classes as girls in free and solo dance competitions. It meant there were usually a reasonable number of skaters in each class and the medallists were usually a mixture of boys and girls.

Following pressure from parents, last year’s free skating competition saw the introduction of boys’ only classes except at the highest level where the new Elite Trophy was introduced. This year even that competition has been eroded with just two girls vying for the new girls-only trophy and one boy competing for the Elite Trophy.

Once again the event attracted entries of varying quality at most levels and there were no big surprise results in any class.

Results:
Garner Trophy, under level 2, girls: Holly Jordan, 1st, Emily Kellas, 2nd, Amber-Jayne Holmes and Eleanore Nicholls, joint 3rd, Yasmin Bell, 5th, Olivia Wessendorf, 6th, Sophie Torrington, 7th, Eleanor Hetebrij, 8th, Kali Turner, 9th, Rhiannan Bailey, 10th.
boys: Harvey Clarke, 1st.

Bonny Cup, under level 4, girls: Hannah Hetebrij, 1st, Hannah Connor, 2nd, Jessica Ledermann, 3rd, Anna Minchinton, 4th, Olivia Clarke, 5th, Rachel Kellas, 6th, Zoe McBride, 7th.

Novice Cup, under level 6, girls: Fiona Piggott, 1st,Bethany Jarvis, 2nd, Laura Connor, 3rd, Cara Rogers, 4th, Seren Tudor, 5th.
boys: David Truby, 1st.

Bracknell Cup, under level 8, girls: Charlotte Hester, 1st, Holly Kirkbride, 2nd.

ISSG Trophy, level 8 and over, girls: Leah Rogers, 1st, Taryn Dennison, 2nd.
Elite Trophy, level 8 and over, boys: Simon Waller, 1st.

Matt-Kira Trophy, pairs, any standard: Charlotte Hester and David Truby, 1st.

Introducing an occasional series in which Simon Waller offers advice to help members improve their skating.

Simon Says - The Full Package

What do people in the skating world mean when they talk about the full package? It is the qualities skaters need to enable them to perform with flair on the ice.

The skaters who reach the highest levels are not necessarily the ones who have the best training facilities, the most money to spend on lessons or costumes, or even those who have the most difficult programmes. It is those who do things well.

A free skater landing harder triple jumps is undeniably a good technician on jumps but may fail in competition because their spins, choreography and basic skating are poor. The marks given, in both free and dance, are taken from a base mark. It is essential to understand this to analyse why some skaters “have it” and others don’t. The base mark is a reflection of this full package. Skaters should not only enjoy what they are doing but show that they are enjoying it. They should have pride in what they do and show off their ability. Skaters who give no thought to how they look, who produce one or two difficult elements among poor untidy skating, who either slouch or hump their shoulders, don’t use their arms to aid their artistic, and have no feeling, will be marked merely as another mediocre skater. To really impress, it is essential to acknowledge the sport’s aesthetic nature and combine it with technical ability.

Elements must be of a good quality; being able to barely scrape a series of twizzles or land a double is a start but is not enough to put you in contention at top levels. A skater must consolidate the elements and really think about how they look. They should flow across the ice and make whatever they do look easy with strong entrances and exits to each element. Some skating is so poor you can hardly tell jumps from steps or other moves and certainly won’t give you a good base from which to mark your performance.

This is why in many competitions a person landing more or harder elements is often out of medal position. The winners are those who make their skating a performance, not those who make a performance of their skating. Judges don’t want to see how hard something is for you to do or how small you can do something. Being good includes being bold and confident. Without even changing the technical spec of a programme, working on this side of your skating can increase your marks drastically.

Why spend hours working on jumps or mastering steps if you don’t show off your work? Take the time to focus on how you look and how well you skate, not on how many “hard” elements you can do. Unlike most aspects of skating this does not take nearly as much effort and is far less painful than bashing away at the next jump. Without a high base mark you cannot expect to get judges behind you. They are the ones giving the marks, so give them what they want to see!

 


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