Express Yourself through Figure Skating

Most people think of figure skating as both sport and art. Peggy Fleming has a short video on expressing yourself through figure skating:

Peggy Fleming On Why People Should Skate

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Skating to the Music

Musicality is a challenging yet important part of skating. You often see skaters running a program by going through the various jumps and spins with great focus but completely ignoring their music.

Skaters need to develop the skill of skating to their music. When you watch the top performers in skating, you see how they bring the crowd into their music.

To work on musicality, skaters can practice their routine without any jumps so they can focus strictly on the music and presentation. Also, developing a habit of listening for certain points in the music for an arm move or step can make a definite improvement in presentation.

Here is a video of 2010 Olympic Gold Medalist Yuna Kim performing in South Korea last spring. Watch how she gets the crowd excited through her musicality and presentation.

Finding Inspiration for Performance

Finding inspiration as a performer is sometimes key to giving that moving performance yourself, whether you’re a figure skater, gymnast, dancer, actor, singer, or any other type of performer.

Here are two videos that can help you find inspiration in many different ways.

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Life Lessons from State Games of America

We just concluded a very successful State Games of America, and I want to say congratulations to my students – and all the Chitwood Skating students – on a wonderful competition!  Everyone skated well, and my students alone ended up winning about 25 medals!

The results were great, but they are never my main focus. Although exciting and fun, they are only temporary rewards. The real reward comes from knowing everyone tried their hardest and had a great time doing it.

Overcoming all the nerves and anticipation going into these events and being able to perform well in front of friends, family, other audience members, and judges takes strength, courage, and confidence. All are traits the competitors will be able to use for the rest of their lives!

I’m proud to say that all the Chitwood Skating students displayed those characteristics at the State Games of America. Congratulations on all their great performances!

Top Tips for Skating Competitions

Christina warming up for the 2009 NRW Trophy, Dortmund, Germany.

Christina warming up for the 2009 NRW Trophy, Dortmund, Germany.

Figure-skating competition season is here! Along with all the hard work comes the stress of remembering everything needed for a competition and the actual competition performance. Let’s not forget the parents, coaches, and audience members who have the stressful job of supporting the skaters, which can be a lot harder than it looks.

I think everyone involved with figure skating during competition season needs support. Here are some articles with tips for skating competitions from my brother, Will (former international pairs competitor representing the U.S.), our mom, Deb Chitwood ( founder of Raising Figure Skaters with ideas from a parent’s perspective) and me (former international ice dance competitor representing Great Britain).

I hope these ideas help eliminate some of the stress so that you can experience the joy of competition!

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2011 State Games of America – in San Diego!

This week, I’m going to be talking about the 2011 State Games of America (SGOA) coming up August 4-7. State Games of America is held every two years for competitors from all over the U.S. In order to qualify to compete at the SGOA, you had to place in the top 3 in any event at your local State Games (for us, State Games of California in March) either this year or the year before.

This event was started in 1999 and now has around 12,000 competitors participating in 23 different sports. The event moves around the U.S., so we are very fortunate to have it in San Diego this year! This competition is a great opportunity for skaters to get to compete with skaters from around the U.S. who normally wouldn’t compete in California.

The figure-skating events will be held at three different rinks: Kroc, San Diego Ice Arena, and Iceoplex Escondido. One of the highlights will be an Olympic-style opening ceremony at 6:30 p.m. on August 5th for all the athletes to march in. It will be at Qualcom stadium where the San Diego Chargers football team plays and will include a torch lighting!

For more information, visit the California State Games website.