Not enough competitions?

Don't you think FS competitons are not enough? Skaters compete every year just at Worlds, Euros and GP. Every four years the Olympics. And some minor competitions such as Nebelhorn, Finlandia Trophy, Karl Schaefer. And obviously Nationals. But from march till october no competitions :scratch:

But if you think about other sports, the athlests have many many many more competitions than skaters. They play the whole year. For example volley, soccer, basket, baseball...
They play every year with the NTs (in the summer and autumn) and with the clubs (in the winter and spring).

Skaters need that time away from the competitive season to pick new music, have programs choreographed, work on new tricks etc. It is very difficult to get all of that done and train for specific competitions.

In many instances the skaters are touring & earning money to fund their training, costumes & choreographers during the off season. It's a very expensive sport. $40,000.00 a year or more for a single skater.

They play the whole year. For example volley, soccer, basket, baseball...

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it wasn't always that way for baseball and basketball... they keep adding on to their seasons

Football takes a break too...

Skating, I think, is not just a bit more on the expensive side - it's expensive on the individual's dime... not a team manager/owner's...

I think the season is long enough and there are enough competitions for all...

In the US and Canada, club competitions start in late June/early July and continue right through September. Many US, Canadian and Japanese skaters compete at these events in preparation for the coming season.

Major summer comps include Broadmoor in Colorado, Liberty in Pennsylvania, Thornhill in Canada, Skate Detroit, Golden West in California, Indy Challenge (for Pairs) and Lake Placid (NY) for Ice Dance.

Some federations require skaters to participate in summer competitions to show that they have kept up their skills, and many "B" International assignments are made based on summer competition results.

Skaters who finish out of the top echelons at Nationals have to work hard to improve their skating. They aren't sent to the major end-of-year competitions and International "B"s, but those who want to keep competing have to choose programs for next year and start working on them in preparation for the summer competitions.

Top skaters go right from Nationals into the ISU Championship events. After that, many get the chance to skate in shows and exhibitions, but they, too, have to start planning and preparing new programs while they are on tour. For the top skaters, down time is rare.

When you look at the incidence of injuries among the top skaters, it appears that there may be TOO MANY competitions, not too few.

I don't think there are enough international competions, ie. open to nationalities and not just two.

However, I understand it is not always feasible for young skaters to travel in a circuit as golf players do, but they could try a Asian Open; an Amercian (in its generic term) Open,and a European Open with very big purses. The Opens could be held every three months, and as soon as the winners start counting the big bucks, they will start signing up for the next one. Rules and Regs would have to be developed.

Of course these 'Opens' would be in addition to the GP circuit, the Nationals, 4CCs, Euros and Worlds.

Joe

^ I think it's the "very big purses" part that poses the problem. Who will put up the money?

For seniors, I think there should be more of a "A" circuit and "B" circuit type thing. The A circuit would of course be the Grand Prix competitions. As far as the "B" circuit, there should be more things along the likes of Golden Spin and Karl Schaefer (anyone been following skating long enough to remember the likes of the Ennia Cup and the Novarat Trophy??). Also, I think participation by the "third world" of figure skating should be encouraged (on the "B" circuit, at least to start with) as well -- for example, countries like New Zealand and South Africa can send 3 entrants to 4 Continents, but other than that competiton, how many times does the #2 or #3 from those countries (and others) ever get a chance to go anywhere??

Some of the poorer federations (and some of the better-off ones as well) have a limited budget for figure skating and can't or won't send skaters out to every competition. Balkan countries often send skaters only to comps in or near the Balkan region.

Countries like Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have significant travel hurdles because they so far away from the countries where most events are held.

Even big skating powers like Canada and the US have cut back on competitions. The US used to send lots of skaters to the spring events (Spring Garden and Triglav) but sent only 3 Junior men to Spring Garden and no one to Triglav last year. This year, the US sent no Single skaters to Golden Spin.