Practice Schedule

ISU announced the practice schedule. You can find it on:

http://www.isufs.org/events/WC_2009TimeSchedule.pdf

Hey, thanks! Now I can finally do some planning....hope they put up the practice groups soon....chris

Awesome...thanks! These forums are such a great resource. SO much helpful info

Just FYI... On practice groups, early in the week they are done by country alphabetically. Once the event has started - i.e., after compulsories or the short programs - then the practice groups are ordered based on results groupings, with 'higher ranked/placed skaters' in the same groups.

Wow...that is important! Am I right in assuming that when practice groups for Dance take the ice on Sunday morning at 6am at the main arena, in the order of practice group 1 through 6, that I take the 30 dance pairs, divide them by 6 and come up with the numbers for group one? In this case, group one would be AUS1 ,AZE2, BLR3,BUL4 CAN5?
That would put the Americans in Group 6 and I could get some more sleep!

Ummm... potentially a reasonable assumption EXCEPT... that I don't know for sure that they keep it so that the FIRST session is necessarily alphabetical from "A"... in other words, so that the same countries wouldn't get penalized from a schedule standpoint (either with too early practices ALL THE TIME for the AZER... and very late practices for the end of the alphabet) if I recall correctly (and I am definitely fuzzy on this) they may pick some middle of the alphabet group, and move from there. They might also alternate days.... Bottom line - I don't know that you can make that assumption. Better to check the actual schedule.

One other thing to try not to get too disappointed over is the fact that not necessarily all of the athletes show up on the "Sunday" for practices. Especially skaters who are in the same time zone as the event. It is a long week, and you often hear about athletes taking the strategy that it is more important for them to either rest at home longer or train in more familiar, less scrutinized settings than the "official practices."

Oh yeah, I go to many events and "no shows" are not uncommom at early (or even late) practices....as far as who skates when, I guess we shall see what we shall see. Out of the 108 hours I would LIKE to see, I think I will have to cut back to 94 or so...old age isnt for sissies!