Metronome ticks for start of program?

[Mathematician]

I see often times the skaters get caught off guard by the timing of when their music starts. When the skater's choreo starts with the first beat of the music it almost always makes the opening seconds frantic and rushed since its impossible to perfectly predict. Also sometimes the audio guys start the music a bit too fast - clearly before the skater is locked in and so it makes the problem even worse. The fix that plenty of skaters have for this is to wait through a couple bars of music, which sometimes works fine but also often times feels awkward.

I was thinking, would it be a decent idea for the skaters to just add a couple quick metronome ticks to the start of their track so they know exactly how to hit the music? I dont think it would be obnoxious or distracting at all honestly and I think it would help their artistic impact a lot and help them build momentum much earlier.

Random idea, thoughts? I dont see why not.

 

[lariko]

I see often times the skaters get caught off guard by the timing of when their music starts. When the skater's choreo starts with the first beat of the music it almost always makes the opening seconds frantic and rushed since its impossible to perfectly predict. Also sometimes the audio guys start the music a bit too fast - clearly before the skater is locked in and so it makes the problem even worse. The fix that plenty of skaters have for this is to wait through a couple bars of music, which sometimes works fine but also often times feels awkward.

I was thinking, would it be a decent idea for the skaters to just add a couple quick metronome ticks to the start of their track so they know exactly how to hit the music? I dont think it would be obnoxious or distracting at all honestly and I think it would help their artistic impact a lot and help them build momentum much earlier.

Random idea, thoughts? I dont see why not.

Actually, why don't they do it? I mean, it's like 3-2-1 in any race. Would also get the public settled and attentive.

 

[noskates]

Not all skaters start exactly on the first beat of their music....probably for that reason.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

I see often times the skaters get caught off guard by the timing of when their music starts. When the skater's choreo starts with the first beat of the music it almost always makes the opening seconds frantic and rushed since its impossible to perfectly predict. Also sometimes the audio guys start the music a bit too fast - clearly before the skater is locked in and so it makes the problem even worse. The fix that plenty of skaters have for this is to wait through a couple bars of music, which sometimes works fine but also often times feels awkward.

I was thinking, would it be a decent idea for the skaters to just add a couple quick metronome ticks to the start of their track so they know exactly how to hit the music? I dont think it would be obnoxious or distracting at all honestly and I think it would help their artistic impact a lot and help them build momentum much earlier.

Random idea, thoughts? I dont see why not.

There's actually a countdown at the boards that skaters can see. You have a designated amount of time to take your start position or you're penalized. That teamed with skaters doing these programs over and over again in practices at home rink and there and knowing when the music should start---there's no excuse for not or being "shocked" that it started.

 

[Mathematician]

Not all skaters start exactly on the first beat of their music....probably for that reason.

Yea I mentioned that, but a lot also do and they mess up often.

There's actually a countdown at the boards that skaters can see. You have a designated amount of time to take your start position or you're penalized. That teamed with skaters doing these programs over and over again in practices at home rink and there and knowing when the music should start---there's no excuse for not or being "shocked" that it started.

Oh ok, thats for that info. I didnt know about the countdown. But I dont think practice would really help on its own, cause its still impossible to predict when the audio guy will start and if you're even a quarter beat off you're gonna end up rushing. But yea, with the countdown clock it will certainly be much more reasonable.

 

[sadya]

Decades ago, for a while, you'd hear something like a beep tone before the actual start of the music. I can't remember what year exactly and why they stopped doing it. I started watching skating in the 90s and this was long before that time. For people who remember, was there any big discussion about that "beep" and why did they decide to stop doing that? Good idea to bring that back?

 

[lariko]

There's actually a countdown at the boards that skaters can see. You have a designated amount of time to take your start position or you're penalized. That teamed with skaters doing these programs over and over again in practices at home rink and there and knowing when the music should start---there's no excuse for not or being "shocked" that it started.

The count down is there, on the clock, but I dunno, I often found the music start too quiet or whatever. It's like the runners or any other racers know they will be running any moment now when they are on the start line, but they get a very distinct count down. Why not skaters? Plus, they edit their own music, so they can space that CD to always remember how it goes... Like, why not? Def would help the audience to focus on the next start too.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

The count down is there, on the clock, but I dunno, I often found the music start too quiet or whatever. It's like the runners or any other racers know they will be running any moment now when they are on the start line, but they get a very distinct count down. Why not skaters? Plus, they edit their own music, so they can space that CD to always remember how it goes... Like, why not? Def would help the audience to focus on the next start too.

Again, we train to know when the music starts over and over. We train those programs so we can do them in our sleep and beyond, and that is what the ISU wants and the rules and we deal with them, it's really not the huge problem it's being made here.

 

[lariko]

Again, we train to know when the music starts over and over. We train those programs so we can do them in our sleep and beyond, and that is what the ISU wants and the rules and we deal with them, it's really not the huge problem it's being made here.

Actually, the OP said 'random' and 'small', vs huge or anything. I kindda like it.

 

[Mathematician]

Again, we train to know when the music starts over and over. We train those programs so we can do them in our sleep and beyond, and that is what the ISU wants and the rules and we deal with them, it's really not the huge problem it's being made here.

What huge problem is being made the title literally has small in it.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Perhaps stop focusing on trivial things that are fine within the skating world and then defending that with more trivial things like use of a verb. There are bigger things to conquer and most to all skaters are fine with the way it is.

All want to be crusaders for the participants of this sport, yet when one comes on to speak how it really is, it's reduced to use of a word.


Let's just agree to disagree and get on with it.

 

[Mathematician]

Perhaps stop focusing on trivial things that are fine within the skating world and then defending that with more trivial things like use of a verb. There are bigger things to conquer and most to all skaters are fine with the way it is.

All want to be crusaders for the participants of this sport, yet when one comes on to speak how it really is, it's reduced to use of a word.


Let's just agree to disagree and get on with it.

Its not that deep bro. Im literally so confused why people get antagonistic so quickly over things on the internet. I gave an admittedly trivial solution to an admittedly trivial problem. Idk how you're supposed to "train over and over" for a random audio guy sitting and pressing a button. Its an observable fact that the best skaters in the world keep messing it up at a noticeable frequency soo...

Anyways funny enough I just watched an Arina Averina performance and her track literally did exactly what I outlined in the thread so I guess it wasnt such a bad idea after all

 

[el henry]

Who is Anna Averina? Is she a skater? Never heard of her.

@IceRabbit gave good information about what actually happens with skaters in real life. So my dude, it is a small suggestion, which all of us are free to make, but it's not needed at all, which is fine too.

Jumping off, I seem to remember a skater where the crowd was yelling at him (it was a man) to start the music and start skating. Maybe at US Nats? Does anyone remember this or was it a fever dream

 

[Mathematician]

Who is Anna Averina? Is she a skater? Never heard of her.

@IceRabbit gave good information about what actually happens with skaters in real life. So my dude, it is a small suggestion, which all of us are free to make, but it's not needed at all, which is fine too.

Jumping off, I seem to remember a skater where the crowd was yelling at him (it was a man) to start the music and start skating. Maybe at US Nats? Does anyone remember this or was it a fever dream

Man I know you guys are buddies but come on. I gave a little suggestion thats all and the observable fact is that it happens to the best consistently so regardless of how much they train for the randomness of the audio guy I dont see how my suggestion isnt valid. He said I'm trying to be a "crusader for the sport" and implied there are more important things which is such a high horse position and its just frustrating. I literally agreed with him initially if you scroll up but then he continued to totally misrepresent the essence of the thread which is just frustrating.

Anyways, Arina Averina is a champion artistic gymnast. Programs in that sport start in the exact same way as figure skating programs and almost all of her programs start with a beep so she can catch the music. Her sister Dina also has these beeps and it evidently helps them significantly with the timing of their music. Yes its a different sport but the method of initial sequence is identical. Artistic gymnastics is also far more sophisticated in regards to pure musicality than skating, so even moreso support for the original idea. After seeing this I now have my proof that my suggestion wasnt poor at all. If anyone still thinks its a stupid idea they can contact multiple time champions Dina & Arina to let them know they should work on their timing and musicality instead of using this supposed silly crutch.

 

[el henry]

No interest whatsoever in gymnastics, or knowledge of how it works, so thanks for the information. I never would have known otherwise, thought perhaps it was a Russian skater I did not know.

 

[Minz]

Jumping off, I seem to remember a skater where the crowd was yelling at him (it was a man) to start the music and start skating. Maybe at US Nats? Does anyone remember this or was it a fever dream

I want to say Jeremy Abbott, 2014 US Nationals

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Who is Anna Averina? Is she a skater? Never heard of her.

@IceRabbit gave good information about what actually happens with skaters in real life. So my dude, it is a small suggestion, which all of us are free to make, but it's not needed at all, which is fine too.

Jumping off, I seem to remember a skater where the crowd was yelling at him (it was a man) to start the music and start skating. Maybe at US Nats? Does anyone remember this or was it a fever dream

it was jeremy abbott in 2014 LP

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Its not that deep bro. Im literally so confused why people get antagonistic so quickly over things on the internet. I gave an admittedly trivial solution to an admittedly trivial problem. Idk how you're supposed to "train over and over" for a random audio guy sitting and pressing a button. Its an observable fact that the best skaters in the world keep messing it up at a noticeable frequency soo...

Anyways funny enough I just watched an Arina Averina performance and her track literally did exactly what I outlined in the thread so I guess it wasnt such a bad idea after all

First of all BRO, I'm female. Second of all you're the one taking this way too far and focusing too much on "a guy sitting and pressing a button."
We train with certain timing etc in mind for "the button pusher" and know when the music should start when we take our spot at the beginning of the program with the clock in mind as well.

In pre-competition practices the ref/tech panel and sound person actually counts each skater/teams program length when skated and the music plays through and they acknowledge it out loud over the sound system for all to hear after.

This was all I was stating from the inside, the simplicity.
Figure skating is not gymnastics and thankfully will never be. Please educate yourself on figure skating and don't come at the people who are kindly trying to educate you on how it works.

Going back to agreeing to disagree and leaving it at that.

 

[el henry]

First of all BRO, I'm female. Second of all you're the one taking this way too far and focusing too much on "a guy sitting and pressing a button."
We train with certain timing etc in mind for "the button pusher" and know when the music should start when we take our spot at the beginning of the program with the clock in mind as well.

In pre-competition practices the ref/tech panel and sound person actually counts each skater/teams program length when skated and the music plays through and they acknowledge it out loud over the sound system for all to hear after.

This was all I was stating from the inside, the simplicity.
Figure skating is not gymnastics and thankfully will never be. Please educate yourself on figure skating and don't come at the people who are kindly trying to educate you on how it works.

Going back to agreeing to disagree and leaving it at that.

I was wondering about that at practices, when I heard after the run-through, "Johnny Skater, 4 minutes 22 seconds", who was doing that and why. I have learned something.

 

[lariko]

Please educate yourself on figure skating and don't come at the people who are kindly trying to educate you on how it works.

I have seen the time measuring and the clock in every competition etc, and I have never seen gymnastics competition, but I am still curious why having 3-2-1 would have been a bad thing?