Upcoming US Regional Championships

[balladeno1]

Is anyone going to watch the stream on IN? I know that there are a lot of skaters, but I think that watching the Final Rounds and Junior-Senior Groups is a good place to see any talent. Besides, aren't there many skaters that are the whole package, but just have a bad skate? Anyways, here are the dates for each region:

Central Pacific-Oct. 3-6
South Western-^
North Atlantic^

Northwest Pacific-Oct. 10-13
Upper Great Lakes-^
New England- Oct. 17-20

Southwest Pacific-Oct. 10-13
Eastern Great Lakes-Oct.17-20
South Atlantic-^

^ indicates same date as above regional dates.

source:http://www.usfsa.org/Events.asp?id=491

Then, the following Regions filter into each section.

Midwesterns-Southwestern, Upper, Eastern
Pacific-Central Pacific, Northwest Pacific, Southwest Pacific
Eastern-North Atlantic, New England, South Atlantic

 

[dorispulaski]

We have not started the threads for regionals yet, but when we do, they will be here:

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?488-2016-US-Figure-Skating-Championships

 

[chuckm]

IMO, the level to look for future talent is the Novices, not so much the Juniors and Seniors. The Seniors who do Regionals are those who didn't get GPs, Challenges or Senior Bs that exempted them from competing at Regionals. Of the Juniors, we already know who the top Juniors are---the ones on the ISP list, those who are now competing on the JGP, and those who will compete at the Junior/Novice part of the US Challenge this week.

 

[frida80]

IMO, the level to look for future talent is the Novices, not so much the Juniors and Seniors. The Seniors who do Regionals are those who didn't get GPs, Challenges or Senior Bs that exempted them from competing at Regionals. Of the Juniors, we already know who the top Juniors are---the ones on the ISP list, those who are now competing on the JGP, and those who will compete at the Junior/Novice part of the US Challenge this week.

It's interesting how fast USFS selects these girls from Novice and Junior that you can practically predict the results beforehand. Barring disaster, I think Vivian Le will win Juniors. But I will watch Junior regionals for Tessa Hong. Because of that accident during regionals last year, she didn't have a chance to go to any internationals this year.

 

[tulosai]

IMO, the level to look for future talent is the Novices, not so much the Juniors and Seniors. The Seniors who do Regionals are those who didn't get GPs, Challenges or Senior Bs that exempted them from competing at Regionals. Of the Juniors, we already know who the top Juniors are---the ones on the ISP list, those who are now competing on the JGP, and those who will compete at the Junior/Novice part of the US Challenge this week.

In general this is true though there are rare exceptions/surprises.

 

[chuckm]

It's interesting how fast USFS selects these girls from Novice and Junior that you can practically predict the results beforehand. Barring disaster, I think Vivian Le will win Juniors. But I will watch Junior regionals for Tessa Hong. Because of that accident during regionals last year, she didn't have a chance to go to any internationals this year.

Tessa was just added to the JGP in Spain.

 

[ruffledgrouse]

I usually watch the Northwest seniors because I'm a sucker for the underdogs. IN doesn't livestream regionals and it usually takes a while to get the videos up, so no kicking it in the virtual peanut gallery with all my favorite GS posters

Oh well, I still enjoy watching

 

[frida80]

Tessa was just added to the JGP in Spain.

OMG! I can't wait to check her out!

 

[aromaticchicken]

In general this is true though there are rare exceptions/surprises.

IMO, the level to look for future talent is the Novices, not so much the Juniors and Seniors. The Seniors who do Regionals are those who didn't get GPs, Challenges or Senior Bs that exempted them from competing at Regionals. Of the Juniors, we already know who the top Juniors are---the ones on the ISP list, those who are now competing on the JGP, and those who will compete at the Junior/Novice part of the US Challenge this week.

There are definitely exceptions. Last year, some notable ones include Nathan Chen, Karen Chen, Tyler Pierce, Amber Glenn, Jordan Moeller, Sean Rabbitt, Alex Johnson, Grant Hochstein, Tim Dolensky...

It's also worth adding that many of these skaters had better *sectionals* performance than at Nationals, so it can be fun to watch retroactively if you liked them at Nationals but want to see them perform clean(er)...

 

[frida80]

There are definitely exceptions. Last year, some notable ones include Nathan Chen, Karen Chen, Tyler Pierce, Amber Glenn, Jordan Moeller, Sean Rabbitt, Alex Johnson, Grant Hochstein, Tim Dolensky...

It's also worth adding that many of these skaters had better *sectionals* performance than at Nationals, so it can be fun to watch retroactively if you liked them at Nationals but want to see them perform clean(er)...

It's true. I think a lot of skaters let their nerves get to them at the National Level.

 

[gkelly]

Most of the skaters at sectionals, especially the ladies, will be pretty good skaters or they wouldn't have made it that far, after having qualified through regionals. (Some might be better jumpers than skaters, others might be better skaters than jumpers). Few would be at the level of the skaters you see on the Grand Prix or in the final groups at ISU Championships, but most novice and above would at least be comparable to skaters from smaller federations who end up in the middle and lower ranks on the JGP or senior B events.

At regionals, on the other hand, especially in the initial rounds, there will be more skaters who are average and below average for their level than who are upcoming potential stars.

Which isn't to say that an upcoming intermediate or novice skater you might hear from again in coming years might not have her best performance of the season at regionals, even in an initial rather than final round.

If you're interested in watching grass-roots skating and seeing the full range of skill levels, it can be fascinating to watch a full regional event, even fun to mock-judge for yourself or just try to pick out the good, average, and weaker skaters in a group. Or enjoy those few who have better choreography and musical expression than they have skating skill.

But if you're really just interested in watching good performances, then you can wait till after the fact and look up individual programs that were recommended for one reason or another without sitting through the rest of the group.

Depends what you're looking for.

 

[chuckm]

I've been to both Regionals and Sectionals and believe me, Sectionals is by far the more enjoyable event! There are skaters who decide to do Regionals just to see what it's like to compete there. After two or three of those, your eyes get exhausted from rolling.

 

[balladeno1]

All fair points. I forgot that they don't stream regionals. Maybe it was sectionals that I watched. It was a while ago, so memory is a bit fogged up.

 

[tulosai]

There are definitely exceptions. Last year, some notable ones include Nathan Chen, Karen Chen, Tyler Pierce, Amber Glenn, Jordan Moeller, Sean Rabbitt, Alex Johnson, Grant Hochstein, Tim Dolensky...

It's also worth adding that many of these skaters had better *sectionals* performance than at Nationals, so it can be fun to watch retroactively if you liked them at Nationals but want to see them perform clean(er)...

On the other hand, many of these skaters were already on people's radar big time from when they were novices, particularly Chen and Chen and Glenn, who have been 'known' for a few years now at least. Rabbitt and Hochstein were also already on some people's radar. So I guess it depends if you really do mean 'discovering' talent, or if you really just mean watching it if that makes sense.

 

[loopy]

I've been to both Regionals and Sectionals and believe me, Sectionals is by far the more enjoyable event! There are skaters who decide to do Regionals just to see what it's like to compete there. After two or three of those, your eyes get exhausted from rolling.

Regionals is an exciting event for skaters to participate in, even if they cause eyes to roll. If it is local, it is fun to compete with friends, and chances are the skaters you see skate who are local are also volunteering. If those watching are looking for the next star, ITA with final rounds and sectionals being "more enjoyable".

 

[NaVi]

Regionals have started... here is a link to a page that links to the leaderboards of each event.

http://www.usfigureskating.org/Story.asp?id=51461&type=media

 

[dorispulaski]

Here's the Golden Skate thread where Results of all regionals will be posted:

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/sh...-Regional-Championships&p=1234511#post1234511