Ask the Ice Moms: Should I Put My Figure Skater on Early Practice Ice?

Today’s question comes from a reader who is trying to weigh the benefits of sleeping before a competition with those of practicing.

I never know what to do on this one: competition practice ice so early that my kid will be asleep by the time she skates at 5:00 p.m. Do we skip the practice ice or practice ice the night before? This is always a dilemma for us because most of the competition days last so long. How important is practice ice before competing? What do other parents do?

Allison Scott, mom to an Olympic figure skater, survivor of many rinks, professional communicator, and blogger at Life on the Edge.

Here’s my philosophy: Ask yourself – Is one more practice ice going to make a difference? Sometimes the answer CAN be yes, but most of the time, if it throws off your skater’s schedule to the point where (s)he can’t recover, then the answer is no. That being said, I can remember a time at JNs in Buffalo when a nighttime additional session made a big difference. For some reason, our skater “found” his double Axel on that 10 p.m. session and then did two of them in the long program the next day after missing it in the short. That being said, he is a night person. If your skater is a morning person, then doing an early practice may not be a bad thing as long as the rest of the day is paced out properly with food and rest. DON’T hang at the rink watching everyone, but do get there in enough time to absorb the energy by watching a little (not your groups, however), warm up properly and mentally get into competition mode. Not sure that was an answer because I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all solution to this.

SeasonedSk8rmom, adult skater and mom to a novice-level skater who just passed her junior moves!

I do not usually sign up for practice ice at the competitions that my daughter participates in because she usually skates on a different sheet of ice than the sheet of ice that she skates for the competition. The only reason I feel a skater should use practice ice is to give them an opportunity to lay out their program on the sheet of ice that they will skating during the competition event. This will help the skater to not get confused and lost during the program. I feel if your child needs extra practice you are better to try to skate at your home rink before they have to skate at the competition. I try not to have my daughter skate the day of a competition because I think it is more important for her to be well rested and give my daughter enough time to get ready. If we were going to a competition out of town then this would be the only time I would get practice if we were going to arrive in town a couple of days before the competition. Hope this is helpful! Season

Xan, adult skater, figure skating coach, parent of a Junior Nationals competitor and current show skater, and blogger at Xanboni, Sconeday, and Mahlzeit.

Practice ice is important before competing. Period. If it’s an out of town competition you’re stuck with the PI you’re assigned to. Go to it, because judges also go to these sessions and you want your kid to be seen. You get what you get at out of town competitions. But practice before a competition is not a full-out, wear yourself out practice; if the coach is running competition day (or even competition week) practice like a full out training session, someone needs to have a talk with that coach.

Pairs Mom, mom to 1/2 of last year’s Junior Nationals intermediate-level pairs gold medalists.

Some coaches prefer that the skater sleep in depending on their competition schedule that day. Others feel like the practice ice is mandatory. Talk to your coach because they know your skater best. We have done both scenarios. If you have early practice ice and a late afternoon event, can you return to a hotel room to rest or are you stuck at the rink? This would be an important factor to me. Also, late practice ice, say after 9:00 p.m. with an early event the next morning, 8:00 a.m. does not work and in that case we would probably skip it.
PairsMom

S.L., mom to a high-school-age figure skater and a long-time figure skating club board member

Unfortunately it seems like the coach dictates this one. A good coach would allow what works best for the skater. My skater never liked early a.m. ice (she is a night owl), so she was allowed to skate the evening before. The coach would warm her up off-ice before she competed then. I think allowing this makes for much less drama at/during the event.

Sk8rmom p, mom to an intermediate-level male figure skater

This practice ice dilemma goes on all the time. The answer really depends on what level your child is and what age. Of course the first thing you should do is to ask your coach what to do. They know best, of course.

IceBoy’s coach has little skaters and if they are at the lower levels, and very young, he tells their parents to skip the early morning practice ice. He will usually make arrangements to go with them to the competition rink on another day at a more reasonable time.

If on the other hand they are higher level skaters, then the answer is different. IceBoy is intermediate level. I might be wrong about this, but from what I was told by IceCoach, at the qualifying levels (juvenile and above), often the technical caller, and in the past, judges for the events would attend official practice ice to watch the skaters in action before the competition. It was therefore important for the skaters to be there practicing.

In the case of official practice ice for a competition, the start time is usually early in the morning and the actual event is later in the afternoon or evening or late at night. IB will go to the early practice ice, then later in the morning or early afternoon, take a nap, and then start the whole day over when he wakes up after the nap.

We’ve been doing this for the last year and he now likes the routine and will choose to do it for non-qualifying competitions as well. Hope this helps.

Ice Mom, parent of Ice Girl, a high-school-aged figure skater

Until last week, I would have written that I always put Ice Girl on practice ice before a competition, no matter how early the ice was. Ice Girl skates at 6 a.m. all the time during the school year, so skating at 6 a.m. before a competition would be no big deal for her. I also think that the practice ice helps calm her nerves. On competition days, I try to eliminate things that might be a source of worry for Ice Girl. I want her to feel confident. So, if skating on unfamiliar ice is a concern for her, I can get her to practice ice. No big deal.

Except last weekend it was a big deal. We would have had to leave the house at 3 a.m. for the 20-minute practice ice. (I hate staying in hotels. My phobia. I’m working on it…) Instead, we slept in, put her on an hour-long local session with her coach, and drove the rink. She said she felt confident because she had worked with Ice Coach and had enough rest.

So, reader, I think it really depends. If Ice Girl had said she would feel more confident with that 6 a.m. ice before the competition, I would have left the house at 3 a.m. She thought that working with Ice Coach one more time would help, so that’s what we did.

How about you, parents? When you see that practice ice before the competition is at 5:20 a.m., do you rush to buy it or do you shake your head and wonder who is putting their figure skater on the ice that early? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments!

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Ice Skater

My ice skater is 10 and competes at pre-pre with axel level. Her coach has always ask her to practice on competition practice ice. Coach wants her to get used to the ice and orient ice skater about the program on practice ice. They go through programs and work out what need to improve.

Ice skater’s coach has lots of competitive skaters. If we are in big competition, ice skater might not see her coach for the whole week. So the practice ice time might be the only lesson ice skater will have with the coach for that week.

She has been on practice ice at 6AM, compete at 11AM, back to hotel for nap, then compete again at 6PM. Sometime we have to keep hotel room one extra day so she can go back for nap in the afternoon. So far this has been working out good.

Going through program with coach on practice ice before competition event seems make ice skater claimer about the competition.
Denise

If it’s a rink that she’s unfamiliar with, then yes we will purchase practice ice.

If it’s a familiar rink and practice ice is early in the morning but she’s not competing until late in the day, then no we don’t purchase practice ice.

The only time we purchase practice ice at a familiar rink is if our daughter’s freeskate event is in the morning, then yes we will purchase early morning practice ice.

For local competitions where she knows the rink, we try to practice at our home club before going to competition, so she doesn’t have to deal with the intimidating skaters that you always find at competitions.
Anonymous

My daughter is NOT a morning skater, her normal practice is in the afternoon so we do not usually do early morning practice ice. It really depends on when her event is, exactly how early the ice time is, and wether or not she’s skated on that particular rink before or not. It is always good to be familiar with the ice. My skater is often better off to get a good nights rest before an event, but then we also know skaters that MUST do some kind of practice ice before that days event(s). You really have to tailor everything to fit your skater. We sometimes haven’t purchased ice at the competition rink but have gone to another rink nearby to practice instead. The ice is a lot less crowded, often the competition practice ice is so crowded my daughter has a hard time doing a serious practice anyway!
ElizaA

One time we were at an out of town rink that she had never used before. When she got out on the ice at 5 am practice the first place she went her blades seemed to have no grip. She couldn’t even do a 3 turn. She came right back off the rink really upset saying “I can’t skate on this blue ice”. Her coach wasn’t at the 5 am ice. I had no idea that ice could be that different from rink to rink.

I had the chance to calm her down, get her back out there and think about which parts of the ice her blades worked and which ones they didn’t. I just had her to out and do 3 turns over and over until she got a feel for every part of the ice. Makes me smile to think that judges could have been watching. The plan was when she got out to compete to try skate her choreography as much as she could but try to avoid the parts of the ice without “traction”. By drifting a little to the left or a little to the right as she came down the ice my girl avoided that section (which was probably too cold for some reason) and didn’t fall – she came in third behind some of the local girls.

There is no way she could have competed on that ice if she hadn’t been on it before. Other skaters from out of town didn’t do so well. We sat in the stands and watched them get down to that one section at the far end of the rink and fall one after the other all morning. You could see it coming, they’d get down there then BOOM. Same spot every time.
Isakswings

Practice ice has always been a good thing for my daughter. It is early, but she seems to do OK! The earliest time she had was 6:15 am. Luckily, she competed at 9:30 am, so it wasn’t TOO long of a wait. She actually did VERY well in that comp. We’ve opted out of practice ice twice… both times were because the competition was held at a rink she was familar with. One was her home rink and the other was a rink she skates at frequently. For those competitions, we opted for a regular 30 minute lesson with her coach the night before. That worked very well. She may skate in her clubs comp this fall and if so, I will likely skip the practice ice session. No need to practice when she practice at that rink several times a week! I’ll opt for a 1-1 lesson with her coach instead of practice ice. It will be more expensive for me, but then her coach can focus solely on my daughter.

I think practice ice is something both the coach and skater(along with the parent!) need to decide on together. Good luck deciding!
Anonymous

Well…after the disaster that was my 9 year olds juvenile debut this week, I say ALWAYS. She had so much to do and the practice ice was only 20 minutes long (I should have bought two of them for her). She went through all her double jumps and her spins, and her footwork sequence and next thing we knew, the 20 minutes was over. She never actually ran the program through on the ice (seeing where she was through the whole thing). She has a history of getting disoriented on different ice– she did it once in a show this year, twice last year in competition. So….she is awesome in practice, like you’d never know she was the only under 10 on there with all these girls who are scoring over 40 points in their juvenile freeskate programs. She got out there, she did a spectacular level 3 combination spin to start and then….she froze. She stopped skating…literally while she tried to get her bearings. It went down hill from there…she figured it out, but you could tell she lost all her confidence and flow…she skated slowly, didn’t do much of her coreography and fell on 3 different jumps…ugh. She stopped again later before her footwork sequence…she totally was disoriented and tried so hard…she finished but man it was ugly and horrible for mom to watch! So, yes, practice ice and a run through or two for this girl. Her coaches and I are going to discuss tomorrow…I never want the poor kid to go through THAT again. GEESH.
Jozet at Halushki

Same here…if it’s ice she’s never, ever skated on before, then yes, we’d absolutely take the practice ice whenever it’s available. If it was really early and my skater wasn’t on until night, then I’d enforce a big break. Different ice temperatures, orientation of different rinks, just imagining yourself “out there” are all just as important as once last practice in the hopes of perfecting that one last element (although, really, either you’re ready or you’re ready by competition day.)

Otherwise, if it’s a rink we’ve been to before, then no, we’d take a practice session the night before, at another local rink if ice wasn’t available at the competition rink.

We’re not at the point yet where we’ve had to travel so far that we were totally dependent on practice ice only at the rink where my skater would be competing. When we get to that point, the decision will be based upon what the coach wants, what the skater wants, what’s available, when my skater is competing, and how much getting out of her normal daily rhythm would be distracting or not.
Jozet at Halushki

Question for Xan (or anyone else who’d like to answer) –

You said “Go to it, because judges also go to these sessions and you want your kid to be seen. ”

At what level are the judges “looking in” at official practice sessions. I’m vaguely aware that this does happen, but just at qualifying levels? Regionals at above? And how much does what your skater does on practice ice figure in to competition scores – if at all. I’m completely clueless on this!
Anonymous

I think in qualifying levels mostly– juvie and above. I know that what dd wore at practice ice and how she conducted herself were things that her coaches talked to her about this time which didn’t really come up before. Despite the disaster that was her program, she was very good on the practice ice and her coaches said they were proud of that no matter what happens at the actual competition.
http://icemom.net Ice Mom

So sorry that her juvenile debut wasn’t fabulous. I’m sure it’s just a temporary bump in the road.
Anonymous

Hey synchmomto2, what comp was she is? I ended up watching a little of the Cranberry Open online and wondered if your daughter was one of those Juvs I saw…. I know there was a comp in Minnesota too, didn’t know where you were located. Sorry the first outing was rough, my daughter had a rough start as a Juv too, it is a big change. Good job for the level 3 spin though! The nice thing about the points system is that they can see how many points each element got them, where they need to improve, etc. At each comp they can just try to improve their score, not ness. the placement… She will learn something new each time out.
Anonymous

It was Cranberry. She wore a black unitard, so if you saw her, you’d probably remember!
Anonymous

I think I did see her! I remember a girl in a black unitard! That is funny, I only watched hoping to see some Intermediates/Novices but the only time I had to sit and watch was when the Juvs were on… I thought the Juvs all looked pretty good! The first year my daughter was a Juv they were all REALLY good – those same girls are now medaling at the Junior level! At least your daughter knows that she can stay Juv for a few years, she’ll do great!
Anonymous

It was a very very deep group- one of the girls in it was the NE regional champion last year if that gives you any idea! I was so upset for her, and talked to her coach yesterday…he assured me with more mileage on her skates in competition, she won’t let things like that mistake fluster her so much…he pointed out to me that she STILL did an excellent axel right after the mistake and was able to put it out of her head because well…she is very seasoned at the axel now, but the doubles, not so much so the lost concentration was harder to come back. Sigh…so hard on us parents too.
Anonymous

I always like going to practice the morning of a competition. Usually for small local meets this is not available because our competitions have so many skaters that they last all day, but for larger meets we get morning practice. I always do better when I have already skated once during the day before I compete, even if I have to leave and walk around and warm up again before I do it for real. Most of the older/advanced/adult skaters I know go to early practice, but I do know some coaches like the younger ones (8 and under) to stay home and rest because they cannot focus that long or later in the day being tired. Of course, I think it depends on how early they usually get up, if they have focus issues, their level of competition, and what the coach and skater want to do. I think for older kids/adults it is good to go to practice and then take a break if possible or be already warmed up for the event if the event is early enough.