Battle and Classic competitions

Feeling a little sick today, which I think is due to being deprived of sleep in London, being exposed to hundreds of strangers in small confined spaces, and not eating enough green vegetables. I am hoping that it won't develop into a full-blown respiratory infection, so I am resting up and drinking loads of jasmine green tea with mint honey (YUM).

I need to finish my classic run for both the Chuncheon and Jeonju competitions, and I plan to go to yoga class later so I will stop by the hockeypleintje (I like the Dutch word better than English one) and work out my fifties run and add another eighties run. I don't want to push myself too hard, because of aforementioned health reason, so it might actually be a really effective session of choreography and not too much else, which is good.

Okay, so I guess I will explain competition styles, since I probably should, based on, um, MY LIFE.

1. Battle Freestyle

This is the style of competition that has become most popular in the past couple years. I have only being slaloming for two years, so I missed out on the pre-battle days, but I do know there was a time where freestyle slalom battles were not the preferred style of competition. But now it is (for the time being), so here's how it is. There is a line of 20 cones spaced 80 cm apart. There is a line of 20 cones spaced 50 cm apart. There is another line of cones spaced 120 cm apart. Most often, there is a fourth line of only 10 cones, also spaced 80 cm apart. Usually the fifties line is closest to the judging area, followed by the line of 20 eighties, followed by the line of 10 eighties, and then the 120's line is furthest away from the judging area.

Different sorts of tricks are best performed on different spacing of cones. Sitting tricks, for example (your shoot-the-duck aka footgun, kazachocks, christies, etc.) are normally executed on the 120's or eighties lines. However, they can also be done in the fifties, which can be impressive. Eighties are pretty much the standard spacing for cones. It's what people in the park normally slalom on; it's just what you do. The cones are comfortably far apart for many kinds of maneuvers. Gotta love the eighties. So yeah, if you want to take up freestyle slalom, learn to love the eighties.

Anyway, so the skaters are usually split into groups of four. The groupings are determined either by current world ranking or by a qualification round. Each group of skaters executes 3 runs of 30 seconds (one skater goes in for 30 seconds, then the next skater, etc. until all 4 skaters have skated 3 times) in the cones to do whatever freestyle they want. The judges look at the level of tricks the skaters are doing, how well they are performed, as well as the variety and number. Sometimes the judge will look at the base level of the skater, as in, how strong they are in general, assign them an initial ranking from that, and then judge up or down based on the success or failure of their freestyle runs. The first two skaters in each group move on to the next round, until the battle is down to the last four skaters. In the small finale (aka consolation final) and final, in which the top 8 skaters battle in 2 separate groups to determine final ranking, the skaters are obligated to also perform a "last trick" or "best trick." This is usually something long or showy, like traveling through a long series of cones on one wheel or another technically difficult maneuver repeated over and over again down the line of cones. If the skater uses under 10 seconds to do their last trick, they have the option of repeating it. The judges are obligated to consider the better of the two attempts.

My last trick in London was a 20 cone wheeling on my toe. I missed slaloming 2 cones, but I managed to make it down the line and I even tried to continue to the next line of cones, but I failed. I had used under ten seconds so I decided to do it again (why not), but I completely failed the second time. Oh well. It's a good thing that the first one counted.

2. Classic Freestyle

This is the sort of competition that was around before battle freestyle. I used to dislike it intensely, because I felt like it went against everything that freestyle stands for. It's NOT freestyle; it's choreographed. Skaters select their own music and have 1 minute and 30 seconds to show their routine. To me, it stinks of figure skating, and while figure skating is lovely in its own right, that is NOT what we are doing here, people, and I don't want the line to become blurred.

However, having said that, I have finally come around to see the benefits of classic style competition. It encourages individuality, by removing the one-upping aspect of battle, where sometimes you have four people just trolling around the cones on the same silly wheel the whole time, which is, let's face it, *yawn* boring. Skaters don't have the pressure of trying to "beat" anyone; it's more about showing off your own skating and the music you like to skate to, which can be really cool, funny, or sometimes downright embarrassing. And there's nobody holding a gun to your head and saying "YOU MUST DO A ROUTINE," so if you really want to freestyle, you are welcome to. However, I don't recommend it, having done that before and failing miserably. It's too nerve-wracking not to come prepared when everyone around you has been rehearsing for weeks or months. It's like coming to your final exam without having studied at all.

So, that being said, I am preparing a classic style routine for the two competitions in Korea. The last time I did a classic run was in Paris in May, where I was really sick and miserable. You know how when you're sick with a bad cold and you have those one or two days where you have a hard time just moving around and being conscious and human? You know, those one or two days where you spend the majority of your time in bed sleeping and drinking tea? Well, those were the two days that happened to be the Paris Slalom World Cup, and I skated anyway, because I didn't go to Paris to NOT skate. The great thing about Paris was that I had NO nerves, which is unusual for me. I just didn't care because of the sickness. My classic run was ok then. It was weak and not what I could have done had I been feeling better, but then again, if I was nervous maybe I would have messed up anyway. In battle in Paris, though, I skated brilliantly in the first round, placed first in my group, and then got a big case of nerves because I suddenly felt pressure. Of course I got kicked right out, but that was ok because then Tim and I drove home and I went to bed.

That cold just kept getting worse and worse though. Oh man. I went to the doctor that Monday or Tuesday and was back in the doctor's office a few days later with infected junk pouring out of my eyes and I could barely breathe I was so stuffed up. Needless to say I got some sweet antibiotics, but that was a good two weeks of feeling downright crappy.

Then in Warsaw I was also stupidly nervous (like, panic attack nervous), skated like crap (I thought), and somehow managed to place second. I won a sweet watch from Police and felt like I didn't really deserve it. I felt like the judging in Warsaw, however, was making a statement, which was "Nice freestyle skating > ugly tricks." Which is how it should be, so I guess I shouldn't feel so unworthy all the time anyway.

After that in Belgium I thought I skated much better, and had fewer nerves, though I did screw up a lot (I
FELL in the final, ew) and wasn't really happy with what I did. This was a frustrating battle, after the fact, because I really wanted to skate nice at my home club, but I NEVER seem to be able to pull it off in competitions. I used the subsequent week of training at the Naomi Grigg-led Skatefreestyle retreat to try and reconcile what I did with what I want to do, and I think it worked, somewhat. It's funny. Naomi retreats really ARE retreaty. I always end up having some sort of mental catharsis in addition to the physical learning.

In London I was happy with what I did, except for the first round of battle where I screwed up and did almost the same thing twice. However, again, overall, a personal best for me so far. I hope they are all like that from here on.

So, this season has been pretty good for me in terms of improvement and personal growth. I have learned a lot about battle (in Le Havre, I did a STUPID final trick...lesson learned), classic, teaching, learning, and, sheesh, I don't know, life. In Korea I hope to do nice classic runs and skate pretty in the battle. I have shifted my focus from wanting to do well in the battle to wanting to skate pretty for myself. Haha. Sounds kinda cheesy but it's a very meaningful shift.

And yes, I know it sounds like I take all this rolling around quite seriously, and I do, but it's not really because of the skating; it's because of all the things I have learned due to the skating.

Best thing I ever started doing, hands down.