Skating Fridays

Recap from Sectionals – Part 2

Photo courtesy of Pixel8 Studios

I wanted to review my protocols from Adult Sectionals with you this week. I know that these judges’ score sheets can be very confusing to understand, so I’ll try to break it down. The IJS system is still a learning process for me, so it helps me to type all this out to better understand it too.

Photo courtesy of Pixel8 Studios

First of all, my protocols have much improved from the previous competitions in the last year. I met a lovely skater at last year’s Adult Nationals competition, and both of us had been aiming to break the 25 point mark. I consistently earned 22 points in all of my 2015 competitions because I kept making silly mistakes. I earned the dreaded “dash of doom” in every competition so I didn’t earn as many points as I could/should have. To earn 26+ points this time was a huge victory for me. A 4-point increase from my previous score is an awesome feat. While 4 points doesn’t sound like a lot, consider the fact that it is about a 25% increase. Wow.

Here is my full protocol. I’ll explain the details below.

We’ll start with the Technical Elements first, which are listed 1 through 9 in the top half of the document.

  1. SSp3 – A level 3 sit spin. I executed an illusion (difficult entry), cannonball and tuck position in my standard sit spin. This spin earned +1 and +2 grades of execution (GOE), and I earned 2.60 points. This is what I like to call my “money” spin since it the element with the highest scores on my sheet.
  2. 1Lo – Single loop jump. I earned full credit on this element.
  3. 1A< – Single axel. Because I underrotated it slightly, I got the < mark and negative GOE. I know I two-footed the landing.
  4. CCoSp3pB – Change foot combination spin, 3 positions, Base value. I executed a camel, sit, back sit into an upright. My camel spin has been inconsistent, so to see positive GOE on this spin made me extremely happy.
  5. 1S+1T – Single salchow plus single toeloop combination. I received full credit for this combination jump.
  6. CSSpB – Change foot sit spin, base value. I was hoping for a level 1 sit spin with a back twist variation, but I did not hit the 2 full revolutions. I also had a weird spin exit where I almost fell. Luckily, I received full value for this spin.
  7. ChSt1 – Choreographic step sequence. I had a few trips and bobbles, so I am not surprised that I received negative GOE on this.
  8. 1F+1Lo+1T – Single flip plus single half loop plus single toeloop. I got a downgrade on my half loop. I guess it wasn’t all the way around.
  9. 1F+1T – Single flip plus single toeloop. I received a few negative GOEs for this element so received slightly under the base value for this two-jump combination.

Total Technical Score: 11.28. This is higher than my previous best of ~10 points (at the 2014 Adult Nationals).

For Program Component Scores (PCS), I earned a total of 15.10, which is higher than my personal best (around 13 or 14 points). Of the 6 areas that make up PCS, you’ll see that the lowest point value was around Interpretation. I need to do a better job connecting to the music, judges and audience. The good news is that my Skating Skills score is improving. That makes me happy since Coach and I have been working hard on that over the past year.

I am skating this program one more time before I retire it. Then I plan to create a brand new program, with new music and new choreography. My hope is that I can find a piece of music that I can really bring to life and showcase my strengths.

Stay tuned next week for the recap of my Dramatic event from Sectionals.

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