Preparing my first ever routine. How to optimize the process?

I'm an amateur, capable of some twizzles, a basic salchow or wobbly toe loop and some standing spins, and - following some advice online - I'm slowly starting to plan a competition routine, should I eventually sign up for some bronze-level adult event somewhere. Supposedly that's the level one might want to start getting used to the music, start with an appallingly plain choreography, and gradually enhance it with more interesting moves as I learn them. I'm a maniacal rhythm and dance purist, so no way am I going to take a random song and make a random string of moves for it, hell no, it's going to be beat-perfect or I'm going home; I'm shooting for top scores for "IN", even if everything else sucks. The thing is, I'm a do-it-yourself kind of person, who prefers to do as much by myself, before I start paying for someone's help, as possible. Hell, I even google diagrams of home appliances before I call in technicians, if only to give them a better problem description than "it doesn't work".

So, I made a cut of a catchy movie theme, starting with a slow 26 sec intro at 58 BPM, a 28 sec buildup, another 20 sec for a fast-paced verse at 132 BPM, 5 sec of a breather and finally 30 seconds full of two cheerful and fast refrains, totalling to 1:35. I think it should be fine for a beginner like me.

Then, I wrote a simplified sheet music of the clip, with all accent notes marked, ready for assigning some moves according to the length and speed of the respective parts:
Obviously it won't mean much without some explanation (X and o are notes, dots are silence, beat is above, horizontal lines are placeholders for choreo), but never mind that - it can be read like a drummer's sheet music with choreo annotations and that should be enough, i think. Serious kudos to anyone who guesses the song!

Then, I'll be listing out all the moves I can think of that I can do, with "confidence" levels, to see what I can choose from.

All these steps, in my layman's view, should be a good start to present upon finding a coach and starting getting some serious, paid-for, one-on-one lessons, with the aim of planning and practising the routine.

So now the question is - am I approaching this right? Is there something more that I could still do by myself in advance? Or am I putting the cart before the horse here, and I should - like most novices seem to do - rely on the coach for planning a choreography for me from scratch, instead of trying to be the smartass kid (aged 39, by the way)?

You should be working with a coach to consolidate your technical skills.

A coach who is familiar with adult competitions as held where you intend to compete can also advise you on what level you should compete at, what elements you should include in a program at this level, what judges prefer to see in terms of patterning on the ice, etc.

The coach can also play the music for you to listen to while you skate to it and can serve as an eye to let you know what looks good and what looks awkward and should be adjusted.

I think you'd be better off trying the moves on the ice while listening to the music. See how long it really takes to complete each move with your current skills and whether you can adapt the phrasing of the way you execute them to match the phrasing of the music. Planning off ice will not be very useful if you then find out it takes you twice as long as you anticipated to get into your jump or spin or even to set up a mohawk or three turn to turn around.

You can come to the lessons with the music you want to use and some ideas about which moves you would like to do in which parts of the music, including variations of arm or free leg position, etc. You don't have to leave all the creative decisions up to a coach. But you will have a harder time putting together a program completely on your own vs. with someone else to provide outside input and to play the music. And you'll get better input from someone who is already experienced with putting together skating programs.

Pretty much all my programs are collaborations between myself and my coach.

If I were a skating coach I would love to have a student who put so much thought and effort into planning a program. :yes:

Serious kudos to anyone who guesses the song!

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NO KIDDING! Can you give us a hint?

gkelly said:

You should be working with a coach to consolidate your technical skills.

A coach who is familiar with adult competitions as held where you intend to compete can also advise you on what level you should compete at, what elements you should include in a program at this level, what judges prefer to see in terms of patterning on the ice, etc.

The coach can also play the music for you to listen to while you skate to it and can serve as an eye to let you know what looks good and what looks awkward and should be adjusted.

I think you'd be better off trying the moves on the ice while listening to the music. See how long it really takes to complete each move with your current skills and whether you can adapt the phrasing of the way you execute them to match the phrasing of the music. Planning off ice will not be very useful if you then find out it takes you twice as long as you anticipated to get into your jump or spin or even to set up a mohawk or three turn to turn around.

You can come to the lessons with the music you want to use and some ideas about which moves you would like to do in which parts of the music, including variations of arm of free leg position, etc. You don't have to leave all the creative decisions up to a coach. But you will have a harder time putting together a program completely on your own vs. with someone else to provide outside input and to play the music. And you'll get better input from someone who is already experienced with putting together skating programs.

Pretty much all my programs are collaborations between myself and my coach.

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^This. Please work with your coach on choreography and how things should go. And start tightening up on the tech side of things.

Wow. That's interesting. I'm a musician but I never planned a programme like that. Ever. Never even considered doing it like that. In fact, although I am in awe of your organisational abilities, that approach fills me with a sense of dread... I do think it's important to choreograph your own programme as much as possible. It should feel natural for you.

My advice would be to forget all about elements to start with and just skate and mess around to the music. It should make you want to dance. Then see what dance your body wants to do and go from there. Don't be tempted to make it too difficult, because flow is very, very important. It's supposed to be enjoyable...

So enjoy!

Mathman said:

If I were a skating coach I would love to have a student who put so much thought and effort into planning a program. :yes:

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While appreciated, it still makes me wonder what an ACTUAL coach would think of this.

NO KIDDING! Can you give us a hint?

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If you can tap it, you'll guess it. 1981 movie.

Just to emphasize my apparent madness - do you know the videogame, Dance Dance Revolution, where you step on arrows in time with a song? In order to help my muscles remember some of the parts of the music, I made a "playable" version of my song, with all the important notes ready for tapping my foot in time with them. I maaay be overdoing things a teensy little bit, I know.

WednesdayMarch said:

just skate and mess around to the music. It should make you want to dance.

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Oh, do I do that every time I'm on the rink! I've even been asked if that's my routine when someone else's music was on, and I was just messing around.


As for working with a coach - of course I'll ultimately consult one and probably start taking regular coaching sessions, apart from the group lessons I'm taking now. I don't plan on writing out a full ready-to-skate routine off ice, I'm not that insane. I merely want to hit the ground running, instead of wasting precious coaching hours on something I can prepare in advance myself.

It sounds like a good plan! Nobody really watches beginning adult skaters for technical ability, I think a lot of adults do bring a lot of interpretation and style to their programs, so I think it could turn out very well. That said, it doesn't sound like you have too much in your arsenal at this point, so some short term advice for you, that if you want a program that's going to be super tight and hitting beats accurately, esp a fast beat, is to work on stuff to do with your arms. You can work on this off the ice in front of a mirror. I hope you post a video when you're done so we can see!

jf12: I didn't exactly list out all my weapons of mass disappointment, that wasn't the point of the post.
Sure, I can do quite well timed cross-rolls, fore and back, my triple or sometimes quadruple twizzles are on the beat, I can time a three-turn or reverse rocker, sometimes even both start and land a waltz jump on a one-two beat, I have a pretty nice inside spread eagle for long notes, I'm working on the outside version... But yeah, these are mostly moves in the field, not point harvesters. Indeed arms and general "acting" body work is going to be the focus for now. :]

Oh, unless this counts. https://streamable.com/s/2d0n2/srkhto?autoplay=1 Too bad props are a no-no.

Sinus Pi said:

If you can tap it, you'll guess it. 1981 movie.

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I was going to say Gone With the Wind. But now I'll guess Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Sinus Pi said:

Oh, unless this counts. https://streamable.com/s/2d0n2/srkhto?autoplay=1 Too bad props are a no-no.

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If you can do that, beg your coach to let you include it. Bribe the judges if necessary. :yes:

Mathman: kudos well earned.
"If I can do that"? That IS me doing that. There was a mini-gala at the end of the season at my local skating school in 2017, they had everyone dress up like '20s gangsters, and I found some hockey pucks left by the rink, so, hey.

Sinus Pi said:

Mathman: kudos well earned.
"If I can do that"? That IS me doing that. There was a mini-gala at the end of the season at my local skating school in 2017, they had everyone dress up like '20s gangsters, and I found some hockey pucks left by the rink, so, hey.

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WOW!!!
May I suggest that you put together a Showcase Light Entertainment program? Juggling pucks (or other non-flame item) on ice has so much program potential.

Sinus Pi said:

I'm an amateur, capable of some twizzles, a basic salchow or wobbly toe loop and some standing spins, and - following some advice online - I'm slowly starting to plan a competition routine, should I eventually sign up for some bronze-level adult event somewhere. Supposedly that's the level one might want to start getting used to the music, start with an appallingly plain choreography, and gradually enhance it with more interesting moves as I learn them.

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Perhaps I'm still tired from the weekend's competition, but this remark left me seething. It reeks of superiority complex. You don't even take private lessons and you're looking down on Adult Bronze competitors as having "appallingly plain choreography"? I can't say what I'd like to say about that because it involves words we can't say on this board.

Sinus Pi said:

I'm shooting for top scores for "IN", even if everything else sucks. The thing is, I'm a do-it-yourself kind of person, who prefers to do as much by myself, before I start paying for someone's help, as possible.

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You won't get them. The way PCS is scored - or supposed to be scored - effectively rigs this against Adult skaters, particularly those who've started as Adults. 10 is - 10 is Jason, Yuzuru, Gabriella and Guillaume. 5s are the lowest-ranked skaters at Senior Worlds. It is rare that an Adult would get 4s, and those would be Adults who started as kids and returned.

I got some lovely feedback on the weekend about my program, which included a remark about how I included actual transitions and performed well. My highest PCS categories I scored 2.08 (Performance and Interpretation). The girl who won - who is a returning skater, not an Adult beginner - scored just over 3s. Brace yourself for 1s and 2s on that sheet.

Figure skating cannot be self-taught. The only thing teaching yourself achieves is that you will have to pay for more lessons and spend longer with the coach on correcting things you're doing wrong.

The Adult skating community is loving, supportive, and positive. What a shame you think you're above all that.

karne, I'm sorry if I came across as condescending, but that wasn't at all my intention. By "that's the level" I meant my puny skills, for now maybe allowing an appallingly plain choreography, to be gradually enhanced with more elements, until it's worth showing at a bronze-level competition. I admit it may have been misleading, the way I phrased it.

Also, I didn't mean world-class 10s for IN, hell no. Again it was a figurative "top", as in, "I'll probably sacrifice some technical points if it pushes my IN score up; I don't aim to win, I aim to have fun and entertain". Although, in my age and sex and level and city, I may end up competing against just one or two other guys and maybe getting a bronze medal just for showing up; there are very few male adult amateur skaters over here.

As for self-teaching - where did I say I intend to self-teach myself from start to finish? I'm taking group classes and I do intend to take private lessons once I feel confident enough not to waste a coach's patience (and my money) on constant wobbles and falls. Homework and basics first, advanced classes next.

(Also, is that Yuri!!! On Ice on your avatar..? )

I found nothing condescending about the original post.

sandraskates, I admit my use of the word "level" in the first paragraph might have been ambiguous, leading karne to believe I was referring to bronze competition level as having simplistic choreographies. But hell no, I'm just being realistic about how I look on the ice!

It seems like a Light Entertainment program would probably suit you better and be more fun. Have you thought of going that route?

Nimyue, those are not mutually exclusive options, now are they. I have some ideas that would necessitate the use of props, but then again I'd probably want to try for a "regular" category, too. It'll depend on how I go about the choreography, I guess. If I find it too tricky to do proper scoreworthy moves in any reasonable time, I'll probably go for LE, provided we have something like that in the local competitions - but for now we only have "Duo Shows", a pair variant of LE, I believe ("two persons, no score for moves, anything goes"). We'll see. :]

Sinus Pi, would you be willing to tell us what country you're looking to compete in?

Would you be entering an adult competition, or a general competition that offers some adult events?

gkelly, "compete", heh, that's a big, scary word! But if push comes to shove then likely it's going to be a general competition with adult categories, figure skating isn't as big in Poland for there to be adult-only competitions, aside from the occasional pro-level, international event. As far as I know it's the kids and teenagers and young future pros that "fuel" the competitions that we have. I haven't even looked at specific events yet, though - I've yet to learn my singles, and I couldn't even skate straight until about 2 years ago, so I have pretty much no idea what I'm doing... yet.