Misunderstood

I am a member of the most misunderstood, despised, and maligned groups in the world.

I am a figure skating judge.

And while the vitriol about the evil figure skating judges only really comes on strong every four years, it is not an easy life.

Figure skating judges live their lives of quiet desperation in cold, dark places known as ice rinks. We travel as vagabonds from one location to another, following a trail of multi-colored sequins that lead us to the next competition.

We sequester ourselves away from the rest of humanity at the rink since we have accepted the fact that we scare small skaters and, quite often, their parents. We hear their hushed voices, whispering, "That's one of the judges..." as they turn their heads away.

We spend endless hours in ice rinks, sitting rink-side and freezing our patooties off. (I'm certain that there are parts of my anatomy that have perma-frost and may never completely thaw out.)

When our friends discover a wool winter coat in our car on a hot and humid July afternoon, they assume that we're lazy and just never got around to bringing it into the house. The reality is, if you flip open the trunk of most judges' vehicles during any month of the year, you will find boots, wool socks, mittens, gloves, a warm coat and an assortment of fleece blankets with figure skating club logos. We must be ready for service at a moment's notice.

We are volunteers. While we don't get paid, we often receive gift cards (or fleece blankets). At anytime, you can find in our wallets 3 Barnes & Nobles, 2 Caribous, 2 Paneras and a partially used Starbucks.

There are many misconceptions about us. We are not, as a majority, French. Most of us don't own mink coats and the closest we will get to judging the Olympics is yelling at the 53" flat panel TV in the family room.

So please, as I begin my crazy time of year, when I have a competition nearly every weekend from now through spring, be kind to me. And if some Monday morning, you find me wandering around the office with a clip board looking for the judges stand, just tell me the event got canceled and I can go back to the hospitality room. I'll snap out of it eventually.

Bad blogger feeling good about what I did

I'm very much feeling like a neglectful blogger. I haven't posted since September 26th. And there are plenty of reasons excuses for the absence.

My number one excuse is <wait for it now ...> I was distracted. I had a huge skating project that I can honestly say I was ill-prepared for and was basically flying by the seat of my pants. My own stubbornness put me in this position and I had a lot to do that I couldn't delegate to anyone else because I hadn't even figured it out for myself.

When I have something hanging over my head, my focus <at least the very little that I have> goes right out the window. Add to that I was stressing about it, so just as I would get into bed, my brain would fire up and start problem solving while my body wanted and needed sleep. It was bad.

Excuse number two is see excuse number one.

The project was the Minnesota Basic Skills Competition Series. It is for our beginning skaters (you know, those cute little ones with the cute little outfits that make you go, "Aww...") and I took it on because "the powers that be" wanted to make it exclusive instead of inclusive.  I'm not about excluding any club or any skater. I recognize that I wasn't fabulously organized at the start, but eventually things started moving forward. Then, this summer, I got word that the rug was being pulled out from underneath me and I would have to shutter the series after one year.

The final part of the series is the on-ice award ceremony for the skaters in each level who accumulated the most points. Honestly, I think it is the most important part because it's about the kids and only the kids. They get to skate out to the podium just like they see on the Olympics. I placed a medal around their necks and told them what a great job they did and then I would step out of the way so the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles in the stands could take photos. And boy did they!

But the event is over now with some minor clean-up to do, but most importantly, I felt great at the end because I helped to make some young skaters feel very special and I had parents thank me for doing it. Having a parent thank me? That was huge.

I've heard that the new Basic Skills series (the one replacing the Minnesota Basic Skills series) isn't planning on doing the on-ice awards. They planned to just mail the awards out to the skaters or something. After seeing what it meant to these skaters this past Saturday, I am happy to hear that they are reconsidering it.

Ya gotta take those little victories.

Olympic skating - IMHO Part II

I had to take some time after last Thursday's men's Olympic Figure Skating final to recover. I was thinking about what I wanted to write to follow up my earlier post when it happened...and I'm still in shock, although many friends remind that I shouldn't have been surprised.

Evan Lysacek won the Olympic Gold Medal by a narrow margin ahead of Russia's Evgeny Plushenko. Plushenko was a poor sport and pouted. And he's still pouting.

I'm going to say this right now: Lysacek outSKATED Plushenko. Plushenko may have outJUMPED Lysacek, but this is a skating competition and not a jumping competition. Interestingly, if it was a jumping competition and you only counted the number of jump revolutions, then Plushenko still loses! Lysacek jumps had a total of 32 revolutions (3Lz+3T/3A/3S/3A+2t/3Lo/3F+2T+2Lo/3Lz/2A) and Plushenko, even with his quad, still had one less revolution (4T+3T/3A/3A+2T/3Lo/3Lz/3Lz+2T/3S/2A). Technically, Lysacek beat Plushenko, not in the air, but at ice level - step sequences and spins. Lysacek's circle step sequence was a full point above Plushenko's (5.10 to 4.10) and Lysacek's flying sit spin was a level four while Plushenko's was only a level three.

Leaving the number crunching behind, Lysacek's jump quality was superior to Plushenko. You need to consider the four parts of a jump - the approach, the take-off, air position and the landing. Just think -flow in and flow out. Plushenko's jumps in the air were often tilted and his landings were scratchy and, at times, lacked flow. Lysachek's jump looked easy because he has perfected them.

Plushenko's behavior since the end of the competition has been disappointing for a past Olympic champion. Even more disappointing was a commentary the next morning on Yahoo! Sports by Canadian champion and two-time Olympic Silver Medalist, Elvis Stojko. Elvis' commentary was that Plushenko should have won the gold medal based on the quad alone. Reading the commentary broke my heart because I always admired Elvis and liked his spunky, athletic skating.

Many have said that the commentary was just sour grapes by Stojko because he never won the gold. That's sad. Elvis railed against the judges and how the system is set up. How, by not automatically giving the gold to Plushenko, we had set the sport back by years.

Thankfully, Elvis wasn't the only former two-time Olympic Silver Medalist from Canada to share his thoughts on the men's event. Brian Orser (who won the silver in 1984 and 1988) said that "given the system today," the right skater won the event.

The sport is different from Elvis' time. Now, each skater has the same number of elements to perform during a 4:30 minute program. If they are smart (and Frank Carroll and Lori Nichols are very smart), they design a program that takes full advantage of the points and then make sure the skater performs each element well enough to gain additional points for the elements from the judge's GOEs (Grade Of Execution). Plushenko didn't do that.

The right skater won the event.

And yes, I think the right dance team won the dance event last night. My American heart was hoping that Meryl and Charlie would win, but Tessa and Scott had the performance of their lives. If you're asking about the bronze medal ice dance team, that's a different story.

Olympic skating - IMHO

Watching the Olympic figure skating is causing sleep deprivation as I'm staying up too late to watch the events. It's been worth it since I'm seeing some amazing programs and enjoy cheering on Team USA. I know the judges are always looked at as an enemy of the skater, but being a judge myself, I can tell you that they want the skaters to succeed because when they skate well, judging is an enjoyable experience.

You didn't hear it during the pairs events, but suddenly we're hearing trash talk by the skaters about how the judges are against them or how all the skaters hate him because he's so good or how if you don't have a quad, you might as well be in ladies' skating. Is it just a way to make excuses in advance?

Everyone knew the men's event was going to be the most competitive event with one of the best field of men I can remember. There were some inconsistent performances last night - maybe because some were more than just a little nervous skating at the Olympics - but there were some incredible programs. I thought Plushenko was technically perfect, but his presentation was painful to watch.

I love a great footwork sequence as skaters show how well they can control their edges and balance. You want to see the skater using their full body, but Plushenko's footwork was mostly arm flailing to distract from his crappy edge quality.

The short program is often referred to as the "technical program" because the skaters have required elements that have to be included. In the short program, technique is what its all about. I have to remind myself of that fact quite often when watching because I'm always looking for the total package of technical and presentation. When I was training (we call it trial judging), I would get dinged when I would put too much emphasis on the presentation.

There is a wonderful judge named Bette Snuggerud who worked with judges in training. At one event, I had a skater marked too low against where she placed and while I thought I was giving great reasons why I marked her low (no presentation), Bette reminded me that it is the TECHNICAL program and that I need to keep that in mind. But she went on to say the one thing that has always stuck with me, that "Dollars for donuts, the skater will not be in the top tomorrow if her presentation skills are weak."  It was the dollars for donuts part that made the lesson stick.

I'm hoping that all the skaters do well tomorrow night, and yes, I'm pulling for Evan over Plushenko because I'm an American and have always thought of him as a nice midwest kid.  Never cared that much for Plushenko and I think it speaks volumes about Plushenko that besides his coach, he also had his publicity agent at the boards during the competition. I've seen skaters have their choreographer or sports psychologist at the boards during a competition, but a press agent? It tells you where his priorities are.

Go Team USA. Kick some Russian butt.

Oh, DirecTV, why are you such a mess??

There's nothing quite as painful as switching providers. I had DirecTV for years until Comcast got me to switch with a classic "bait & switch" that was supposed to more affordable. Ha! In the end, I was paying more for Comcast than I ever did for DirecTV. So, I decided to switch back.

I got a direct mail offer from DirecTV that would give me a great package called "The DVR Plus" package. I signed up and got a date for the installation. It was supposed to be pretty simple: just bring in a new DVR and cables and be done with it. I already had the dish, so no need for a new one. They would be coming to my place on February 13th between noon and 4 pm. 

At 3:45 on Saturday, I called customer service to inquire why no one had called or shown up. I was informed that they had stopped by, but no one was home. Granted my condo is a bit off the beaten path, but I was home the entire time. I was ticked off, but they told me that they could do it two days later.

The installer showed up at 3 p.m. Monday and he informs me that he needs to replace the satellite dish because mine didn't work with the HD system. I felt bad for the guy because he had to crawl up to the top of my deck and pick through all the ice on top of the dish. He finished with the dish and then set up the receiver. When he called DirecTV to finish the set-up of the receiver, they informed him he had put in the wrong receiver - I had ordered the non-HDTV DVR receiver. He didn't have that type of receiver with him and the work order that DirecTV had given him wasn't correct and he had installed exactly what they told him to install. I can verify that.

He told me that I would need to straighten it out with DirecTV and that he needed to leave - never mind that he had handed me his cell phone to talk to the customer service agent. I could just call them back on my own phone... Thanks. He had left the old dish on my deck, so when he started to leave, I asked him if he was taking it. "No" that wasn't his responsibility and I would have to dispose of it. (Never mind that I hadn't even needed to have it replaced because I hadn't ordered HD! The old one would have been fine.)

I had to call customer service back. I was pretty pumped up and not in a good mood. I talked with the poor customer service rep that was unfortunate enough to pick up my call. I asked if they could just send me the correct DVR receiver and I could just switch it out. "No, a technician would have to come out to install it." Did I like the HD and would I want the HD DVR? Sure, that would great. "It's only a one time charge of $199." Um, no, on second thought..I don't think so. 

Okay, so I have to have a technician come out. How soon? The earliest date available was a week away (Feb 23rd). Seriously? Don't you have evening installation hours? I do work for a living and my office and home are NO WHERE near each other. No, sorry. 

I asked to talk to his supervisor. He put me on hold for about a minute and then when he comes back on line, he tells me that it would be a couple of minutes for me to talk to his supervisor because he was already on a call. (Hmmm) "But good news," when he had logged off and then back on, installation dates sooner than next Tuesday opened up. Lots of openings Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday of this week. 

So, I'm set to work from home tomorrow morning, so the installer can come out to switch out the receiver. 

I wanted it done ASAP because there is no way I want to live without a DVR. You don't realize how much you rely on it when you don't have it anymore. I can't pause or rewind live TV and excuse me, the Olympics are happening for the next two weeks! I need instant replay and the ability to record something if I can't be at home to watch it live. 

So, DirecTV -FAIL on customer service. 

And what the heck am I going to do with that old satellite dish on my deck??