Competition Tip #2: Familiarity breeds success

This may sound like a "duh" tip, but there is more to it than you may think...

[Picture adapted from photo by David W. Carmichael (http://davecskatingphoto.com), via Wikimedia Commons.]

Tip #2:
Familiarity with your program

All skaters perform a program to music, and you must

be intimately familiar with your program
You need to know your program well enough to perform it with ease, with expression, and under any circumstance. You need to know how every part of your program fits in with the music. You need to know the entire sequence of your program. You need to become one with the music.

The program must be so ingrained in you that you can focus on the quality of the execution. Such familiarity with your routine will build your confidence in your ability. Minor disruptions will not bother you ~ so what if you fell on that jump, just get up and continue.

So you're thinking, you have your program, you have practised it over and over, how can you not be familiar with it? Well, ask yourself this question:
If your program was interrupted (for whatever reason), would you be able to resume the program from where you left off?

This was what happened to dance team Yanovskaya/Mozgov at the 2012 Junior World Championships. The strap on Mozgov's pants came loose and the judge stopped the music to have him fix it. They had to start again from where they left off... Though such cases are not common, being familiar with your program will help tremendously in an already tense situation!