Duration VS. Warm Up

[FSWer]

Ok...I went to the Nutmeg Games,and I'm still a little confused about the difference between the two. Someone there told me that Duration means a Skater has 1min. to do a Program. I don't understand what the reason for a Duration is. Or exactly what it is. Also I would think it's just a sec. Warm Up. Can some Skater please explain to me a little about Durations and give me a history? Thanks.

[Clarice]

I'm not sure I understand your question, but I'll try to give you an answer.

At a competition, there is a warmup for each event. The whole group of skaters goes out together, usually for about 5 minutes. Many times they don't skate through their whole program - they just try different elements. They can go talk to their coaches during the warmup period, too. If the event is large, there might be more than one warmup - for instance, if there are 10 skaters in the group, the first 5 skaters might go out to warm up together, then each does their program for the judges. Then the next 5 would warmup and then do their programs. The judges would still judge them as one group, but it gets split that way so the last skaters don't have to wait too long after their warmup time and get cold again.

For the competition itself, skaters are told how long their program can be (that's "duration"). As skaters progress from level to level, they're allowed to have longer and longer programs. Here are the program lengths for USFS singles skaters:
Preliminary: 1 minute 30 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds
Pre-Juvenile: 2 minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds
Juvenile: 2 minutes 15 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds
Intermediate:
Short program - 2 minutes maximum
Free skate - 2 minutes 30 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds
Novice:
Short program - 2 minutes 30 seconds maximum
Free skate - Men - 3 minutes 30 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds
Ladies - 3 minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds
Junior:
Short program - 2 minutes 50 seconds maximum
Free skate - Men - 4 minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds
Ladies - 3 minutes 30 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds
Senior:
Short program - 2 minutes 50 seconds maximum
Free skate - Men - 4 minutes 30 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds
Ladies - 4 minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds

[Aussie Willy]

Skaters have one minute to start their program after their name is called when they have taken the ice to perform their program. If they don't take their starting position within that time they can be disqualified.

[Skittl1321]

Some events, such as compulsory events can have a 1 minute duration. That may be why the duration of a programs for a particular event are shorter than what Clarice mentioned.

It is not another warm up, it is how long the skater has to complete their program. The warm up, multiple skaters are on the ice together. This won't happen during a program, unless the event is done on half ice (as some compulsory events are)

(Edit: If you are looking at this schedule: http://www.nutmegstategames.org/2011fskskatingorder.pdf Then duration is indeed the length of the program. Each skater in the event gets that amount of time.)

[FSWer]

I'm not sure I understand your question, but I'll try to give you an answer.

At a competition, there is a warmup for each event. The whole group of skaters goes out together, usually for about 5 minutes. Many times they don't skate through their whole program - they just try different elements. They can go talk to their coaches during the warmup period, too. If the event is large, there might be more than one warmup - for instance, if there are 10 skaters in the group, the first 5 skaters might go out to warm up together, then each does their program for the judges. Then the next 5 would warmup and then do their programs. The judges would still judge them as one group, but it gets split that way so the last skaters don't have to wait too long after their warmup time and get cold again.

For the competition itself, skaters are told how long their program can be (that's "duration"). As skaters progress from level to level, they're allowed to have longer and longer programs. Here are the program lengths for USFS singles skaters:
Preliminary: 1 minute 30 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds
Pre-Juvenile: 2 minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds
Juvenile: 2 minutes 15 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds
Intermediate:
Short program - 2 minutes maximum
Free skate - 2 minutes 30 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds
Novice:
Short program - 2 minutes 30 seconds maximum
Free skate - Men - 3 minutes 30 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds
Ladies - 3 minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds
Junior:
Short program - 2 minutes 50 seconds maximum
Free skate - Men - 4 minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds
Ladies - 3 minutes 30 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds
Senior:
Short program - 2 minutes 50 seconds maximum
Free skate - Men - 4 minutes 30 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds
Ladies - 4 minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds

So Duration just means the laigh (sorry if I spelled that wrong) of time...right? BTW. that's interesting. I serously always thought that the Short Program and Freeskate were set standard for any Skater at 2 or 4min.

[Clarice]

Yes. "Duration" means "length of time". Skaters are allowed to do longer programs at higher levels, because by then they're better skaters and have more tricks. A beginner wouldn't have enough moves to fill a 4 minute program, and would also get pretty tired because they hadn't built up enough strength yet to skate a program that long.

[FSWer]

Would what I have sean was more likely a 1min. Program from Skaters,that just didn't use music? But was actually their real Program. Not a warm-up?

[Skittl1321]

The 1 minute program would be a compulsory competition (compulsory means "required"). For example, a compulsory competition might require all the skaters to do a toe-loop, a salchow, a scratch spin, and a spiral. So you would see the skaters only do these elements, and nothing else (they can use connecting steps like crossovers, but at the low levels, those are kept very simple).

It might look like they are warming up, but they are actually being judged as it is a competition. You can tell it is not a warm up because only one skater would go at a time. (There might be two skaters on the ice, if they were only using half of the ice- but they would never go next to each other.)

During a warm-up many skaters go on the ice at the same time, and it looks a lot like a practice session.