Practice Ice Reservation Problems at the 2009 Midwestern Figure Skating Championships in Houston

This week, at the 2009 Midwestern Figure Skating Championships in Houston, a very irritating situation occured. When many of the competitors and their families arrived as registration began on Tuesday, 11-11-08, they had to wait two to three hours to take care of practice ice related issues! Some skaters were unable to obtain ice time and other missed getting to skate at all. Skaters didn't get to eat lunch or get naps in before official practice sessions. It was very upsetting and annoying.

Sectional figure skating competitions are serious events and hassles with practice ice should not happen. I believe that the practice ice reservations at Midwesterns should have been thought out more carefully and should have been organized in a better way. Figure skating competitions are very expensive. After long hours of travel, competitors and their families shouldn't have to wait for unreasonable lengths of time. Perhaps a figure skating competition planning manual (that teaches volunteers and figure skating clubs how to run practice ice registration at ice skating competitions) should be published?

• Join the Discussion - How can practice ice registration procedures at figure skating competitions be improved?

_{On 11-11-08, competitors and their families had to wait for over two hours to take care of practice ice issues at the 2009 Midwestern Figure Skating Championships in Houston - Photo Copyright © JO ANN Schneider Farris}