Competition Makeup at the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships - Mark Hanretty and Christina Chitwood (AP Photo Antonio Calanni)

When you compete in an event that is judged, appearance is typically taken into consideration. Even if there isn’t a mark for appearance, your appearance in how you present yourself can affect how the judges perceive your ability.

As much as it would be nice to believe that only ability is judged, the human eye tends to be drawn toward those who are well presented. If you’re in a sport such as figure skating and you’re female, makeup should be an important part of your competition regimen.

Here are competition makeup tips for figure skaters or anyone in a similar sport or art.

Competition Makeup Essentials

In bright-lit ice arenas or on the stage, your face tends to look washed out. So brighter colors than would be worn for everyday makeup are necessary. 

1. A foundation and/or powder matched to the skin color will help even out skin tone and help make your skin look more perfected. If you’re in a sport where you perspire more, you may want to use a primer under your foundation or powder to help it last longer.

2. A bright blush applied to the cheeks helps bring out the color in the face as well as defining the face.

3. A bright lip color shows off your expressions. For most sports, you’ll want to blot the lipstick and avoid lip glosses (hair will get stuck to the lip gloss). You can apply a shimmery Chapstick over the lipstick to create a bit of sheen if desired.

4. Mascara is a definite necessity for all ages to help bring out the eyes and make sure they don’t disappear from a distance.

The above four items are good for any age and should be a must for most female competitors. For many competitors, though, a bit more definition and done-up look is desired.

Competition Makeup Extras

1. The eyes are used for expression, so makeup should be used to help your eyes pop.

2. Try not to go too dark, as this can sometimes make the eyes appear smaller.

3. Also avoid very neutral colors such as nude eye shadows. Different shades of purple work well on most skin tones.

4. Eye liner is helpful to define the eyes a bit more, but try to avoid making it too dark or too wide.

Try out the tips you like at your next competition. Have fun competing, performing, and looking great!

Will (15) and Christina (10) Chitwood after winning Southwestern Regionals in Intemediate Pairs, 2000.

Confidence is a wonderful character trait to have in life. Confidence helps you do well in an interview, do well in school or college, meet more people, do better in sports … in general, confidence helps you perform more successfully.

Confidence is an important character trait to develop at a young age. If parents, teachers, and coaches help children develop confidence, they will turn out to be much more confident adults.

Benefits of Competing in Figure Skating

Healthy competition is a fantastic way to develop confidence in children and teenagers. Ice skating in particular is a wonderful sport to help children and teenagers develop confidence.

If you’re in singles, skating helps give you confidence in yourself as an individual. If you’re a pairs-, dance-, or synchronized skater, it helps you develop confidence in yourself as well as develops the ability to work with a team member or members.

Ice skating in any discipline helps to improve posture. Posture plays a huge part in confidence because you appear more confident when you have good posture. At the same time, you feel more confident with good posture because you’re standing taller. Also, ice skating helps your health and fitness which naturally gives you more confidence. Strength, flexibility, and endurance are gained through ice skating.

Competing is especially helpful because when you compete, you’re under pressure. If you perform well, it gives you confidence. If you get the added bonus of a good placement, that gives you confidence. The more competitions you do, the more confident you become in yourself and your ability.

Later on in life, you can look back and say, “If I competed in ice skating with that big of an audience, then I can do this.” Even if your performance isn’t your best one, you can still be confident in the fact that you are able to go out and skate in front of large audiences.

More about Figure Skating and Confidence

My mom has posts at Raising Figure Skaters about how my brother and I gained self-confidence from competitive skating:

Self-Confidence Makes Everything Better

Success after Competitive Skating Isn’t Just Luck

Confidence is also a common theme in this video with lots of skaters answering the question, “What’s so great about figure skating?”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Have fun competing!

To be a good athlete, you need strong motivation. However, levels of motivation can vary throughout the year. So it’s important to find ways that spark your motivation. One of the best and proven ways to keep on track with your athletic plans and increase motivation is through goal setting.

What better time to set goals than the New Year?! As an NASM-certified personal trainer, I was taught to set S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Smart goals can stand for:

Specific

Measurable

Appropriate

Realistic

Time-Bound

How to set a S.M.A.R.T. goal:

I’m going to give an example of how you could set a S.M.A.R.T. goal if you’re a figure skater. Maybe you’re working on your double axel and wanting to set a goal to achieve it. You are very close to landing a clean double axel (only a quarter-turn cheat away).

Specific: You set your goal to land a clean double axel in 2 months by a specific date. You’ll write: “I have a clean double axel on March 7, 2012.”

Measurable: The nice thing about skating jumps is that they are measurable. You can tell if a jump is rotated all the way around by looking at your landing tracing on the ice, having your coach watch and evaluate your jump, and/or having your jump videotaped.

Appropriate: You and your coach should have decided that getting a clean double axel is a priority for your skating right now.

Realistic: This is similar to appropriate. It should be realistic that you could land your double axel clean within 2 months. If you’ve never started working on a double axel before, it wouldn’t be realistic to set a goal to land it clean within two months. Even though this could happen for certain skaters, it’s unrealistic for most.

Time-bound: Your measurable goal goes along with your time-bound goal. Your measurable goal is that you’re going to land it clean. Your time-bound goal is that you will have it clean in 2 months on a specific date.

More ideas about goal setting:

The above goal is more of a medium-term goal. It’s good to set daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, medium-term goals of a specific number of months, and yearly goals. Find what works for you. Goals and affirmations of a certain consistency are proven to help.

Goals are not set in stone. Sometimes goals need to be revised. You may achieve a goal sooner than expected. Your goal may not be appropriate for you anymore, or it may need to be altered in some way.

Your goals are to help you get the most out of your practice and become the best that you can be. If your goals are getting you discouraged, I would advise speaking with your coach about your goals. You might be able to set up a plan of attack for goals that work better for you.

My sister-in-law, Chea, who’s a skating coach and Sport Psychology Consultant with a Ph.D. in Sport Psychology also has a helpful post on goal setting: Learn to Set SMART Goals in Figure Skating.

If you’d like a visual reminder for S.M.A.R.T. goals, here’s a word art freebie designed by my mom, Deb Chitwood, that you may print out for your goal book or locker.

To download word art, click here, then right click on the image and choose “Save Picture As . . .”

Photo Credit: Photo at top of post by Niharb at Flickr Creative Commons (License).

The holidays can be a magical time of year! Families get together, friends show appreciation, and most of the time the holidays are filled with happiness and gratefulness.

Holiday performances and shows are also great parts of the holidays. Here are 10 ways to enjoy holiday performances, whether by attending or performing yourself.

1. Attend the local Christmas or holiday productions. In San Diego, there is a production of The Grinch. Other cities have all different types of holiday performances from A Christmas Carol to a modern twist on the holidays.

2. Attend the holiday ballets such as The Nutcracker. Most cities have holiday ballet performances whether professional productions or the local ballet schools.

3. Attend a church or school play. Most schools and churches have special holiday activities. These are great to participate in, or support your friends and family by attending.

4. Experience a different type of performance such as an ice skating show. Ice skating shows are great fun to watch, and you may want to try skating after. The Kroc Christmas ice show finished this last week was a success! Great job to all my skaters who performed in it!

5. Create a holiday play to perform for your family and friends. Get as many or as few people involved as you wish. Have fun and let go!

6. Create a holiday performance game. It could be on any theme and involve as much or as little performance as preferred. Be creative. It could be your next holiday tradition!

7. Watch holiday movies and TV shows with family and friends. This can be lots of fun and also get you into the holiday spirit.

8. Have a special holiday day out, such as going to Universal Studios. They have a Grinch theme for the holidays and special holiday performances and readings.

9. Attend a holiday reading or Christmas tree lighting. Some places, such as Universal Studios, have celebrities doing holiday readings. Check out what’s available in your area.

10. Watch a fun competition or even the Winter X-Games.

Another great way to get involved in the holidays is by trying a winter/holiday sport such as skiing or ice skating. In San Diego, the Kroc Ice Arena is having $10 holiday skating! Have a great time and appreciate the holidays. They only come once a year and are gone before you know it. So, make the memories last!

A beautiful and unique performance:

“Sugar Plum Fairy” by P. Tchaikovsky – Glass Harp LIVE (HD)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy holidays!

Photo Credit: Photo by Pat McDonald at Flickr Creative Commons.

When you think of ways to improve your performance, fitness might be one of the first things you think of. How about flexibility?

Improving your flexibility lengthens your muscles and helps your posture, making you appear more confident. So working on your flexibility is actually one of the more important things to do when working to improve your performance.

Here are 5 ways to improve your flexibility:

1. Stretch. This may seem an obvious way to improve your flexibility. It’s important to stretch as often as you can. Daily or more than once a day is best.

2. Massage and/or Rolfing. These are excellent for stress-release and rejuvenation, therefore improving your performance. Deep-tissue work, such as Rolfing, especially improves your flexibility and works out tension points in a way that can’t be done on your own.

3. Foam roll. Foam rolling is the next best thing to getting a massage without having to pay for it! Foam rolling will improve your flexibility and also work out tension points in your body. This is great for the beginning and/or end of the day.

4. Pilates. Pilates is wonderful for lengthening your muscles while strengthening – a perfect combination for total health. Pilates also helps you feel calmer and improves your confidence in the way you appear physically.

5. Yoga. Yoga is a combination of poses involving stretching. It especially improves flexibility when practiced consistently. Tom and I really like Hot yoga. Yoga has a meditative quality, and you may want to add meditation to your exercises as well.

Try to begin practicing some type of flexibility daily and notice how you begin to feel. After any type of exercise, it is important to stretch.

Enjoy the improved posture, agility, and the way your muscles feel with a focus on daily flexibility.

“Better bend than break.” Scottish proverb

Photo Credit: Photo of Christina Chitwood by David Paterson at Eventfotos.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of year for family and friends to get together. It’s often a time of rest, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still be developing your inner performer this Thanksgiving.

There are many benefits to developing your inner performer at Thanksgiving, such as self-confidence, gratitude, expression, and energy.

Here are a few ideas for actively developing your inner performing this Thanksgiving:

1. Participate in a school program or Thanksgiving production of some sort. Most likely it’s too late to get involved now if you haven’t already. However, you could always put on a play or scene at home with your family. A musical performance or performance of any type can be a great way to develop your inner performer and have fun with friends and family.

2. Take part in a sporting event, such as a run, tournament, or activity of your choice. This will help you become more comfortable performing in public.

3. Plan a gratitude activity where you tell something you’re thankful for each day or at the Thanksgiving meal.

4. Engage in the Thanksgiving prayer. Be daring and say something, even if you’re shy.

5. Get involved in the games and activities on Thanksgiving Day. Games are a fun way to develop your expression and create energy in you and others. So go ahead and suggest a game this Thanksgiving, or join in if one is already planned.

Although you won’t be actively involved, another fun way to learn more about performing is to watch a performance. I’ll be watching Cirque du Soleil this Thanksgiving as a way of helping improve my performance.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Most people have had a family member, friend, or somebody they know who has had breast cancer or another serious illness. When you’ve experienced something like this directly or indirectly, the cause has a much more powerful impact on your life.

October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I feel very strongly about this cause as my grandmother is a breast cancer survivor. Thanks to early detection, she didn’t have to go through the worst ordeal. But no matter how treatable a cancer is, it is still very serious and affects families in a personal way.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a fantastic way to get people involved in the cause. However, this is a cause that is worth being involved in year-round.

Here’s my list of top 10 ways to perform for breast cancer awareness:

1. If you are a performer, such a dancer, actor, musician, or figure skater, you could participate in a performance that is promoting the cause.

Here’s a video of a number Mark Hanretty and I performed to Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song” for a  breast cancer charity ice show in Oxford, England, in May 2010.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2. Become involved in a breast cancer walk, run, Zumbathon or other event that promotes fitness and breast cancer research.

3. If you can’t find an event to participate in, you could create an event yourself, such as putting on a play, dance performance, or musical performance where you have all the proceeds go to breast cancer research. Advertise the event to reach more people.

4. Create an event to educate about breast cancer prevention, detection, and research. This could be a school project, workshop, talk at a church group, or whatever you can imagine.

5. You could talk about breast cancer research at an unrelated event as well and have a donation bucket available.

6. You could buy or make breast cancer awareness items and wear them or use them often.

7. Performing can be in the workplace. You can spread the word by talking with your colleagues about your involvement in the cause. You could put together a presentation and ask to show it at your workplace or add it to the end of a work presentation.

8. Spread the word online. Blog about breast cancer awareness or spread the word through social media like Facebook and Twitter. There are causes such as Go Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness on Facebook and TwitCause on Twitter.

9. Talk to your family and friends about early detection and supporting breast cancer research.

10. Be a role model yourself. One person can make a difference.

Enjoy getting involved! You can empower yourself, make a difference, and meet great people along the way. Remember, you can make a difference!

Photo Credit: Photo by Mark Menzies at Flickr Creative Commons.

With regionals having recently ended, competitions for our students coming up the next two weekends, sectionals and nationals coming up, and the international competition season continuing, I want to provide some tips for any competitor, any level. Some of these may seem basic, but even the top competitors in the world sometimes forget to do them.

1. SMILE! Unless your coach has asked you to use a different expression to portray your program, you should be smiling!

2. Perform with energy! When you’re skating, you should be skating as fast as you can, making your muscles and lines as long as you can, using your arms with energy, and creating excitement throughout your whole body.

3. Do your best! This has nothing to do with placement. This is about you going out on the ice and skating your heart out.

4. Enjoy your performance! Performing is an amazing opportunity. No matter what happens in your skate, after your skate, or in your competitors’ performances, this is your chance to go out there and have the time of your life.

5. If something happens, keep on going! If you trip, if you fall, if you forget your program … keep on going, do the best you can, and remember that what happens happens. The main thing is to keep on going and try to do your best from there. Everybody makes mistakes sometimes, so you can acknowledge it and learn from it. As long as you’re trying to do your best, be happy with the rest of your skate.

Remember that the most important thing about skating competitions is your performance, not the placement. You’ve practiced hard to get to where you are, and the only thing you have control over is trying to do your best performance.

All the other skaters in your event are competing, too, and only 3 or 4 people can receive medals. Just because you might not get a medal every time doesn’t mean you didn’t have a great skate yourself. Remember the positive things about your skate and the good things your coach tells you. No matter what your placement is, you can still be happy about the competition and learn a lot in the process.

For more skating competition ideas, see Top Tips for Skating Competitions.

Good luck to our students, and good luck to you!

I’m a firm believer that what you eat affects how you feel and perform in daily life. If you put healthy food in your body, not only is your energy going to be better, but your concentration will improve as well.

Nutrition is a huge factor that you can control in how you perform. A tricky part of eating healthy is that it can be more expensive than eating unhealthy. Here is an article with some tips on eating healthy on a budget: 10 Ways to Eat Healthy on a Budget from Yahoo Shine.

Eating healthy takes some extra thought and preparation, but it is more than worth it. At the moment, I’ve been cutting gluten out of my diet to see how it affects me. Around three years ago, I started experimenting with eating vegan 5 days per week.

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to educate yourself on healthy eating, which will empower you to make the best decisions for your body. If you listen to your body, you will discover many things you may not have realized otherwise. Try it out! You can make a minor or major change. It’s your choice.

Some minor changes you can try to get you started would be to minimize the sugar in your diet, eat more vegetables, or try to drink more water and have that as your main or only beverage during the day. Those are just a few ways to start.

Try to enjoy the process as much as possible because you should begin to feel better! I’d love to hear how you eat healthy or are trying to eat healthier!

Photo Credit: Photo from Pink Sherbet Photography at Flickr Creative Commons (License).

Most people think of figure skating as both sport and art. Peggy Fleming has a short video on expressing yourself through figure skating:

Peggy Fleming On Why People Should Skate

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re a figure skater, here are four ways you can add to your artistic expression:

1. In your competition programs, create a character that inspires you to express the meaning of the program.

2. For ISI competitions, the artistic, spotlight, and couples spotlight events in particular are great places to be creative and act as well as skate. For USFSA, there are artistic events at certain competitions, and you can choose music for your programs that inspires you to be creative.

3. Be creative in setting your weekly, monthly, and yearly goals.

4. Some rinks have artistic skating, improvisation, or choreography classes. These are great classes to attend to enhance your creativity. You could also add extra skating time into the day and improvise to the music that is playing or that you put on. This can also improve your choreographing skills for the future.

Have fun expressing yourself through the sport and art of figure skating!