T O P   N E W S

But for most skaters, especially those who have not yet reached the elite levels, summer is actually the busiest time of year. Since most young skaters are out of school for the summer, it's an opportunity for them to spend more time on concentrated training. This is the time of year when skaters learn new skills, take the tests that enable them to move up the competitive ladder, and work on their new programs for the upcoming season.

While most skaters continue to train at their regular rinks, summer camps for skaters are becoming increasingly popular. A number of rinks now offer summer training programs that attract skaters from across the country. Training camps give skaters a chance to work with elite coaches and choreographers, and train alongside elite athletes. These are opportunities that they might not have closer to home.

In addition, many elite skaters from outside the U.S. choose to spend the summer training here because there are better facilities available than at home. In Europe, it's much more common for rinks to shut down for the summer.

THE SKATERS TRAINING THIS SUMMER at the International Skating Center of Connecticut in Simsbury, for example, have included world pair silver medalists Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao and other members of the Chinese national team; world junior pair champions Yulia Obertas and Dmitry Palamarchuk from Ukraine; a group of Italian skaters, including world junior dance silver medalists Federica Faiella and Luciano Milo; and other international competitors such as Lucinda Ruh from Switzerland. The non-elite sessions at Simsbury have been full, too, with lower-level skaters attracted by the facility or coaching staff or the chance to see the elite skaters they look up to as role models.

There's also a level of cultural exchange involved. At the ISCC, skaters and coaches can be heard trying to communicate in a mixture of English, Russian, Italian and Chinese. They might not understand everything they say to each other, but everyone understands skating and it provides a common bond.

Club competitions are another ritual of summer for the skaters. These events are little publicized and are held primarily to benefit the skaters themselves. They typically compete before an audience of no more than a few hundred people -- primarily parents, other skaters and a few die-hard skating fans.

While club competitions lack the glamour of elite-level, televised events, most fans who attend find they have their own rewards. One gets to see skating at the grass-roots level in an intimate venue. It's a good opportunity to spot rising talent, make connections with other people in the skating community, or even just pass a hot summer day in a pleasantly cool rink while watching talented youngsters having fun.

THE EMPHASIS AT MOST CLUB COMPETITIONS is providing an opportunity for skaters who are not yet advanced enough to compete in the "qualifying" competitions held in the fall, which eventually lead to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. There are commonly dozens, or even hundreds, of skaters -- primarily girls -- competing in the lower divisions.

For example, at the Wissahickon Skating Club's summer competition, held last weekend in Philadelphia, there were six groups of pre-preliminary girls, seven groups of preliminary girls, and four groups of prejuvenile girls. With so many competitors entered at each level, it would be impossible to judge them all accurately at one sitting, so they're broken up into groups, typically of about a dozen skaters each.

Besides providing an introductory competition experience for low-level skaters, the summer competitions serve a number of other useful purposes.

In some disciplines, especially ice dance, there are few active competitors and the skaters tend to be somewhat isolated in their normal training. A competition not only provides a chance for the skaters to compare themselves against one another and evaluate their progress, but it also provides an opportunity for the skaters, coaches, and judges from different regions to network and share ideas and new developments in the sport. The annual dance competition in Lake Placid, for example, regularly attracts dancers from all over the United States

It's also not uncommon for the more prestigious regular club competitions to attract skaters from distant areas. Coach Christy Ness brought a gaggle of skaters to the Wissahickon competition from the California Bay Area. Mark Mitchell similarly brought a large group of his students from Boston.

FOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL-LEVEL COMPETITORS, nonqualifying club competitions also provide a low-pressure forum for trying out their new programs and getting feedback from the judges. At the Wissahickon competition, along with the dozens and dozens of lower-level skaters, one could also see international team members such as Johnny Weir, Sara Wheat, Brittney McConn, Derrick Delmore, and the pair team of Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn testing their new programs for the coming season.

U.S. international team member Brittney McConn was among those competing at the low-key Wissahickon competition.(Allsport)

And, there are international competitions scheduled in the summer, too: the North American Challenge Skate for novice-level skaters, consisting of competitions in Dallas and Lake Placid held in July, and events in Vancouver and Toronto coming up in August.

Finally, a number of the rinks that sponsor summer skating camps also put on one or more shows during the summer, often featuring visiting elite skaters as well as the camp or club skaters. There are monthly shows at the ISCC rink in Simsbury as well as at the Ice Castle rink in Blue Jay, Calif., while there are weekly shows at Lake Placid and Sun Valley.

So, from a spectator's point of view, as well as a skater's, the off-season isn't quite as "dead" as it might seem. Fans just have to look a little further than their TV sets to find the skating.