Coaching Suggestion:
One exercise that I do with my skaters is to have them watch their all-time favorite IJS performance by any skater with the PS in their hands as I pour water into a glass as each element and moment of choreography is performed. The glass represents the skater’s program performance in that moment. The process of pouring the water represents the effort level the skater they are watching is physically putting into It and the actual water going into the glass represents what the skater is mentally putting into it. The skaters who are watching the video and glancing at the PS simultaneously as the glass is filling up with water instantly see that with each effort the skater makes they have “added water” to the glass and at the end of the program the glass is full and clear. This metaphor helps the developing skaters understand that the IJS is a system of rewarding what is actually completed by the skater.
I then have them pick a not so good performance of the same skater and redo the exercise except this time I collect various substances that can be added to the water to make it turn color and become impure or not clear. These items included salt and pepper, sugar and cinnamon as well as milk or food coloring. This time they see their favorite skater complete a flawed program and the glass is full but looks muddy and turbid. In the same way that the skater gave full effort because all of the water was transferred from one glass to another as in the first scenario, this time extra thoughts produced a different elixir and as a result a different outcome. This exercise helps them visually understand how the computer works and how the negative GOE’s “muddy” the performance and they can see this is reflected in the PS that they have in their hands.