lazuliblade:

“He’s running out of time” – the dreaded 30 second rule.

I meant to make this a long time ago (and probably HAVE made a long-forgotten draft somewhere), but kept convincing myself that it wasn’t important enough. 

It’s a small figure skating scheduling tidbit.

This is ep12, after Yuuri and Victor have their pre-FS rinkside talk and Morooka mistakes their laughter for crying.

In this scene, Takeshi is commenting on the length of time Yuuri took to head out to center ice after his name was called by the announcer.

Rule 350 on page 12 of the 2016 Special Regulations rulebook (the rulebook edition that was out when YoI was created and finished, and currently still in effect), addresses the Call to Start. It outlines the expectations for skaters taking a starting position, and the consequences upon failing to comply. A skater has thirty (30) seconds to take their starting position upon having their name called. If they take even 1 second too long, the skater(s) will receive a penalty of 1.00 point, and if they are not in position by 60 seconds, then they are considered withdrawn from the segment of the competition (Short Program, Free Skate, Short Dance, etc.).

This rule was put in place after the 2013-2014 season ended because… the ISU wanted to shorten times and speed things up for TV programming. Prior to the 2014-2015 season, the time limit was 1 minute so that skaters had time to center themselves before starting. But the ISU deemed that 30 seconds was plenty of time. As you can imagine, that tripped up some skaters in following seasons. The most recent one I can remember off the top of my head is Yuzuru at the 2017 Worlds Men’s SP.

I do want to stress that the 30-second countdown only starts once the announcer introduces the next skater to skate.

As we see with J.J. and Otabek in ep11, the next skater is allowed onto the ice as soon as the previous skater steps off. So while the judges are calculating scores, the next skater can skate around a bit and get a feel for the ice again. This means that a skater might be on the ice for a few minutes before their name is finally called.

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On a related note, in case fic writers would like to know for whatever reason:

Finishing AFTER the music ends can also incur a 1 point penalty for every 5 seconds passed the maximum allowed program time (rule 502, page 74).

It’s not a big deal if a skater moves slightly after the music ends, but if their movement makes it so that they exceed the maximum time limit (2:45 for SP; 4:35 for FS), then that’s when a timekeeper and referee make the call. For example, if a skater’s program is 2:40 seconds, then they are right on the exact allotted time, and if they miss the end of the music by 2 seconds, it would put them at 2:42 which is still within the 5-second grace period. If a skater’s program is 2:45, then they need to end EXACTLY with the music or they will be penalized because they exceeded the 5 second grace period. This is why it’s a good idea to NOT make a program the maximum time, because even a second or two of wiggle room at the end can be the difference between being OK, and being dinged a point by the Referee (in consultation with the Timekeeper). This happened recently with Shoma Uno at the 2017 GPF Men’s SP. 

Same goes with being under the minimum time limit: 2:35 for SP/4:25 for FS. Better to make a program slighter longer than the minimum, in case the skater strikes their final pose a tad early.

So to tie it all up, Yuuri

used up the preparatory time to resolve issues and set himself at ease. The announcer called his name while he was talking with Victor. When they parted, Yuuri was cutting it close to being penalized for taking his starting position late, but he made it in time, so he received no deductions.