How long 'til you tested?

[FallDownGoBoom]

Adults, what was the length of time (weeks? months? years?) you skated prior to your first MITF test?

[Casey]

I've been skating over 2 years now - no tests yet.

[Debbie S]

2 years and 8 months, to be exact. But I spent the first 2 years in group lessons (first Basic Skills, then FS) before changing to privates. I didn't really learn and start working on the MIF patterns until I started taking private lessons, so it took 8 months of that before I was ready to test. A lot of that time was spent trying to master the blasted alt 3's, which are no longer on Pre-Bronze MIF. If I hadn't had to learn that move (and instead did the waltz 8 and new 3-turn pattern), I probably would have been ready to test a month or two earlier. I took Pre-Bronze FS at the same test session where I tested MIF.

[doubletoe]

5 years for me. I didn't even know there were adult tests and competitions, LOL!

[phoenix]

My first tests were dances. It was about 7 months from taking my first group class to my first dance test. I didn't stay in groups very long, and switched to private lessons pretty early on.

[sexyskates]

9 months after I started weekly lessons with my coach, I took and passed the Pre-Preliminary MITF test.

[Sk8pdx]

Hi FallDown...
I tested Pre-Bronze MIF and Freeskate and passed in June of this year. I started skating 3 years ago. I will be taking the Bronze MIF test this month.
:)

[jazzpants]

2 years 2 months... and I took the standard track pre-prelim MITF test! I took it to work on my basic skating skills and eventually it was to prepare myself for the Bronze MITF test. I had already passed Pre-Bronze FS a year prior to it (and well before the Adult Track Moves requirements were in place.) So thankfully I never had to go thru Debbie's nightmare of the change in the 3turn requirements that is the Pre-Bronze MITF test. :bow:

[skaternum]

Well, a few of us old-timers were around before there WERE any adult moves tests. (Where's that smilie with a walker?) But I took the first adult test available at that time, which was the Bronze freeskate (that's right -- there wasn't even a prebronze then) about 2 years after I started skate school.

[MusicSkateFan]

Nine Months.....I got on the fast track! Got through Bronze free within 18 months of stepping on the ice. Adult Nats in Dallas was my 2 year marker for skating.

[coskater64]

I took my first adult tests after about 9 months which put me @ silver ladies. But the caveat is that I skated as a child and after 22 years off the ice muscle memory seemed to be kind. It took about 1 year for me to take my Int. FM, but I had no idea when I started that there was an adult track...USFSA had to tell me what level to skate at and tell me the rules and lengths, I had no idea. 2001-2002 was my first competitive year.8O

[jenlyon60]

I took my Preliminary Dance test about 18 months after I started skating, and about 4 months after I decided to work on dance.

Can't remember when I took my Preliminary FS test (back in the mid 80s when not only did the Adult track NOT exist, neither did the Pre-Prelim and Pre-Juv test levels). I think it was 1985ish. I wasn't consistently working on freestyle, and just took the test as a "why not."

[flo]

No moves when I was testing. The adult program was very new and there wasn't an adult pair program either. My first USFSA test was standard track pairs.

Take all the time you need.

[Bill_S]

It took me 3 years to test Pre-Bronze MIF.

Our rink isn't open year round, so that factored into the time. I also skated on frozen ponds as a kid, so that factored in too.

[icedancer2]

I started skating when I was six and I believe I took my Preliminary Figure test when I was 9. There were no freestyle tests then until Novice, when it was taken IF you passed the Novice Figures (6th Figure test). If you flunked the freestyle, you had to go back and do the figures over again, too.

There were no adult tests back then, either.

When I came back to skating as an adult, I took two pre-Silver dances (14-step and Foxtrot) exactly a year after I started taking lessons. I took the dances Standard Track, flunked them both, and promptly switched to the Adult track so that I wouldn't have to solo. Best decision I ever made, skating-wise.

[Scarlett]

I'm working on 3 years now and will probably be testing moves sometime this spring.

[NCSkater02]

Five years and counting. I am scheduled to test PBMoves Jan 27th.

However, factor in a broken ankle (14 weeks off ice and about three months to get back to where I was before I could start advancing again) and financial constraints during the last year, and it's why I haven't tested yet.

[badaxel]

It took me almost 6 years to get serious enough to test. And I only did that because I wanted to compete. That was about 2 years ago, and since then I tested Pre Bronze, Bronze and Silver MIF and FS. I guess since I waited so long, I moved up kind of quickly.

[Rusty Blades]

I did skate a bit as a teenager but, unlike coskater64, muscle memory was NOT kind! After 36 years totally off the ice, there was nothing there except distant memories - nothing physical. It took weeks just to stand up on blades, more weeks to skate forward, and months to get to backward, more months to even attempt one-foot turns.

I have now been skating for one year and will be entering my first competition in just under two months from now and skating Pre-Introductory Interpretive. If I don't make too much of an a@@ of myself, I will probably test that program in the spring.