They DON'T own the patterns!

[Team Arthritis]

I'm really torqued. Like the US, it turns out that the Canadian moves in the field skating patterns are no longer freely available online! WHY? These organizations don't own these patterns, they are public knowledge, developed over years by many people and hence can't be copywrited. Same thing with the dance patterns - I feel like I've snatched up a secret when I find a website with these patterns. Why should I have to join skate canada just to show someone one of the moves patterns!?

This is an outrage. The very organizations that are chartered to first and foremost promote our sport are restricting access to the patterns we need to improve our skating! I'm all for buying a rulebook every few years, inspite of the fact that you can't just get annual updates. So there may be an arguement that people won't buy the Rulebook each year if the only useful portions are available online for free. Well hogwash; killing trees needlessly is not the only way to raise funds. If you need to raise the dues then raise them but now that we are in the age of information, the skating institutions are progressively restricting information faster than the Federal Government! We need a Freedom of Information Act for Skaters!

Hrmmph! http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/boese/a025.gif
Lyle

[Virtualsk8r]

If you are a current member of Skate Canada, log-on to the Members Only section of the Skate Canada website and follow these links:

1) log in your Skate Canada number and password (if you have never done this before, it will be your last name)

2) Main Menu
3) Main Menu - Rules
4) rules (updated March 9, 2007)
5) 2005 On-line Rule Book (2)
6) 2005 Online rule book - official Rules and Regulations
7) Official Rules - Section 4000 Starskate Program
8) Section 4000 - Starskate Program
9) Appendix B - Skating Skills Diagrams
10) Choose the level you want to see i.e. Junior Bronze etc.

Takes a bit of searching (something the Skate Canada website is famous for) but you do have access to all the test sheets, diagrams and rule book stuff.

FYI Skate Canada has just issued a CD version of its current rulebook and mailed it out to coaches, clubs etc. and is available for ordering.

Good Luck...Let me know if you have trouble finding this stuff

[Virtualsk8r]

I think the skating skills patterns could be considered intellectual property by Skate Canada, as they commissioned specialists to create not only the skill exercises but the music as well - at a tremendous cost to Skate Canada members not only for the original development of the patterns but in retraining judges, evaluators and coaches as well.

So by restricting access to its current members only, Skate Canada is protecting its investment and that of all Skate Canada members who support the organization with their annual $15.00 membership fee.

PS: There was a similar problem with a municipal skating program using the Skate Canada dance music for its 'dance sessions'. Apparently, only Skate Canada clubs can use the music on its dance sessions and any other unauthorized use can be blocked.......

[jp1andOnly]

They are online..for skate canada members.

The skills patterns were designed by people hired by skate canada. the music was created for these moves and they were hired by SC. It IS NOT public domain.

Yes, the moves in the skills patterns are moves that would probably be considered public domain HOWEVER, the organization and originality of how these moves go together along with composed music FOR the skills, is Skate canada's.




I'm really torqued. Like the US, it turns out that the Canadian moves in the field skating patterns are no longer freely available online! WHY? These organizations don't own these patterns, they are public knowledge, developed over years by many people and hence can't be copywrited. Same thing with the dance patterns - I feel like I've snatched up a secret when I find a website with these patterns. Why should I have to join skate canada just to show someone one of the moves patterns!?

This is an outrage. The very organizations that are chartered to first and foremost promote our sport are restricting access to the patterns we need to improve our skating! I'm all for buying a rulebook every few years, inspite of the fact that you can't just get annual updates. So there may be an arguement that people won't buy the Rulebook each year if the only useful portions are available online for free. Well hogwash; killing trees needlessly is not the only way to raise funds. If you need to raise the dues then raise them but now that we are in the age of information, the skating institutions are progressively restricting information faster than the Federal Government! We need a Freedom of Information Act for Skaters!

Hrmmph! http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/boese/a025.gif
Lyle

[Isk8NYC]

Skate Canada has MUSIC for the Moves tests?

USFSA just has the patterns.

Music would make it exponetially more difficult for me - LOL.

[Virtualsk8r]

Yes......There are tunes for each exercise with one common tune for most expanding exercises........and after a few sessions of hearing that sweet music most of us just block it out......They are original tunes with an electronic bend that can get under your skin really fast!!

[Isk8NYC]

That's cruel and inhumane punishment! LOL

[jp1andOnly]

I would be so bored if there was no music. Our patterns are a little longer than the US and tend to combine several things at once. there are usually 3 different types of patterns per level.
Prelim: waltzing 3's, watzing mohawks, circles (edges on a circle, all directions)
Jr bronze: 3's and power mohawks, power circles, change 3's
Sr Bronze: forward brackets, power cirlces 2, expanding
Jr Silver: multi turns and power 3's, snakes and ladders(loops and turns), flying choctaws
Sr Silver: rockers and choctaws, multi circle 3's and brackets, expanding
Gold: counters and three change 3's, multi circle double 3's and mohawks, expanding
That's cruel and inhumane punishment! LOL

[Virtualsk8r]

Just to give you an idea....the preliminary level waltzing mohawks music is done at the same tempo as the Starlight Waltz, so sometimes we use that instead for practice!!!

Even still - there are times when I find myself actually humming the skills music off the ice (usually the mohawks and power threes' tune!)

What do you perform the MIF if there is no music?

[Isk8NYC]

What do you perform the MIF if there is no music?I've never thought of it as "performing." 8O I've always thought of those tests as "demonstrating." You're right: it IS a performance.

The Waltz Eight and the spiral power crossovers have a definite tempo, but usually the coaches clap or count.
The skater is expected to know the tempo and beats without any background noise/music.

What I've heard at many USFSA test sessions is toe scratches, scraped turns, and blade clangs, along with edge rips, clean turns, and almost-soundless crossovers. (Depends on WHO is being tested.)

I wonder if the lack of music is intentional, so that our judges can hear the skating as well as see it?

Does every rink or club provide the music, or do each of you carry your own MITF music tapes?

[icedancer2]

What do you perform the MIF if there is no music?

I wish our MITF had music!

Without music, you are just out there when you test, alone, on your same rink you skate on every day, and it is all silent except the sounds of your blades on the ice. It is COMPLETELY unnerving, at least to me!

I think I have heard that sometimes they will play some soft music in the background during the test - I think that since we practice all the time and there is almost always music playing, there should at least be something on while you are testing.

I can imagine that you would get sick of the music with everyone practicing to it, but it would be so good for the skaters and much more pleasant to test!!

Testing our moves is not like it was testing figures - with figures, you were always used to practicing them in silence, so testing them in silence was not a big deal (at least to me) - but taking a Moves test without music is a huge big deal to this old-fashioned skater!

[jp1andOnly]

All skating clubs have the "skills music" Coaches will often have their own copies especailly if they coach at various clubs

I've never thought of it as "performing." 8O I've always thought of those tests as "demonstrating." You're right: it IS a performance.

The Waltz Eight and the spiral power crossovers have a definite tempo, but usually the coaches clap or count.
The skater is expected to know the tempo and beats without any background noise/music.

What I've heard at many USFSA test sessions is toe scratches, scraped turns, and blade clangs, along with edge rips, clean turns, and almost-soundless crossovers. (Depends on WHO is being tested.)

I wonder if the lack of music is intentional, so that our judges can hear the skating as well as see it?

Does every rink or club provide the music, or do each of you carry your own MITF music tapes?

[jskater49]

Oh my gosh, the way I struggle with timing in dance, the last thing I need is one more thing to worry about in moves. Count me as one who is glad I don't have to do moves in time to the music!
j

[dbny]

I wish our MITF had music!


I do too! I always skate better to music, maybe because it relaxes me, but also because skating involves rhythm, and music provides that. One rink I've been going to for public sessions seems to play exclusively disco music, which is too fast for most moves, and I just have to tune it out or adapt the temp of my steps to the temp of the music by hitting every other beat.

[slusher]

Da, ta dah dah daaah da da da, te da dah dah da dah....

now you've put the expanding music into my head and I'm off the ice for two weeks, I thought I escaped it, aaaah!

With both the skills music and compulsory dances, you KNOW when you hear a certain segment of music where you're supposed to be, for dances if you're on time, the music switches key a bit but has a definite pattern to it so you can pick up where it repeats. Music is supposed to encourage more of a freeskating effect of the skills and get skaters to skate with the music and so to show the speed and power and flow that they're looking for in certain exercises. Prelim 3's look the same as prelim mohawks on paper but you better do the mohawks with power.

For power circles for example, when there is this long bit, I know I should be hitting the 4/4 edge onto the new circle. If I'm not, ooops. The downside is that the judges all know this music intimately, and for some skills tests they'll just look up at the tricky bits because they're cued by the music and if you're not doing the right move they're expecting because you're too fast or slow, oops again. Although, failing to skate to the music perfectly shouldn't fail you, with the exception of power circles, timing is huge on that one.

[Thin-Ice]

One of the kids at my now-closed rink freaked out so badly the first two times she did the Pre-Pre moves test, that her/our coach finally asked her what the problem was, since she was perfectly capable of doing all the moves quite well. The skater said "well it's so quiet out there and I can hear everything echo" (oversized rink and it did echo). So from then on our coach put on soft Enya-type music that didn't reallly have a beat most of the time. The girl went out and took her Pre-Pre, Pre and Pre-Juve moves tests the next test session and passed all three of them over the passing average on every element. So the quiet really was the problem for her. Unfortunately, that coach is now at a different rink and they don't want to play any background music.

I have to admit, as a judge, I can usually tell just by listening if a Moves test is going to pass or not. It makes me very self-conscious of what I'm doing when I'm practicing for my next moves test.

[AlexeiLover]

Just for an FYI, my coach informed me when I was having troubles finding the dance patterns, that they are in the section of that titled skating terms. I know it's really weird, but that's Skate Canada for you... (oh yeah, note to self, go on and check to see if latest dance test results have been updated...) Yeah you can check those too... Pretty interesting.

[singerskates]

Skate Canada has MUSIC for the Moves tests?

USFSA just has the patterns.

Music would make it exponetially more difficult for me - LOL.

Yup, we do have to skate the moves (skills here in Canada) to music. So when you pass a skill here in Canada you've really got something.

Brigitte

I haven't started with my skills yet. I'm still at the stage where I'm trying to remember what comes next never mind doing it to the music.

[BatikatII]

Wow I wish our moves tests had music. It would really help to have something to give you the right rhythym. One of our coaches used to do a great dance moves class to music and the music she used was great for skating any of the moves patterns to. It really helped with holding the edges and turnign in the right place etc. Plus it masks the sound of toepicks :lol: - though of course there shouldnt' be any sound of toepicks anyway.......:D

The old novice test in the UK was a bit like a moves test in that it was skated to the skaters waltz music and had to include crossovers and mohawks and 3 turns etc in a program style. No jumps or spins in that one!

[skating_sarah11]

I dont think the American's on this board understand how the Skills in Skate Canada is different from the MIV in the USFSA. In skills we are judged on not only how well we can perform the turns; but how well we can perform them to a specific timing, as well as to the timing of the music. These tests are by no means easy to pass. And the music does make things more difficult. Also, you can still hear scratches over the music most of the time. It's just like testing a dance..except much longer aha. They usually take 15-20 minutes to test.

[happysk8tes]

I skated some of the Adult Bronze moves listening to Frank Sinatra sing "The Summer Wind" on my iPod. Tried "Take 5" for 5 Step Mohawks but it didn't work.

I once had a couple of big group lessons with a US coach who taught Annie's Edges. I liked the drum music, but the class went too fast for me to remember the moves. And she wouldn't write the moves on paper so we could memerize them - intellectual property there, I surmised. Is that the type of music you skate Moves to in Canada?

While I like practicing to the music, I think I'm glad we don't have to use music to test so we can create our own tempo. Some of that dance music is fast enough!

Pat

[skating_sarah11]

i actually checked with a coach of mine today, and Skate Canada does own the Skills Patterns.