My club hosted a test session today. Do you have any idea how delighted I am to never have to do those @#$%&*! prejuvenile moves again?!? My gosh, that's a long test. About a month ago, I started getting so sick of them that I couldn't do more than 1 run-through per day. Even in a lesson!

I was reminded how nervous I get when I test. It's much worse to me than competing. It's so ... binary. You either pass, or you don't. I'd rather compete any old day. But I got through it okay, with only a single reskate. (One judge wanted to see the back perimeter power stroking. She said it was on flats and lacked power. But the other 2 judges both gave me above passing standard on it. Whatever. I reskated it exactly as she wanted it. She still failed it. Whatever.) The important thing is I NEVER HAVE TO DO THOSE AGAIN!! I wonder, are there others like me who are reasonably okay competing, but freak out over testing?

And congratulations to InsideAxel, who passed his Gold moves today too!

I have ALWAYS freaked over tests - both in ballet when I was a teen and the few ice-dance tests I took as a young adult. I thought it was just youthful inexperience, and that I would get over eventually.

Not so!

I just took my Introductory Interpretive test a few weeks back and found the experience to be just as nervewracking now that I am (supposedly) 'mature' as I ever did in my youth. Actually more so if the truth be admitted.

I would rather compete any day!!! And if it means that I am Bronze forever if I never test again - well I can live with that!

Congratulations on passing your test

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Congratulations skaternum!

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
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Congratulations skaternum! That is a long test, geez. Congrats to InsideAxel as well:]

Btw, I get equally nervous for test sessions and competitions. What's amazing is that I keep coming back for more

Skaternum and InsideAxel:

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Congratulations to you too! (and thanks!)

Kelton

Congrats to skaternum and InsideAxel!

OK skaternum, now I'm getting worried. I've seen you skate and if some judge said you lacked power, yikes! I'd better start working really hard if I ever want to pass Bronze moves!

Yes, I got much more nervous when I tested than when I've competed. I think that's b/c competition is an experience, where you can gain/learn something no matter how you skate, and testing is for one purpose only - to pass and move on to the next level. Then again, there is something to be gained even if you don't pass the test, I suppose, and it's not like you can't try again, in only 27 days.

Oh, hooray; The Other Woman is movin' on up!

Congrats to you, too, K'. When are you taking the gold FS?

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Thanks NoVa! Thinking about @ Peach...I've got to get mskater on board as my proxy coach though!

C'ya!

Kelton

Thanks for the compliment. But at least the passing average for bronze is .2 points lower than prejuvenile. Hopefully your panel will keep that in mind when they score you!

Yay to both of you!

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Congratulations skaternum and InsideAxel! It's close to a year since I've last tested (Silver Moves and Free). I'm hoping to test Gold Moves by the end of the year and I'm slowly feeling the panic starting to set in. I think it's the silence of the test sessions (for moves tests) that really gets to me.

Again, congratulations on your accomplishments to both of you.

Frank

Thanks for all the congratulatory notes. FrankR, I think the silence is the worst part of testing moves! I swear, the only sounds were my knees shaking and my toepicks.

I think the unfamiliarty of testing also plays into it. I compete in something every year (unless I'm injured). But when I filed my test papers, I looked at my last couple of sets of papers -- it had been 5 years since I last tested moves. I'm one of the clever folks who passed bronze FS before there was such a thing as pre-bronze anything or adult moves, and I passed silver FS the month before the adult moves went into effect. So I just don't have the wealth of experience testing that I do competing.

Yes, definitely. When I tested Pre-Bronze moves it felt like every scrape could be heard in the next rink! In fact, I decided to do the Bronze MIF event at New Year's just to have the experience of doing moves before judges in that same silent atmosphere, even though the power 3's were/are my worst move and I knew I was going to get my butt kicked. Afterward, my coach remarked that I seemed so relaxed, which I was - b/c it was not a "test". IMO, everything changes as soon as that name is used - lol.

Well done, both of you!

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I agree completely. I will also add that it makes the warm-up for the test that much more terrifying. When I tested my silver moves, as I was warming up, I had a "Click of Death" on my back cross-rolls followed by a hip-crunching fall to the ice. With the completely silent rink it sounded like an avalanche! Needless to say all three judges and my coach immediately turned their heads upon hearing the din and saw me sprawled all over the ice. Can't we have at least a little light background music on those moves test sessions to break the tension???

Frank

No problem, I'm pretty good at holding water bottles and nodding my head encouragingly:]

My personal trick to look coach-like is to call the skater(s) over during the warmup and pretend to tell them something terribly important. Usually I actually tell them that I don't have anything to say, but I just wanted it to look like I did.

Such profundity, I'll make note of that:]

EXACTLY how I feel about testing! You can't "fail" a competition, and how you do at a competition usually doesn't ruin your plans for the season. Testing, on the other hand, can do that. If you don't pass your MIF and FS tests by a certain date, you can't skate at that level at Sectionals or Nationals and that can ruin your entire plans for the year! That's what will happen to me next year if I don't pass my Gold MIF and FS test. . .

But more importantly, CONGRATULATIONS!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO SKATERNUM AND INSIDEAXEL!!! WOO HOO!!!!



Skaternum: I'll bet you're glad to get pre-Juv moves out of the way!!! Those things are HARD!!!

I admit that I'm probably already freakin' about taking the Bronze moves test and am making excuses to not take the test. Who knows... this little voice in me keeps telling me I'm not quite ready yet, but getting very close... Primary coach thinks I'm ready. Secondary coach doesn't say anything about it, but last time I spoke to her (around the time she said I need to take up pilates), she doesn't think I was anywhere near ready yet to her.

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Talk to your test chair... There is nothing in the rules that says you cannot have music for moves tests. One of our local rinks DOES play "light background music" -- usually something new-age-y, like something that would be played when you get a massage -- so there's no real beat to it.. and you're not trying to skate to the background music. It doesn't really cover the bad toe scrapes, but it does seem to put the judges in a better mood and relax the skaters. (Although at my last test session, I specifically asked to have the music played, and thought I was sailing through the test. Midway through the test the judge in charge called me over to ask "is that music bothering you?" -- I smiled, trying HARD not to laugh, said "no" and finished off the test, passing all elements by the two other judges, and the JIC didn't pass me on the move that he stopped.)

Not placing out of Regionals can ruin your whole season, trust me, I'm obsessing over it everyday, hah.

Meanwhile, thin ice, while I've never had music for MITF tests (wish I had!), I would have been SO pissed off if a judge interrupted me mid-move to ask me something like that. I'm not sure I could have stopped myself from telling him nothing distracted me until HE called me over for no good reason. Sheesh.

congrats!!!
Good Job you two!!!

If they played any music during moves tests, it'd have to be something with no discernable beat. I'm very musical, and I constantly find myself subconsciously doing whatever move I'm working on to the beat of whatever music is being played. It's quite annoying and can really screw up the tempo I need to be doing!