I was wondering if anyone knows what the NISA novice test involves?

Do you mean the Novice cmpetitive test which is age restricted (under 12 maybe) and requires you to have at something like 4 doubles and a variety of spins, or are you thinking of the old style novice (as in beginner ) tests which have been replaced by the level 1 Free and elements tests?

Your coach woudl have all this info but there is some info on what's required at each level for competitions, rather than tests, on the NISA website.

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

Im pretty sure that there isnt an age requirement for it, because i know that juvenile has the age limit of 12. I truely dont know what the elements are though

I believe Melzorina is referring to the UK Novice test, which is a totally different level (much lower I believe) than the USFS Novice level tests.

NISA is the UK organisation whereas I presume the juvenile you mention is American. In the UK, 'Novice' (competitive) pairs and couples dance comps no longer have age limits but I am pretty sure the pre-novice, novice, primary and junior levels in singles, all have age restrictions. Seniors have no age restrictions.

The old NISA test levels of Novice, prelim, inter-bronze, bronze, inter-silver, silver, inter-gold and gold were replaced a few years ago by level tests 1 to 10. These are further subdivided so the first 3 levels are said to be Bronze levels, levels 4-6 are silver levels and 7 and above are gold levels. Very confusing!!!!!!!!!

The UK 'Novice' competitive test is approximately equal to gold level 7 in the standard tests.

To confuse things further of course, we also have the 'learn to skate' courses called Skate UK which also have levels 1- 10 and then a 'passport with bronze, silver and gold levels (assessed by coaches at rink level) before you can take the NISA national level tests 1-10.

The most recent innovation is to actually restrict what elements are allowed in competition at each level which hopefully will encourage people to move up the levels faster but I think they may have ended up being a bit too restrictive since my daughter competed in a (Silver) level 4 comp last year where over half the girls were landing 4 different doubles whereas now they are only allowed 1 double jump (plus one in combo I think) and have to be level 6 before they can do more than one double in competition. It will be interesting to see how it affects the competitions this year.

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

NISA is the UK organisation whereas I presume the juvenile you mention is American. In the UK, 'Novice' (competitive) pairs and couples dance comps no longer have age limits but I am pretty sure the pre-novice, novice, primary and junior levels in singles, all have age restrictions. Seniors have no age restrictions.

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The only age limits are for the actual championships. You can take all these tests at any age but you can only skate at the Championships if you fall within the age categories. You can however skate at Opens whatever your age within your tested category i.e. if you were 18yrs and have your Primary Test you could skate at Primary Level within an Opens although you are out of the age group for the British Championships. This is to keep people skating and competing within NISA instead of just losing them.

I believe the changes within the competition structure is to try and ensure that all the skaters that are doing all these doubles are actually doing them properly. There was an interesting piece of paper that was given out during a question and answer session that showed that during the Novice/Pre-Novice events last year over 50% of the jumps attempted were either cheated or not landed.

As you say, it should be an interesting year with all the changes happening.

In re the changes, I'm hoping we'll see more really good double jumps and fewer fluffed triples!

However, to answer Melzorina's original question, these are the required elements for Bronze Level 1:

BRONZE LEVEL 1
ELEMENTS

1. Simple perimeter stroking in both directions
2. 2 jumps from 3-jump, salchow, cherry
3. Upright spin (minimum 3 revolutions
4. Forward and backward spirals held for a minimum of 10 metres
5. Simple step sequence (width of rink)

FREE
Maximum 1.5 minute programme including a minimum of Level 1 Elements or higher
N.B. Elements and Free are two separate tests; you have to get separate test papers signed by your coach, and pay two fees!

You also need Novice Field Moves (until they re-jig them, which was supposed to be in January 2004, then moved to January 2005, but we would have heard by now if that was going to happen, we still use the old terminology for Field Moves, which is very confusing. Not for Dance moves, though). But I can't find any official diagrams for these, off-hand, so these are from memory:

• Forward perimeter stroking in both directions, starting at the blue line and doing crossovers round the ends
• Forwards spirals on either leg, on a flat.
• Back crossovers into landing position, both directions
• I have a feeling you had to do inside & outside edges from a standstill.....

But do check with your teacher!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Yes, that's right!! That actually is the first exercise, followed for some reason by the perimeter skating, then the spiral exercise and lastly the landing position.

Nicki

Thanks, Nicki. When I wanted to work on them, my spirals weren't up to it (I'm not 100% sure they are even now, but they're better than they were then!), and now there seems no point if they're going to change things again.... I'll probably be credited with some level way above my skating ability, like I was when they changed the dance tests!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!