Appearantly, the NHL has change the placement of the hockey circles on the ice. They are not four feet close to the red lines, and thus, the end of the rink. Has anyone noticed this change at their rink recently? Mine just reopened after maintenance and now all my moves patterns are off. And I almost run into the ends on my warmups.

If you have noticed, does it seems inconvenient? It makes it so much harder to visualize the placement of different moves and parts of my program. Why did they have to change the placement of the circles?!?!?! GRR.

Interesting. I hadn't heard of this yet. But then again, I do skate on an Olympic rink, so I don't know if that has something to do with it...

My rink also has a collegiate rink, although its rarely used for freestyle (more so for hockey and some public sessions), so if I do happen to wander over there sometime, I'll have to make note.

Ah, so that's why the circles were repainted at one of the rinks I skate at... I noticed the faint line of old circles and the position of new ones, and was very surprised - it was way too crowded to stay on patterns anyway, so I don't know how it affected my skating.

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--renatele

EEK! They haven't changed our rink yet, but I'll have to go up to the rink where the minor league teams play (and my next test session is held) and see if I need to adjust my patterns.)

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

How weird! I just took the Hockey I course at the PSA conference and there was no mention made of that, although dimensions of rinks and placement of lines were stated. I did a quick google and didn't find anything. Don't know where my book is at the moment. Can anyone document this?

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Yes, USA Hockey/NHL did change the rules regarding the division of the ice surface. The placement of all lines was changed as well:

"The goal crease shall be laid out as follows: A semi-circle line six feet in radius and two inches in width shall be drawn using the center of the goal line as the center point. In addition, one foot outside of each goal post, a two inch line shall be painted that extends to the edge of the semi-circle line. These lines shall be at right angles to the goal line and the area inside these lines shall be painted light blue in color. On the side of the crease lines, four feet from the goal line, extend a five inch line into the blue area."

Also: "The ice area between the two goals shall be divided into three parts by lines, 12 inches in width and blue in color, drawn 64 feet out from the goal lines and extended completely across the rink, parallel with the goal lines and continued vertically up the side of the boards..."

The 64 foot designation is a change, as is everything else in italics (and red, too, now that I figured out how to change the text color!).

Because the placement of the all the face-off spots, the center ice spot, and the circles are relative to the lines which were changed, EVERYTHING is placed differently.

Games can continue to be played at rinks not adhering to the changes without penalty; however, rinks not making the change "may not be eligible to host state, district or national tournament games." Thus, if your rink is one that is likely to host a tournament of this type, the lines etc. have probably been repainted and will screw up your patterns!!

Refer to the USA Hockey 2007-2009 Official Rules and Casebook, Rules 104-108, for more information.

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

HA! I'm sure my old hockey rink will NEVER change the lines or the circles or anything else because they are so stuck in their ways that nothing ever, ever changes, except those things that will directly affect the figure-skaters in a negative way (can you tell I'm cynical? and I have everyreason to be).

They probably don't even know about it and if they do, they think it's wrong and won't change, because, you know, everyone is wrong except for them.

I think I'm going to go back to bed - this thread has unveiled an even deeper level of cynicism in me!!

By the way, thanks for the information - good to know.

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

icedancer2- I would expect a repaint soon then. This definetly negatively affects the figure skaters!

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Oh - yeah,. that's true - why didn't I think of that? Of course they will do it when they find out that the figure-skaters will hate it!

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Page 119 of this rulebook shows a diagram with the new dimensions. If your rink has re-painted, you might want to print out the new diagram and draw out your MIF lobes to scale to see where they should be in relation to the new markings.

http://www.ishl.org/forms/USAHRulebook200709.pdf

It looks like the only significant change is that the two blue lines have each been moved 4' closer to the center line (an older diagram shows 60' between goal line and blue line and the new one shows 64'). Since the red dots are 5' from the blue lines, I guess those will have also moved 4' closer to the center line. So, for MIF patterns down the length of the rink, the first lobe won't be affected (since the distance between the red goal line and corner circles is unchanged), but you'll have to use different visual cues for the next three lobes.

FlyAndCrash, does this sound like the changes you see at your rink?

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

For dancers: This may also affect how you set up dance patterns, although I doubt as much as with the MITF.

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

I also took the hockey and power courses at the PSA conference and I did remind the instructor about this--however, I'm not sure he knew what the changes were (I'm also a referee so I get a new USA Hockey rulebook every year).

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

I asked our hockey director about this today. He said that the NHL did make changes, but not USA hockey. My rink is safe.

Now that you've jogged my memory, I think I remember your comment in class. I probably didn't make a note of it because of the instructor's response.

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That's odd...because the rulebook that I have definitely has the changes marked in them, and it's a USA hockey rulebook, NOT an NHL rulebook. But either way, it's up to the rink director as to whether they want to make the changes--if your director says he's not repainting, you're pretty safe!

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky