Hi everyone! I have some news I want to share with, well, the whole world!

This morning I passed the second half of my 8th figure test and thus completed the gold test. It was a long time coming: After skating as a kid and passing my 5th figure test, I returned at 25 years old (after nine years off) to finish these tests. That was in 1994. Now, 10 years later, I'm done! Well, really 25 years later, as I started skating in 1979.

I don't think the news has really sunk in yet. Honestly, the test wasn't all that great, so I don't feel a major sense of accomplishment. But as everyone keeps telling me, a pass is a pass is a pass -- take it and run! Still, I will probably never do patch again, and that to me is so strange. But now I can focus more on ice dancing and the other stuff I love to do in skating. (And save a lot of money by not paying for patch sessions & lessons! LOL!)

Thanks for reading!

Julie

WOW! WOW!! WOW!!! I'm totally impressed. That's one of those "in my wildest dreams" kind of things.

And how will you be celebrating this fabulous accomplishment??

Many congratulations to you. You must be so thrilled and rightly so!!!

Nicki

Congratulations, that is such an amazing accomplishment!!!!!

I felt relieved when I was done my gold figure test, but sad too. I was an odd one that loved figures!!!! You think you may not ever do them again, but I find myself going back and doing my favourites when I am on the ice, just for fun!!! And to see if I can still do them well!

Well done!!!!!!

I don't even know! I am at work now, so that sure doesn't count. LOL! But this morning my friend Patti brought champagne and popped it open as soon as I found out I'd passed. So that was a mini-celebration ... a pre-party, if you will!

Thanks everyone for your congrats! I still can't believe it .....

Congrats!

(Figures were my nemisis ).

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"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

I think that is so cool. A big thumbs up!!

I just started figures this past winter. My coach has started me out in basic figures and I am the only person at my rink who is doing it. You should have seen the looks on the faces on some of the kids when I dragged a scribe out onto the ice.

They had never seen one before.

When I go to Adult Week at Lake Placid, I actually take lessons in figures. This year there are about 4 or 5 other skaters who wish to do the same thing so it will be fun to have some fellow patchers.

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

Congrats! I'm taking my first Figure Test this Saturday. Figures are NOT DEAD!
You're an inspiration! You go girl!!
Becca from Alabama

Good luck, Becca! Keep the flame alive!

Congratulations! I bow down before you


Ellen, who would be happy enough to pass her first Figures test!

When my coach brought his scribe out, his skaters were like "Well, what's it supposed to do?" as the ice at our rink is so bad they couldn't see what he had done with it (really, I suppose, you need a water-coloured marker).

Julie, that is awesome! Many, many congratulations!

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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!

My coach has noticed a big improvement in the overall quality of my edges since we started working on figures. It takes patience and a lot of control and that's just what I need. We plan to retire to Lake Placid in a few years and figures is still very big there, so I will be right at home.

Just an interesting side note. I only practice figures when I have the ice to myself which is easy during the school year since the kids are in school and I have such bizarre hours so I can take advantage of the obscure hours. What is strange is there are some pros at the rink who wish I wouldn't do it at all....it's like they are afraid I am going to draw people to the "dark side".

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

That is a HUGE accomplishment! You should be very proud of yourself.

Congratulations!!!!

That is so cool! I was another weirdo who liked figures- passed my Prelim in June 1994, when I had been skating for eighteen months, and I was almost ready to take my First when my rink stopped offering patch ice. I had been struggling with the threes on the first figure so I wasn't that disappointed about having to quit, but in retrospect I wish I had found a way to at least pass that test. One of these days...

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

Just an interesting aside. I was told by members of my club at Lake Placid that they have stopped certifying any more judges for figure tests. This means when the last of them retires, I guess figure testing goes Kaput.

Can anyone else verify this?

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

Thanks, everyone, for your congrats!


Yes, that is true. The USFSA stopped giving figure-judging appointments in the late '90s.


That IS weird! Why wouldn't they want you to do it?

Only two reasons I can think of:

1) Figures are considered passe'. Kids want to get out there and jump and spin before they learn the fundamentals. My coach sez it really is obvious around testing time since many of these kids don't pass because they can't do the fundamental elements.

2) The ice rink here is big, big on synchro. We're home of the Haydenettes, Ice Mates, Ice Cubes, and the 2 Espirit de Corps teams. All the skating programs seem to be fast track to fill these teams.

Interesting enough, it's the younger pros who are against figures. Some of the older pros think it should be taught, but the older pros are way outnumbered by the younger ones.

I am a good friend of Tina Noyes and when I told her about the no more appointment of figure's judges. her comment...big, big mistake.

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

Here, our older pros still teach figures, still practice them, and still lament their passing! They consider that Field Moves are a very poor substitute, and anybody who will learn a basic FO 8 is taught it. I was taught it one day when I was very distressed - can't remember why - and in no fit state to work on any of the things I normally work on.

For adults who still know figures, the Mountain Cup still offers a chance to compete in them.

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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!

Daisies -- this is a huge accomplishment!!! You should be very, very proud!!

I was just thinking this morning that most of our top skaters (those who are considered our top skaters) have either never done figures or have only passed up to about their 4th Figure test!! that means that you are that much more accomplished than them (and in my eyes, although I've never met or seen you, I am sure that you are a much better skater!!)

I have gone back to figures in the last couple of years, too. (I passed my 1st figure in 1965 so I go back a ways -- never could pass my 2nd figure) -- so now I'm working on Adult Bronze figures -- just simple outside and inside 8, serpentine, Waltz 8 -- maybe one day try that 2nd test again.

It's hard to get patch ice. I usually set up at one end of the rink before many people get there. I have to not care when people skate through my "patch" or when I have to stop when they come flying towards me. I don't use a scribe, so that isn't an issue.

Our coaches are mostly "older" coaches and so they appreciate figures and I have seen a few of them working on figures (a little) with their kids -- they often use my circles when I am done with them. I secretly smile to myself...

There is one patch session in our city -- one hour a week on a Sunday morning. I am amazed at how popular it is! There is one coach who first goes out and makes the "patch lines" and then scribes out circles for everybody who wants them. Then the skaters, most of them who are kids who have never seen figures, go and trace out eights and serpentines and she comes around and helps them. She doesn't pay attention to me so much because she knows I take a lesson with my coach in figures. There is another coach who gives her kids figure lessons from the side of the ice during the patch. They are juvenile level dancers -- it is very exciting to see them work out their figures, and then their "Moves" on the circles!!

Well, this is a long post for me, but I am very excited about figures and will mourn their passing!!

Again, congratulations!!

I have a feeling this is the real reason they don't want you doing figures. The younger pros wouldn't have a clue how to teach figures, so if other skaters decide they want to learn them, it's the older pros who will get the business and the $$$.


LOL! Well, thanks for that, icedancer2, but I don't think so! But I probably could win the head-to-head battle if it came to laying out a paragraph bracket.

Very cool that there's a popular patch session in town. I hope you do go for your 2nd test!

Does anyone have copies of the figures patterns they could scan? I would love to see them!

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Mostly, for Adult Bronze figures, they are just plain 8s - for FO8, for instance, you start off on a FO edge, go all round one circle and back to where you started, then push off on to the FO edge on the other foot and do the same, hoping to produce the same-sized circle with both feet, and have both halves of the circle matching! Which, when I do them, they don't! Serpentine is 3 circles, allegedly of equal size (yeah, right!); you push off at one side of the central circle, do a semi-circle, then change edge, do a whole circle on the changed edge (whether you start on FO or FI edge depends on what the judges request on the day, so you have to be able to do them both ways), then push on to the other edge on the other foot and repeat. You have to be able to start on either foot, and, for the serpentine, on either edge. The waltz 3 is not done in this country, so I've no real idea how it should be done.

Incidentally, a British judge who grew up in the days of figures commented that he had seen high-level skaters who could neither push on to a BI edge nor realised that such a push was possible from a standstill!

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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!

WOW!!! The Gold Figure Test!!! We're not worthy!!!! We're not worthy!!!

So are you planning on blessing our ice with your beautiful edges again at Skate SF this year? If I pass my Bronze Moves next week, I'll be competing for sure (barring of course, any unfortunate circumstances...)

YOU GO, GIRL!!!! WOO HOO!!!

icedancer2: I have seen daisies skate at competitions and she is a GORGEOUS skater!!!

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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!!!

Aww, thanks so much!!! Unfortunately, I won't be at Skate SF this year because I will be judging SWP regionals and trialing at Pacific Coast sectionals, so I will already be taking too much time off work.

Good luck on your Bronze Moves! And at Skate SF!

Julie...congrats! So fabulous!

I passed my 2nd figure test in January and am diligently working on my 3rd. I've gotten to know the maintenance guys and the monitors at my rink, so they let me in the rink at 5:00 AM to get in 45 minutes of patch before the regular sessions start at 6:00. It's grueling, but I love doing the figures, so it's worth it. I'm hoping to get through 4th.