Some of us (pointing to self) don't even HAVE FO mohawks to do the 8 step right...

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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!!!

I don't think I have them either. It's more of a flat.

LOL, yes, and go FASTER! Seems like this move really has to go at a quick pace. A friend of mine recently tested and passed silver moves, and I thought he really flew into them, like a bat out of hell, and he didn't actually pass that move. I think they marked him down a tenth for being too steppy or something. And don't forget, don't stick your butt out! That is apparently a common error!

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August 22, back on the ice!

But the most important thing to remember to survive this move is to POINT the TOES of the foot you're bringing down onto the ice for the 2nd half of each mohawk. I was dumb enough to forget this TWICE in two weeks and both times planted the back of my blade in the ice while the rest of me kept going. The first thing to hit the ice was my hip, and I'd have to say it was the worst bruise I've ever gotten on the ice (especially when it was the second bruise on top of the first bruise!)

Some adults are really scared of spirals and 3 turns and are unwilling to take the risk that the standard track demands even on the pre-pre through juv tests. Spirals, yes i do think they involve risk taking. Of course you can disagree with me, but in my opinion the pre-pre through juv tests expect more than the adult tests, even if scored at the same point value on the tests. This is based on what I've seen and may not correspond to what you have seen. For example, I know that on the preliminary test skaters must step down on the back inside edge and push from that after the 3 turn on the power 3s but i know and have heard coaches tell their adults that on the bronze moves test, it's ok to let that slide and rock over to the inside edge from the outside.

And also I do know adults who don't have the patience or don't want to change their ways or work refine their moves - they just want to do the minimum to pass their tests so that they can compete. They don't want to spend any extra time more than the minimum required to get past their adult tests, forget about standard tests that demand even more perserverance and repeition to pass than the adult track which has provisions written into the test standard.

Adult track introduces skills more quickly so that you can do programs and compete without having to go through the entire grind of the standard track. But does it get you a better foundation at the lower levels? That's where I disagree.

I was trying to say the difference is that the standard track expects MORE than the adult track. So if you are willing to do the same but are willing to put with MORE perserverence patience and repetition, do the standard track.

I think also it's not fair to say both tracks are the same unless you have actually judged or taken tests on both tracks, and really know that one is different from the other. And there appears to be varying differences from region to region.

Btw, i did not learn moves as a kid. I learned them only as an adult and starting from pre-preliminary, fyi.

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Keep Evolving. "From this moment forward, every voice that told you - You Can't - , has been silenced." - Freedom Writers

Yes, but they're on the Silver test, the third test in the sequence, not the first. So if you're a brand-new skater starting out with little flexibility, you get a few years to build it up along with skating skills before being expected to test spirals, rather than a few months before taking the pre-prelim moves.

You want the preliminary alternating threes back on the adult tests, at 2.5 standard with no forgiveness for putting the free foot down at the change of lobe? I'm still struggling with those for the preliminary test.

Uh, my coach sure never said that, nor did any of the judges that judged my Bronze MIF test (or other Bronze MIF tests that I heard about).

Funny, because from what I've seen, I'd say adults are more patient and willing to refine their moves than most kids (notice I said most, not all). I think it's because we as adults understand the connection between working on moves and developing skills that will help us in our freestyle skating (or dance) whereas most kids, particularly young ones and particularly at the lower levels, just want to get through their tests as fast as possible and often don't have a sense of a move's focus or pattern - they just do what their coach tells them. When a kid gets up to Juv or Intermediate, I think at that point, they start to understand the process and technique more.

And usually, adults need to "change their ways" in order to get their moves to passing standard - I know I did.

As far as "provisions" go, my understanding is that the so-called adult expectations were developed by the Adult Committee but were never actually given to the judges or written into the rulebook. I went to a moves critique when I was working on Pre-Bronze MIF and asked about the allowance for putting your foot down at the line in the alt 3's - the judge looked at me like I had 3 heads, looked at the rulebook, told me there was nothing in there about feet down at the line, and that I should "get a rulebook, everything you need to know is there." Suffices to say that any adult following that alt 3 "provision" in my area would be failed automatically.

Thanks for clarifying. What I thought you were saying is that the adult moves tests don't require patience, perseverance, and repetition, which I would find a bit offensive given the number of hours I and other adult skaters put in trying to get our moves to passing standard on the adult track.

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

I had the worst time with those. Did you take the lower MIF tests? I didn't, so I had never really seen the power-3is before. I had a similar problem on the Adult Gold for the inside forward/back threes, because I didn't know how to do the side pattern!

(I grandfathered into AGM, so never took anything lower except for figures thru the 2nd test)

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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

Well, I did have to take those on the Pre-Bronze MIF test, so I'm probably an "outlier" as far as the average adult skater moving through the adult track goes - lol. I remember there were sessions where I spent about 40 minutes (of a 50-minute session) practicing the alt 3's (there's some serious repetition) and trying not to put my free foot down at the line, while watching kids learn that in about 10 minutes. I had to do plenty of core and upper body twisting and needed plenty of patience - so did my coaches - lol.

I'm glad they took that out of the Pre-Bronze test, and I agree that the Pre-Bronze test has gotten easier, although I don't think it's easier than the Pre-Prelim test b/c of the other 3-turns and the crossover figure 8's - I'm talking about the actual moves, not the judging standard.

As for Prelim spirals, I guess I'm one of those weird people who would much rather have done the spirals than the alt 3's on Pre-Bronze. But I think having neither of those moves on the introductory-level adult test is a good idea.

I have thought about testing standard track moves, but I decided that given my limited time and money, I would benefit more from concentrating on Silver MIF now and acquiring new skills (and changing my ways, or at least my bad habits) rather than going back to the moves on Pre-Prelim and Prelim MIF. But maybe someday......

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

I have to say that I've seen this as well. Probably more so in the past than presently, but I still see it. Luckily most of these types fall out of the sport after a while.

I agree with this too. Most people I know spend a lot more time working on their standard track tests than on their adult tests.

Ah, the eternal constant.

Hey, that describes me perfectly, but I'm not falling out of the sport, LOL! I think it's just that we adults usually only have a few hours of practice time each week and need to spend as much of it as possible on freestyle if we are competing. Having said that, I am now working on my Intermediate MIF and my coach is telling me they need to be more perfect than when I did the same moves for Gold, since the passing standard is higher. She watches every MIF test session at our rink so I believe her. BTW, this is the first MIF test I'm taking voluntarily, not just to be eligible for a freestyle test. It seemed like the thing to do, since there was only one new move to learn. . .

I wonder if standards are changing continuously anyway, so one person's experience at intermediate, say, a few years ago, would be different compared to someone's experience now. I know someone who just passed gold moves and she passed intermediate a couple of years ago, and said she got lower scores now than she did when she took the intermediate test, even though she is a much better skater now. She passed each test, but was just surprised at the scores.

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August 22, back on the ice!