I would first of all suspect that Tim wants you at the Bronze level for AN's next year or possibly Silver if you progress very quickly. The Silver and Gold moves can be a killer.

I am a Gold level skater (lady, not man) and can tell you that almost all Gold skaters (men and women) have at least one double (which may or may not be consistent), a nice combination spin with change of position and foot, flying spin, solid footwork, good edgework, speed, and nice MIF (spirals, spread eagles, bauers, hydroblades). Last year at Mids (your section) the winner did 2 double toes (one as the back 1/2 of a sequence or combination, I forget which), a double sal, double flip, single loop, two axels, flying spin, combo spin and some great connecting moves. He went on to win Champ Gold Men at AN's as well. He recently passed his Intermediate MIF and FS and will be competing Championship Masters Men this year at Mids and AN's.

I think she was saying that if I take the novice that I can't compete adult, but I have up to that point (which is Juvenile, no?) to switch over to Adult. Or maybe I misunderstood.

It's on "home ice" so I'll be there in person. It's like twenty minutes from where I live.

I'm not saying he would have. My goal is to reach gold level in five years. If he thinks I can do it faster, great! If it turns out I need more time, no big deal. I don't look at skating as something with a stopping point as if I'd consider it "over and done" as soon as I win a gold medal or something. I plan to make this a life-long process.

He promised nothing of the sort, he said "I think you'll be good enough to do it by then." That doesn't strike me as a promise or guarantee. I have to do my portion too. And skating under pressure is certainly a new experience.

Question: Why does everyone always feel that I'm going to have a negative response to their criticism? I'm not. If I did, why would I be keeping you guys updated? Trust me, I'm far more easy going than you people are giving me credit for!

I don't actually know. I'm going to assume since he has been coaching for two decades the answer to that question is likely a resounding no. Hence why I said "at present."

You know, I asked just for clarification, but he may have misunderstood my question about competition level. I'll ask again. Now that I think about, I suspect your suspicion is probably correct. I was a little too surprised to follow up again.

Hmm....I guess I'm not being too clear, maybe because this is all pretty new to me - but I'm planning on testing the Standard track freestyles as well...

Getting to gold in a year from Pre-pre/pre-bronze would be a serious feat not to mention a lot of tests literally 8 tests in 12 months and that's if you did just the adult, I've seen people (adult age 45) go from pre-pre to Novice in a year but... and this is a huge but, she was Novice level as a kid w/ doubles through lutz. If you feel confident go for silver next year in Chicago, most of the top skaters at that level are really very smooth and have good power, most have an axel and nice spins. Of course the bronze men are very similar just w/out the axel, you want your first experience to be a good one so be pragmatic, don't rush and pass tests just to do them skating is about perfection of those little things, the ability to emote your music, moves easily across the ice with nice power, flow in and out of elements.

Of course do what you think is right for you, AN's 06 would be good for you to see to get a good idea of what you want to do. I know I didn't come to my first AN's (02') very prepared, I had to skate silver ladies because I had passed my Juv FS as a child but I had never skated in such a large group. I skated 17th of the 18 skaters and it was very hard on my nerves. Mind you, I made it to final round and finished in the top 3 overall but it was much harder than I expected. Best of luck!

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I think the only time I'd recommend doing not doing the standard track moves would be if you wanted to compete and didn't want to wait to test up a level before taking the Adult FS test or if you felt that the standard track moves were simply too challenging and you wanted a bit of slack... Well Ok, in my area, i've seen people pass Adults Moves test that I certainly know would not have passed standard track, and they switched because is was less frustrating to continue on the adult track instead. It is a frustrating sport indeed!

The level before novice is intermediate.

And get thee a rule book!

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When I join the club I'll get one, right?

not every club provides a copy of the current rulebook for free as part of the membership (mine doesn't).

You can order the current rulebook from USFS for l think less than $20. If you are not currently a member, it appears you have to use the PDF order form. Directly ordering the rulebook online appears to be a "members only" function.

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Ask your club. My club does NOT include a rulebook in its membership package. And I second the notion -- get a rulebook as soon as possible!

Mikawendy answered the "what's before Novice" question, but I want to state it more clearly. To reiterate what I said in an earlier post:

If you pass any standard track FS tests from Pre-preliminary through Juvenile, you are forcing yourself into specific adult categories. Example: if you pass the Preliminary FS test, you are not allowed to skate lower than Bronze in the adult track. And you must then pass the appropriate Adult tests, too, in addition to the standard tests you've already passed. Consult the rulebook to see what those are. In other words, the standard track FS tests don't qualify you to compete as an adult, but they can disqualify you from skating at certain levels. You have to keep this in mind as you're taking your standard tests.

If you pass the standard track Intermediate FS test, you are required to compete in the Masters Novice level. You do not take Adult tests.

Thanks for clearing this up, otherwise I would have spent my next lesson with my coach just talking about all this.

I'm not really planning on competing so for me taking the Standard track isn't an issue. I understand that I need to take the adult tests all over again if I do decide to switch. I figure if I do one day wish to compete that I'll deal with it then - I just like the idea of testing on the Standard track for some reason. I don't think there's anything wrong with the adult track, but I think that by doing the Standard I'll be forced to kind of "slow down" if that makes any sense. Plus I've had a lot of people emailing me championing me to just do the Standard so that's what I think I'm going to do. Nothing is set in stone though - for now I'll practice the Standard MIF for pre-pre. If nothing else the practice is necessary regardless of testing

Oh - you might also want to invest in a copy or borrow from someone the PSA MITF tape. I've heard it's helpful to see what's expected at each test level.

Word of caution about those: they were made when Moves was first introduced, & the judging has gotten more stringent since then. In my area, what is shown on the tapes would not always be passing level. However, they are good for showing pattern, how to learn some of the new steps, etc.

Oh that's really good to know!! I was just about to buy it!! I usually watch test sessions to get an idea of the moves but there are fewer people who test at the higher levels so its harder to get a chance to see whats expected

Are you referring to the second set of MITF tapes (with skating cameos by Ryan Bradley and an uncredited Ryan Jahnke, among others) that was an updated version of the original set of tapes?

I don't know. I borrowed them from a friend so I can't look to check. Didn't know an updated set had been made--my guess would be I saw the originals.

Even though MIF are judged slightly differently in different parts of the country, I still think it's very worthwhile to watch those MIF videos to get an idea of the patterns, body positions, flow and overall "look" of each move. It helped me trememdously to watch the video the night before my first MIF lesson at each new level. It enabled me to go into my lesson with an idea of what it was supposed to look like so we didn't have to waste the first 10 minutes of my lesson just trying to figure that out.