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Frequently Asked Questions
*Answers to questions in red
will be forthcoming soon!
- U.S. Figure
Skating is the national governing body for figure skating, on ice,
in the United States. For more info
click here.
- Absolutely!
Although the Ice Skating Institute is generally considered to be the
more "recreational" of the two skating programs, many skaters who
participate in the Ice Skating Institute program take their skating
very seriously. By the same token, U.S. Figure Skating is
generally considered to be for the very serious competitive skater
with not much to offer to the recreational skater. In reality,
both programs offer something for both the serious competitive
skater as well as the recreational skater. In fact, many
skaters are affiliated with both organizations and find both to be
extremely rewarding.
- The International
Skating Union (ISU) was founded in 1892 and is the oldest governing
international winter sport federation. The
ISU is the only governing body, recognized by the International
Olympic Committee, for figure skating and all respective
disciplines.
You may download
our membership application here.
- Prospective
members under 18 years of age must select the “Family Membership”
class, and at least one parent/guardian must sign the application
and become a member as well, in order to represent the skater.
- Please visit
our Membership Information page for more details on the membership
classes available.
- Yes, you must have authorization from your parents in order to become a
member if you are younger than 18 years old, and at least one of
them must become a member too. Please select the Family Membership
class when submitting your application.
- No application for a prospective member will be accepted
without the parent/guardian signature,
if the member is under 18 years of age.
- The
membership application is available for download in our
Online Forms
page.
- Yes, you can
join other clubs. As a matter of fact, we encourage our
members to join other fellow clubs.
For more info
click here.
- Moving out of
the Club's geographic area, is assumed as moving too far from the
Club home rink even though you are in the same state (ex. moving
from Miami to Tampa or Orlando), or moving out-of-state (ex. moving
from Florida to New York).
- Most likely
you would continue skating wherever you move to. If so, you may do
any of the following:
·
You
may continue your membership with us. If this is your decision, we
encourage you to become a 2nd club member at any club in
your new area (this will help you defray some of the extra charges
that are usually paid during test sessions and/or other activities).
·
Join any of the clubs available in that area by submitting a “club
transfer” form. If this is your decision, we must provide you with
a certification stating that you are in good standing with our club.
Note: College
Students – the same options apply
For more
information you may contact our
Membership Chair.
- See our
Rights and Responsibilities page.
- A "membership
status certificate" is a document that certifies that you are a
current member and in good standing with both U.S. Figure
Skating and the Club. You can obtain it from our "Forms" page, or
request it from any club Officer. The certificate is only valid for
30 days from the date that is issued and MUST have the signature of
one of the club's officers.
- Your
membership includes a copy of the current U.S. Figure Skating
Rulebook, if you are at the Juvenile level or above. Professional
members receive the current rulebook as part of their membership
benefits as well.
-
Skating Club of
South Florida, Inc. encourages home club members to become members
of other fellow clubs, both at the State and/or National level.
-
Skaters can name
only one (1) club as their "home club," but they are completely free
to become members of other clubs by joining under a special
membership classification. Some clubs call this class "2nd Club" or
"Associate."
-
One of the
advantages, if not the most important, about being a member of
another club is that, usually, one of the benefits is to be able to
participate on their test sessions at the same cost of their home
members, thus helping the skater in saving some extra fees that are
usually charged to "non-members" and may add up to 50%, or more, of
the normal fee.
-
Another important
benefit to both, the skater and our sport, is that this helps
promoting "good sportsmanship" among skaters of different club
affiliations.
-
For more
information on what membership class is the best to fit your needs,
contact the respective club of your choice.
- When you are
ready to take a test, you should have your coach or skating school
director contact our
Test Chairman. Also you may check in our
Test
Results page for the next test session available, and to download
our Test Entry Application. Your coach must sign the test entry
application and we must receive it on or before the deadline date
posted.
- An adult
skater is usually considered a late-starter with no skating
background whatsoever, or someone who was skating when younger and
just took up where he/she left off.
- To be
classified as an adult skater under U.S. Figure Skating, the person
must be 25 years of age or older.
- As an adult
skater you have an advantage over the younger generation of skaters,
because you tend to be more focused on your skating goals, but you
also have several disadvantages over the younger generation; for
example, you must pay a lot of attention to the “before and after”
skating preparation (warm-up, stretching). Since your center of
gravity is already set, you will have to re-learn to adjust it to
compensate for what you'll learn (spins and jumps).
- Although it
may sound hard, and not very encouraging, you should not give up.
We adult skaters only have to face the reality that we will not be
going to the Olympics! Everything else may be hard but not
impossible!
- Adult skaters
are also required to successfully pass both MIF and Freeskating
tests before competing: Adult Pre-Bronze, Adult Bronze, Adult
Silver, and Adult Gold.
- After the
Adult Gold level, you may continue to the Masters level by passing
the following standard tests: Intermediate, Novice, Junior, and
Senior.
- It's very
important to understand that the term "adult skater" does not exempt
you from a being a clean, sharp skater-- make no mistake! You
will have to demonstrate to the judges that you have all that is
needed to be an Adult Skater.
- When
competing, you do so at the level of the most recently passed test,
not at a higher level.
- Our club
strives to provide as many test sessions as possible during the
year. Usually four (4) full sessions are held during the year. Low
level sessions may be held more often.
·
Low Level Session
– A test session that includes ONLY the following tests levels:
Pre-Preliminary, Preliminary, Adult Pre-Bronze, and Adult Bronze.
·
Full Session
– A test session that includes all skating levels, but priority is
given to the Pre-Juvenile level and above.
- There are
many factors that can make setting-up a test session very difficult,
but the two most important ones are: ice time availability and
judges’ availability.
- Ice Time
– Ice time is based on the rink’s available slots, and
usually a full test session takes no less than two (2) hours,
depending on how many tests are scheduled. In our experience, most
of our full test sessions take three (3) hours or more. Sometimes
we do not know how much ice time we will need for a test session
until the final schedule is done, thus making it difficult for us to
schedule ice time slots with the rink, without compromising or
loosing money on ice time that was never used (once we schedule a
slot, we are responsible to pay for it even if we do not use it at
all).
- Judges – Judges are officials of U.S. Figure Skating, but we must not forget
that they are also volunteers, who do not get paid for their judging
services. Many of them travel several times during the month, all
over the state, to judge at other test sessions or competitions,
thus making their schedule very hectic and crowded. Most of them
also hold full-time jobs and have families to care for too. Others
are also getting older or have decided to retire from judging and
settle down after many years of serving the sport. These are some
of the reasons why judges prefer not to schedule themselves too far
in advance. For the most part, and if available, they always
respond to our request for their services.
- Another
factor is the number or judges needed for the test session. Judges
are classified in three ranks (bronze, silver and gold), and one (1)
or three (3) Judges from a specific rank are required to judge any
Moves-in-the-Field, Freeskating or Dance tests:
|
Test |
One Judge |
Three
Judges |
|
Pre-Preliminary, Preliminary, Adult Pre-Bronze, and Adult
Bronze |
Silver or higher |
Bronze or higher |
|
Pre-Juvenile, Juvenile, and Adult Silver |
|
Bronze or higher |
|
Intermediate, Novice, and Adult Gold |
|
Silver or higher |
|
Junior
and Senior |
|
Gold |
|
|
|
Preliminary Pair and Adult Bronze Pair |
Silver or higher |
Bronze or higher |
|
Juvenile
Pair and Adult Silver Pair |
|
Bronze or higher |
|
Intermediate Pair, Novice Pair, and Adult Gold Pair |
|
Silver or higher |
|
Junior
Pair and Senior Pair |
|
Gold |
|
|
|
Preliminary and Pre-Bronze Dances |
Silver or higher Dance |
Bronze or higher Dance |
|
Bronze
and Pre-Silver Dances |
|
Bronze or higher Dance |
|
Silver
and Pre-Gold Dances |
|
Silver or higher Dance |
|
Gold
Dances |
|
Gold Dance |
|
International Dances |
|
Gold or Junior (or higher) Dance competition judges
certified to judge international dance tests |
|
Juvenile
and Intermediate Free Dance |
Silver or higher Dance |
Bronze or higher Dance |
|
Novice
Free Dance |
|
Bronze or higher Dance |
|
Junior
Free Dance |
|
Silver or higher Dance |
|
Senior
Free Dance |
|
Gold Dance |
- You need to
contact the
Test Chairman to obtain authorization to test in another club's
test session.
-
Only officials of the Club can sign the club
certification in a competition entry.
In order to get the certification
signed, you must be a current member of the club in good standing.
-
Regional Championships
-
Sectional Championships
-
National Championships
- The process
is not an easy one, but is not impossible to reach. Your coach is
basically your liaison to this goal.
- Basically it
is a step-by-step process; you gain experience by participating in
Non-qualifying Events; these are what we also call “Open
Competitions.”
- Then you must
make sure to fulfill the test and age requirements, on or before the
entries deadline, in order to participate in the Regional
Championships, where the top skaters from the qualifying events
will go to the Sectional Championships, and finally the top
skaters go to the National Championships.
- You may pay
in cash, personal check or money order. Checks or money orders must
be made payable to SC of South Florida, Inc.
- We are
currently researching the possibility of offering other payment
methods, but no decision has been made yet.
- You must pay
the full amount of the check, plus a returned check fee.
Checks that have been returned for non-sufficient funds will be
assessed a twenty-five ($25) dollars fee. Two (2)
returned personal checks will result in automatic suspension of
check payment privileges, and any further monetary transactions will
be conducted on cash or money order basis only.
- Failure to pay the amount of the check and/or the
fee is considered sufficient grounds to declare a member "not in
good standing" and stop club benefits and privileges.
- There are
many options, some are easy, but others require more resources.
- Obviously,
your first option is your parents and family; next would be
friends. The other option is "sponsorship" which is somewhat more
complicated. For more information on sponsorship go to our Online
Forms page and download the "Skater Sponsorship Program."
More information
on sponsorship is available at U.S. Figure Skating
- We are
currently looking at new designs and options, to incorporate our new
logo and image. As soon as this information is available, we will
post it in the Members Area page.
- You should
wear the uniform if you are representing the Club in that particular
competition or exhibition.
- Your skating
school or your coach is the first option; they may know about other
skaters looking for partners. You can also check on the listings
available at the U.S. Figure Skating website where they post
listings for members searching for partners.
- Many people
do this kind of work, professional musicians, DJ's, even you can do
it. Your coach is a great resource for this too. Many do music
arrangements themselves. You must take in consideration the length
requirements of your programs according to your current level.
Also, you must remember that, in U.S. Figure Skating competitions,
no lyrics are allowed for Single or Pair skaters; lyrics are only
allowed for the Original and Free Dance Programs.
- I had that
same question before, so I checked on the U.S. Figure Skating
Rulebook to find the answer. It was kind of confusing because of
the wording of the rules, so I decided to call U.S. Figure Skating
and have this point clarified for me.
- As a standard
rule follow these guidelines:
|
Program |
Duration |
| Short Program and Original
Dance |
Not more than
the specified duration. May be less, as long as all
the required elements are included. |
| Standard Freeskating |
10 seconds
more, or less, than the specified duration. |
| Adult Freeskating |
Not more than
the specified duration. May be less, as long as all
the required elements are included. |
| Free Dance |
10 seconds
more, or less, than the specified duration. |
- The clock
starts counting from the moment you start moving, until the
moment you come to a full stop; not when the music starts.
- Duration of
the program depends on your respective level. Refer to the U.S.
Figure Skating Rulebook when in doubt. On Singles/Pairs events
music with lyrics is not permitted. On Dance events, music
with lyrics may be used in the Original and Free Dance, but
skaters are advised to skate to the underlying beat, not to the
melody.
-
Important:
A deduction of 0.1 on the Presentation Mark applies to
Single/Pair events when the music rule is not followed. A
deduction of 0.1 to 0.4 on the Presentation Mark applies to the
Original and Free Dance events when the music rule is not followed.
- No. In order
to protect the privacy or our members, and their families, our Club
prohibits the dissemination or release of any kind of contact
information without prior written authorization from the member, or
the member's parents if the member is under 18 years of age.
- Sometimes,
show producers, agents, or the media may contact organizations
requesting referrals. If a member decides to authorize the Club to
release his/her contact information, then a "Contact Information
Release Authorization" form must be submitted to the Membership
Chair.
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