Ice Skating is a very difficult and dangerous sport.
There are 3 different ways that a skater can decide to turn to when they first start skating, and many skaters change over during their skating years because they have found it too difficult or that they can't go any further than where they already are. The different ways are:
Single And Pair Skating
In both the singles and the pairs events, skaters must perfrom two routines, a short program (can also be known as A Compulsory or A Technical Program) and a long program (also known as A Freestyle or Free Program).
In the short program, skaters must complete eight required moves in a choreographed routine lasting no longer than 2 minutes and 40 seconds.
The long program lasts 4 minutes for women, 4 minutes and 30 seconds for men, and has only the required moves that need to be in the short program, after that you can do all the moves and jumps that you want as long as it does not over run the length of the program.
The short program counts for one third of the final mark and placing, and the long program counts for the remaining two thirds.
Ice Dancing
Ice Dancing has three parts to the competition; two compulsary dances, an original dance, and a free dance.
In the compulsories, skaters must perform a specified series of moves to a particular type of dance. In the original dance, only the type of dance is specified. In the free dance, skaters are allowed to choose thier own piece of music, dance and choreography.
After their program, skaters get two seperate marks from judges, one for technical merit and one for presentation. Here's what the marks mean:
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 Not skated Very poor poor mediocre good Very good Perfect and faultless Scoring is done by tenths of a point. So, if a skater gets a mark of 5.5, for example,that means the performance was halfway between being very good and perfect.
REMEMBER; These marks are only a guideline. If a skater at the British Champion level, for example the Juniors, A good mark would be about 4.5 for technical merit and 4.8 for presentation.
Technical Merit
To award high marks for technical merit, judges want to see a difficult program with no mistakes. Obviously skaters lose marks for falling, but they can also lose marks for other errors that spectators can't notice unless they are a coach or a parent. Here is a guideline to what the judges are looking for:
Jumps:
Jumps are marked on how difficult they are. A triple is going to help the skater get a higher mark than a double or single. When skaters do combination jumps (one after the other) they get higher marks from the judges. Judges also look for the skaters speed across the ice.
Spins:
A good spin is kept on one spot and does not travel across the ice. Faster spins (that are centred and have not traveled), and spins with different positions, are more difficult and allow the skater to recieve higher marks from the judges.
Step Sequences:
Footworks connects all of the other elements in the program. A step sequence is a section of footwork which takes a particular shape: straight, serpentine (s-shaped), circular, or spiral. the footwork should be fast, and often includes moves such as spread eagles.
Presentation
Presentation marks reflect the overall performance of a skater. Judges will ask themselves questions like;
Each judge provides two marks for a performance - technical and presentation - which are added together.This combined mark is used to rank each skater according to how well he or she did compared to the other competitors.
Skating Accessories
Skates
The first skates were animal bones, ground flat on one side and strapped to the feet with leather thongs. Skating was born in Scandinavia in the eighth centrury or earlier, and spead throughout northern Europe over the next few hundred years.
Skates can be brought from ice arena shops, and if you need stronger skates then your rink will be able to tell you where to get them from.
There are all types of skates that you can buy. Skates like; GAM, WIFA, RISPORT, SP TERI, RIEDELL, DOMINION, and JACKSON are just some of the skates that you may wish to buy, but your ice arena shop should be able to tell you what skates would suit yourself or your child(ren) best.
Rinks
there is sure to be an ice rink round your area. Incase you are not too sure where your nearest rink is, then check in the Yellow Pages for your area.
Outfits
You can buy skating dresses (outfits) from your rink shop, but their are other people that can make the outfits for you. BEWARE skating outfits can become very expensive.
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