Category: Figures

Last weekend I was at the World Figure Championship in Vail, Colorado. Exams were being offered, and I decided to study the system experimentally by taking a few. This post is an account of my experience. Since this blog is about studying the history of skating and not my own skating, this post focuses on the examination process, not on how I did. Official details of the exams are available in the exam catalog.

Observations

It was trivial to sign up; I simply told Karen* I was interested in testing the four eights: forward outside, forward inside, backward outside, and backward inside. She said that was certainly doable, but there would be a wait while officials arrived. It turned out that four were necessary:

A facilitator, who assembled all the people involved and selected ice for the warm-up and exam.

An oversight examiner, who made sure I was there and who I claimed. I didn’t realize this person was involved until the end.

A referee, who watched the test and noted any penalties.

A main examiner (judge), who graded the figures.

I warmed up in my assigned spot and, when everyone was ready, moved to the test patch. When the referee said to start, I skated my four eights one by one, moving up the patch each time. I completed six tracings of each without marking my center. I used the same long axis for all four figures. My referee noted no penalties. Then I was asked to disappear into the crowd while the judge had a look.

After the judge had scored my figures, I was shown a sheet with the names of the officials and my scores.** Each figure is scored on a scale of 1–6, with 1 and 2 designated “Encouraging”, 3 and 4 “Competitive”, and 5 and 6 “World Class.” The criteria are the traditional ones described in USFSA publications such as the Rulebook and Evaluation of Errors in Figures. There is no way to fail a test, only encouragement to keep working on a figure. Only one 6 has been received to date, on a forward outside eight at last weekend’s Festival. I was instructed to take a picture of the sheet and enter the data into the database via a form on the World Figure Sport website.

Once all that was done, I received a stack of medals and a certificate. Medals are awarded on a per-figure basis: Gold for World Class figures, silver for Competitive figures, and bronze for Encouraging figures.

Evaluation

Setting up and taking the exams was quite simple and much more low-key than skating tests usually are. The assessment process is summative rather than formative¸ i.e., there is no way for the evaluators to provide the skater with feedback or even explain their marks, unless the skater specifically asks at the end of the exam. This weakness of the system could be ameliorated by adding a space for comments or a checklist of desirable qualities and/or common errors on the examination form.

The other area of possible concern is that there are no levels in the sense of groups of figures that must be tested before others (there are “Figure Foundations” A and B, which are good starting places, and the other figures are grouped by type). Skaters are free to test figures in any order and to re-test figures until they achieve the level they desire. The strength of this approach is that it encourages skaters to keep working on their figures by emphasizing the learning process. Since different people find different figures easier or harder, they can work on figures in the order that makes sense to them rather than following a prescribed order and getting stuck. The weaknesses are that the tests lack a pedagogical structure (this must be provided by the skater or coach) and that there is less of a sense of accomplishment at having finished a level and being officially ready to move on to the next. Skaters must decide for themselves, in consultation with their coaches, what score counts as sufficient. Is a 2 good enough? A 4? Or do you keep working on a figure until you reach the elusive 6? It is possible to re-test figures at any time, which encourages skaters to keep improving all their figures, even the most basic.

Areas for Future Research

Since the role of penalties is unclear and I did well on all four figures I tested, the logical next step is to test some figures I can’t do well.

I am also interested in how the scores match up with the traditional USFSA figure tests. I expect that lower scores correspond to the level of skill expected on lower-level tests, while the Eighth Test may require something closer to World Class ability. These tests are also scored on a 6-point scale, with the number of points needed to pass (the “passing average”) increasing from 2.7 on First Test to 4.5 on Eighth Test.

Notes

*Karen Courtland Kelly, president of the World Figure Sport Society.

**I received 5s on the forward outside and inside eights and 4s on the backward outside and inside eights.

Back in the day, skaters used to do figures as well as freestyle. Figures are patterns on the ice that skaters draw with their blades. There is a standard list; figures on it are called compulsory figures or school figures. When they were required in competitions, they counted for a percentage of the skater’s overall placement. That percentage gradually decreased until it reached zero. This post is about what happened to figures.

First of all, figures weren’t actually removed. They were separated. From 1991 to 1995, figures were competed as a separate event from freestyle. This makes sense, since the two skills are rather different, and skaters could have been good at one instead of the other. A similar scheme is used in intercollegiate competitions, where short and long programs are competed separately and the scores are not combined. Non-qualifying competitions also have a variety of events for skaters to choose from.

But why separate them?

Often the reason given is that figures are boring to watch, and that TV ratings influenced the ISU’s decision. Janet Lynn is a famous example of this: TV viewers saw her fantastic free skating in the early 70s, but missed her less impressive figures. Trixi Schuba, whose free skating was good, but not spectacular, won the Olympics in 1972 due to her fantastic figures. People who only saw the free skating did not understand why Trixi won.

I’m not convinced by this argument. It seems to me that the ISU would not have been easily swayed by TV viewers. In fact, the ISU seems to have been less than enthusiastic about TV. I think the more likely reasons are those cited as officially given in Skating on Air: that figures took a lot of time to practice (this is very true!) and that having them in competition was very expensive for the local organizing committees. As figure skating shifted from a sport solely for the rich upper class to a sport for regular people (as described by Mary Louise Adams), these considerations became more important.

Another point in favor of getting rid of figures is made obliquely by Ellyn Kestnbaum. She says that being looked at is feminine, while making a mark is masculine. As figure skating shifted from a men’s to a girls’ sport, so did the importance of freestyle over figures. Girls are to be looked at, hence the pretty dresses and fancy moves of free skating. Men are supposed to make a mark, going along with the drawing of figures: they remain after the skater has left, while freestyle is ephemeral.

Once figures and freestyle were separated, entries into the figures events declined sharply, and eventually they were discontinued. The final discontinuation seems to have been due to lack of interest more than anything else. The fault seems to lie with the skaters rather than the governing organizations or the media. Skaters those who want to see figures brought back to life should make it happen by skating them.

References

Mary Louise Adams. 2011. Artistic Impressions: Figure Skating, Masculinity, and the Limits of Sport. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Ellyn Kestnbaum. 2003. Culture on Ice: Figure Skating and Cultural Meaning. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Kelli Lawrence. 2011. Skating on Air: The Broadcast History of an Olympic Marquee Sport. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

The Latin phrase pons asinorum (asses’ bridge) is used for something that is difficult for beginners, but quite simple once you’ve learned it. It’s the nickname of the fifth proposition of Book I of Euclid’s Elements: “In isosceles triangles the angles at the base are equal to one another, and, if the equal straight lines be produced further, the angles under the base will be equal to one another” (Heath, I.251). Euclid’s proof of this proposition is, like skating a backward serpentine, notoriously difficult for beginners. This difficulty and the diagram of the proof (pictured), which looks kind of like a bridge, earned the proposition its nickname by 1780 (Heath, I.415).

The pons asinorum of skating is generally considered the backward serpentine figure (Richardson 1940:34).  Figures are patterns that skaters produce on the ice with their blades. Skating figures requires a lot of concentration. The goal is to get the line on the ice exactly right, then to go over it precisely. The lines left on the ice, called tracings, are the important part. Tiny mistakes in the tracings, invisible to a spectator watching from the sidelines, can determine the outcome of a competition.

The backward serpentine consists of three circles in a row that just touch. The skater starts at the intersection of two of the circles, skates (backwards on one foot) halfway around the middle circle, then, without changing feet, glides all the way around the end circle. Once after reaching the other intersection point, the skater changes feet (“push…with vigor,” advises Maribel Vinson Owen (1962:98)) and completes the remaining 1.5 circles on the other foot.

This figure isn’t very advanced. It has no turns, and the backward change of edge, its main feature, is one of the basic building blocks used in more advanced figures. But it’s quite difficult to learn.

The status of the backward serpentine as the pons asinorum of skating has been challenged. Ernst Jones (1952:154) thinks the backward inside three turn is more deserving of the title because “it gives many skaters a very bad time before they master it.” This is more applicable to today’s skating because skaters struggle with backward inside threes on their moves in the field tests and neglect backward changes of edge.

I also submit the Axel as a candidate for the pons asinorum of skating today. It’s the first jump that many skaters struggle with because of its forward takeoff and the necessary one and a half revolutions in the air.

References

Sir Thomas Heath. 1956. The Thirteen Books of Euclid’s Elements. New York: Dover.

Maribel Vinson Owen. 1960. The Fun of Figure Skating: A Primer of the Art-Sport.
New York: Harper & Brothers.

T. D. Richardson. 1938. Modern Figure Skating. 2nd ed. London: Methuen & Co.

Ernst Jones. 1952. The Elements of Figure Skating. London: Allen & Unwin.