I think you missed what(who)I was responding to. 3 months ago yet. Let it die.
I didn't even realize this thread was 3 months old, since it popped up at the top of the forums due to a recent response. Lol. Evidently, I'm super late for the party!
I think you missed what(who)I was responding to. 3 months ago yet. Let it die.
Every family is different, and your words capture the situation for my family perfectly. Thank you!I don't think anyone is dissing honors-worthy skating skills. Passing a test without honors now doesn't mean the skater will never acquire honors-worthy skills for that level in future, as he/she progresses beyond that test.
It's just a matter of whether she tests at that level earlier her career, when she is pass-ready, or later when she is honors-worthy. Whichever she chooses who depend on when she needs the test completed in order to advance her career goals.
I'm aware that some skaters preparing to go to college try to push their tests as far as possible to bolster their college application.
Wait... you can put figure skating on your college application!? Anyone got a time machine?
You can put anything on your college application, no? You can write about how selling girl scout cookies taught you invaluable life skills, or how managing a lemonade stand one summer honed your business acumen.
Joking aside... I don't know if I'm mistaken that skaters put skating on their college application, but I was under the impression that it's fairly common for skaters to try to pass as many tests as they can before going off to college.
Putting it on your college application would just get a oh nice you figure skated, but they wouldn't understand what tests you passed and the level of them or any of the technical stuff for it to even matter. Nationals, Worlds, Olympics will get a bit more attention, but otherwise they don't care. They would care more if you had skill in a sport that would bring them attention: Football, Basketball, etc...
And I say that from experience and in relation to some of the top schools in North America.
Most kids want to pass as many tests as they can before college because they won’t be able to skate so much anymore after they go.
Then, could you help me understand why a skater would attempt a test when he/she is nowhere near ready to pass?
I understand. But even if they want to skate as much as possible before college, that still begs the question, if they had the option to retake a test, say Intermediate, and improve from a plain pass to distinction, wouldn't it be better than a multitude of failed attempts at Novice and never actually achieving it? At least in the former case, they would have something to show for their efforts.
You can put anything on your college application, no? You can write about how selling girl scout cookies taught you invaluable life skills, or how managing a lemonade stand one summer honed your business acumen.
Joking aside... I don't know if I'm mistaken that skaters put skating on their college application, but I was under the impression that it's fairly common for skaters to try to pass as many tests as they can before going off to college.
I've never met anyone that would backtrack once they pass a test. Even if it was a squeaked-by pass, it's still a pass (yay!); time to keep moving forward and not look back!
Fair enough. Then, could you help me understand why a skater would attempt a test when he/she is nowhere near ready to pass? It's such a waste of time for everyone involved and it really boggles my mind what the motivation could be.
Some possible reasons:
*The skater or parent really doesn't understand the process and believes incorrectly that MIF tests are just hoops to jump through but not important in their own right and resents the time and money spent training for them that takes away from what they consider "real" freestyle skating
*The skater or parent believes that passing as many tests as quickly as possible is a source of bragging rights (which could include college applications, although it won't make a significant difference in their acceptances -- but more likely just among peers at the rink)
*Synchro teams require certain tests to be passed by a certain date, so the skater aims to meet those deadlines so they can have a chance, or a better chance, of getting onto a team or to move up the next level along with their friends/teammates
*A less experienced coach may not have a firm understanding of the test standards and believes that as soon as a skater can get through each of the moves without falling or stepping down they have a chance of passing at least on a good day
*The coach does understand that the skater is not ready to pass but agrees to impatient skaters' or parents' insistence on testing sooner as a reality check or as a way to get feedback on what the skater needs to improve from a different source that the skater is more likely to listen to
*The skater and coach know that a couple of the moves are not up to standard but are hoping (realistically or not) that the skater's stronger moves will be strong enough that day to earn extra points to make up for the deficient ones
*The skater and coach know the skater is unlikely to pass the test as a whole yet, but the skater has been working on this test for so long that she just wants to get some feedback on how she's doing to measure progress in smaller increments -- Can she pass some of the moves this time? Can she get her scores closer to passing this time than last time?
*The skater is better at jumping than at skating and wants to be able to test up in freestyle to a level where she's allowed to use all the jumps she can do, or she wants to keep up with her peers in which level to compete at
I'm reviving this thread after having recently watched a couple of test sessions, in which some skaters who obviously could not complete the test requirements attempted and failed miserably. It didn't look like it was just a bad day; they looked like simply didn't have the ability to do it. Why would skaters attempt a test when there's no way they could pass?
While passing with honors would be great, my goal is to just pass at my skating club and to not test at a different skating club.
I once took a test that I really wasn’t ready for. I thought I was, but afterwards realized my coach hadn’t been giving my moves the attention they needed and hadn’t given me the right corrections/feedback.
Even though in this situation I felt my coach had failed me. Failing the test allowed me to realize for myself how much work I still needed to put in and I passed the second time I took it 7 months later.
Fantastic insights from, everyone. Thanks!
gkelly: these were Free Skate tests that I watched, so I highly doubt it's for a requirement to be on a team, so I'm inclined to think that it was done due to pressure from one or more parties involved. But it's a good point that skaters sometimes take tests to garner judges' feedback.
!