I compiled MIF/FS/Dance test stats for entire US | Golden Skate

I compiled MIF/FS/Dance test stats for entire US

Arwen17

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
Tests passed by skaters in the entire US:
https://imgur.com/a/JPrDTDa


I've been working on this project for awhile now.

  • 2018 only has Nov-Dec.
  • 2019 is missing Apr,May,Dec.
  • 2020 only has January.

The Tests per month table shows you the data that is included in each year. If a month is missing, I simply don't have access to that data in a readable format. That's the only reason its missing.

I had to write a python script to pull this info from badly formatted PDF files. So it's not perfect, but it gives you a rough idea. I will keep adding more data for year 2020 as it becomes available.
I don't think any of this is public knowledge unless there's a database that coaches or competitions chairs have access to to lookup skaters/tests in bulk? I'm pulling data from the public PDF test sheets they post on the USFSA website. The reason those specific months in 2019 aren't included is because the layout of those PDFs is so f'ed up that there is no easy way to script it into a database-like format for myself to use. I would have to go thru the PDF by hand and type out 25 pages worth of names by hand. USFSA either doesn't know what they're doing and using some kind of archaic software that generates these PDFs from their database OR they know exactly what they're doing and they're doing it on purpose to keep people like me from easily tabulating the data.
I'm sure they have all of this data in some kind of database, but either don't care or don't want to share it publicly for some reason. I would love lots of stats and breakdowns from USFSA. But they seem to want to keep it secret.


Some key things I noticed in this data:

1. It was really nice to see adult tests higher than Adult Gold! Adult Interm thru Adult Senior tests are rare, but they do apparently exist! However, it was perhaps chilling to see that there are ZERO Adult tests for Junior/Senior FS. That suggests that EVERYONE in the Adult Jr-Sr competitions are all former-childhood skaters and not adult-late-start skaters.

2. It was really interesting that most of the Adult Dance tests are for the Pattern,Partner tests. Apparently Adult solo dance tests are really, really unpopular. I wonder how in the world most adults who do Dance managed to find partners!?!? I was also surprised by how many Partner tests there were compared to Solo tests in the standard track. I thought solo tests would be waaaaayyy more popular since it's so hard to find a partner. Is everyone just testing with their coach for the partner test, but competing solo?? I don't understand.

3. I have tables for Clubs with the most Adult tests and Clubs with the most Pairs tests because that data was different from the usual "Larger club = more tests" scenario. All of the other test types: MIF/FS/Dance just follows the rule of "larger club = more tests".
I'm not sure if this is a very good way to show "where large amounts of adult skaters are located" since not all adults take tests. I guess this shows were the majority of "serious" late-start-adult skaters are, since they're testing and passing.



I'm still kinda poking and prodding the data and pondering what else I might glean from it.

Any ideas for other patterns/trends/things to show or examine?


Remember, I only have access to the public Tests Passed PDFs. I don't have things like age of skater or member join date or anything. That's all locked up tight by USFSA.
 

JSM

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 11, 2011
Most dance tests are taken with a professional partner. There are coaches and former elite dancers who travel the country to take skaters through tests in areas where they don’t have male dance coaches.

Remember too that adults can take tests standard track, so the numbers you are looking at only reflect those who chose to take the tests at the adult standard. In my experience, if adult skaters are good enough to test the standard track, they do.
 

mskater93

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 22, 2005
Also, partnered tests translate to solo PD but not vice versa for adults. Specifically, if you don’t take the PD tests partnered and you miraculously find a partner, you’d have to retake them...
 

treblemakerem

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 24, 2014
Well I started skating at 25 and am testing standard so you cant probably get accurate data from the public information. I’m hoping to get through my senior moves eventually but probably not freeskate. I think probably most of the people in junior-senior did skate as a child, but it’s a cool opportunity for them to come back and compete where they aren’t at a level to compete in regular competitions at that level anymore. Both of my coaches have competed at adult nationals and encouraged me to do sectionals.
 

bunnybarista

If I risk it all, could you break my fall?~
On the Ice
Joined
May 27, 2018
Also, partnered tests translate to solo PD but not vice versa for adults. Specifically, if you don’t take the PD tests partnered and you miraculously find a partner, you’d have to retake them...

Yep, this is a big factor for adults taking partnered pattern dances. Probably the other reason is that you get more push/power/stability when dancing these with a partner. (Added bonus: it's slightly less scary to test when you're skating with someone else, especially if it's your coach whom you trust and feel relaxed around).

Thanks for compiling this list - very interesting! :) As a club officer, I have access to specific details about skaters from our club, but not nation-wide.
 

gkelly

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Probably the other reason is that you get more push/power/stability when dancing these with a partner. (Added bonus: it's slightly less scary to test when you're skating with someone else, especially if it's your coach whom you trust and feel relaxed around).

These are the reasons I test with my coach. I'm not ever going to get a partner, but those mohawks and cross-behinds in the Fourteenstep and Foxtrot are very intimidating to me without someone at least holding my hand if not providing more support than that. I can skate the European Waltz solo, but with much less power even than when the coach is just giving support with a handhold between turns, let alone in dance hold.
 

Vanshilar

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 24, 2014
So it turns out, USFS does put the yearly test totals in their annual Report of the Technical Group, which is available in the Members area (or at least used to be, I haven't checked it recently), which includes not only the number of passing tests (which is what's posted publicly), but the total number of tests taken, passing percentage, etc., by section. It seems like for a variety of reasons, some passed tests may not be posted in the monthly notices, so it's always missing a number of them; the totals from summing up the monthly notices are always less than what's in the Report. A skater I know has never had her name reported in those monthly notices, even though she's now a Gold Medalist.

A number of years back I wrote a combination Matlab and Excel set of scripts to format the tests passed PDF's into Excel; however, at some point (I think late 2017? Forgot) they changed the formatting, and since then the formatting keeps changing every so often so I gave up on keeping it updated. Worse still, sometimes the data didn't line up correctly. In other words, sometimes once the data reached the bottom of the column then it would continue on to the next column (as you would expect), but other times the data would continue onto the next page until the end of that test or club, then the next set would continue on the previous page, etc. Without looking through the names and looking at their history, it was impossible to predict which name belonged in which section. Then afterward they changed the formatting again with the Test Refresh and I haven't really looked at it since then.

Because I had compiled it for a number of years (2006 to 2017 I think), it was interesting to note certain trends over time -- I could look at skaters longitudinally (i.e. over time) as they progressed with their test levels. For example, on average it took about 6 years for a skater to go from passing Pre-Pre MIF to passing Senior MIF: after they passed Pre-Pre MIF, it took about 2 years to pass Juv MIF, then roughly 1 year each for Int through Senior (Nov and Jun were longer, Int and Sen were shorter). However this data is for skaters who actually passed Senior MIF; only about 1/6 of the skaters do so, so this is really the progress of the most dedicated 1/6 of the skater population (and not the pace of the general skating population, which is likely slower). Skaters who competed at the Juvenile Regionals level passed their Pre-Pre FS test about 4 years prior on average, so if we take passing Pre-Pre FS to be about when they learned their axel, this means that skaters going down the competitive track typically take about 4 years on average to go from getting the single axel to competing at Juvenile Regionals. Skaters at Juvenile Regionals were typically about Int or Nov MIF on average; many of them pass their Nov MIF test in the months following Regionals, so they were more or less ready to go at that point. So Nov MIF is roughly the average MIF level of Juvenile Regionals competitors.

So there's some interesting data there, but the formatting sort of screws it up. I never really bothered to ask USFS about the formatting issues though.

Oh and yes there are occasionally adults who do Adult Senior MIF/FS. However, I agree with the assessment that it's mostly skaters who skated as kids and then switched to the adult track. I have yet to see any Adult Senior MIF/FS who started as an adult -- in other words, any who started in Adult Pre-Bronze. They may be out there and I just didn't come across them, and there are likely some adults who did the standard track instead, but yeah, it's rare for someone who actually started as an adult to make it through to Senior MIF/FS.
 

Arwen17

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
So it turns out, USFS does put the yearly test totals in their annual Report of the Technical Group, which is available in the Members area (or at least used to be, I haven't checked it recently), which includes not only the number of passing tests (which is what's posted publicly), but the total number of tests taken, passing percentage, etc., by section. It seems like for a variety of reasons, some passed tests may not be posted in the monthly notices, so it's always missing a number of them; the totals from summing up the monthly notices are always less than what's in the Report. A skater I know has never had her name reported in those monthly notices, even though she's now a Gold Medalist.

A number of years back I wrote a combination Matlab and Excel set of scripts to format the tests passed PDF's into Excel; however, at some point (I think late 2017? Forgot) they changed the formatting, and since then the formatting keeps changing every so often so I gave up on keeping it updated. Worse still, sometimes the data didn't line up correctly. In other words, sometimes once the data reached the bottom of the column then it would continue on to the next column (as you would expect), but other times the data would continue onto the next page until the end of that test or club, then the next set would continue on the previous page, etc. Without looking through the names and looking at their history, it was impossible to predict which name belonged in which section. Then afterward they changed the formatting again with the Test Refresh and I haven't really looked at it since then.

Yeah, I was just made aware of this data. Apparently a lot of people don't know that it's hidden inside the annual report. I haven't had a spare moment yet, but I plan to look over it and see if I can do anything with it or not.

Exactly. At least someone else understands my pain in scripting this stuff. The formatting is TERRIBLE. Python, being a real programming language, gives me more flexibility to parse this stuff, but it's still not perfect. That's why the sheets I listed up there got left out entirely. Their formatting was so bad that it was pretty much impossible to try to parse them.


Oh and yes there are occasionally adults who do Adult Senior MIF/FS. However, I agree with the assessment that it's mostly skaters who skated as kids and then switched to the adult track. I have yet to see any Adult Senior MIF/FS who started as an adult -- in other words, any who started in Adult Pre-Bronze. They may be out there and I just didn't come across them, and there are likely some adults who did the standard track instead, but yeah, it's rare for someone who actually started as an adult to make it through to Senior MIF/FS.

Since I'm a suicidal late-start adult who dreams of accomplishing Senior one day, that's why I was motivated to try to put together test statistics. If I can see hard, cold data of others succeeding, and not just hearsay on the internet, it's really encouraging to me. Even if the numbers aren't huge for adults, I wish USFSA would tabulate the ages of skaters and tests, that way we can see if anyone over 21 is passing high level tests, as well as have something analyzing the dates of the rest of their tests (so we can likely see who was a late-start-adult and who was a kid-skater-returning.)

I full believe there are late-start adults who have completed Adult Senior MIF, even if they are rare. What I'm not sure exists is if any late-start adult has completed Adult FS tests higher than Adult Gold or Adult Intermediate. Adult Novice/Junior/Senior FS is where I'm very uncertain and would love to see data for this for late-start adults only.

And all I mean by "late-start" is they started after age 21. If they start in their twenties, then it's at least theoretically possible they have enough years of youth left to get thru to Senior FS, even if they're like early 30s by the time they get there. Obviously someone starting in their 40s/50s definitely doesn't have enough years left to make it really happen, unless they're Superman or WonderWoman.

This plague is especially frustrating because it's throwing off my timetable immensely. I was going to try to test Adult Intermediate by the end of this year. But I'm being set back hugely by the rink planned to be closed for over a month and counting because of this plague. I've already been off the ice for 2 weeks and they just expanded it to another 5 weeks and possibly more. It's not even possible to buy inline skates right now because all of the manufactures/businesses are shut down right now too. They could have been making BANK right now due to all the stranded skaters desperately trying to find a way to skate.

2017 - Adult Pre-Bronze MIF/FS passed
2018 - Adult Bronze MIF/FS, Adult Silver MIF passed
2019 - Adult Gold MIF, Adult Silver FS passed
2020 - Adult Intermediate MIF planned (f* you corona)
 

hughes

Rinkside
Joined
Sep 29, 2020
Wow I'll bet this took a lot of work to put together. Interesting, and thanks for doing it. I wouldn't be discouraged that you can't find any examples of late start adults who test up to Adult MIF/FS. Maybe someone has to be the first? And even if a late- start adult never makes it there, getting to Novice or Intermediate would still be an incredible accomplishment. I've seen kids working on their preliminary MIF test who look better than adults who have passed gold. IMO which I know is in the minority, it's not what element you are skating but how good you look doing it. The other day a new high-level skater came to the rink and just watching him do back crossovers, I was mesmerized. Realistically, I'll never do a double-jump, but I can aspire to beautiful powerful clean crossovers, and manageable, though still challenging goals are what keep me in this for the long haul without frustration and burnout.
 

Arwen17

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
Wow I'll bet this took a lot of work to put together. Interesting, and thanks for doing it. I wouldn't be discouraged that you can't find any examples of late start adults who test up to Adult MIF/FS. Maybe someone has to be the first? And even if a late- start adult never makes it there, getting to Novice or Intermediate would still be an incredible accomplishment. I've seen kids working on their preliminary MIF test who look better than adults who have passed gold. IMO which I know is in the minority, it's not what element you are skating but how good you look doing it. The other day a new high-level skater came to the rink and just watching him do back crossovers, I was mesmerized. Realistically, I'll never do a double-jump, but I can aspire to beautiful powerful clean crossovers, and manageable, though still challenging goals are what keep me in this for the long haul without frustration and burnout.

I just passed Adult Intermediate MIF recently, despite greatly reduced ice practice times because of lockdowns. I even had to drive to a big city to take the test. It was the first time I've ever tested outside of my home rink, but I passed, so yay.
Now I'm working on Adult Novice MIF and yeah, it's tough. Definitely going to take 2+ years to get up to passing standard. Quite the leap in quality and difficulty for sure.
I won't be passing Adult Gold FS any time soon either since axel still isn't rotated, but I've got a ton of other stuff I need to improve as well. Maybe, maybe, maybe in the next 2 years (if axel cooperates) I can get everything polished up to passing standard and be ready to pass Adult Gold FS. I'm still waiting to see if I'll ever get the ice time I had before lockdowns back. Lockdowns and the financial crisis on businesses because of it has put a huge dent in number of ice sessions offered.

Everything up to Adult Intermediate MIF and up to Adult Silver FS I consider "easy" because it only takes a few months per test to pass. It's when you hit axel in Adult Gold FS and Novice MIF that things get much tougher and it takes years instead of months to pass. The kids definitely pass faster than the adults, but their passing rate slows down at these "landmarks" as well.

I need to get back into this. I haven't updated anything since this thread was first posted and I had some more stuff I wanted to do. So thank you for digging it back up!
 

hughes

Rinkside
Joined
Sep 29, 2020
Congrats on your accomplishments! May I ask how long you were skating before passing Intermediate MIF, and how many hours a week you practice?
 

Elija

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 25, 2019
I just passed Adult Intermediate MIF recently, despite greatly reduced ice practice times because of lockdowns. I even had to drive to a big city to take the test. It was the first time I've ever tested outside of my home rink, but I passed, so yay.
Now I'm working on Adult Novice MIF and yeah, it's tough. Definitely going to take 2+ years to get up to passing standard. Quite the leap in quality and difficulty for sure.
I won't be passing Adult Gold FS any time soon either since axel still isn't rotated, but I've got a ton of other stuff I need to improve as well. Maybe, maybe, maybe in the next 2 years (if axel cooperates) I can get everything polished up to passing standard and be ready to pass Adult Gold FS. I'm still waiting to see if I'll ever get the ice time I had before lockdowns back. Lockdowns and the financial crisis on businesses because of it has put a huge dent in number of ice sessions offered.

Everything up to Adult Intermediate MIF and up to Adult Silver FS I consider "easy" because it only takes a few months per test to pass. It's when you hit axel in Adult Gold FS and Novice MIF that things get much tougher and it takes years instead of months to pass. The kids definitely pass faster than the adults, but their passing rate slows down at these "landmarks" as well.

I need to get back into this. I haven't updated anything since this thread was first posted and I had some more stuff I wanted to do. So thank you for digging it back up!
Wow, you don’t have to do doubles for adult gold FS?? Lucky lol, we do here. And axel for silver.
 

Arwen17

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
Congrats on your accomplishments! May I ask how long you were skating before passing Intermediate MIF, and how many hours a week you practice?

Thanks!
I skated for one year at age 14, which was enough to get me thru Learn-to-Skate levels and learn up to sit spin and loop jump. A VERY BAD loop jump from a 3turn entrance, not from back crossovers. And the sit spin was extremely bad too. I did ZERO MIF as a kid, other than what they teach in Learn-to-Skate levels. I didn't pass any official tests. I never competed. I never even owned a dress. My mom wanted me to quit the entire time, which is why I only lasted a year. So I quit and swore I would come back someday when I had my own money and could skate as much as I wanted.
I didn't return until age 26 (January 2017) when I found a stable job with a schedule flexible enough that I could start skating again. I did keep my skills from age 14 by just going to the rink once a year and refreshing them so I didn't 100% forget everything. But I was extremely rusty. So I didn't quite start from absolute zero as an adult, but it was pretty close to absolute zero.
Even though I had a salchow, toe loop, and really bad loop jump, I never took any tests as a kid, so they all had to heavily reworked as an adult because I never learned them properly to begin with. Same with all of my spins. Plus, I was learning all MIF from scratch since I never learned any MIF as a kid.
I actually had all of my single jumps (except axel) landed in the first six months as an adult. Axel and above has been a huge hurdle for me because single jump technique has to be massive, huge, and excellent before it can become a double rotation jump.

2017
Adult Pre-Bronze MIF/FS passed

2018
Adult Bronze MIF/FS passed
Adult Silver MIF passed

2019
Adult Gold MIF passed
Adult Silver FS passed

2020
Adult Intermediate MIF was planned, but lockdowns destroyed that plan, so I ended up passing it at the beginning of 2021 because of lockdown delays and reduced skating hours.

I don't expect this rapid test-passing pattern to continue. I fully expect everything from here on out to take at least 2 years to pass. I'm going to try to pass Novice MIF in just 2 years, but I bet it will take a little more. Whenever I set a goal, it always seems to take a few extra months to fully get there. Because I'm such a poor rotator when it comes to jumps, I can't really set a timeline for passing FS tests. I just don't know how long it will take to get the jumps ready. Spins and MIF always improve steadily for me, jumps do not and improve very, very slowly.

Pre-lockdowns, I was skating about 10-12 hours a week. Post-lockdowns I'm skating about 6-9 hours, half of what I would normally do because our rink didn't return our morning sessions. So I'm stuck trying to balance ballet and skating in the afternoon when I used to skate every morning and then do ballet in the afternoons.
I started ballet one year after skating and I've jumped up quickly in the levels there too because I dance almost every day.
Figure skating progress video list: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrN-kwtZx5YX-EHpJn_l2jo3lbYpIBATW
Ballet progress list: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrN-kwtZx5YXfG0wHuDXvJLOlEs6UZvV_
Those first 2017 clips in those videos is exactly what I could do as a kid. I never got any further. So everything beyond that was learned as an adult age 26 and up. Ballet is 100% as an adult. I did no ballet as a kid.

Wow, you don’t have to do doubles for adult gold FS?? Lucky lol, we do here. And axel for silver.
I assume Canada? We're even luckier in the USA than you know. According to our rules, we can substitute in a double salchow or double toe loop if we like that better than axel. So if you're an adult who just hates axel, 2sal or 2toe are both alternative options for passing Adult Gold.

My 2sal is slightly worse than my axel because I don't work on it as much and my 2toe is absolute crap that should never been seen by the light of day. Toe loop has always been the most awkward jump for me. I'm more likely to land a 2loop before I get a 2toe. Loop is the best jump ever. I'm probably more likely to land a 2flip before 2toe, flip is far more natural than toe loop. Lutz is only slightly better than toe loop, so it will be just as hard to double.
 
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Elija

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 25, 2019
I assume Canada? We're even luckier in the USA than you know. According to our rules, we can substitute in a double salchow or double toe loop if we like that better than axel. So if you're an adult who just hates axel, 2sal or 2toe are both alternative options for passing Adult Gold.

My 2sal is slightly worse than my axel because I don't work on it as much and my 2toe is absolute crap that should never been seen by the light of day. Toe loop has always been the most awkward jump for me. I'm more likely to land a 2loop before I get a 2toe. Loop is the best jump ever. I'm probably more likely to land a 2flip before 2toe, flip is far more natural than toe loop. Lutz is only slightly better than toe loop, so it will be just as hard to double.
Nah, New Zealand. You have to have an axel for silver, and I think at least one double plus a double in combination for gold.
 

Arwen17

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
Nah, New Zealand. You have to have an axel for silver, and I think at least one double plus a double in combination for gold.

Your Silver is our Gold and your Gold is our Intermediate. Do you have 8 levels total?
We have pre-bronze, bronze, silver, gold, intermediate, novice, junior, senior.
Senior requires double lutz. Double axel never required.
 

Arwen17

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
Five for adult tests. Elementary to gold star.
https://www.nzifsa.org.nz/rules/2021 Rules & Regulations 800 Section.pdf that’s what’s required in each of it’s of any interest!

It would be interesting to compare levels in top countries. It feels like the US has the most thorough testing levels, maybe followed by Canada. No idea what they do in Japan or Russia. But other countries seem so bare bones and have fewer levels and requirements. That final level name is cute. “Here have a gold star!”

to expand what our upper levels do:
Silver - lutz required
Gold - axel (or 2sal or 2toe)
Intermediate - 2sal or 2toe (and axel required)
Novice - 2loop required
Junior - 2flip required
Senior - 2lutz required
 

Elija

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 25, 2019
It would be interesting to compare levels in top countries. It feels like the US has the most thorough testing levels, maybe followed by Canada. No idea what they do in Japan or Russia. But other countries seem so bare bones and have fewer levels and requirements. That final level name is cute. “Here have a gold star!”

to expand what our upper levels do:
Silver - lutz required
Gold - axel (or 2sal or 2toe)
Intermediate - 2sal or 2toe (and axel required)
Novice - 2loop required
Junior - 2flip required
Senior - 2lutz required
Is novice and junior and senior for you regular track though? I think those are all the same for us, the ones I posted are just the adult tests.

ETA - these are the regular tests https://www.nzifsa.org.nz/rules/2021 Rules & Regulations 500 Section.pdf there are eight.
 

Arwen17

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
Is novice and junior and senior for you regular track though? I think those are all the same for us, the ones I posted are just the adult tests.

ETA - these are the regular tests https://www.nzifsa.org.nz/rules/2021 Rules & Regulations 500 Section.pdf there are eight.

Intermediate thru Senior is the same test elements for adults, but they get judged at adult passing standard.

woah, no wonder you include axel and doubles so early in the adult tests, your last standard test requires 2A and triples. US doesn’t require anything above 2lutz. I think because they want to keep it possible for most people to pass all of the tests. 2A and triples are super god mode and aren’t tested.
 

hughes

Rinkside
Joined
Sep 29, 2020
Thanks!
I skated for one year at age 14, which was enough to get me thru Learn-to-Skate levels and learn up to sit spin and loop jump. A VERY BAD loop jump from a 3turn entrance, not from back crossovers. And the sit spin was extremely bad too. I did ZERO MIF as a kid, other than what they teach in Learn-to-Skate levels. I didn't pass any official tests. I never competed. I never even owned a dress. My mom wanted me to quit the entire time, which is why I only lasted a year. So I quit and swore I would come back someday when I had my own money and could skate as much as I wanted.
I didn't return until age 26 (January 2017) when I found a stable job with a schedule flexible enough that I could start skating again. I did keep my skills from age 14 by just going to the rink once a year and refreshing them so I didn't 100% forget everything. But I was extremely rusty. So I didn't quite start from absolute zero as an adult, but it was pretty close to absolute zero.
Even though I had a salchow, toe loop, and really bad loop jump, I never took any tests as a kid, so they all had to heavily reworked as an adult because I never learned them properly to begin with. Same with all of my spins. Plus, I was learning all MIF from scratch since I never learned any MIF as a kid.
I actually had all of my single jumps (except axel) landed in the first six months as an adult. Axel and above has been a huge hurdle for me because single jump technique has to be massive, huge, and excellent before it can become a double rotation jump.

2017
Adult Pre-Bronze MIF/FS passed

2018
Adult Bronze MIF/FS passed
Adult Silver MIF passed

2019
Adult Gold MIF passed
Adult Silver FS passed

2020
Adult Intermediate MIF was planned, but lockdowns destroyed that plan, so I ended up passing it at the beginning of 2021 because of lockdown delays and reduced skating hours.

I don't expect this rapid test-passing pattern to continue. I fully expect everything from here on out to take at least 2 years to pass. I'm going to try to pass Novice MIF in just 2 years, but I bet it will take a little more. Whenever I set a goal, it always seems to take a few extra months to fully get there. Because I'm such a poor rotator when it comes to jumps, I can't really set a timeline for passing FS tests. I just don't know how long it will take to get the jumps ready. Spins and MIF always improve steadily for me, jumps do not and improve very, very slowly.

Pre-lockdowns, I was skating about 10-12 hours a week. Post-lockdowns I'm skating about 6-9 hours, half of what I would normally do because our rink didn't return our morning sessions. So I'm stuck trying to balance ballet and skating in the afternoon when I used to skate every morning and then do ballet in the afternoons.
I started ballet one year after skating and I've jumped up quickly in the levels there too because I dance almost every day.
Figure skating progress video list: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrN-kwtZx5YX-EHpJn_l2jo3lbYpIBATW
Ballet progress list: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrN-kwtZx5YXfG0wHuDXvJLOlEs6UZvV_
Those first 2017 clips in those videos is exactly what I could do as a kid. I never got any further. So everything beyond that was learned as an adult age 26 and up. Ballet is 100% as an adult. I did no ballet as a kid.


I assume Canada? We're even luckier in the USA than you know. According to our rules, we can substitute in a double salchow or double toe loop if we like that better than axel. So if you're an adult who just hates axel, 2sal or 2toe are both alternative options for passing Adult Gold.
wow you are progressing quickly, and awesome that you are able to get that much practice time in. I don’t personally know any adults who have done adult intermediate MIF so inspiring to know that this is possible! Good luck with your skating and thanks for the info again.
 
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