When to take Free Skate test?

[iceskating21]

My daughter just passed Pre Juvenile MIF. She is still working on Axel and some double jumps.

Her coach said, it is very serious to take free skate test (Pre-Pre). After that, she will have to compete seriously. I wonder how serious it is. My daughter wants to compete recreationlly. Should she take the test?

Besides, some moms told me that the skaters who want to compete generally hold back the free skate test until they are in very high level. This is a common way to keep their advantages in competition. I wonder what kind of level is appropriate.

Any suggestion is appreciated.

 

[AndreaRu]

Different coaches have different philosophies. Some will have kids take pre-pre pretty much right away when they start landing the axel consistently. In this area, test sessions are hard to find so if you don't test early, you can end up waiting a long time. The issue with waiting too long is that you don't want to start working on next year's program but still have to test with the program from last season. It gets confusing and time consuming to practice both.

It's true that you can't ever go back once you pass the test, so it's usually smart not to test up before you can reasonably compete at that level. However, if you really run into big issues, there is test track to fall back on. Some coaches find it motivating to test a skater up to push them to become competitive. Since you can skate up a level, my personal preference is to test later in the season, basically as a precursor to getting a new program for next season.

In this area, someone landing an axel cleanly about 70% of the time would most likely be skating pre-preliminary well balanced. They wouldn't necessarily be competitive at every large competition of the season, but they could be reasonably successful. How competitive they can be generally comes down to how the age groups are split up.

 

[concorde]

In my area, kids stay at no test until they have a consistent axel. The question is how do you define "consistent"? 70% is not consistent to me so I would not be testing her. Having said that, if you try to sign your daughter up for a freeskate test now, she will probably be testing in May so by then her axel may truly be consistent. Another option is just to skate up and see how it goes.