- 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.
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.
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.