MIF tests about to get major overhaul?

[Arwen17]

As of yesterday, the below passed at the USFS Governing Council. Regarding the MIF changes it looks like they are NOT changing the patterns. But they are renaming MIF to "Skating Skills," and renaming the standard track levels. The adult track MIF/Skating Skills remains unchanged (for now). The below will take until July 2023 to take effect.

• The nomenclature of “pre-juvenile – senior” was amended to “pre-bronze – gold” in skating skills (moves in the field), singles (free skate), free dance and pairs tests.
• The restrictions capping the highest singles, pairs and ice dance tests competitors may have passed to compete in a corresponding level were removed.

2022 Governing Council Concludes | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

Also, this helpful video breaks it down.
https://youtu.be/C-qwJj1hPfQ

For instance, Standard Track Intermediate MIF will now be Standard Track Pre-Silver Skating Skills.
I think this is a mess, and while I get that most kids may support this (so they don't have to tell non-skaters they are high level "Novice" skaters), I think it really confuses the adult levels, especially if one "graduates" from Adult Gold to Standard Pre-Silver (but then, say, tests it Adult 21+).

Yeah I've always hated that I have to explain "Novice" and "Junior" are higher level than "Intermediate" to non-skaters. "Intermediate" doesn't sound bad, but "novice and "junior" sound low-level. But this update is insane.
You're going to have stuff on the test list that says:
Adult Silver
Pre-Silver (21+)
Silver (21+)
We've had several mix-ups at my rink in making sure the club registered me or another adult for the correct test and that the judges were actually handed the correct sheet or pulled the correct sheet from the big stack they were handed. Can you imagine how bad it will be now that the names are even more confusing? I've always been very, very vigilant in constantly reminding my club and the judges on test day what test I'm taking, so that it doesn't happen to me, because they screw up so frequently.

Standard	Adult
Pre-pre	Adult Pre-Bronze
Prelim	Adult Bronze
Pre-bronze	Adult Silver
Bronze	Adult Gold
Pre-Silver	Pre-Silver (21+)
Silver	Silver (21+)
Pre-Gold	Pre-Gold (21+)
Gold	Gold (21+)

Aren't international competitions still called "Novice", "Junior", "Senior"?

 

[gkelly]

Aren't international competitions still called "Novice", "Junior", "Senior"?

US competitions will still be called Novice, Junior, Senior as well.

As I understand, the point of the change is to decouple the tests from the competition levels.

Yes, it does get extra confusing for adults moving between adult and standard test tracks.

 

[jayy]

I feel a bit envious... After moving to Canada I managed to get a few levels in before Starskate got redesigned, and vaguely remember being shown a Junior Silver exercise which went on seemingly forever (which I thought was fun, because it flowed - the new stuff seems more static in contrast).

I can do counters and rockers in the slow figure-like way required for the current tests (Star 7/8 I think), but not sure how helpful that is in terms of learning to apply them e.g. in step sequences and transitions. I'm alright with turns that appear in pattern dances (up to Star 9/10 or the old Gold), maybe because they tend to be on my 'good' side/direction. However, I wish there were more of a freestyle-ish way of practicing all the types of turns on both sides... Should I ask my coaches to teach the old syllabus? Get them to make up more of their own stroking/footwork exercises?

Making up exercises is a great way to mix and match different turns and connecting steps together. Doing them in time with music can also be fun, and then you can add arm movements and be all fancy. I also really love to try and make up my own clusters and see how well I can execute them. (usually not well) I think they adjusted the requirements to do the turns in isolation so that the skaters could maybe try and have a feel for the turn itself, and not just rush through it.

 

[silver.blades]

Making up exercises is a great way to mix and match different turns and connecting steps together. Doing them in time with music can also be fun, and then you can add arm movements and be all fancy. I also really love to try and make up my own clusters and see how well I can execute them. (usually not well) I think they adjusted the requirements to do the turns in isolation so that the skaters could maybe try and have a feel for the turn itself, and not just rush through it.

This is a great idea. The way things are set up now, footwork and combining steps is now considered a freeskate thing.

I'm not against teaching the turns in isolation at the beginning. That is how you learn, after all. I just think there needs to be more focus on combining the turns together at the higher levels once skaters have the turns under their belt. What good is a turn if you never learn it in combination with other steps?

 

[Flying Feijoa]

Making up exercises is a great way to mix and match different turns and connecting steps together. Doing them in time with music can also be fun, and then you can add arm movements and be all fancy. I also really love to try and make up my own clusters and see how well I can execute them. (usually not well) I think they adjusted the requirements to do the turns in isolation so that the skaters could maybe try and have a feel for the turn itself, and not just rush through it.

Thanks for the tip! Anything with music sounds like fun to me

I'll just need to find a nice quiet session to improvise without running into people, which is not easy at the moment Rinks are beginning to shut for the season and some displaced skaters are beginning to spill over to us...

 

[twirlingblades]

I heard about the test level name changes today in my skating club's newsletter.

I don't hate it! I like decoupling it from competitive levels. Plus, keeping all the tests named the same (aka: not just having dance have a "gold" test) is smart. I know 10 and 11 year olds with senior moves, but are pre-juv level freestyle skaters. That is confusing! Plus, it makes the "gold medalist jacket" make more sense! It's not a "senior medalist jacket" which implies something different, imo.

Definitely confusing for adult tests- I wonder how they will name those. I wonder if they will keep the Pre-juv through senior names for adult? Or change the levels after adult gold to "standard pre-silver".

Not sure why renaming "moves in the field" to "skating skills" is necessary though.

 

[twirlingblades]

"The Governing Council approved removing references to “lady” and “man” from pattern dances and free dance tests. Partners for free dance tests will be composed of a leading partner and a following partner, and pattern dance diagrams and descriptions will have “lead” steps and “follow” steps. There will now be four separate tracks of pattern dance tests: lead partnered, follow partnered, lead solo and follow solo. "

Fully support the name change, but how is the 4 tracks of pattern dance going to be named? Are gold medalists going to be "gold dance"/"gold solo dance" (current) or "gold follow dance"/"gold follow solo dance" ? Seems clunky. Or will the name not change... currently there is not a "gold man dance" or whatever.

... I remember back in the day when there were just 5 standard test tracks- MIF, pattern dance (no solo), free dance (no solo), pairs, and freeskate. LOL.

 

[iceskating21]

As of yesterday, the below passed at the USFS Governing Council. Regarding the MIF changes it looks like they are NOT changing the patterns. But they are renaming MIF to "Skating Skills," and renaming the standard track levels. The adult track MIF/Skating Skills remains unchanged (for now). The below will take until July 2023 to take effect.

• The nomenclature of “pre-juvenile – senior” was amended to “pre-bronze – gold” in skating skills (moves in the field), singles (free skate), free dance and pairs tests.
• The restrictions capping the highest singles, pairs and ice dance tests competitors may have passed to compete in a corresponding level were removed.

2022 Governing Council Concludes | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

Also, this helpful video breaks it down.
https://youtu.be/C-qwJj1hPfQ

For instance, Standard Track Intermediate MIF will now be Standard Track Pre-Silver Skating Skills.
I think this is a mess, and while I get that most kids may support this (so they don't have to tell non-skaters they are high level "Novice" skaters), I think it really confuses the adult levels, especially if one "graduates" from Adult Gold to Standard Pre-Silver (but then, say, tests it Adult 21+).

How to call them is not very important. I wonder whether they will add or remove some test content that make the tests harder or not.

 

[Arwen17]

Just heard today that they are getting rid of adult level names entirely. AKA all of the MIF/FS tests will share the same name as the kid levels and adults will have to go all the way to senior level from now on to earn their Gold medalist jacket. They won't be able to get it at the "juvenile" level. Something about too many adults are achieving Adult Gold and few are going any further in the tests.
This is what I've heard. Someone else please confirm or deny.

Does this mean "Adult Dance" will also be going away and it will just share the names of the kid dance track?
They'll still grade these tests at the adult standard, but the names won't be different and you won't get your gold medalist jacket "early".

I achieved Adult Gold awhile ago and I still kept going higher. But I never had a problem with adults getting their gold medalist jacket "early", since many adults struggle to advance or don't have enough free time to practice a ton. Now, instead of "too many" adults achieving Adult Gold (aka juvenile), you're going to have very, very few people who started skating as adults earn a gold medalist jacket. The majority of people I know who pass Senior MIF (adult track) or Senior FS (adult track) are just finishing up tests they took as kids.

Also, still hearing that they ARE going to eventually revamp and make the MIF tests harder. But it just won't be this coming year since this is only the name changes for now.

 

[gliese]

I'm not against teaching the turns in isolation at the beginning. That is how you learn, after all. I just think there needs to be more focus on combining the turns together at the higher levels once skaters have the turns under their belt. What good is a turn if you never learn it in combination with other steps?

IMO that's what a coach is for.

TBH grading MIF based off turns only never made sense to me. It has bred skaters with really bad skating skills because the only thing that has really mattered much on MIF tests has been turns.

 

[alyssamarie]

Just heard today that they are getting rid of adult level names entirely. AKA all of the MIF/FS tests will share the same name as the kid levels and adults will have to go all the way to senior level from now on to earn their Gold medalist jacket. They won't be able to get it at the "juvenile" level. Something about too many adults are achieving Adult Gold and few are going any further in the tests.
This is what I've heard. Someone else please confirm or deny.

Does this mean "Adult Dance" will also be going away and it will just share the names of the kid dance track?
They'll still grade these tests at the adult standard, but the names won't be different and you won't get your gold medalist jacket "early".

I achieved Adult Gold awhile ago and I still kept going higher. But I never had a problem with adults getting their gold medalist jacket "early", since many adults struggle to advance or don't have enough free time to practice a ton. Now, instead of "too many" adults achieving Adult Gold (aka juvenile), you're going to have very, very few people who started skating as adults earn a gold medalist jacket. The majority of people I know who pass Senior MIF (adult track) or Senior FS (adult track) are just finishing up tests they took as kids.

Also, still hearing that they ARE going to eventually revamp and make the MIF tests harder. But it just won't be this coming year since this is only the name changes for now.

This is going to suck if it's true. I passed prelim and now and looking into testing adults since it's two tests to get my gold medal. There is likely no way I'll be able to get a senior MIF jacket in the reasonable future, but 2 tests for adults is likely doable (I enjoy show skating more than comps so don't need to pass freestyle).

 

[Arwen17]

This is going to suck if it's true. I passed prelim and now and looking into testing adults since it's two tests to get my gold medal. There is likely no way I'll be able to get a senior MIF jacket in the reasonable future, but 2 tests for adults is likely doable (I enjoy show skating more than comps so don't need to pass freestyle).

As far as I can tell, they want this change because too many adults were reaching and passing Adult Gold MIF in just 2-4 years and then not testing any further because they already have their Gold Medalist jacket. Basically, the kids have to wait 10-12 years to earn their jacket, but adults are getting theirs in only 2-4 years and then not testing any further.

You can see the same "strategy" in the fact they're going to allow people to compete in levels lower than their FS test level. They're trying to encourage people to go higher in the FS tests by letting them compete in whatever level they want, regardless of FS test level.

 

[mskater93]

As far as I can tell, they want this change because too many adults were reaching and passing Adult Gold MIF in just 2-4 years and then not testing any further because they already have their Gold Medalist jacket. Basically, the kids have to wait 10-12 years to earn their jacket, but adults are getting theirs in only 2-4 years and then not testing any further.

You can see the same "strategy" in the fact they're going to allow people to compete in levels lower than their FS test level. They're trying to encourage people to go higher in the FS tests by letting them compete in whatever level they want, regardless of FS test level.

The compete whatever level is not relevant to adults at this time though

 

[alyssamarie]

As far as I can tell, they want this change because too many adults were reaching and passing Adult Gold MIF in just 2-4 years and then not testing any further because they already have their Gold Medalist jacket. Basically, the kids have to wait 10-12 years to earn their jacket, but adults are getting theirs in only 2-4 years and then not testing any further.

You can see the same "strategy" in the fact they're going to allow people to compete in levels lower than their FS test level. They're trying to encourage people to go higher in the FS tests by letting them compete in whatever level they want, regardless of FS test level.

I mean I have been skating since I was 5 so like I'm still skating the same amount of time as the kids (if not longer) and then this would keep more adults in the sport instead of leaving.

I know last year at LTS competitions (since I didn't make the cutoff at every competition to skate adult) I could skate lower than my level, my level, or compete up. For adult I could only compete my level (or a level up at a non-qual comp). So this would be stricter for adults not kids causing them to not want to test/compete, and then some might never earn a gold medal.

 

[mskater93]

I mean I have been skating since I was 5 so like I'm still skating the same amount of time as the kids (if not longer) and then this would keep more adults in the sport instead of leaving.

I know last year at LTS competitions (since I didn't make the cutoff at every competition to skate adult) I could skate lower than my level, my level, or compete up. For adult I could only compete my level (or a level up at a non-qual comp). So this would be stricter for adults not kids causing them to not want to test/compete, and then some might never earn a gold medal.

The idea of the restrictions remaining for adults is to keep people competing. Most people's elements match or are slightly higher than their test level (so a small sub-set of Adult Silver skaters have Axels and a small sub-set of Adult Gold skaters have doubles). If people are allowed to essentially skate down, it's going to really p-ss off the long standing adult community because a lot of what is rewarded is skating skills for adults.

 

[twirlingblades]

Just heard today that they are getting rid of adult level names entirely. AKA all of the MIF/FS tests will share the same name as the kid levels and adults will have to go all the way to senior level from now on to earn their Gold medalist jacket. They won't be able to get it at the "juvenile" level. Something about too many adults are achieving Adult Gold and few are going any further in the tests.
This is what I've heard. Someone else please confirm or deny.

Does this mean "Adult Dance" will also be going away and it will just share the names of the kid dance track?
They'll still grade these tests at the adult standard, but the names won't be different and you won't get your gold medalist jacket "early".

I achieved Adult Gold awhile ago and I still kept going higher. But I never had a problem with adults getting their gold medalist jacket "early", since many adults struggle to advance or don't have enough free time to practice a ton. Now, instead of "too many" adults achieving Adult Gold (aka juvenile), you're going to have very, very few people who started skating as adults earn a gold medalist jacket. The majority of people I know who pass Senior MIF (adult track) or Senior FS (adult track) are just finishing up tests they took as kids.

Also, still hearing that they ARE going to eventually revamp and make the MIF tests harder. But it just won't be this coming year since this is only the name changes for now.

Has this been announced anywhere?

 

[mskater93]

Has this been announced anywhere?

No

 

[robosk8er7]

Someone told me UK recently changed their tests too. Maybe Australia is next lol.

Also, going to copy&paste the most informative reply I've gotten so far:



I'm super curious what that means for the adult levels. Because you could end up with something bizarre like this:

• Adult Pre-Bronze (pre-pre)
• Adult Bronze (prelim)
• Adult Silver (pre-juve)
• Adult Gold (juve)
• Adult Pre-Bronze 2nd dose (aka used to be Adult Intermediate)
• Adult Bronze 2nd dose (aka used to be Adult Novice)
• Adult Silver 2nd dose (aka used to be Adult Junior)
• Adult Gold 2nd dose (aka used to be Adult Senior)

I guess they could call it "Masters Pre-Bronze", "Masters Gold" etc..... but I hate that because I associate the world "masters" to mean "old" because they call the age 50+ track "masters".
And I still think that's ultra confusing to repeat the "Pre-Bronze to Gold" naming schema, even if you stick "Adult" or "Masters" on the front to distinguish which one you're talking about. Plus, it's a mouthful. Now when someone says they're still in "Pre-Bronze", we will have to say "Which one? Adult or Masters? And do you mean masters as in age 50+ track or do you actually mean Intermediate MIF?"

But I really like the idea of doing the FS tests that way! There's soooo many kids and adults who want to test higher in FS, but don't want to get trapped competing in a higher level that they're not ready for.... since yes competition is way harder than the equivalent tests

This is nonsensical to me. If they wanted to change the patterns that would be fine but what’s the point of changing the names and then having the same names for adults but having them not correspond. As an adult testing standard this is just confusing for no reason.

My guess is that they are going to rename the adult tests as well, so they will be the same names as the standard tests.

 

[mskater93]

Don't forget that adult tests have some adjustments to what fits on which test because the moves on the Adult tests are intended to help with skating skills/turns adult should have at specific levels.

 

[Arwen17]

Don't forget that adult tests have some adjustments to what fits on which test because the moves on the Adult tests are intended to help with skating skills/turns adult should have at specific levels.

Yeah, but I'm now wondering if they're going to ditch this and make the adult tests exactly like the kid tests, but with the "adult scoring" aka being judged one level below so that the judging is more lenient for adults than the kids.
They think adults are passing these MIF tests too quickly and easily to get their Gold Medalist jacket, so why not put the "harder" exercises from the kids test back into the adult levels?
If they're going to revamp the entire MIF eventually anyway, everyone's exercises will be changing somewhat anyway. But I wonder WHEN it will happen. Will they keep the adult exercises the way they are during the name change and wait to change them when they revamp ALL the MIF tests?
Maybe Bronze(21+) will have the same exercises as Adult Gold for a little while until they're ready to change the exercises in ALL the MIF levels. This gives adults more time to finish off whatever exercises they're working on now, even with the names changing.

Here's another question:
How does this change the naming of the adult competitions? The kids competitions will still follow the old naming convention: Juvenile, Novice, Junior, Senior, etc, as far as I know. But adult competition levels are named Adult Bronze, Adult Gold, etc. That's going to be super confusing if your test is called "Bronze (21+)", but your competition level is still called "Adult Gold".

It works for the kids because the tests are so far behind what actually happens in the competition levels of the same name. But adult tests are very inline with the competition level of the same name. Perhaps it doesn't matter since you will be able to compete in any level, regardless of what tests you take. AKA every competition level is a free-for-all race-to-the-bottom because there are no blocks to skating down several levels if you want to.