On The Edge... Again




Friday, July 11, 2014


I took my Adult Silver Moves In The Field test today and passed!  That's the good news.

The interesting thing that happened was that they asked me today if I was testing as an "Adult" or as a "Masters" skater.  I had never been asked this before.  I just looked at my other two MIF tests and they show "Adult" for Bronze and the Pre-Bronze tests don't have an option on them.

My coach had to explain to me that it was an age thing and that if you are over 50 you qualify to be "Masters" skater in the test.  The marks required for masters are lower than for adults.  She thought I would pass either way but she told the judges "masters".  I had no idea that there were two different categories.  I never noticed it on the forms before and I thought "masters" had to do with accomplishing a level of Intermediate or higher as a standard track skater before switching to adult skating.  What do I know?

So I skated my test and was informed I passed and I have attached my judges forms for your perusal.
I felt the test went pretty well.  It could have gone better, but I thought I would have passed under either standard.  If you see the scores they gave me I would NOT have passed as an adult.



  1. Congratulations on passing Silver MIF! That's a fantastic accomplishment and one to be proud of. "Masters" can refer to two things, as you are now aware. There is the Masters testing track, which is for adults 50+, and then it can also refer to the Masters freestyle competition levels (Masters Intermediate, Masters Novice, Masters Junior, and Masters Senior), which refers mostly to adults who skated on the standard track as kids. It's SO confusing! =)

  2. Thanks Eva.... I just wish my scores would have reflected passing either adult or masters .....

  3. A huge congratulations! You should be very proud of this. I bet if you had tested as Adult, the judges would have reset their scores to reflect that. I could explain better verbally so this may not make sense typed out, but I think sometimes the judges have in their mind what a 'pass' is. So you tested as Masters, and they scored you above 'Pass' on every element, based on pass at a certain numerical score. But if you have indicated you were testing at the Adult level, I bet they would still have scored you above 'Pass' on every element, it's just that the basis would have been a little higher. Said another way, I don't know if they look at an element and say 'oh that is a 2.6 to me' versus they look at it and say 'that's a little better to me than pass - oh, pass is 2.5 in this case so I will put 2.6'. I hope that makes sense! Anyway, it must be a relief to have this milestone checked off! This test is extremely hard and I don't know if I will ever get my 3-turns to a passing level no matter what the scale. Now on to your Silver FS test, which I have no doubt you will pass easily!

  4. Congratulations. Would you like to take the test for me now?

  5. Yes I was going to say something like Melissa--- that I kind of think they give you the scores you ask for. When you test at Masters you are asking for 2.5 or above and some of the judges probably just go down the line and put '2.5' if the move looks good. Your judges gave almost all positive comments which is nice to see. The only practical difference it will make as far as I know for you to have tested Masters instead of Adult is that you will have to choose Masters for your gold moves (and I suppose for your Silver Freestyle too) unless you go back and pass your silver moves Adult. My one comment that might help your knee is that you cross your free leg over your skating leg, across your line of travel, a fair bit especially on your three turns (before and after). That puts torque on your skating knee and irritates it. If you keep your free leg more along your line of travel (which might involve getting more strength at the hip) that could help. My PT pointed out the same thing as something to correct a few years ago when she watched a video of me skating.

  6. Congratulations! When I took this test last summer I was told, by a Gold Level Judge, that "the passing score is simply the passing score. We would have given you 2.5 if you had signed up as an "Adult" and 2.7 if you had been taking Pre-Juvenile." We have a bit of a judges mafia here in New England. I don't know how it is where you live. I was discouraged because I truly wanted to know the difference between a 2.3 and a 2.7, but here they just say "Pass" what ever the score it. That same Gold Level judge said, "It's easier that way."

  7. I'm not too concerned about it. I passed and that's the important part. Now FS is another story!