New Rule Changes Coaches Should Know

New Rule Changes Coaches Should Know

This year, the U.S. Figure Skating Governing Council delegates considered more than 40 rule changes and seven bylaw changes. Here is a summary of the changes that will have the greatest effect on coaches. Everything goes into effect on July 1, 2022, unless otherwise noted.

Tests

Skate United tracks for skaters with physical disabilities were added for pair tests, pattern dance tests, partnered free dance tests, and solo free dance tests.

To pass a test using an IJS protocol, there must not be more than two falls in singles and pairs free skate, or one fall in partnered and solo free dance. For pairs free skate and partnered free dance, the fall count is a maximum count for the program and not per partner. The total number of falls will be determined by checking the fall deduction value on the IJS protocol.

Solo free dance tests may now be passed by submitting a protocol from a sanctioned nonqualifying competition conducted under the IJS.

The requirements for the novice, junior, and senior solo free dance tests were updated to add a one-foot step sequence, eliminate flying spins and flying entrances on the solo dance spin, and increase the durations of the programs. The intent of these changes is to bring them in line with the solo free dance series competition requirements.

References to “lady” and “man” will be removed 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. In addition, there will be four separate tracks of pattern dance tests: lead partnered, follow partnered, lead solo, and follow solo. These changes will become effective July 1, 2023, to allow time to update test forms and the U.S. Figure Skating database.

Also, effective July 1, 2023, to allow time for test forms and the database to be updated, test names will be changing as follows:

Moves in the field tests will be renamed skating skills tests.

Free skate tests will be renamed singles tests.

“Pre-juvenile” through “senior” test levels for skating skills (moves in the field), singles (free skate), free dance, and pairs tests will be renamed as “pre-bronze” through “gold.”

Pairs

The pairs bonus rules were amended to increase the bonus for each triple jump in the novice pairs free skate from +1.0 to +2.0; add a bonus for each thrown double Axel and throw triple jump achieved in the novice pairs short program and free skate; and add a bonus for triple twist lifts achieved in the junior pairs short program and free skate.

Singles

The bonus rules for singles short program and free skates were updated. In addition, the spin requirements for the intermediate men’s and women’s short programs and well-balanced free skates were updated. In the intermediate men’s and women’s short programs, skaters are now required to perform a camel spin with one change of foot and four revolutions in position on each foot, and the combination spin may not be commenced with a jump. In the intermediate men’s and women’s free skate, one of the two spins must have a flying entry.

Synchronized Skating

Times were updated for synchronized skating for the preliminary free skate, junior free skate and collegiate free skate official practice ice segments.

Adult Skating

The twizzle requirements for the adult gold solo free dance event were updated to align with the requirements for the standard, adult 21+ and adult 50+ senior solo free dance tests. An adult pre-bronze solo pattern dance event was added to the rulebook.

Qualifying Competitions

The qualifying competition structure for singles, pairs, and ice dance was amended to merge the regional singles challenges, sectional pairs challenges, and sectional ice dance challenges with the National Qualifying Series as the first step in the qualifying system. Detailed information about the 2022-23 qualifying season is available on the U.S. Figure Skating public site at www.usfigureskating.org/news.

Terminology

Finally, not coming out of the Governing Council, but instead resulting from a change made by the ISU in 2021, U.S. Figure Skating will be changing the names of its singles events from ladies to women for intermediate, novice, junior, senior and adult events. References to lady/ladies will also be updated to woman/women as they pertain to a partner in a pairs event or an ice dance event for competitions, and partners for pairs tests.

These changes only represent a portion of what was approved by the Governing Council April 29–30. For full details on all approved changes, please visit https://www.usfigureskating.org/ about/rules.