A Beginner’s Guide to IJS
As a parent of an ice skater I must embarrassingly confess that I know very little about the sport, I don’t pretend to know the jumps except the Axel as this is the only jump to be taken off forward, the rest I’m afraid to say all merge into one giant leap on the ice. The saving grace for my daughter and her coach is that I don’t pretend to know anything and my usual stance is to nod supportively.
My daughter wanted to go to the IJS Information Day for Adults and Skaters on the 17th April 2010 and asked me to come along as well. Being easily persuaded I agreed to go with her, however, given my previously stated inability to appreciate even some of the basic elements of skating I was expecting to be lost from the outset, well how wrong can you be!
The course was aimed at beginners, even those with my limited knowledge, and the Lecturers opened the course with a succinct explanation of the difference between the two divergent marking systems that are used in the Open competitions and the IJS events. They then explained what all those funny little abbreviations on the forms meant under the International Judges System. I was little shocked and whispered to my daughter’s amusement that I actually understood it.
In terms of this technical information you could tell the difference between the skaters from their parents, the children managed to get the hang of this quicker than the rest of us but the course was structured to ensure that we all got there in the end.
They then taught us about the points system for jumps, spins, spirals and step sequences and what the difference was between a level 1 and 4 spin, followed by Grades of Execution (GOE). In truth at this point I became somewhat confused but I gained an understanding about the different factors that impact on an IJS score and it is much more than a simple shopping list of points for the various jumps, spins and elements!
As it was an IJS information day they taught us about the structure of the panel of Judges, Technical Specialists (Tech specs), Referees and what all of their respective roles are. This was a real eye opener and I had not realised just how in depth this process was. I now understand why at events there can be such a wait for a score to be given as there are so many things being considered that can affect the result. I do feel for the poor person doing the Assistant Tech Spec role, they not only have to ‘call’ the next expected element, write what the element actually is, but at the same time watch the elements being performed….if you ask me it is almost impossible for anyone with just one pair of eyes.
I would express my thanks to Liz littler, Anne Findlay, Hilary Selby and Doreen Hoppe who provided the course as they made the whole event both informative, totally enjoyable and successfully managed to tailor their delivery to meet the needs of a group with a very divergent levels of knowledge. We all especially enjoyed their practical examples of off ice dance spins and jumps.
The day was totally enjoyable and everyone seemed to have a great time. I would strongly recommend the course to both parents and skaters. With the IJS being rolled out to more and more competitions it is becoming vital that skaters understand the new regime, it also helps for parents like me to have a basic understanding of the system for when your daughter tells you what she has just done on the ice!
In my case I have decided that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and I will still leave my daughter and her coach to it!
By Clare Gilmore.
17th April 2010