U.S. Figure Skating’s annual Governing Council meeting has just concluded in Lombard, IL. Many new rules that affect skaters are coming into effect. Many of the significant rule changes are listed below.

 Junior Nationals Restructured:

Junior Nationals will no longer (starting in 2013) be its own event with skaters qualifying through their Regional championships.  It is changing in the following ways:

 1. The four best-placed competitors in the intermediate and juvenile singles events in each region will qualify to enter the appropriate sectional championship.  This will give young skaters a better understanding of how they will need to qualify for the National Championships in higher levels.

2. The current U.S. Junior Championships stand-alone event will be replaced with a smaller national competition for juvenile and intermediate athletes held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. This is a wonderful change since Junior National competitors will now be at “big nationals” and can get inspired by the nation’s top skaters in the higher levels.

3. The four best-placed competitors in all intermediate and juvenile events (singles, pairs and ice dancing) from each section qualify to enter the national competition mentioned in item 2 above.

This change to Junior Nationals will not go into place this year but in competitive year 2013.  There will still be a Junior Nationals in December this year and skaters will advance directly from Regionals.

 Novice Ladies Short Program is replacing the fixed Base Value spiral sequence with a leveled step sequence.
Novice Well-Balanced Free Skate is replacing the option of a fixed Base Value spiral or a fixed Base Value choreographed step sequence with a leveled step sequence.
Novice Well-Balanced Free Skate is  allowing one additional triple jump to be repeated for novice men and to limit each double (and triple) jump to appear no more than twice for novice men and novice ladies (i.e. can repeat as many doubles as they like, but each can appear no more than two times in a program).
Novice Men Short Program now has a change of foot in the camel or sit spin.

Intermediate Short Program, Intermediate Well-Balanced Free Skate and Juvenile/Open Juvenile Well-Balanced Free Skate to replace the leveled step sequence with a fixed Base Value choreographed step sequence.
Intermediate Well-Balanced Free Skate to limit the number of spins to two. One spin must be a combination spin with at least one change of position, and one spin must be a spin in one position with no change of foot. Both spins may have a flying entry.

Juvenile: Increased the age for juvenile to “under age 14 as of Sept. 1 prior to the regional championships.” This means skaters have an additional year before they need to begin competing in Open Juvenile.

Juvenile/Open Juvenile Well-Balanced Free Skate to limit the number of spins to two. One spin must be a combination spin with at least one change of position, and one spin mus tbe a spin in one position with no change of foot. Both spins may have a flying entry.

Pre-Juvenile Well-Balanced Free Skate to limit the number of spins to two. One spin must be a combination spin with at least one change of position (minimum six revolutions total), and one spin must be a spin in one position with no change of foot (minimum four revolutions). Both spins may have a flying entry.

The following levels can now only have two jump combinations and sequences in their programs instead of three: 

• Juvenile/Open Juvenile Well-Balanced Free Skate
• Pre-Juvenile Well-Balanced Free Skate
• Preliminary Well-Balanced Free Skate
• Pre-Preliminary Well-Balanced Free Skate
• No Test Well-Balanced Free Skate

The following levels can NOT do a three jump combination in their program, only two jump combos are allowed:

• Juvenile/Open Juvenile Well-Balanced Free Skate
• Pre-Juvenile Well-Balanced Free Skate
• Preliminary Well-Balanced Free Skate
• Pre-Preliminary Well-Balanced Free Skate
• Test Well-Balanced Free Skate

Adults Competition:

1) The maximum number of spins allowed in the championships masters junior-senior, masters senior and masters junior well-balanced free skate events is reduced from four to three.
2) The maximum number of jumps allowed in the championships masters intermediate-novice, masters novice and masters intermediate well-balanced free skate events is reduced from seven to six.
3) The maximum number of jump elements allowed in the championship adult gold and adult gold well-balanced free skate events is reduced from six to five.
4) The Championships Masters Junior-Senior, Championship Masters Intermediate-Novice, Masters Senior, Masters Junior, Masters Novice, Masters Intermediate, Championship Adult Gold and Adult Gold well-balanced program requirements have been amended to allow the option of a choreographed step sequence or a choreographed spiral sequence.
5) The IJS system for championship, masters and gold levels of singles events will be used at adult sectional championships!!!  This is great news for many adult skaters.

Make sure to start making these changes to programs right away!  Unless mentioned otherwise, these changes go into effect in competitions starting June 1, 2011.

Please leave a comment below if you have an opinion or questions about these changes. Ryan Jahnke attended the Governing Council meeting and can answer questions about how these changes came about.

Be among the first to enjoy this free 5 minute video with your friends

Our latest video is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face and encourage you! Just click on this link and enjoy: “What’s so great about figure skating?”

If you like it, would you consider sharing it with your friends? Posting it on social networking pages or sending the link to the video over email would do the trick.

Why bother? Maybe you know a skater who is not sure she wants to continue skating because of the struggle to land an axel. Maybe you know skating parents who have lost sight of why to support their children through the rigors of skating. This video is full of skaters and parents at all levels of skating taking a moment to look at the big picture of why they love figure skating. Most people who have participated in figure skating for a while have had times where they have asked themselves, “Why am I doing this?” Let’s face it, figure skating is not easy on parents, skaters, or coaches. But that challenge is the source of what makes it so worth while!!! Don’t take my word for it….watch this video for yourself and hear from other people just like you.

The skating community really came together to produce this video. MySkatingMall.com received video uploads from all over North America answering the question, “What’s so great about figure skating?”. If you remember, we held a raffle with the names of all the people who submitted videos for this project. We are pleased to announce that Vincent Smentkowski of the Albany Figure Skating Club is the winner of a $100 discount to MySkatingMall.com!

Skate for Hope

P.S. The Private Loge box containing 6 seats to Skate For Hope is still available for purchase. Proceeds from these tickets benefit either the Memorial Fund or breast cancer research; it’s your choice! For more information, read our blog about this offer through this link: Skate For Hope.

  We were so close! 

The MySkatingMall.com community set a goal to raise $1,000 for the U.S. Figure Skating Memorial Fund before the release of the film RISE.   The activity of 220 MySkatingMall.com members and a couple dress sales by 2010 U.S. Champion and Olympian Rachael Flatt    enabled MySkatingMall.com to send in a $812.38 check. 

To be honest, my competitively wired brain points out that we failed to hit the goal.  But really???  $812 to support the competitive and acedemic endeavors of worthy skaters can never be a failure!  Part of the beauty of goals is that they get one to move in the right direction.  The money MySkatingMall.com just sent to the Memorial Fund is the first of MANY checks.  Money will be raised for the Fund as long as some members of MySkatingMall.com choose to support the Memorial Fund with their purchases and sales.

“U.S. Figure Skating is deeply grateful to MySkatingMall.com for all of their efforts to provide affordable and accessible access to figure skating clothing and accessories to skaters throughout the country.  Additionally, U.S. Figure Skating applauds  MySkatingMall.com’s efforts to raise contributions for the Memorial Fund, our largest financial assistance vehicle available for the support of figure skaters to succeed on and off the ice.  Every dollar, every donation – supports skaters from Juvenile to Senior and their dreams of becoming champions!” wrote Stacey Marsh, Director of Development for U.S. Figure Skating.

Memorial Fund Committee Chair Leslie Gianelli added, “I am so impressed with the creativity and ingenuity of MySkatingMall.com, and very grateful for your ongoing support of the Memorial Fund. Your very generous donation both honors the legacy of the 1961 World Figure Skating Team and helps today’s skaters realize their hopes and dreams.”

I love “feel good” emails, don’t you?

For all you Facebook users out there, the following link will take you to video of Rachael Flatt being interviewed at the World Figure Skating Museum. She speaks about her efforts to give back to skating through the Memorial Fund:  Rachael Flatt interview on Facebook

Make a direct donation to the U.S. Figure Skating Memorial Fund

You can give a gift online using the Fund’s secure online giving site at: U.S. Figure Skating Memorial Fund Online Giving.  If you text more than type, text  SKATE to 50555 on your mobile phone and contribute $10 up to three times. Lastly, you can send a check via snail mail to:  U.S. Figure Skating, Memorial Fund, 20 First Street, Colorado Springs, CO 80906

P.S. Important Reminder

Our initial year of free listings is coming to a close. A small $1 per item listing fee will be invoiced through PayPal in the next couple of days for all items currently being sold on MySkatingMall.com. Make sure to promply pay the invoice and your items will be extended for another year!  You can email info@myskatingmall.com if you have any questions about the $1 listing fee.

Oops, we messed up! Our original directions for participating in the “What’s so great about figure skating?” Video were not very clear. A special “Thank you” to the couple people who brought this to our attention.  The directions for uploading videos to the MySkatingMall.com YouTube page have recently been updated at www.myskatingmall.com/skating .  They now include pictures of where to click in order to upload videos .   Because of the poor directions, we will now be accepting videos until Jan 31!

We could really use a few more uploads in order to make this an awesome video for the skating community!  Take a look at the fully updated directions at www.myskatingmall.com/skating . Through that same link you can watch a quick video that tells what this great contest is all about. We want to hear from skaters, parents, coaches, and anyone who loves skating!

P.S. Anyone who uploads a video will be entered into a drawing for a $100 gift certificate for any item on MySkatingMall.com or through our Partner Stores.