Rule Highlights

• Reminder to Officials When Asked to Officiate Out-of-Section
• CanSkate Clarification
• Qualifications for Judging & Refereeing STARSkate & Competitive Events
• Dance Sequences Required in Tests & Competitions - from SC's rulebook, because it's always hard to find :-)
• Dance Tests - Which Dances Can Be Soloed or Not?
• Conducting Interpretive Tests - from Donna King-Gallant, Skate Canada
• WO Technical Site - WO Section, Skate Canada and ISU documentation for STARSkate, Competitive, Varsity, Special Olympics, Adult skating events, etc.
  

Reminder to Officials When Asked to Officiate Out of Section

If you are asked by another section for a test day or competition, you are first to ensure that the person requesting you has already received permission from Susan Blatz for you to attend.

The Duties of Officials Section of Skate Canada's Policies and Procedures states the following: 3.7 Requests for an evaluator, judge, technical specialist or technical controller from another Section shall only be made through the appropriate Section Evaluators / Judges Chair.

CanSkate Clarification

The following are the requirements for "CanSkate" events at all competitions:

• 3 jumps (waltz/Salchow/toe loop only)
• 1 spin (upright only, fwd or bwk spin)
• 1 fwd spiral (any attempt is accepted, no time or edge or height requirement)
• NOTE: half loop, half flip, half Lutz jumps are not allowed and IF included will take up a jump site and will be given no credit from the judges.
• NOTE: bunny hop/split jump/falling leafs etc. are NOT considered as jumps, and are to be considered as transitions from the judges.

Please note: you are allowed to do jumps in combination/sequence BUT are only allowed 3 jump sites and if any jump is repeated it MUST be in combo or sequence.

Qualifications for Judging & Refereeing STARSkate & Competitive Events

All judges/evaluators must meet Skate Canada's requirements including:

1. have a Skate Canada Club affiliation
2. have a current annual Skate Canada membership
3. provide a signed Skate Canada Official's Code of Ethics to Skate Canada

As of May, 2008, with thanks to Dr. Susan Blatz. Please note that officials with Evaluator status ONLY are not eligible to judge at competitions. Evaluators must have specific Judging qualifications to judge at competitions and must be assigned to the competition according to their judging level.

Skate Canada – Western Ontario’s policy is to use ONLY qualified officials at all WO sanctioned events - in the best interests of our skaters.

The following level of judges may judge STARSkate categories in a competition.
(Skate Canada Rule 7504). See page 7000-32.

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Competition categories may be cancelled if qualified judges are not available at the discretion of the Chief Referee/Technical Representative in consultation with the host committee. A category with less than 4 skaters may be combined.

For Triathlon events, every effort should be made to use the same panel for all parts of the event.

Under no circumstances may you evaluate or judge above your qualification level. If you are assigned in error to a test or event for which you are not qualified, please inform the Test Chair or Tech Rep immediately.

The following charts list the qualifications to judge or referee STARSkate and competitive events at invitational competitions. For further information, see the Skate Canada Rulebook, Association Policies & Procedures: Officials Definition, Appointment, Qualifications Policy (p PP-117 2009). Note that this policy states that your qualifications as an evaluator no longer have any bearing on your qualifications to judge in competitions.

Dance Sequences Required in Tests & Competitions

Please note the minimum number of sequences (NOT always a round) to be seen at test days, in the chart below, as copied from the Rule Book. You may sometimes need to cut back on the number of sequences (test day running late, partner having a coronary), but this should be the exception, not the rule. In no case should a dance test be stopped with less than one sequence completed.

Dance Tests - Which Dances Can Be Soloed or Not?

There have been a few instances of these rules being misinterpreted at test days, so please read carefully!

The following information is in regards to Skate Canada Dances - which dances are allowed to be skated as a solo dance only, or soloed after being skated with a partner.

Under NO circumstances can a dance test be only soloed, unless it is one of the dances that has been identified as having this option - as follows (Skate Canada Rule 4303):

1. Preliminary Creative Dance (may be skated with partner, solo or shadow)
2. Bronze Creative Dance (may be skated with partner, solo or shadow)
3. Keats Foxtrot (partner or solo)
4. American Waltz (partner or solo)
5. Blues (partner or solo)
6. Kilian (partner or solo)
7. Silver Creative Dance (may be skated with partner, solo or shadow)
8. Quickstep (partner or solo)
9. Silver Samba (partner or solo)
10. Gold Creative Dance (may be skated with partner, solo or shadow)

In addition to solo dancing as described in Rule 4303, a candidate for a compulsory dance test, after skating the dance with a partner may subsequently also skate the dance alone at the request of the Evaluator under the circumstances specified below. When a solo occurs, the Evaluator shall not record an additional evaluation, but use this as a check on the candidate's knowledge of the steps, accuracy in timing and sureness of skating. A candidate who is 25 years of age or older will not be required to skate a solo.

1. Requests for solo NOT permitted: in the Preliminary Dance Test and Diamond Dance Test.
2. Junior Bronze Dance Test: the Evaluator may request a solo under extenuating circumstances.
3. Senior Bronze Dance Test: the Evaluator may request a solo as indicated above.
4. Junior Silver Dance Test: the Evaluator may request a solo of any of the dances after the dance is skated with a partner. Or the American Waltz and Keats Foxtrot may be skated as a solo dance.
5. Senior Silver Dance Test: the Evaluator may request a solo of any of the dances after the dance is skated with a partner. Or the Blues and the Kilian may be skated as a solo dance.
6. Gold Dance Test: the Evaluator may request a solo of any of the dances after the dance is skated with a partner. Or the Quickstep and the Silver Samba may be skated as a solo dance.