Photo Credit: Willy Foo/willyfoo.com |
| April 2, 2007— Singapore Ice Skating Association (SISA) introduced the new international judging system for figure skating into South East Asia when it held the 6th National Figure Skating Championships on March 31st -April 1st. “This is an important step for SISA in its plans to become a member of the International Skating Union (ISU),” said Andrea Derby, director of training & development for SISA. |
| SISA is not yet a member of the ISU, which governs Olympic and world-class skating, because Singapore does not have an Olympic skating rink. However, the association has been diligently adhering to ISU standards regarding the development of judges, coaches and skaters for the past few years. |
| Indeed, serving as technical advisors on the international judging system for Singapore Nationals were officials from Ice Skating Australia, Cameron and Lisa Jelinek. Judges at the Nationals were Ann Short from Ice Skating Australia, Dr. Reginald Teo from SISA and Ms Derby, who is also an international class judge from Skate Canada. |
| Singaporeans Sarah Paw returned from Beijing and Sarah Rodgers from Scotland to compete at Nationals. Faced with the choice of going to a European competition taking place at the same time as Nationals, Sarah Rodgers chose Singapore. “I am Singaporean, and this is where I wanted to compete, win or lose.” she said. |
| The introduction of the new judging system was a big draw for skaters because of its vastly improved transparency over the old 6.0 system. Coaches and skaters can analyse results to see how they won or lost—and most importantly, what they can change in their programmes to produce better performances in future. |
| With the IJS, skating programmes are marked on two scales: the Technical Elements Score (TES) and the Program Components Score (PCS). Skaters receive points for individual technical elements such as jumps, spins and footwork; and for program components, which considers skating skills, transitions, the execution, choreography and interpretation. |
| Technical elements are given a base value, based on their degree of difficulty. However, judges will apply deductions or increases to the value based on the quality of the skater’s execution of the element itself. If the two rotations of a double jump are not completed fully in the air, for example, skaters will face a deduction or a complete downgrading of the element to a single jump—which carries a much lower base value. |
| Additionally, a skater may then receive a quality deduction on the downgraded jump—amounting to a double penalty. “The new system looks heavily for consistency and quality,” said Dr. Reginald Teo. “If the elements are not clean, the marks are going to reflect that one way or another.” |
 Skaters receive summaries of their exact scores for each element. Alexandria Wong, the 2007 PreNovice Ladies Champion, landed a challenging double lutz-double loop combination jump in her short programme. The base value for the combination is 3.70 points. Alexandria scored 3 points, indicating a small problem with the quality.
However, including the difficult combination proved a successful strategy in generating points for Alexandria’s short programme. Not only did she win PreNovice Ladies, she had the highest total score at Nationals. It has become extremely important for coaches to design programmes with elements that generate maximum points and fully utilize a skater’s strengths.
Photo Credit: Leslie Tan/redsports.sg
|
 Newly crowned Juvenile Ladies Champion Ng Yi Ching, for example, earned the highest technical score (18.81) at the Championships, thanks in part to a well-designed programme that included a clean double loop-double loop combination and a clean double flip-double toe combination. Both combinations received small deductions on quality of execution, but they provided Yi Ching with an important technical lead.
No other skater in the Juvenile, PreNovice or Novice Free Skates successfully landed two double-double combinations. Given that Yi Ching is only 10 years old, it’s a remarkable accomplishment.
Photo Credit: Leslie Tan/redsports.sg
|
Program component scores can also be decisive when skaters are evenly matched on a technical basis. Looking at the PreJuvenile Ladies event, the technical elements scores for the gold and silver medalists were separated by less than 0.2 points. However, 2007 National Champion Phoebe Wang, known for her artistry in skating, secured her lead with a higher program components score. |
Overall, figure skating judging has become more precise and less subjective, thanks to the IJS’s comprehensive system for valuing elements. On the downside, it requires more training to judge and laypeople can be bewildered by the complexity. “Change is never easy, and most people avoid it,” said Ms Derby. “But this is the right road to take.” |
| |
PrePreliminary Ladies Champion: Gazel Lee
PrePreliminary Mens Champion: Dominic Soh
Preliminary Ladies Champion: Celine Bavaud
Prejuvenile Mens Champion: Max Ko
Prejuvenile Ladies Champion: Phoebe Wang
Juvenile Mens Champion: Maxel Lee
Juvenile Ladies Champion: Ng Yi Ching
PreNovice Ladies Champion: Alexandria Wong
Novice Ladies Champion: Sarah Paw
Junior Ladies Champion: Tasha Benfield |
| |
