USFS Adult Basic Skills

[Cush]

My Basic Skills booklet shows 4 Adult levels. Online I am finding both 4 level and 6 level curricula. Which one is more current and when did it change?  Thanks.

[AgnesNitt]

That's interesting. No idea when that happened. I believe the 6 level is the most current as the USFSA home page points to it. Thank you for posting this.

For other readers, according to this link http://www.usfigureskating.org/Content/AdultCurriculum.pdf  Adult Basic Skills is now 6 levels.  It looks like it took out the jumps except for bunny hop which is 'optional'. They still have back chasse's so there's a remnant of the social ice dance foundations of the adult program.

Ooooh, after my knee injury,  I'm basic now adult 5.  I take it back, the only thing I can't do in the curriculum are 1 foot spins and FI3.

I don't know if local rinks are teaching this or not. My home rink teaches adults the kid levels, but is not strict about it,

[FigureSpins]

Must have just been changed.  I printed that PDF about a month ago for a student and there were only four levels.  Thanks for the heads up - I'm teaching Adult LTS this session and one skater is on Adult 4.  Our director didn't give me the sheets for Adult 5&6, so I'd guess the USFSA hasn't announced the change as yet.  (The Summer BSS newsletter hasn't been published yet.). Guess I will introduce the new curriculum, lol.  Have to mention it to the director so she orders badges.

I think this revised version is a better curriculum for adult learner a who want to do freestyle.  I like the changes.  I like the chasses - it's a quick skill to,learn, looks fancy so,it is fun.  Also builds awareness of where the feet are placed, how they get there, proper pushing and blade use.

Well-spotted!  Thanks!

[FigureSpins]

One note: the skate coach app for adult still shows the original four levels. 

[Cush]

Thank you guys. The rink at which I am being taught is doing 4 levels too. I was quite surprised to find 6 levels when I started hunting for the pdf.

[AgnesNitt]

I emailed the skating director at a rink I used to skate at (it uses Adult Basic 4) and asked her if they were shifting to this program.

It may be that USFSA hasn't told anyone about it. I didn't see any mention of it in the Basic Skills newsletter for skating directiors.

Have I said before how disorganized the USFSA website is?

(edited)

OOoh, look what I found. The Basic Skills director's page at USFSA. http://www.usfigureskating.org/Programs.asp?id=305
Their manual still says Adult Basic 4. so maybe the Director's don't know yet.

[Cush]

Adult 4
H. Backward crossovers to a landing position

Adult 6
D. Backward crossovers to a backward outside edge glide (landing position)

What's the real difference?

[AgnesNitt]

Adult 4
H. Backward crossovers to a landing position

Adult 6
D. Backward crossovers to a backward outside edge glide (landing position)

What's the real difference?

Improved  copyediting?

[FigureSpins]

There is a new Basic Skills Director at USFSA HQ, so I emailed her to ask about the rest of the rollout.  As I said, this was probably just approved. I haven't looked as yet, but I wonder if there are other curricula changes? Perhaps the web master put the new PDFs up before the new coordinator was ready.

[Clarice]

Interesting.  If you look at the link, you'll see that the introduction on that page still says the adult curriculum is divided into 4 levels, even as it shows you 6.  All my stuff is at the rink, so I can't do it now, but I'm interested in comparing these with the old levels.  It looks like a lot of it is just dividing things up differently, but I'm sure there are some additions and omissions as well.  The old levels, in my opinion, had too many skills per level, and it didn't always make sense to me why they had chosen the ones they did.  I usually switched my adults over to the regular Basic 8 by the time they reached the old Adult 4 level, because that one seemed so random.  Also, if the student wanted to learn to jump, the Basic 8 did a better job with foundational skills.  I could add those things in anyway, of course, but a lot of people like the reward of checking things off the list.

[AgnesNitt]

Interesting.  If you look at the link, you'll see that the introduction on that page still says the adult curriculum is divided into 4 levels, even as it shows you 6. 

I rescind my 'better copyediting' comment. It appears someone used the old template and didn't check it.


For those who care, the history of Adult Basic 4 is that it was intended to put Adults on a track for social ice dance (which is pretty dead now). Now that hundreds of adults show up annually for Adult Nationals, you'd figure USFSA, would just drop an Adult Curriculum and tell skating Directors to use the Basic 8 curriculum but make the jumps optional for the adults who want to do dance.  ISI doesn't have a special adult curriculum.

[FigureSpins]

ETA: the Hockey curriculum has also been revised.  Still four levels, but more skills in each level.

If you look in the lower-right corner of each page, the Adult and Hockey pages are missing the effective season.  (Ex: 2013-14)

[Purple Sparkly]

Have I said before how disorganized the USFSA website is?

It is much better than it used to be.

[sarahspins]

It has to be a recent change because I taught adult 2 during the last class session starting in June and printed out the PDF with the skills on it from all levels for my class binder and there were only 4.

I have to say, having taught adult compared to the "kids" curriculum that the adult basic skills levels leave a LOT to be desired.  Adult only classes are a great idea, but changing the curriculum and placing some elements way out of order doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[mamabear]

I love that I do an activity as an adult where "backward wiggles" is one of the skills.  I'll have to ask my instructor if she knows about the change.  I moved out of the group lessons into privates this summer because all 4 adult levels were grouped together and I had passed 4.  While they were willing to let me just continue and teach other skills it wasn't working (in my opinion) to have 4 adults at 4 different levels with one instructor in 30 minutes.  With 6 levels maybe they would divide it up and do 1-3 and 4-6 or something similar.    I have found that I have often wished I had asked and just taken the kids levels.  Sometimes in power class I feel like I've missed learning something-were t-stops in the old 1-4 curriculum for example? 

[FigureSpins]

No, the t-stop wasn't in the old Adult curriculum.  Now that you mention it, the new curriculum (at first glance) seems to address the skills gaps we identified a while ago:

http://skatingforums.com/index.php?topic=2161.msg20472#msg20472

[AgnesNitt]

There is a new Basic Skills Director at USFSA HQ, so I emailed her to ask about the rest of the rollout.  As I said, this was probably just approved. I haven't looked as yet, but I wonder if there are other curricula changes? Perhaps the web master put the new PDFs up before the new coordinator was ready.

I guess you never heard back right? I never heard back from the skating director I contacted either. It's like a black hole of denial

[FigureSpins]

I guess you never heard back right? I never heard back from the skating director I contacted either. It's like a black hole of denial

Actually, I heard back the next day, I've been too busy to post.  Here's a summary:

. The Skate Coach app will be revised. (This involves video recordings, so expect longer, IMO.)
. The PDF introductory paragraph will be corrected by the responsible department ASAP.
. The new Instructors Manual will be issued in September and will include these changes.

I hadn't thought about it, but they also have to revise the BSS manual, forms and documentation.  Thinking about competitions, these changes are great for adult to compete at Basic Skills comps without having to skate up to Pre-Bronze or Bronze!  The more I think about this, the more I like the changes.

I still haven't actually reviewed the changes, though, lol.   . I've been a slacker.

[Clarice]

i compared the old and new levels last night, and this is what I found:

The old Adult 1 is basically split into the new Adult 1 and Adult 2.  The old "forward strides and gliding" becomes two skills in Adult 1, and the old "backward skating" becomes "back 2 foot glide" and "back wiggles" in Adult 2.  They add "glide and dip" to Adult 1.

Of the old Adult 2 skills, "forward stroking" stays on Adult 2.  Otherwise, these skills are all on Adult 3, with the exception of "forward pivot", which is on Adult 4.

Adult 3 gets a little messy.  "Beginning 2 foot spin" stays on Adult 3.  "Backward edges on a circle", "backward crossovers", and "basic forward outside and forward inside consecutive edges" are on the new Adult 4.  The footwork sequence goes to Adult 5, but it might be a little different - I didn't compare that closely.  The inside open mohawk goes to Adult 6.

The old Adult 4 keeps forward outside 3 turns on Adult 4, but moves the inside threes to Adult 5.  The new Adult 4 also retains the back chasses on a circle and adds forward outside swing rolls and back crossovers to a landing position (which also shows up on Adult 6, but specifies a back outside edge landing position).  The "forward outside to inside change of edge sequence" goes to Adult 5, and the perimeter stroking and the footwork sequence go to Adult 6.

New elements on Adult 5 are forward and backward crossovers in a figure 8, t-stop, and a 1 foot spin.

New elements on Adult 6 are a lunge, a spiral, and an optional bunny hop.

[AgnesNitt]

Actually, I heard back the next day, I've been too busy to post.  Here's a summary:

. The Skate Coach app will be revised. (This involves video recordings, so expect longer, IMO.)
. The PDF introductory paragraph will be corrected by the responsible department ASAP.
. The new Instructors Manual will be issued in September and will include these changes.

I hadn't thought about it, but they also have to revise the BSS manual, forms and documentation.  Thinking about competitions, these changes are great for adult to compete at Basic Skills comps without having to skate up to Pre-Bronze or Bronze!  The more I think about this, the more I like the changes.

I still haven't actually reviewed the changes, though, lol.   . I've been a slacker.

Thanks for the update! I can't wait to see what else is coming!

[dlbritton]

I just completed the Adult 1 Basic Skills class  and the scoring sheet has 4 levels. I had noticed the PDF on the USFS site changed from 4 levels to 6 levels sometime after July 7. I had printed the sheet with 4 levels then when I went back later it had 6 levels, but the header still referred to 4 levels. I start Adult 2 after Labor day so it will be interesting to see if the coaches use the 4 level program or the 6 level program.

[FigureSpins]

The new pdf was issued on July 17th, so I would expect the new structure to be announced shortly and rolled out for a 9/1 start date.