What is testing?
I'd like to encourage everyone to keep working on the Laura Stamm power skating skills and maneuvers whenever possible.
The more you do these skills, the more your muscles will remember how to do them.
You will end up skating faster and improving your stride without even
realizing it!
The Laura Stamm skills testing is an optional test taken during the regular power skating clinic. It is not really a test in itself, but more of a skills evaluation.
How the testing works is one of the on ice instructors will take the student aside and
give them a series of maneuvers to attempt during the regular clinic.
Why should I test?
These tests are basically a way of going through our clinic and making certain that you
can master several maneuvers of a certain difficulty to a particular level of
skill. These students will get extra individual attention in particular areas of the test if they seem to be having
problems and will be helped/re-taught how to do the particular skill until it
is at a level of satisfactory with the level of the test. Also, these tests are a way of knowing how
far up a student will stand in the Laura Stamm skating clinic compared to our
highest difficulty of skills we teach and what they have left to learn. As a student gets higher up in the testing
ranks the skills in these tests become much harder. And in the higher level tests the students
will need to do maneuvers which are far above the skill of a regular clinic and are then privately taught how to do those techniques.
How do I know what level to test for?
The way the skill level on these tests work is they are designed for people who have been
to the clinic for a certain number of years. For example, first year students get the basic A stick and require no
testing. The basic AA stick is designed to be at a skill level of a student who is coming to the clinic as their
second time. The intermediate A test (or
third achievement rank) is designed for students who have come to the clinic
for their third time and so on. So, as
you get higher ranks, the tests become significantly harder than the previous one. There are some exceptions to this rule
though. If someone comes to our clinic
and is already at a higher skill level then we might test them for certain
tests their first year, or if someone improves greatly their first year, their
second year might be tested for a higher test. This is how some people can skip a test. This can only be done once.If a
person is at the skill level of intermediate AA one year, it is unreasonable to
expect that person to be able to pass the advanced AA test (two ranks above
intermediate AA, skipping adv A). This
is because the test will be significantly harder than the test two ranks below
it. If you are not sure what level your
first test should be for, ask the instructor what you should be testing
at. Then the next years you will end up
testing for the very next rank up and proceed in the original order.
How can I train for the next test?
This can be done by checking the list of skills on the Skills Tests. Simply check the test you intend to take next year and make sure you can accomplish those maneuvers with
the skills that the test describes. These can easily be practiced at open skate or at the warm-ups of a team
practice.
How to sign up for a test.
Skills testing is available at all of our 8 and 10 hour
clinics Schedule
We do not offer
testing at our 6 hour clinics due to lack of time in the clinic. However there is always a chance that there
could be ample time, so make sure to ask the instructor at the current clinic
for more information on this and if testing is possible. Also, we offer a chance to show up at a
testing location and take the test without signing up for that particular clinic for people who attended a non testing clinic previously. Again, check with the instructor or the
person working the display table during the clinic to sign up for testing or
to ask questions about testing.
What the tests include
by Alan Noble, Instructor Trainer