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00:00Hello and thank you for joining the Star Six to Gold Assessments webinar. My name is Joanne
00:12Nickel and with me today is Leslie Rushton. We will cover information that is important for
00:19coaches and assessment coordinators for running your preparing, scheduling and running your
00:27assessment days. Thank you Leslie for being part of this presentation. I know you're going to share
00:34some ideas of what you do and how you work with your club's assessment coordinator. I will be
00:41providing information as an evaluator. I do a lot of evaluating both in person and virtual. I am the
00:51sections point person for assigning evaluators, your assessment days across the province and I also
00:58work with training of new evaluators. So if you ever have questions about assessments please contact us
01:06through the email at bcytsection at skatinginbc.com. We're here for you as a resource. So we'll get
01:16right into it and start by talking about the assessment coordinator resource guide. It is
01:23posted on the Skate Canada website under the digital materials catalog. It covers all the information
01:31that you need, the roles and the responsibilities of the coordinator and of the coach, the timing of
01:38warm-ups and for the assessments. Also the formats when you can use single or double panel or clear ice or
01:45on session and also the requirements for the assessment sheets and summary reports. One thing we would ask of
01:54you is if there is a turnover of the assessment coordinator at your club, please try to have the
02:02outgoing person train the new person before leaving. Sometimes we see a new assessment coordinator
02:11that hasn't been trained and it makes it really difficult because they do not know what to do and
02:16ultimately that affects your assessment days. So the first thing that you need to do for planning an
02:24assessment day is to fill out the form on the Skating in BC website in the membership manual. That
02:32request needs to be submitted to the section office at least four weeks in advance and you'll give us the
02:37times that you have ice, the date and time options, how many assessments and what levels of each one.
02:43You'll also indicate if there are any challenge assessments and it is expected that the assessment
02:52coordinator confirms that the candidate for a challenge assessment they have the prerequisites and
02:59I'll get into challenge assessments at the end of the presentation. So the assessment form must be
03:05submitted at least four weeks in advance. The reason for that is we have a small pool of evaluators
03:12across the province. Those evaluators are also judges, they're very busy with the many competitions
03:20that we have as well as the other activities that we do as officials and so we need time to be able to
03:26find someone for you and if no one is available to come back and ask for other dates. Please do not
03:33contact an evaluator directly for their availability. An evaluator should not do more than 25 sessions,
03:41pardon me, 25 assessments in one session. So based on the number of assessments that you have
03:47will assign one, two or maybe more evaluators. There's also no minimum. I've gone out to a club just to do
03:56a very few assessments and that's that's perfectly fine. Many of the clubs have been taking advantage
04:03of the virtual assessments and that's something that the section implemented during COVID.
04:09We've carried on because it's such a cost effective way for clubs to hold assessment days particularly
04:17if you don't have an evaluator living in your location. The virtual assessments are done over Zoom.
04:23I won't go into the details because we have some different formats that we can do depending on
04:27how many assessments you have and what's your internet connection, your wi-fi in the rink,
04:34but I want to promote it for today. If you have interest please contact the section office and we can
04:40talk about how this could be implemented for your club. Leslie, let's talk about how you plan your
04:46assessment days. How many do you have in each year? We have four each year and we always try to plan
04:52them at the end of every season. So for example at the end of the fall season we like to have our
04:57assessment near the end of November or early December and we try to make sure we coordinate
05:02it so that it's not on the same weekend as a competition because we know that you're spread thin
05:08enough as it is. And then our next assessment is at the end of winter which is usually in March and again
05:14we try to avoid super serious final weekend for example. And then we have one at the end of our
05:20spring school in May and one at the end of our summer in August. So there's four a year and at every
05:28single one do you do all of the disciplines? We do. We try to do all of the six to gold and it's usually
05:35skills, free skate elements, free skate programs and dance. We have a few artistic in our club but not that
05:41many. Okay okay and is there a time of year that you might more focus on skills versus on dance?
05:49Yes because our in our club we share ice for skills and dance. So for example our skaters that are star
05:55seven and up that have a short program and require time to work on turns for their step sequence. I find
06:01the fall is really ideal to make sure that we're using our skills and dance sessions for skills and the
06:08turns for our step sequence. And then usually in our winter season we'll try to make sure that we're
06:13incorporating a few more dance lessons and dance sessions. And then spring and summer we usually do
06:19both because we have a little bit more ice for the skills and the dance in those two seasons.
06:24Okay thank you. So let's go through planning the um pardon me let's go through preparing the assessment day
06:33schedule. So this again is all information that can be found in the coordinator guide.
06:43The warm-up times the assessment times it's really important that the assessment coordinator
06:50works with the coach or coaches to create the schedule. So Leslie how do you go about making the
06:56schedule with your assessment coordinator? I work really closely with our club assessment coordinator
07:01and I make sure that all of our club coaches have the tentative numbers of each assessment sent in
07:06the four weeks ahead and then we try to do all of our scratches the two weeks prior. And I also give
07:14her the time frame so for example in the fall and the winter we always use our Sundays because that's
07:20the day that we have the most ice. So I would say for example we have the time frame of from 4 to 8 pm on
07:26Sunday November 23rd and that way she can draft a tentative schedule knowing whether or not we would use
07:33all of the four hours or perhaps the first two or the last two depending on the availability of the
07:39evaluators. And don't you um I remember you telling me about how the order that you like to have assessments
07:47like right after an ice clean you'd prefer to have? The skills for example because clean ice is always
07:53ideal for the evaluators to be able to see the terms and it's usually better if we can have the skills
07:59after an ice clean. That is preferred. And so you've worked with your coordinator so that she already
08:05knows these things now? Yes. Good. I know that um recently you had 81 assessments in one session and
08:13you had to get creative because there was only one evaluator that was available. Normally you'll have like
08:21three. So tell me what did you and your coordinator come up with? That was a challenge. We all panicked
08:26at the start but I knew that we could make it work. So what we did was it was for summer school. We took
08:32our Friday ice that we had set aside from four until eight and said okay we will do our free skate
08:37programs and our dances on that ice. Because it has to be clear. It has to be cleared ice for those
08:43and that worked out perfectly. And then what we did was we took our Wednesday sessions that we had for the
08:48summer and we did all of our free skate elements and our skills on those sessions. The only challenge
08:55that we had was with the skills with the X and O patterns. We wanted to make sure that those skaters
09:00that were doing the assessment at the time had the space to be able to run those those parts of the
09:06assessment without having interruption. So I would just say okay the skater is doing X and O pattern and
09:12the skaters were very respective and they made sure that they stayed out of the way of that assessment.
09:17We made it work. I've seen where a club will have a vest that they they put on so that the skater
09:23is visible. That's a great idea. I have a few other things to talk about as far as schedules go that
09:29that evaluators notice. One is for dances. The recommended warm-up time is three minutes.
09:36Half a minute, 30 seconds, no music and then two and a half minutes with music. If there is a single
09:42assessment of a dance, you could always combine that warm-up with another dance. So let's say
09:48you have a 110 Fox and a couple of Europeans. Put those warm-ups together to just have one. There's
09:55still ample time for the the skater to warm up because a warm-up is a warm-up. It's not a coaching
10:03session and the skater or skaters may actually not even need the full three minutes. That helps your
10:10schedule move forward. For dances, free skate and artistic programs there should be time in the
10:16schedule for the evaluator to meet with the skaters and coaches to give feedback and usually with
10:22programs we can't do that immediately following the skater's performance to keep things running along.
10:28There might be time in a later warm-up but even better is to in the schedule have set time at the
10:36end of the session. Also consider the impact of conditional assessments on the schedule. So a
10:46conditional assessment where someone is taking a star seven skills, if they're successful they are going
10:52to do star eight skills. If they aren't successful at the level seven then they do not proceed to do the
10:58level eight. That could bump forward by eight to ten minutes your schedule and the problem with that
11:06is as it push the schedule pushes forward sometimes I've seen that skaters are not at the rink early
11:13enough. So Leslie what do you tell your students when do they need to be at the rink? We always have it
11:17posted. It's a common practice that the skaters must arrive at least an hour before their posted time for
11:23their assessment and notoriously we run ahead almost every assessment day. So skaters are used to being
11:31there early and being ready to go. Then on the assessment day the coordinator will have the package
11:40of assessment sheets to give to the evaluator. Please make sure that these are the current version.
11:46They are updated by Skate Canada from time to time. I'm going to share an example of something that
11:52happened. It was about a year or two ago that the gold free skate requirements changed. Evaluator arrives
12:02realizes that the it's the old assessment sheets. The time that it takes to download and print those sheets
12:10that assessment day the schedule went sideways because of of that not having the correct sheets
12:19and it was also very disruptive to the skaters preparation. So please make sure that you have
12:24the right sheets. Planned programs must be provided for the free skate and artistic programs. So free skate
12:32programs the evaluator will actually review the technical content before the skaters performance to make
12:39sure that they have all of the elements that they need to which I'm sure as a coach you would want to
12:44know if there was something that was was missing. With artistic please also indicate the timing of the
12:53beginning of each of the elements. You already have to do that for competitions. We need that as an evaluator
13:00to easily identify the beginning of those the field move sequence and the the choreo steps. It's very very helpful.
13:09Evaluators who are in training gain experience by trialing with a qualified evaluator so the section
13:15office will let you know if there is an evaluator a trial evaluator attending and please print off an
13:23extra set of sheets. The evaluator leads the assessment day they are the person in charge. They will turn to
13:31the coordinator if they have anything that they need taken care of. We expect that the warm-ups are timed and
13:40that they are respected. The evaluators themselves do not time them so the either the coach will or the
13:48coordinator will and we know that sometimes there are last-minute changes and that's fine between the
13:54coordinator and the evaluator we can always make adjustments as needed. A few housekeeping things.
14:00Think about the length of your assessment day should there be a break. Please always offer a hot
14:07beverage and maybe even a snack. With the mileage expense form please make sure that you're using
14:15the most current version with the current cost per kilometer. I was at an assessment day not so long ago
14:22and I think the form they gave me was from about four or five years ago. A thank you to the evaluator should
14:29be given usually that is a gift card and there have been questions about retries. Can a skater do a that has a
14:38retry can they take that assessment on the same day? Skate Canada does not recommend that. They state that at least 24 hours
14:48should be before taking it again and logistically that's difficult.
14:55In a very extenuating circumstance if there was a retry and the evaluator felt that the skater was indeed
15:08ready to take the assessment and be successful with it there could be have a there could be a conversation
15:14and that retry could be done if there is time and again it's the evaluator who makes the final decision.
15:22Evaluators provide comments on the assessment sheets and as I've already said they'd like to speak
15:27to the coach and skaters so that we can go through the skaters performance and talk about in comparison to
15:35the assessment criteria and the expected standards. We really encourage coaches to ask questions
15:42particularly if if it's a retry please it's expected that all communication is respectful.
15:51Leslie can you share how you organize time for the evaluators to be able to speak with the skaters
15:57and then also how do you pass any information along to the coaches? Pardon me to the parents? Yes for sure.
16:06The evaluators are great at being rink side for the skills assessments as well as the free skate
16:11elements and I find that the evaluators will take the time at the end of each skater's assessment and
16:17review whether it was a pass or a retry and go into a conversation with them as to suggestions for
16:24even perhaps doing something better for the next level. I find that the feedback that they receive
16:31right at that moment is really good. Now that being said it's a little bit harder to get feedback
16:36at the exact same time that the test is finished if it's dance or free skate programs but the evaluators
16:42are very good about at the end of our test day making sure that they speak with the coaches and the
16:47skaters especially if there's anything that's alarming on the assessment sheet and sometimes they'll even
16:53just say you know I know that the skater also competes and the technical comments were really
16:59good and let's just work on the PCs and the feedback is wonderful and we as coaches and skaters and parents
17:06really appreciate that because the volunteers what they provide for the skaters and the coaches is just
17:14really appreciate it. So I'll give a little bit of background on what it takes to become an evaluator.
17:30I'm not sure that everybody knows what the training requirements are. We have an extensive training
17:36program for new evaluators. Judges who have received their senior level promotion they can then go on to become an evaluator.
17:46So even before starting their training for evaluating they probably have three to five years of judging experience.
17:53The actual training sessions for evaluating is about 20 hours and then they go on to do trial judging for
18:01practical experience. On average it takes about two years to receive the star six to gold evaluator promotion.
18:11The section really wants our evaluators to be experts to have in-depth knowledge of the assessment
18:18criteria the standards of development expected at each of the star levels and also to be adept at
18:25communicating with coaches and with skaters. We have only a small group of judges in the province who
18:34are also qualified as evaluators and I think you can tell it's a big commitment as a volunteer.
18:43Joanne, when you first told me about the training required I didn't realize all of the steps that they
18:50had to follow. I'm very well aware of what tech panel training is like but when it comes to evaluators for
18:56our assessment days I thought this is information that I think everybody needs to know because we
19:02really need to appreciate these volunteers and the time they're putting in to being trained to do this
19:07for these skaters. Yeah. Okay let's finish off to talk about the challenge assessments. This information
19:15is not in the resource guide the the assessment coordinator resource guide it's only on in the
19:22Skate Canada rulebook so the gold assessment gold challenge assessments are possible for free skate dance
19:32and artistic not for skills. For the gold free skate the star 10 elements and gold program must be taken on
19:40the same day. If either or both are not successful they then would be taken on a subsequent day. For star eight
19:51dances a candidate may try these dances without passing the previous dance levels. They must take all three
19:59star eight dances on the same assessment day and for gold dance two of the three star dances and two of the three gold
20:09dances must be taken on the initial assessment day. That's a lot and if any of the dances for both star eight and gold
20:18if any of the dances are not successful they all must be taken at a subsequent assessment day. And then for
20:26gold artistic the skater must have successfully completed another gold discipline or have star eight skills.
20:35Again as I said before there's no challenge assessment for skills. So that wraps up our presentation on
20:45logistics for your assessment days. If you have any questions please reach out to the email address.
20:52We're here for you as a resource and remember there is an archive video that I want to promote that
20:58Leslie and I did last year. We focused on assessment criteria and standards of development for each of the
21:05star levels. We talked a lot about different about common challenges that we see that result in a retry
21:13and of course lots of training tips from Leslie. So thank you very much for joining us. Goodbye.