What is Precision Skating?

Precision team skating originated in Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA) in 1956 and has gone from strength to strength ever since. The competitions took place around 1960 in the USA and the first international competition took place in 1976 between American and Canadian teams. The first national championships were the Canadians in 1992 and the first British Championships took place in 1992 after precision skating was introduced here in 1989.

Precision skating involves teams of 12 to 24 team members (which can include both males and females in any ratio) skating together in unison, executing various manoeuvres. Teams are categorised according to the age of the skaters. Although in some countries there are many more categories in order to cope with the vast numbers of skaters there are four main age categories: novice (under 15), junior (age 12-19), senior (over 12) and adult (over 21 and at least 25% must be aged over 25). In the two age categories officially recognised by the ISU (International Skating Union) teams are required to skate two programmes; a short (or technical) programme lasting 2:40 minutes and also a long (or free) programme lasting 4 minutes for junior teams and 4:30 minutes for senior teams.All other teams are only required to skate a long programme (lasting 3:30 minutes for novice and adult teams) The short programme consists of 5 required elements: block, circle, straight line, intersecting maneouvre and wheel. The music for the long programme must include 3 distinct rhythms/styles but teams are free to include whichever moves they want.

Peculiar to precision skating is the fact that the judges sit above the ice surface so that they can clearly see the whole team at all times As in other skating disciplines each team is given two marks out of 6.0 by each judge. The first is for the technical side of the programme and takes into account: speed; types of maneouvres being skated and their quality (eg. roundness of circles, straightness of lines); quality and difficulty of footwork; type and quality of handholds and cleanness of edges. The second mark is given for presentation and takes into account: composition of the programme; speed; utilisation of the ice surface; originality; expression of the character of the music; difficulty of the transitions (how you get from one 'shape' to the next) and most importantly the unison and synchronisation of the team.