Freeskating Singles Skater (from USARS Website)[1]
Freeskating takes its name because of the freedom of style, content and music skaters have in this skating discipline. The basic movements in a freeskating program consist of jumps, spins and footwork. Also, variety moves, such as spirals, pivots, eagles and points, can be added to routines.[2]
Judging[]
In the judging of freeskating, there are two sets of scores given: one for technical merit and the other artistic impression. Technical merit refers to the content performed in the program, taking into consideration the difficulty and variety of the content, and the harmonious composition of the content within the program. Artistic impression is the manner in which the content is performed, taking into consideration the sureness of execution, carriage of the body (posture), and the rhythm and timing of the steps and content to the music.[2]
The four main judging points for freeskating are technical execution, falls, cheats and balance. Technical execution refers to the accurate execution of prescribed movements. A fall results in a penalization to both the technical merit and artistic impression scores. Cheats are when a skater performs an item that does not conform to its textbook definition, which also results in a penalization to both scores. Examples of a cheated item are a jump with insufficient rotation, a pulled take-off or landing, or a spin using the toe stop to compensate for the skater's unbalance. Balance refers to how well balanced a routine is in covering all the possible variety in content, usage of floor, edges in footwork and spins, etc.[2]