How to Learn the Basics of Figure Skating

Learn About the Different Competitions

• OK, so you are now a figure-skating maven. You know about the jumps, the spins, the structure of a competition and even a little history. But here's the biggest mystery: Which one of those Sunday-afternoon broadcasts should you watch?

  First off, there are two whole sets of competitions that never make it to television but are incredibly interesting:

  * Non-qualifying competitions, also called Club Competitions. These competitions happen throughout the year at rinks all over the country. They are called "non-qualifying" because winning one doesn't make you eligible to skate in another. It's a competition completely unto itself. Non-qualifying competitions bring in both little children experiencing their first competition and high-level athletes who wish to try out a new program without the pressure of an ABC Sports camera following their every move. Typically, these competitions are a great place to learn more about the grassroots side of the sport.

  * Qualifying competitions such as Regionals and Sectionals. At these events, skaters at all levels compete for the chance to go to the National Championships. In the United States, the country is divided into three Sections--East, Midwest and Pacific Coast--and each Section has three Regions. In the fall, skaters compete at Regionals. The top four in each Region move on to Sectionals, and the top four of each Section qualify to go on to Nationals. As you can imagine, just making it to the National Championships is a dream come true for most skaters, so there is a lot on the line at the smaller qualifying competitions. Like the non-qualifying competitions, Regionals and Sectionals are very inexpensive, so we highly recommend checking them out if you can. At these events, you get to mingle with the hardcore fans and the skaters' families.

  Elite Eligible skaters are exempt from qualifying for Nationals each year, so they spend their autumns competing in a series of competitions that pit them against the best skaters in the world. This series of competitions is called the Grand Prix, and it consists of six events held in North America, Europe and Asia. Since the top skaters in the world participate in the Grand Prix, fans see these events as an early peek into how the season will unfold.

  Every skating season ends with the World Championships, which take place in March or April. "Worlds" is the only event in which all of the top skaters from every country meet (Grand Prix events have much smaller fields, so only eight or 10 skaters meet up at each of those), and it is therefore seen as the world's top competition of the year.

  In addition to Non-Qualifying, Qualifying, National, World and Grand Prix events, there are also made-for-TV competitions designed to display the top talent in the country. The formats in these events--dubbed Pro/Ams because Eligible and Ineligible skaters are allowed to compete against each other--are always in flux. Sometimes there are team events in which skaters from different countries are pitted against each other; sometimes, it's boys against girls. Whatever the format, these events are seen as fun fluff, and they are one way in which Eligible skaters can earn money (not to mention get that all-important TV time).

  Finally, we would be remiss to neglect the top figure-skating competition in the world: the Winter Olympics. Every skater values an Olympic gold more than any other honor.