British Ice Skating (formerly the National Ice Skating Association) is the national governing body of ice skating within the United Kingdom. Formed in 1879, it is responsible for overseeing all disciplines of ice skating: figure skating (singles, pairs and ice dance); synchronised skating; and speed skating (including short track).

History

On Saturday 1 February 1879 a number of prominent men of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire met in the Guildhall, Cambridge, to set up the National Skating Association with the aim of regulating the sport of fen skating. A Cambridge journalist, James Drake Digby, had thought that the Fen speed skaters were worthy of national recognition and he was also concerned that betting was leading to malpractice. He thought that skating needed a national organisation to control it, like the Jockey Club. The founding committee included several landowners, a vicar, a fellow of Trinity College, a magistrate, two members of parliament, the mayor of Cambridge, the Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, the president of Cambridge University Skating Club, and Neville Goodman, a graduate of Peterhouse, Cambridge. Even though the National Skating Association was formed to regulate speed skating, figure skaters began joining the organization within a year of its founding. The newly formed National Skating Association held their first one-and-a-half-mile British professional championship at Thorney in December 1879. There was a field of 32, including former champions Turkey Smart and Tom Watkinson. Fish Smart beat Knocker Carter in the final. His reward was a badge, a sash and a cash prize, given as an annual salary in instalments to encourage the champion to "keep himself temperate". The NSA also established an amateur championship, which was held for the first time at Welsh Harp, London, in January 1880, and won by Frederick Norman, a farmer’s son from Willingham. The professionals were labourers who skated for cash prizes; the amateurs were gentlemen who skated for trophies. In 1892 the NSA aided in the foundation of the International Skating Union (ISU). The NSA hosted the first international ice skating competition in Britain in Birmingham in 1899 and has hosted all events in the UK since in various locations. In 1894 the National Skating Association decided to move their headquarters from Cambridge to London, from where they concentrated on figure skaters and rinkmen. Their new base, the National Skating Palace, is now better known as the London Palladium. Until 1990, when an independent society was formed, the NSA was also the UK's governing body of roller skating. As a consequence of the segmentation, the NSA became NISA (National Ice Skating Association), the headquarters of which are now based in Nottingham. In November 2018, the National Ice Skating Association began rebranding as British Ice Skating.

Assessment

Complying to the purpose of the organisation, the BIS levels are used by instructors to grade learners of ice skating in the UK. There are various levels of student grades, as well as instructor grades.

Skate UK

These levels are generally taught in group classes, and are assessed by the instructors of these classes. The levels are as follows:

Skate UK Star Levels (formerly known as Passport)

These levels may be attempted once the Skate UK levels have been passed. Skate UK Star levels may be taken in any or all of singles skating (free), ice dance, speed skating or synchronised skating, although you must complete a level in a given discipline before moving onto the next level in that discipline. These levels as also assessed by the instructor, but will be expected to be of a higher standard than the same moves in the Skate UK system. The levels are as follows:

Singles Skating

Ice Dance

Synchronized Skating

Pairs Skating

Judged Levels

These levels either go from 1 to 10 or correspond to competition categories (Basic Novice, Intermediate Novice, etc.) and are assessed by at least one BIS qualified judge. Skaters must show proof that they have completed the Skate UK Star programme before being allowed to apply for the judged levels. Tests are available in each of the following disciplines – skaters may take tests in whichever disciplines they wish. Skaters do not need to complete the tests in every discipline before moving up to the next level, but cannot skip levels in any given discipline (i.e. must do Level 1 Field Moves before doing Level 2 Field Moves, but Level 1 Elements is not required to do Level 2 field moves). In summer 2020, BIS introduced new Interim Test Levels for Field Moves and Singles (Elements and Free) tests. The current levels will still be available for applications until 31st December 2020, after which time only the interim levels will be available.

Field Moves

Until beginning of January 2021

Interim Field Moves 2020

Elements

Until beginning of January 2021

Interim Elements 2020

Free programme

Until beginning of January 2021

Interim Free 2020

Compulsory Dance

It is not always clear which of the official tunes are needed for each dance, so these are shown in brackets where different from the dance name. Coaches will have copies of the official tunes which must be used for tests. Step patterns for many of the dances may be found Ice-Dance.com.

Variations

Original Dance

FreeDance

Events

A calendar of events that British Ice Skating will host and organise can be found here.