6.0 Figure Skating Judging System

Contrary to what some may believe the 6.0 system is still in use at many United States figure skating events. Some competitions will sometimes use the 6.0 judging system through the Juvenile level and the ISU system for Intermediate and higher.

The following is a simple explanation of the 6.0 system. The 6.0 system is a majority system, which is unique to skating. Each event is judged by an odd number of judges, typically five or seven. The skater who gets first is the person given first place by the majority of the judges. There are two marks in the freestyle program technical merit and presentation. The two marks in the short program are required elements and presentation. As you might guess the markes for each program go from 0.0 to 6.0. Basic Skills differ slighting in that many of them will use the 6.0 judging system but only use a range of one. Such as 2.0-3.0. For each category technical merit or required elements and presentation a judge will give the skater a mark between 0.0 and 6.0. These marks are added together and used to determine a ordinal or place.

Required and technical marks are a judge’s scoring of the level and quality of elements skated such as spins, jumps, footwork and spiral sequences. The presentation mark is a judge’s assessment of the whole program. Basically anything that is not an element such as choreography and interpretation of the music.

0 – not skated
1 – very poor
2 – poor
3 – okay
4 – good
5 – very good
6 – flawless

As noted above first place is pretty straightforward. Whoever gets a majority of “1′s” wins. Now remove this skater from your mind when determining the other places. Now anyone who has a first place ordinal, the 1 becomes a 2. Then you find the skater with a majority of “2′s” (anyone else who has a first or second place ordinal). That skater gets second place. Now anyone left who has a first, second, or third place ordinal is counted as a three. This process gets repeated for all the skaters.

Today on Rinkformation:

IceCoach.net: 6.0 Figure Skating Judging System

IceMom.net: What Parents Can Learn from Figure Skating Coaches: Demonstrate

Now of course it can get a little more complicated with ties but this is the basic concept of the 6.0 judginig system and will help you better understand the ordinals of your skater. Contryary to the IJS you will not actually see the technical or presentation marks given by the judges, only the final ordinal.

Do your area competitions still use the 6.0 competitions, IJS or a combination of both?

Do you have a question for Ice Coach? Do you have a suggestion for a blog post you’d like to read? E-mail me! IceCoach@IceCoach.net

Photo credits:
Phone-pad.jpg: wax115 on MorgueFile.com
number 6: jontintinjordan / jon jordan on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Nature’s Number 6: CarbonNYC / David Goehring on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Eel Pond Buoy Number Six (Woods Hole, MA): takomabibelot on Flickr.com Creative Commons

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Anonymous

Our area uses a combination of 6.0 for Non Qualifying and IJS for Qualifying levels. However I did notice this year at some other local competitions, the IJS was offered for Pre-Juvenile level.

At Regionals this year even more levels had the option of using IJS. I think it might have even been at the Preliminary level?! (if I am remembering correctly).
Anonymous

Wow IJS at Preliminary, IJS is expanding. Eventually I think the 6.0 system will be thing of the past, but it will take a long way to get there. Our area does a combination of 6.0 and IJS as well.
5strides

In the non-qual part of the regionals this year the same skater would get first place from one judge and ninth from another, or first and sixth and so on. This seems to happen quite often. How is that possible?
Anonymous

If they were using the 6.0 judging system it is very subjective to each judges personal opinion on how something was executed and their memory of what happened. I know I have the memory of a nat, so to remember how the first skater did when the ninth one is skating is tough. Yes they have sheets to write notes on, but still. Hence the whole transition into the IJS system.
Anonymous

We had IJS at regionals this year, even at non test.Its good for all levels, as it really tells you what you need to work on.Its a bit modified below juv ie no levels but postive Goe. My son recieved a + 1 on his back camel grab foot at prelim level, and it showed him his double sal needs work:}