> I wonder if you could put to rest some confusion which has been troubling us.
> For a 13 year old competing in the age category for Artistic Individual
> competition at Unicon X (i.e. not Junior Expert), is the time limit 2 or 3
> minutes or optional???
According to the IUF Rulebook:
http://www.unicycling.org/iuf/rulebook/iufrules/3artistc.html
Standard Skill is 3 minutes for all ages. Individual and Pairs Freestyle
non-expert is 2 minutes for 0-14, and 3 minutes for 15-up. Junior Expert (0-14)
gets 3 minutes, and Expert (any age) gets 4 minutes.
The amount of attention you pay to reading the rulebook should be in direct
proportion to the amount of time and effort you are applying to your competition
training. The more you know about the rules, the less surprises you will get at
competition time…
I’ve taken the liberty of sharing this answer with the unicycling newsgroup;
hope you don’t mind. Sometimes there is confusion between our various artistic
events, partly due to misuse of event names. Here’s some quick definitions for
anyone involved in IUF (or USA) competition:
ARTISTIC - This is a generic term for all events in the “trick riding”
arena. Standard Skill, Freestyle, Pairs, Groups, Individual, they are all
artistic events.
STANDARD SKILL - This is the correct name for the competition event that is
often referred to as “standard” or “standard artistic”. You choose your
skills (or figures) from a list and perform them in exact order, as perfectly
as possible.
FREESTYLE - This is a generic term for the “other” artistic events, not Standard
Skill (also not Compulsory, which we no longer use). Freestyle is half
performance, half skill display. Judging is 50% on difficulty and 50% on
presentation. Riders are allowed to use props, themes, costumes, and as much
creativity as possible.
INDIVIDUAL FREESTYLE - Freestyle for one rider. This is the correct full name.
PAIRS FREESTYLE - Freestyle for two riders. This is the correct full name.
GROUP FREESTYLE - Freestyle for three or more riders. This is the correct
full name.
CLUB SHOW - This event, used by the Unicycling Society of America, is a
variation on Group Freestyle designed for unicycle clubs to compete with each
other. Minimum five riders, and the club must be registered with USA Inc. IUF
does not have an equivalent.
RACING - All speed events, both on and off the track, plus the Slow races. We
also have more and more “Field” events, such as High Jump, Long Jump, Trials,
and others.
EVENT - This is a generic term for specific competitions. The 11-12 age group
100 meter race is an event. It might have multiple heats, but it’s all one
event. The whole 100m race can also be referred to as an event.
TRICK - An informal term for “skills” or “figures”, such as riding with one
foot. Some people don’t like this word as it’s associated with magic, or other
forms of fooling people.
SKILL - A more polite name for “trick”, but can be confused with the adjective
form of the word. For example, “He did that skill with great skill!” Trick
doesn’t get mixed up with other meanings.
FIGURE - Another name for a trick or skill, used in the Standard Skill event.
Each numbered “skill” on the list is called a figure. If it’s not on the list,
it ain’t a figure and you can’t get any points for it.
Here are some misused terms: STANDARD ARTISTIC - An inaccurate name for Standard
Skill. Standard Skill and all Freestyle events are “artistic”. STANDARD CLASS -
This was an old competition event used by USA, before Standard Skill. One rider,
one standard unicycle, no music or costume, just tricks being judged. The
difference is, this was subjective judging, where Standard Skill is objective.
Riders’ scores, in theory, can be compared with other riders at other
championships in other countries or years. INDIVIDUAL - Individual what? PAIRS
ARTISTIC - Should be Pairs Freestyle. CLUB FREESTYLE - No such animal. We call
it Club Show to keep it a clear difference from Group Freestyle.
Hope that was more than you wanted to know…
John Foss Chairman, IUF Rules Committee www.unicycling.com