We define two metrics d1,α and d∞,α on each Schreier family Sα, α < ω1, with which we prove the following metric characterization of reflexivity of a Banach space X: X is reflexive if and only if there is an α < ω1, so that there is no mapping Φ : Sα → X for which cd∞,α(A, B) ≤ Φ(A) − Φ(B) ≤ Cd1,α(A, B) for all A, B ∈ Sα.Secondly, we prove for separable and reflexive Banach spaces X, and certain countable ordinals α that max(Sz(X), Sz(X * )) ≤ α if and only if (Sα, d1,α) does not bi-Lipschitzly embed into X. Here Sz(Y ) denotes the Szlenk index of a Banach space Y .Contents Ostrovskii's [28, Theorem 1.2] which states that a locally finite metric space A embeds bi-Lipschitzly into a Banach space X if all of its finite subsets uniformly bi-Lipschitzly embed into X. In [18] Johnson and Schechtman characterized superflexivity, using the Diamond Graphs, D n , n ∈ N, and proved that Banach space X is super reflexive if and only if the D n , n ∈ N, do not uniformly bi-Lipschitzly embed into X. There are several other local properties, i.e., properties of the finite dimensional subspaces of Banach spaces, for which metric characterizations were found. The following are some examples: Bourgain, Milman and Wolfson [12] characterized having non trivial type using Hammond cubes (the sets B n , together with the ℓ 1 -norm), and Mendel and Naor [21,22] present metric characterizations of Banach spaces with type p, 1 < p ≤ 2, and cotype q, 2 ≤ q < ∞. For a more extensive account on the Ribe program we would like refer the reader to the survey articles [6,23] and the book [29].Instead of only asking for metric characterizations of local properties, one can also ask for metric characterizations of other properties of Banach space, properties which might not be determined by the finite dimensional subspaces. A result in this direction was obtained by Baudier, Kalton and Lancien in [9]. They showed that a reflexive Banach space X has a renorming, which is asymptoticaly uniformly convex (AUC) and asymptoticaly uniformly smooth (AUS), if and only if the countably branching trees of length n ∈ N, T n do not uniformly bi-Lipschitzly into X. Here T n = n k=0 N k , together with the graph metric, i.e., d(a, b) = i+j −max{t ≥ 0 : a s = b s , s = 1, 2 . . . t}, for a = (a 1 , a 2 , . . . a i ) = b = (b 1 , b 2 , . . . b j ) in T n . Among the many equivalent conditions for a reflexive Banach space X to be (AUC)and (AUS)-renormable (see [25]) one of them states that Sz(X) = Sz(X * ) = ω, where Sz(Z) denotes the Szlenk index of a Banach space Z (see Section 5 for the definition and properties of the Szlenk index). In [13] Dilworth, Kutzarova, Lancien and Randrianarivony, showed that a separable Banach space X is reflexive and (AUC)-and (AUS)-renormable if and only X admits an equivalent norm for which X has Rolewicz's β-property. According to [20] a Corollary 1.2. Assume that ω < α < ω 1 is an ordinal for which ω α = α. Then the following statements are equivalent for a separable and reflexive space X a) max(Sz(X), Sz(X * )) ≤ α, b) (S α , d...