Synchronized skating
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Synchronized skating or synchronised skating, a large and fast-growing discipline, consists of 8—20 (the number of skaters on a team often depends on the level) athletes skating on ice at one time moving as one flowing unit at high speeds [1]. This discipline of figure skating was originally called precision skating in North America because of the emphasis on maintaining precise formations and timing of the group.
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[edit] Details
For a synchronized team to flow in unison, individual skaters must be competent at a variety of skating skills, including speed, footwork and ice presence. The team performs a program set to music, with required formations including circles, lines, blocks, wheels, and intersections. The teams are required to perform step sequences involving a number of various turns such as twizzles, counters and rockers and simpler turns like three-turns, mohawks and choctaws. In Junior and Senior divisions, teams are required to perform two different routines: a short program and a free skating program. Generally, the short program is more technical in nature, where the free skating is longer and provides an opportunity to showcase expression, emotion and interpretation. Teams in the senior division are also permitted to perform lifts in the free skating program including pair lifts where the lifted skater may not be lifted overhead, as well as group lifts consisting of three or more skaters which can be extended overhead to full arm height in a variety of positions.
A synchronized routine may consist of straight line sequences, wheels, blocks, circle step sequences, or also moves in isolation. Moves in isolation are when one or more skaters separates from the rest of the group and performs freestyle type moves. For example, three skaters may separate and go into sit spins, while the rest of the team is in a circle formation. The three skaters will then join the group again and carry on with the routine. Junior and Senior programs also include moves in the fields where the whole team does moves such as spirals, spread eagles or ina bauers connected.
[edit] Competitions
There are international synchronized skating competitions at the novice, junior, and senior levels (with senior being the most elite). The International Skating Union held the first official World Synchronized Skating Championships in 2000 in Minneapolis, MN, USA, in which the strongest senior teams from across the globe gather to determine which is the world's best. Although in 1996 the first "World Challenge Cup" was held in Boston, MA, USA, it was unofficially the first competition to crown the world champion of synchronized skating (Team Surprise of Sweden). The top junior teams from around the world compete against one another in the World Challenge Cup for Juniors (WCCJ), held in a different location every year. Recently the top novice teams in the world have had an opportunity to compete against one another with the Leon Lurje Trophy which was held for the first time in the 2006-2007 season.
In the United States and Canada, there are several other recognized age and skill levels which are Beginner, Pre-Juvenile, Preliminary, Open Juvenile, Open Junior, Open Collegiate, and Open Adult (the non-qualifying divisions/ the divisions that cannot go to nationals) and Juvenile, Intermediate, Novice, Junior, Senior, Collegiate, Adult, and Masters (qualifying levels). These are the divisions for USFS, or United States Figure Skating.
ISI (Ice Skating Institute) is another division that focuses on a more recreational form of competition. Teams can compete in the Tot, Youth, Jr. Youth, Teen, or Adult divisions as either synchro or formation teams, formation being the easier of the two since skaters are not allowed to pick up their feet while going backwards.
While most skaters participating in "synchro" are female, the rules allow mixed-gender teams.
[edit] History
The first synchronized skating team was formed by Dr. Richard Porter, who became known as the 'father of synchronized skating'. The 'Hockettes' skated out of Ann Arbor, Michigan and entertained spectators during the intermissions of the University of Michigan Men’s Hockey Team. In the early days, precision skating (as it was then called) resembled a drill team routine, or a precision dance company such as The Rockettes.
During the 1970’s, the interest for this new sport spawned tremendous growth and development. As each season passed, more and more teams were developing more creative and innovative routines incorporating stronger basic skating skills, new maneuvers and more sophisticated transitions with greater speed, style and agility. Due to the enormous interest in the sport in North America, the first official international competition was held between Canadian and American teams in Michigan in March 1976. With the internationalization of the sport, it has evolved rapidly, with increasing emphasis on speed and skating skills, and "highlight" elements such as jumps, spirals, spins, and lifts that originally were not permitted in competition.
[edit] Present day
At the senior level, the top positions at the World Championships have been overwhelmingly dominated by Sweden and Finland — as of 2000, the Swedish Team Surprise has won the competition five times (2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007) placing in the top three every year, the Finnish Marigold IceUnity three times (2002, 2004, 2006), the Finnish Rockettes once in 2008 and the Canadian NEXXICE once in 2009.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Other top teams include the United States' Haydenettes, the Finnish Team Unique with silver in 2009, placing in the top six four times, Les Suprêmes of Canada with third place in 2003 in and the United States' Miami University with one silver in 2007.
Although not currently an Olympic sport, fans and participants of this fast-growing discipline have begun to strive for recognition by the rest of the skating and athletic world. In 2007 synchronized skating took one step closer to Olympic contention when it was selected to be part of the Universiade or World University Games as a demonstration sport. Countries from around the world competed in Turin, Italy with Sweden, Finland, and Russia coming out on top.
Synchronized skating has been covered by Skating magazine since the sport's inception, is a varsity sport at several colleges such as Miami University (and many more are developing club-level collegiate teams without varsity status), and has already been reviewed for Olympic eligibility. Miami University has been a trailblazer in collegiate synchronized skating, fielding the first completely funded varsity synchronized skating program in the United States, as well as their coach Vicki Korn working towards gaining "synchro" NCAA status in the United States.
[edit] Judging
Synchronized skating competitions, like those in other disciplines of figure skating, are now judged using the ISU Judging System that was introduced in 2004. Each element is assigned a difficulty level by the technical panel made-up of a technical specialist, assistant technical specialist and a technical controller. Each level of difficulty for a particular element corresponds to a base value.Each element has a pre-determined base value. The base value is the amount of points that are awarded for an executed element before the grade of execution or any deductions are applied. The base value for every element can be found on the ISU website under ISU Communication 1532, Appendix D. Judges assign a grade of execution from -3 to +3 to each of the elements. Each grade of execution, or GOE, corresponds to a point value. For each element, the highest and lowest GOE values are dropped, and the rest are averaged then added to the base value. The sum of all the scores of the elements comprises the Technical Elements score.
A series of five categories comprises the Program Components score. The Program Component score includes categories of: skating skills, transitions, performance/execution, choreography, and interpretation. Each judge gives a mark for each component, then a trimmed mean is calculated by dropping the highest and lowest score and averaging the remaining scores. The panel’s points for each program component are then multiplied by a factor: .8 for the short program, 1.6 for the junior, senior and collegiate free skate and 1.0 for intermediate, novice and adult. The factored results are rounded to two decimal places and added. The sum is the Program Components Score.
The Technical Elements and Program Components scores are then added to form the total segment score. The team with the highest total segment wins the competition. For junior and senior teams with two programs, the scores of both programs are added together, with the highest score being the winner of the competition.
In the event of a tie, the team with the highest free program score will win the competition.
[edit] References
- ^ 2000 World Championships results
- ^ 2001 World Championships results
- ^ 2002 World Championships results
- ^ 2003 World Championships results
- ^ 2004 World Championships results
- ^ 2005 World Championships results
- ^ 2006 World Championships results
- ^ 2007 World Championships results
- ^ 2008 World Championships results
- ^ 2009 World Championships results
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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