(Credits: Janne Koistinen - Archives 2018)

"On a technicality..." is a new series that looks at the technical panel and what's behind the points' protocols. Tony Kraehenbuehl, Technical Controller, is back with a new column.

As promised, more is on the way! Hopefully you got some more insights after our last article about the most frequent technical mistakes.

With the competition season now well underway, you might have been some of the lucky few who got to compete after what might have been the two most difficult years of our sport. And hopefully you got to take a look at the protocol that came out with a newly born curiosity.

Although understanding technical levels requires some formal education about it (yes, you don’t get to judge the world champions by just looking at YouTube videos), having an idea of what may or may not impact your technical score is a basic requirement of competitive skating. Not only will it impact the way, as a coach, you build your programs, but even as a skater, the way you train! 

What should I be careful about in an intersection? What should I pay attention in a Pair Element? These are essentials to progress and develop.

On that note, here is part 2 of the biggest technical errors.

What a way to open the list! The much-dreaded Twizzle Element… Introduced to synchro skaters a couple of years back from Ice Dance to help them develop this basic turn, it wasn’t exactly met with the enthusiasm one should have when introducing new things.

Apart from the execution errors we mentioned in the previous article, which mostly have to do with what happens with the blades, the Twizzle Element must contain features like arms position, leg positions, and jumps to make them more difficult.

And because synchronized skating was called precision skating up until the 90’s for a reason, even those features have specific requirements. Legs should be extended to 45° if using that feature, arms should be fully extended in front of you, and the exit edge of your dance jump right before going into the twizzle should be the entry edge of your twizzle.

Unless those criteria are met, we cannot count the feature, therefore downgrading your level.

If you’re reading this as a spectator, you will probably remember this element as the 10 seconds of the program where you’re holding your breath and risking fainting. You cannot help but watch those two lines approach and wonder who will trip over. This fear is probably why that intersection represents the highest level (level 4), because it is incredibly difficult to get it right.

There are probably two things that you should look out for if you’re ever going to try it. The corridor between the two lines should be no wider than 3m when the first skaters of each line begin to overlap and from that moment on, both lines should continuously reduce that corridor, thus making them intersect diagonally.

What we often see is that each line is gliding parallel to the other but not reducing the corridor before they’re face to face, making them intersect in a straight line forward.

This is a hard one. Move Elements are basically made up of two things: features and additional features.

But "what are those?", I hear you.

Features are things you do, like changing position, passing through or making the entry difficult, to make the whole Element more difficult.

Additional features are things you add that are only applicable to that Element. Here for example the additional feature is called "Free Skating Move" or "fm's" as we like to call it (spirals, spread eagles, Ina Bauer, etc). In the No Hold Element, it is the step sequence.

As such, the technical panel will evaluate both the features that will determine the level of the Element and the additional feature that will determine the fm level.

The intricacy of this element is that these two are interdependent, meaning that the quality of your spiral will determine if we can count the change of position for example. Indeed, if your leg is going slightly down while you’re passing under the leg of your neighbour, so much so that the position of the spiral is not attained for a moment, we have to drop the change of position and your element will lose a level. Same mistake if while intersecting in a spread eagle, your spread eagle is gliding on a flat edge. Positions and edges of fm’s MUST be maintained before, during and after the feature you chose to execute.

A special shout out to another common mistake, but this time that can get you a 1.5 point deduction. Excessive use of ice. Need I remind you that you’re only allowed to use 30m for the whole Element? Well, that’s done now.

Last but not least, and as inspiring as it can be when we see these skaters flying over the ice in those Death Spirals, they have requirements as well.

One being that the head of the skater that’s in the Death Spiral position must be below the knee of the skater that’s holding them. But we’re nice, so it will take two heads above the knee for us to take one level off your element.

Not to forget that you’re required to pivot at least 360° in the correct position, so we will start counting the 360° once the last skater is in the correct position. Oh and yes, we saw your butt touch the ice before going up, so that’s one fall ;-)

Feeling overwhelmed yet? Well, that’s normal. It is unarguably difficult to understand, and even if you managed to do so for a season, the feeling of achievement will be short-lived, because it will most likely change again for the next season.

Far from aiming at making the reader an amateur technical specialist, the goal of this series is merely to create a sensitivity so that you’re a little bit more aware of what you need to be careful about and to awaken your sense of curiosity. Because as difficult as it is, training effectively is also rewarding both as a coach and as a skater, and concentrating on the wrong things will not increase your technical score and you will come up to me years after years with the same questions. So consider this my gift of independence to you! 

You’re welcome.

Texts: Tony Kraehenbuehl - Technical Controller for Synchronized Skating