Editorial

"Coaches in southern China will have to focus more on connecting the skaters"


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Small but joyful circle. (Credits: Roy Ng - 2021)

Synchro teams in southern China are small and certainly need more skaters to execute synchro elements meaningfully. However, the new government decisions could give skating a boost.

It is early September which is a good time to showcase what skaters have learnt during long summer vacation. For this reason, the 2021 ISIAsia Shenzhen Figure Skating Open competitions took place on 11-12 September 2021 in an ice rink of a popular shopping mall in Shenzhen.

In the group skating event, there was one team of three skaters of about nine years old. They delivered a three-minute programme without fall.

As was already the case during the July 202110th Shenzhen Games (read about it here), the competitive teams in southern China are small and they certainly need more skaters before they will be able to meaningfully execute synchro elements.

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Let's spin round! (Credits: Roy Ng - 2021)

Understandably ISI group events do not have much synchro content, so if the teams intend to grow along this path, coaches will have to focus more on connecting the skaters and choreograph accordingly. 

At the moment, the teams we saw this time and in the 10th Shenzhen Games are best described as "collective single skating". Nevertheless, we should be glad that COVID did not prevent the competition from taking place, and spectators could see it live.

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The mainland China government has recently cracked down on school homework, after-school tutorial classes and computer & mobile games.

Will more parents allow their kids to develop an interest in sports as a result?  Will skating rinks successfully seize the opportunity to promote skating? At least we can hope that actual skaters can spend more time on ice if they wish. Who knows how many new skating teams may form arising from this policy change?

These questions remain open.

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