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About Synchro

Synchronized Skating, known as "Precision Skating" until 1998, is the youngest of the figure skating disciplines. Its roots are in Ann Arbour, Michigan, where Dr. Richard Porter created a team to perform at hockey game intermissions in 1956. The team was called the Hockettes, and they still have competitive teams today.

The sport has seen an elaborate evolution over the past fifty years. Synchro originated as a drill-team-like event, where teams essentially marched on the ice in various formations, while holding on to each other's shoulders. Unison, timing, precision, and synchronization have always been the fundamental underlying properties of synchro, and remain as such today. But the stiffness and marching has been replaced by incredible speed, complicated footwork sequences, and more creative formations. As well, exceptional skating ability is expected in all areas (many countries now require their team skaters to be accomplished individual skaters), including good edge quality and carriage in addition to the ability of skaters to be able to perform spins and single jumps.

The largest team size the sport has seen was 32 skaters on the ice at a time. In the mid-nineties, the maximum team size was reduced to 24 skaters, and in 1998 the ISU ruled that no more than 20 skaters could be on the ice during a performance. You will often see up to four people standing by the boards during a performance, with skates on, and dressed identical to the members on the ice. These skaters are "alternates," and are prepared to step in and take over any skaters' place in an emergency. They train equally as hard as the rest of the team, and many argue they have the most difficult job of all because they must be ready for any situation, and be prepared to skate any given position at a moments' notice.

As previously mentioned, spins and single jumps are now incorporated into synchro at many levels. This was not always the case. Still casually referred to as "highlighting" (although this terminology is often used incorrectly), jumps and spins were allowed for a period of time, banned, and then re-introduced to the sport just a few years ago. "Highlighting" is in fact illegal, and refers to the focus being placed on one or two skaters, thus detracting from the rest of the team. "Moves in Isolation" are legal, and refer to individual moves or elements performed by a few skaters to enhance the overall harmony and effect of the program. Moves in Isolation are often jumps, spins, dance lifts (in Senior), vaults, death spirals, or other pairs moves. At the Senior competitive level, teams are now required to perform synchronized spins in the short program portion of the competition.

Despite the changes the sport has seen over the years, synchro is still recognizable by the five basic elements: wheels, blocks, intersections, lines, and circles. The challenge today's coaches and choreographers are faced with, is how to make each of those elements "their own" in order to create a new and exciting image on the ice, and keep pushing the sport to its full potential. As synchro continues to evolve, and each World Championship (the first officially sanctioned WC was held in 2000) is more successful than the last, synchro skaters everywhere hope for the day that synchro evolves to the level where it has the honour of becoming part of the Olympic Winter Games.