Synchro for Beginners

[katz in boots]

I know there aren't that many synchro skaters here, but am hoping for some help from adult skaters who do some.

We have just started a small adult synchro team, at this stage 6 members which doesn't sound many, but it's a 1/4 size rink, so 16 would be unworkable. We don't have that many adult skaters either :lol:. It is a real range of skating abilities too, from almost total beginners who are yet to learn crossovers, through to Adult Silver level.

We don't have a coach either; tho there was one who did some synchro with younger skaters, she has left. Which means I ended up running our first session and I have never done synchro, so I don't have much of a clue. I did do marching though, which has some similarities (no, not batton twirling).

Apart from learning to skate together, stop together etc, I am wondering what skills we should work on, and whether there are resources that might help me when it comes to choreographing a program. (I live at the end of the world, there isn't any help here). I need help with arm holds, how to transition from a line to blocks, anything !!!!

I'm also wondering how a synchro practise is usually structured, what teams work on, how they warm up etc.

Methinks me bit off more than me can chew 8O

[aussieskater]

Katz, eat the elephant one bite at a time, and before you know it the elephant will be gone! (And you'll have indigestion, but let's not go there.) I can't help with choreo, but I can tell you what we work on.

First thing you need to work out is the aim of the group. I'm guessing Aussieskate, but not sure of the new levels (you'd have been level 1 development under the old system I think).

You're right - a 15x30m rink isn't going to allow much element development - circles, wheels and maybe intersections will all be fine, but lines and blocks will be beyond the space you have available, once you all get a handle on things. But this doesn't limit the skills the group can learn - stroking forward and back with good form, no toepicking, edges not flats, upright posture rather than broken at the waist etc.

Be aware that shoulder hold is not right to the shoulder - the hand on one side grasps the front of the next skater's upper arm below the armpit (the "front) arm), while the other hand grasps the back of the next skater's upper arm at about the bulge of the tricep (the "back" arm). You will need to make a decision right at the beginning as to which arm is always in front for every skater, and which is behind. It doesn't matter which but you need to be consistent and so does every skater. In our team it's "left in front and right behind" - eventually the arms come out in the correct orientation automatically, but this takes some time!

The other thing to watch for in shoulder hold is the tendency of the weaker skaters to "roll" the shoulder of their neighbour forward, by grasping their "behind" hand on top of their neighbour's shoulder/arm, rather than behind. This hurts (trust me!)

Given the wide range of abilities within the group, you'll need to spend quite a bit of time working on things like forward and back stroking in unison and holds (esp. shoulder and hand-to-hand hold as these are the basics.) Then chasses and fwd XOs/runs, again in hold. Then back XOs ditto. Put strong skaters at the beginning and end of the line, and if you have enough strong ones, put a strongish one in the middle - especially when it comes to back XOs, as it's easy to pick up speed and the weaker ones will need support. When doing back XOs in a line, put the strongest one at the tailing end - all the skaters will need to learn to track into the circle, but the end of a line is not the place to do it!

With 6 skaters, circles will be a little difficult only because of the dizziness factor, but if you can do it with 6 you can do it with more, so it's an advantage. The skaters will need to learn to not lean against the circle, and to not pitch at the waist, going forward or back, and to track inside the person in front ("front" being determined according to the direction the circle is spinning, not by whether the skaters are skating forward or backwards).

All this should be enough to keep you busy for a while :D. Once they have the hang of all that, you can start teaching them to travel the circle - but I strongly suspect this will be a fair way off.

[Isk8NYC]

I know you're not in the US, but the USFSA has some good info on startups for synchro:

Synchro: http://www.usfsa.org/Programs.asp?id=44

Synchro/Basic Skills: http://www.usfsa.org/Programs.asp?id=338
(This has the four Synchro LTS level tests - might be a good starting point.)

Coaches Info: http://www.usfsa.org/Programs.asp?id=309

Managing: http://www.usfsa.org/Programs.asp?id=52
(Includes a link to the "Guide to Starting and Managing a Team (http://www.usfsa.org/content/Starting%20&%20Managing%20a%20Team.pdf)" document)

Contacts: http://www.usfsa.org/Programs.asp?id=54


Our synchro teams start the early part of the season with off-ice, which is really just walking through the moves off-ice.
In years past, off-ice included a trainer (strength/conditioning), but this year that was dropped because of the cost.

For warmup, the coaches put on some upbeat music and everyone skates a five- or ten-minute stroking / power warmup individually, moving in an oval.
Then they form a line and practice stroking patterns forward and backward, sometimes with a step sequence including mohawks or three-turns.
During the practice, they work on new moves or steps, or just practice/critique/refine the routine during the on-ice time.
They don't really do a cool-down on the ice, which saves ice time. You have to remember to stretch and cool down off-ice instead of just leaving.

I've done several synchro programs in the past and the most frustrating part of practices for me is standing around on the ice while the PTB dither about the choreography. I have the patience of gnat and I just wanna skate. Give me three tries at something before you rule it a no-go. Be prepared with a lesson plan or the program divided into sections.

I was once in a pro number where the head coach was wonderful and had everything planned out beautifully. One of her over-qualified assistants kept trying to change the choreography in an aggressive manner. I was ready to tell him to shut up because he was so arrogant and rude. We stood around on the ice doing nothing, 25 of us, for 15 minutes while he carried on and argued with her about one stupid little element in the program. She dealt with it well, but that's the most aggravating thing to me - to get on the ice (which is expensive!) and waste time arguing / wondering about what to do next while your toes slowly lose all feeling.

On such a small piece of ice, I wonder if instead of synchro, a "Production" number might be better?

[Skate@Delaware]

On such a small piece of ice, I wonder if instead of synchro, a "Production" number might be better?

I was thinking the same thing, unless you wanted to have something more of a "team" like synchro. For production numbers, you can do synchro-style moves.

We did a synchro number on our summer (plastic) ice...which was interesting having 15 skaters on a 20x30 surface! Movements were tight-not big. We had to be careful with all the skaters there is a tendency to run into each other.

I don't think you will have that problem, you can do lines, 2 groups of 3-pinwheels and all sorts of synchronized movements.

On our synchro team (I'm going back about 5 years) we had about 12 and spent the first half of the session on regular skills-moves, edges, 3-turns, stroking, crossovers, etc just to build up the weaker skaters. Then we worked on 1-2 elements of synchro, which was usually trying to get a line even and everyone stopping at the same time LOL!

I'm sure you will have tons of fun with it-we did.

[fsk8r]

Just practicing having a line going up and down the ice with edges and keeping in time with one another is pretty tricky to keep it straight. And that can easily be repeated with two lines to start moving towards a block (if there's 6 of you 2 lines of 3). As you say standards vary widely stick to what the weakest can do to start with (chasses and not crossovers) and progress up from there. A lot of weak skaters pluck up the courage to try things in hold that they won't do out of it.

But I wouldn't go with the advice of putting strong skaters into certain positions, it makes choreographing a program difficult, and ultimately the team is only as strong as it's weakest skater and you can't hide them. However, if someone really isn't confident being on the end and is able to skate better in the middle, then for beginning drills it's worth doing, but ultimately everyone needs to learn how to handle being an end and being a middle.

[aussieskater]

But I wouldn't go with the advice of putting strong skaters into certain positions, it makes choreographing a program difficult, and ultimately the team is only as strong as it's weakest skater and you can't hide them. However, if someone really isn't confident being on the end and is able to skate better in the middle, then for beginning drills it's worth doing, but ultimately everyone needs to learn how to handle being an end and being a middle.

I agree with you - I was really thinking of positioning stronger skaters for the drills, just to get the weaker skaters started.

[LilJen]

I've done several synchro programs in the past and the most frustrating part of practices for me is standing around on the ice while the PTB dither about the choreography. I have the patience of gnat and I just wanna skate. Give me three tries at something before you rule it a no-go. Be prepared with a lesson plan or the program divided into sections.
THIS!! I hate wasting expensive time and getting cold and my feet getting numb because the coach/choreographer hasn't bothered to figure things out ahead of time. Now, I'll grant you that sometimes what you have planned in your head just doesn't end up working on the ice, but if you come with NOTHING planned. . .

If you can find anyone to do a short group lesson for you guys. When I first did synchro, I kept hearing these weird terms like "guide" (which means everyone looking in the same direction/looking down the length of a line to keep it straight). Everyone else seemed to know what this meant but I didn't. It helped immensely for me to speak up and admit I was clueless, and a few friendly people helped teach me what I call the "super secret synchro handhold" :lol:

Synchro is such a different beast, and if you guys can learn some basics like guiding and how it works, handholds, pulling/leaning in the most advantageous ways (and NOT in bad ways), being in the middle of a pinwheel versus on an end, you'll be in great shape. (Not that any of it is easy to do!! We also have an adult team made up of a VERY wide range of abilities--from barely able to skate to former senior-level competitors.) Are there any coaches at your rink or a nearby rink who could give you some tips?

[katz in boots]

Cool, thanks for the tips so far, feel free to add to these.

I have so much to learn, and I quite agree with the thing about not standing around while someone works out choreo or what to do next, so it's important to me to have some plan for the practice session. I don't want the less-experienced skaters to feel disheartened, but I don't want the more advanced skaters to get bored either.

Our rink is 30m x 18m approx, by the way, so really quite small! A wheel of more than 6 could be a problem.

We actually did pretty well staying in a line, for a 1st session. Stopping in a straight line is proving more of a challenge. I did some work on peripheral vision, being aware of the whole line while looking straight ahead, and it worked pretty well.

[RachelSk8er]

I've done lots o'synchro (competed through senior, plus collegiate and adult here in the US, coached collegiate and open junior).

First, you may get more concrete ideas from www.synchroboards.com (another forum), another member on here and I are actually 2 of the mods. I *think* we still have an Aussie forum (may not get a lot of traffic), one of the admins of the site skated senior in Australia I could put you in touch with her outside of there if you PM me, she's on facebook (I believe she's in the US right now). She may know people there to put you in contact with.

On all the teams I've skated on and coached, we always started with stroking, and moved on to team and individual skills (Annie's Edges was always popular) and drills before getting to our program. The bulk of practice time, particularly during the regular season, is spent on the team's program(s).

[Ivana27]

I've competed for two seasons with an Open Adult team in the US. You have been given a lot of good advice already.

My team usually has one hour of off-ice practice followed by one hour of on-ice. We practice once a week.

During off-ice we walk through choreography, formations, and hand/shoulder holds off-ice first. The last 15-20 minutes of the off-ice is used for an aerobic warm-up and stretching.

On-ice we continue with warm-up through different crossover drills, and sometimes incorporate moves in the field elements too. At the beginning of the season the focus is more on making sure everyone understands the elements and learning the choreography. Later in the season, or as we get closer to a competition then sometimes we skip the on-ice warm-up and jump straight into working on the program.


Do you all have the opportunity to compete or perform the program in a show? Definitely start small with your goals and continue to build each following season. My team's first season we just did one show and one competition. The next season we did one show and two competitions. I have heard that next season it might be one show and three competitions!

Good luck, and have lots of fun! I had never done synchro prior to joining this team, and now I love it!

[LilJen]

We actually did pretty well staying in a line, for a 1st session. Stopping in a straight line is proving more of a challenge. I did some work on peripheral vision, being aware of the whole line while looking straight ahead, and it worked pretty well.

This is why you almost never look straight ahead. What I was taught was the default is to always look left--that's "guiding." You should see, really, only the ear of the person next to you if your line is straight (the person on the end of the line can look straight ahead, though); if the line's not straight, with everyone looking to one side, that gives everyone enough information to make the needed adjustments.

[RachelSk8er]

This is why you almost never look straight ahead. What I was taught was the default is to always look left--that's "guiding." You should see, really, only the ear of the person next to you if your line is straight (the person on the end of the line can look straight ahead, though); if the line's not straight, with everyone looking to one side, that gives everyone enough information to make the needed adjustments.

You usually look in the direction that you're skating. So if you are doing a line across the short axis heading straight down the rink, do a forward crossover to the left, you look to the left. If you do a forward crossover to the right, you look to the right. Heading down the ice, you generally always look down the line. Eventually with enough experience, you also know when a line is straight by how it feels.

I wonder if maybe fininding some videos online of open adult teams in the US would help--you could watch and see what they do in terms of the elements in their program, the steps they do, where their heads are looking, etc. It sounds like you're similar to adult open (8-12 skaters, majority must be 18+ [or maybe it's 19, not sure], skating levels are varied from one team to the next and even among skaters on each team). Or our masters teams, especially those in the middle of the pack (masters is majority of the skaters 35+, they have more skaters, 12-20 per team).

[LilJen]

Right, Rachel has clarified my statement about guiding--generally, yes, you look in the direction you're skating; or a default of left if you're skating forward (this may vary across teams or levels; I've only ever been on fairly low-level ISI teams!). Or, if, say, you're doing a four-spoke, everyone would look towards the center (again, you should see the ear of the person you're looking at, ideally) to keep those lines straight and the angles of all four lines correct (from above would look like a + rather than x or some wiggly group of four random worms connected at a single point. Not that I'd know anything about that last configuration. . . ).

I second the recommendation to watch videos of other teams of all levels. If you have an IceNetwork subscription you can see World and Nationals competitions, and you can always find stuff on YouTube as well.

[katz in boots]

I had a good look at all those links, however nothing is helping with how different arm holds work, how to transition from lines to blocks etc.

Boy, I am hoping someone else decides they want to become the expert in all this 8O

[fsk8r]

I had a good look at all those links, however nothing is helping with how different arm holds work, how to transition from lines to blocks etc.

Boy, I am hoping someone else decides they want to become the expert in all this 8O

A lot of the synchro clubs and teams have basic guides to the elements and holds. Here's one I found on a quick search of the web:
http://storm.ca/~icestars/elements2.htm

There's some debate as to whether it's left or right arm in front in shoulder hold, so pick one and stick to it. This rule is then applied when you slide down the arm to elbow or wrist hold.

There's a secret synchro hand hold (which I'm not sure if just my club), but simple holding hands should suffice until someone can explain the secret hand hold. This is then used for hand hold, basketweave and catch (which the website is calling mock basketweave).

And you can make up any other hand holds you like. No hold is also possible for all the elements.

If you're worrying about space on the rink for wheels, basketweave keeps the skaters really close as you're not holding the person next to you, but the person one down from them.

With regards to transitions from lines to blocks and back again, it's normally a matter of keeping as many skaters together as possible and getting into the new formation quickly/neatly.
PM me and I'll send you the youtube link to my team. We don't do anything too fancy for our transitions and are quite a low level adult team.