Say,when you FIRST became a Synchronized Skater...what level Team did you start out on?

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FSWer

I'm on an Open Adult team. It's the first and only team I've ever been on. We'll probably always stay that level, because all our team members would have to pass tests in order for us to move up. I'm an advanced enough skater to skate on a higher level team, but I'd have to go out of town to find one, and then I wouldn't be able to skate with my friends on my current team.

The level you start at kind of depends on what level of skater you are. If you have passed high enough tests, you could be on a higher level team, even if you've never done synchro before.

So if your an Intermediate Freestyle. You would be an Intermedite Synchro.,right?

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FSWer

http://usfsa.winnercomm.com/Shell.as...d=44&sid=20401

Not necessarily. Remember that synchro levels have age requirements as well as test requirements, and that the test requirements only refer to Moves in the Field tests. It doesn't matter what Free Skate level you might be. If I did this right, the link above should take you to the definitions of the different team levels.

Let's imagine a skater who has passed the Intermediate Moves test. They might be on an Intermediate synchro team if they're under age 18, because all they needed test-wise was the pre-juvenile MIF test and they've passed higher than that. They could be on a team as high as Junior if they also met the age requirements of being at least 12 and under age 19. If they're under age 12, they could be on a Novice team, but not higher because of the age requirements. If they were 19 or older, they could be on a Collegiate or Open Collegiate team if they were in college. Otherwise they'd have to be on an Open Adult team because they're not old enough for Adult or Masters and haven't tested high enough for Senior. Oh - they could also be Open Junior as long as most of the rest of the team was under age 19.

It gets kind of complicated, doesn't it?

The only team I've skated on was an Open Adult team.

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Jessica

http://ilove2skate.livejournal.com/

http://www.myspace.com/sk8fabulous

2 years on my University's open collegiate team, but now I am graduating, so I'm no longer eligible to skate on it. The other two teams we have...well, I am too high level-wise for the one and the other I am too old for, LOL!

LOL, it sure does. Why do they even NEED to use age limits? Remember..........it's not size...........it's know how.

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FSWer

Well, size does matter in synchro to some extent. It's very difficult to do some of the holds if the person next to you is a lot taller or shorter than you are. So you really wouldn't want to mix children and adults on the same team. It's also helpful if the skaters are pretty well matched in terms of strength, which is why there are test requirements, but age is a factor there, too. For instance, I have passed the regular Pre-Juvenile MIF test. That means if there was no age limit, I could qualify for an Intermediate team. But I'm nearly 50 years old - there's no way I can skate as fast as kids under age 18 who have passed that same test.

Size, mabe. But I'm confused. Why an age limit? You can't GO by that all the time. Some people are small or big for their age.

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FSWer