SynchroNice / Third Edition / 2018

HAVE YOU EVER ASKED YOURSELF WHY FOOTBALL IS SO POPULAR? 11 skaters and B Cat. 12-16 skaters?Would it not be more logical that, if there has to be a catgory without age limits and skaters of all levels skate together, that there’s a rule that such teams must have 16 skaters on ice? Why 8, 9, 10…? So that everyone gets to skate? YES and that is excactly the reason why more and more Mixed Age teams pop-up and are responsible for a quarter of all entries. They promote the sport but is it the right way? In my humble opinion, this is not the image of SYS as an ex- tremely demanding team sport that wants to be included at the Winter Olympics. Quite the contrary in fact. It would be difficult to convince me that it is positive for the image of the sport if 20-25 Mixed Age teams com- pete at the same competition as Paradise, Marigold Ice Unity, Les Supremes, Nexxice…the type of competition that has 80, 90 or 100 teams. I am also not in favor of the reduced number of skaters in younger categories (less than 16 on ice) because at those ages there are even more skaters than older categories (in skating as well as in other sports). They should skate, compete and create habits in a team of 16, it will be easier when they are older. Mixed Age teams and other non-ISU teams are finan- cially convenient for ISU competition OC’s. Ice rental, judges etc. are expensive and the main sources of in- come to cover those are entry fees and selling unofficial ice times. This is the reason why it is more important to have quantity instead of quality. The significant increase of non-ISU teams and non-ISU categories at the biggest ISU competitions will certainly increase the popularity of the sport among figure skat- ers who lack the ambition or potential for good results and skaters who started skating later in life but it will do nothing to boost the image of the sport as a serious competitive discipline nor will it help to get closer to inclusion in the Olympic Games. I also believe that one of the biggest problems in de- veloping this sport are the constant rule changes that even the top world coaches are struggling to cope with let alone coaches and teams that are new to this sport. That is one of the reasons why skaters give up early or at least “half way” and therewith abandon ambitious plans to skate at World Championships. They replace them with less serious training or recreational syn- chronized skating, enough to have fun at the Mixed Age competitions but nothing serious. I don’t want anyone to get an impression that I am against non-ISU categories or Mixed Age teams. I think that they add value to the synchro world and are the best proof of the number of girls who can’t or don’t want to train hard in the ISU categorized teams but still find pleasure in this demanding and beautiful sport, albeit without the extreme efforts and sacrifice. Numerous teams of younger non-ISU teams are further proof that very young children are falling in love with this sport assuring its great numbers in the future. However, if the ultimate goal is the Winter Olympic Games then we need to concentrate more on the or- ganization of work and competitions and the strategic issues of the development of this sport. I respect the experts in Synchronized Skating gathered in official committees (without them no sport can move forward) but I do believe that sometimes it would be useful to get opinions of people on the other side of the ice – those who have different opinions and attitudes than coaches, judges, technical controllers and specialists, current and former skaters. We are not concerned with what happens on the ice so we can better notice the important things (both positive and negative) that happen off the ice like logistics, organization, travels, competitions… If anyone had asked us, we would have never supported the cur- rent judging system (that replaced the almost forgotten 6,0 system) because it is important that the rules are clear and understandable to the audience so that the sport is more attractive to viewers, including the option to loudly approve and disapprove the judges’ decisions. Have you ever asked yourself why football is so popular? Did it ever occur to you that, among other things, it is because of the very easy and clear rules? Changes occur “once every half century” and the rules are so simple that the spectators get involved in disagreements on fouls, penalty-kicks, offside and so on…so simple that even a child could participate. Speaking of football, but other sports as well, they never have competitions where professionals and amateurs of all categories compete in the same tourna- ment. I am not suggesting that we have to or even could do the same; because there are far less of us and our facilities are hard to find and very expensive but I do, however, believe that we have to emulate more successful sports and adjust their organizational rules into our environment. ‘‘ SYNCHRO NICE 125