Why Not Synchro?

I joined my area synchro team sort of late in the game. It was just two years ago that I joined and I had already been skating for nearly 10 years. It was sort of odd for me, to try to balance both the singles skating competitive world with the synchronized skating world since it's rare for skaters to do both. What I learned, and what synchro has taught me has changed my perspective on skating forever.

I started initially because my singles competitive career was not going so well. I was getting tired of the constant pressure, the anxiety, the let downs, and the general individuality of it all. I decided to join a team because I thought that having other girls around me might help to lift me spirits up. Boy, I could not have been more right! In a rink with drama and tough to break into cliques, it was difficult to make friends and frankly, still is. Synchro gave me the support system that I had always desired. Even when I couldn't believe in myself, they were there to believe in me. It helped to get me back on my feet, restored my passion for figure skating and gave me a massive confidence boost.

As a singles skater, I know that there is sort of a stigma that goes with synchronized skating. I know this because I too was once a "singles snob". Synchro is easy. Synchro skaters can't skate. These are common thoughts amongst non-synchro skaters and at one time or another, I thought these thoughts myself. But on my first practice of my first day of synchro, I felt as if I had joined another sport completely. Where I thought things would be easy, I found myself falling flat on my butt. I thought I would be able to understand the terminology easily but as it turned out I didn't know the difference between a block, a wheel and an intersection. Even once I got the hang of the basics, there was nothing easy about synchro skating. Even with 10 years of skating experience behind me I still struggled.

Not only do you have to have deep, edgy skating but you have to be able to do it in perfect time with everyone else. It's not about having the highest spiral or the fastest twizzle, it's about being able to have your leg at the same height as everyone else and rotating at the same speed in a twizzle as everyone else. This is where the misunderstanding has itself rooted. Many singles skaters especially, believe that because synchro skaters might not have the highest legs or the fastest twizzles that they are not capable. That is not true. The hardest part about synchro is being, you guessed it, synchronized.

I'm glad I gave synchronized skating a chance because it opened me up to a vast sea of new experiences. A synchro competition for instance, is one of the most thrilling experiences of the sport. The crowd is so wild at times and so loud. It is incredibly different from the polite clapping of singles, pairs, and ice dancing. I participated in my first team cheers, my first team dinners, had my first team jacket, and for once I felt like I was truly a part of something in the skating world.

I never thought I would be skating on a synchro team, but I'm incredibly glad that I had the opportunity to experience one and I look forward to collegiate synchro this season!

Best of Luck!! (and #WhyNotSynchro2018)

I saw this woman at Synchro Worlds 2013 supporting synchro for the 2018 Olympics