Post tryout: Brubaker will sit out season

[Tonichelle]

I agree that the USA goes about it wrong, but even young teams don't stay together forever (for whatever reason), too. So, we're still not hitting the mark.

[sidwich]

It's Tai and Randy winning Jr Natls when they were ,,,,hmmmm maybe 12 and 14.

And look at what a "gorilla" that young Randy was back then

And imagine that in USA (thankyou Mr Nicks) somebody actually had the idea of starting a Pairs team when they were kids so they could have a chance to develope and grow TOGETHER as skaters.

Shocking I say
By USA standards it was almost like cheating

Actually, Mabel Fairbanks put Tai and Randy together, but all the credit to Mr. Nicks for developing them through their teen years when a lot of coaches would have given up on them because of Tai's size and Randy non-gorillaness.

I don't think anyone in the USFSA doubts that starting teams as kids and developing them over years is the optimal situation, BUT we don't live in a totalitarian state. The Chinese can go out and scout their millions of children and find the most talented, most physically-optimal kids and pull them out of their homes, ship them off to sports academies and give them no choice but to continue to skate, skate, skate until they don't pan out, get injured or become competitive athletes.

The U.S. has to rely on talented kids finding their way to the sport, not getting injured or growing too much/little, not giving up (to be a kid, for other sports, to go to COLLEGE, etc.), and having families that can support the incredible costs that figure skating entails. When you consider the dumb luck that it takes for the right kids to find each other at a young age, live close enough to each other to make training viable at that age, and be willing to commit to the sport and each other, Tai and Randy are really an amazing story.

[Victura]

I have perhaps a silly question. Why is it that we are seemingly able to have more long-term and successful ice dance partnerships (as least as of late), but not pairs? I see many of the same logistical problems with dance as with pairs, with finances, commitment, etc. The only difference is that size may not be as much of an issue, if the girl grows a bit taller, but even then she can't become taller than her partner. What are people's thoughts on this?

[Olympia]

We had a thread about this awhile ago, with some very interesting observations, and all I remember is that the height differential was one important factor. That, and the fact that all of our really good North American ice dancers came from that fertile ground of the Zoueva/Shpilband rink. There doesn't seem to be an equally nourishing home for pairs skaters in the United States at this moment. (And who knows what will happen to ice dancing now with the rift between Igor S. and Marina Z.?)

Beyond that, I can't recall anything. I hope other people will check in.

Sidwich, you make a great point about the sheer, dumb luck that brought us Tai and Randy. As you say, in this country, we can't go out and harvest promising skaters the way they can in China and used to do in the U.S.S.R. We must take what we get, and we were lucky enough to get Tai and Randy.

[Tonichelle]

I have perhaps a silly question. Why is it that we are seemingly able to have more long-term and successful ice dance partnerships (as least as of late), but not pairs? I see many of the same logistical problems with dance as with pairs, with finances, commitment, etc. The only difference is that size may not be as much of an issue, if the girl grows a bit taller, but even then she can't become taller than her partner. What are people's thoughts on this?

they don't throw them or lift them above their head...