How does height and weight ratio matter in skating?

[emmaolivia]

I'm new to skating and just exploring everything about it—so fascinating! I really liked reading through everyone's thoughts here. I have a question though, and maybe it's a bit basic—but is there any general weight-to-height ratio that's considered ideal or healthy for skaters, especially for performance? Like how does weight proportion typically match with height in figure skating or even recreational skating? Just trying to understand how balance, strength, and body type work together in this sport.

 

[Diana Delafield]

I'm new to skating and just exploring everything about it—so fascinating! I really liked reading through everyone's thoughts here. I have a question though, and maybe it's a bit basic—but is there any general weight-to-height ratio that's considered ideal or healthy for skaters, especially for performance? Like how does weight proportion typically match with height in figure skating or even recreational skating? Just trying to understand how balance, strength, and body type work together in this sport.

I know BMI ratings are not as much in favour as they once were, but as a guide I'd say that female competitors are (or should be) at the lower end of the Healthy range for their height. Not dropping into the Underweight zone, but light enough for speed and rotations and, for pairs girls and ice dancers, making it easier for their partners in lifts. Out of curiosity, I just found an online BMI calculator and put in what I know my height and weight were when I was in senior pairs competition. The Healthy BMI range for my height was 18.5 - 24.9. My weight then gave me a score of 18.9.

There must be other ways to calculate what you're asking. That was just one angle that occurred to me when I read your question.

 

[FSFan1999]

It matters to some extent, but also important is power to weight ratio. In the end, there are many powerful jumpers who can achieve jumps without fitting the traditional figure skating mould, by virtue of having a better power to weight ratio.

There is a lot of data to analyse in figure skating. Only a fraction of it has been analysed. A lot of unknowns.

 

[Diana Delafield]

It matters to some extent, but also important is power to weight ratio. In the end, there are many powerful jumpers who can achieve jumps without fitting the traditional figure skating mould, by virtue of having a better power to weight ratio.

There is a lot of data to analyse in figure skating. Only a fraction of it has been analysed. A lot of unknowns.

At both ends of the weight spectrum (thinking of tiny little girls doing huge jumps while at the novice or junior level agewise). The only aspect I could think of that could be quantified with numbers was the maligned BMI index. It needs someone with better math skills than mine to think of other ways to measure that ratio, and even then you can't quantify sheer grit and determination. Many skaters achieve technical skills just because they are determined to work so hard at them, while others who appear to have the "ideal"physique for a skill will never master it.

I don't think it's possible to say there's an ideal ratio to aim for. You take the physique you were given and see how far you can go with it, if you want your goal badly enough and you're willing to put in the work. (And accept what you can achieve even if your goals were set impossibly high.)

 

[Query]

Maybe it is a different for freestyle skaters, vs ice dancers and especially pairs skaters, who need to be lifted and maybe thrown by their partners.

Does anyone know if Synchro teams try to make sure almost everyone on the team are all about the size size and build? I know that has been done for some performance (land) dance teams.

I've been told a fair number of elite level skaters start out in Freestyle, but can't make the competitive grade, and are told to move to Pairs and/or Dance. One of my former coaches preferred Freestyle, but she wanted to be the best in the world, and was told she couldn't do that in Freestyle, so she moved to Pairs. Then she was told she couldn't be the best in the world in Pairs, so she moved to Ice Dance, perhaps her least favorite. In the end, she didn't manage to compete with the best in the world in Ice Dance either. When she didn't make it to the Olympics, she became depressed. She felt she had given up a lot of things to try to reach a standard she couldn't quite reach.

Perhaps, as with many elite female athletes, she had deliberately undernourished herself to delay the onset of maturity, to reduce height, weight, and the alterations to weight distribution (such as upper body weight gains that might reduce rotation speed in spins and jumps) that come with maturity. There are negative health side effects to doing that sort of thing. (Look up "female athletic triad".) And she was the coach I knew who had probably had weight reduction surgery of some type, so her partner could more easily lift her - which is also potentially very unhealthy.

But regardless, there may not be a single body type that works best for all figure skating disciplines. If you switch disciplines, the body type you have sought to achieve, might change. At least if you too seek to enter the highest levels of competition.

I would hope that at more recreational levels, you can find a reasonable compromise between what build works best for figure skating (or any other sports or activities you participate in), and what is healthiest for you personally. And that you can find a good balance between skating and the rest of what makes you happy in life.

 

[Mathematician]

I am not sure ideal height:weight ratio is linearly maintained with height increase. It is specific to each person's body. Let's check though using the best skaters we've had and see if there's a pattern.

Shoma Uno ~159cm and 55kg or 5'2.5" and 121lbs. His ratio is 2.89.
Chen ~168cm and 60.7kg or 5'6" and 134lbs. His ratio is 2.77.
Yuzuru ~172 and 57kg, or 5'7.5" and 125lbs. His ratio is 3.0.
Malinin ~174cm and 64kg or 5'8.5" and 141 pounds. His ratio is 2.72.
Plushenko ~178cm and 68kg or 5'10" and 150lbs. His ratio is 2.62.
Evan Lysacek ~188cm and 73kg or 6'2" and 161lbs. His ratio is 2.58.

Can't find accurate numbers for many others. There is a pattern here but not a strong one. We see taller guys lean towards lower ratio. The weight of the skeleton starts scaling harder than the height increase. Makes sense. Weights in general are going to fit in that 2.5-3 range outside of outliers. These are just generally healthy weight ratios. My ratio is 2.4. I am a pretty normal guy. A ratio of 2 for example is 183/90 or 6'/200. 167/80 or 5'6"/176. It is unlikely you are going to get elite singles skaters at those sizes. We see Yuzuru is quite skinny at only 125lbs and not too short giving a ratio of 3.0. It will be harder to get higher than that as a man and maintain athleticism. So it looks like for men we have a pretty large range of acceptable weight ratios. If we say 2-3 is the range for healthy males, figure skaters tend to fall anywhere in the upper half of that range.

Skating is largely an explosive sport. Similar to NBA. You can see many body types there. They are all very athletic. Some people are naturally muscular with a big frame. Others need a little bit more fat and look like normal guys to feel their best. I am like the latter. When I get very lean my endurance feels poor and my power output isn't great. When I am at my strongest I do not look very impressive. Genetics are very varied. Height/weight ratio is decent as a basic health benchmark not to be at an extreme but if you are looking at elite athletes it is far more nuanced.

I bet the range for ladies is way bigger. At that point it will be even more useless to look at this stat alone.