My daughter has used a couple of different harnesses along the way - one is suspended from a track on the ceiling, and the other is a hand-held "fishing pole" type. Neither was used to give "lift". With the ceiling one, her coach would pull when she reached the top of a jump to give her just that split-second more time she needed to complete the rotations, and could, of course, help reduce the impact of a fall. The point was to let her get a feeling for the rotation so that she would be able to do it on her own. She preferred the fishing pole harness, because it allows for greater freedom of motion on the jump pattern. That one pretty much only helps with the falls, though - the coach can't really assist the jump much unless the skater is very small. They would begin on the ceiling one, then progress to the fishing pole as she gained confidence. The goal is to get off any kind of harness as quickly as possible.