Safety first, definitely. What about "walking thru" the lifts and throws, just do sbs jumps and sbs spins? That will still count as something right? But if it becomes an issue of fed reputation then too bad
They could also do simple lifts -- e.g., a basic/level 1 Group 4 overhead lift, or even a Group 1 lift -- and simple throw like 1A or 2S, if the goal is to complete a program and get some points without trying anything they haven't mastered on ice yet.
Since I don't have much knowlege in pairs skating, please allow me in advance if I am wrong on what I am writing below.
When skaters want to try pair skating, do they have to start their career specifically as a pair skater from the begining, so that means they have to start in their early career, say, 6 y.o. or 7 y.o?
No. Very very few pair skaters start that young, and most of those who do are teamed with siblings who also skate.
They need to learn how to skate before they can start doing pairs tricks.
Pair skating at the lowest levels is mainly about stroking in unison and holding onto each other, and doing side-by-side moves in unison. That's all that 6 year olds would really be capable of. Sure, it helps with their eventual unison as a team if they've been skating together like that from an early age, but it's not necessary.
At a little bit older and more advanced, they start doing skills like basic pair spins, pivot spirals as precursor to death spirals, Group 1 (armpit) and Group 2 (waist) lifts that don't go all the way overhead, single throw jumps, as well as side-by-side moves.
Boys generally aren't physically ready to lift girls overhead until they've had their first major growth spurt -- generally midteens -- and also have the skating skills to be stable on the ice and the emotional maturity to be responsible about safety.
Some skaters do start doing pairs as preteens and continue all the way through. At the lower levels, they're doing lower-level skills. Others don't start until they're teenagers or older. Depending on age and level of singles skills, and how long it takes them to pick up pair skills, they might start competing at novice level or above and skip the lower developmental levels.
Aren't there a couple of pairs skaters among top teams who once were single skaters at some point of their career? Robin Szolkowy, Ondrej Hotarek, both of Pang and Tong come to mind, for instance.
Pretty much all pair skaters were single skaters to begin with, for the reasons described above. Not all competed in singles, especially at the middle and higher levels, though.
It's a good question. I've been checking a lot of skaters I thought were single skaters before pairs, only to find out that they had competed pairs & singles simultaneously. What is the oldest a skater switched to pairs and had some success (say top 10 Euros or Worlds)?
I thought John Baldwin would be my best guess, but he had actually competed pairs as a Junior with Tristan Coleil.
Who started pairs for the first time at over 20?
Not sure would be oldest starter to achieve success at the ISU championship level.
For one example, I see Todd Sand first started pairs with his first partner at about age 22, after competing in singles for Denmark in his late teens. He later went on to win world medals with his second and third partners in his late 20s and 30s.
