Good luck in finding your partner !Hi, I'm Clay! I'm 16 (F) looking for a Pairs skating partner in Utah. I'm 110 lbs, working on Novice MITF, hoping to get my Preliminary dances and Preliminary Singles done in the next month. I'm also very close to landing my Axle and should get it in the next few months
Hi, I'm Clay! I'm 16 (F) looking for a Pairs skating partner in Utah. I'm 110 lbs, working on Novice MITF, hoping to get my Preliminary dances and Preliminary Singles done in the next month. I'm also very close to landing my Axle and should get it in the next few months
Hi: As @dorispulaski says, the place to be looking for partners is the partner search site. However, you need to have more advanced singles skills before you try even beginner pairs, and since partners aren't easy to find, you may have to expand your search beyond Utah. I'd advise checking clubs near you for a coach who teaches pairs. Ask for an audition to see if he or she is willing to take you on as a pupil with a potential for pairs. If it's a male coach, he will usually teach the basic moves using himself as your partner. As you advance technically, if he feels you have potential, he may then recommend a try-out with male skaters he knows. It's a long process, though, and you're starting at an advanced age. The older skaters you read about moving into pairs are virtually all already senior-level singles skaters who started skating as small children.Thank you for the info! I did synchro for 5+ years, and I promise I would never teach myself pair moves. I've been skating for 10 years, I just haven't focused on jumps.
Please go the coaching route, for your own safety! There are cases of two skaters who decide they're going to teach themselves pairs moves together from watching videos, neither of them having had professional coaching in exactly how these moves are done -- specific handgrips, for instance. This is incredibly dangerous, so please work on your singles moves first! Having all your double jumps would be good, and at least working on your double Axel. Then ask your singles coach for a recommendation to a pairs coach in your area.
You also might try getting into synchro skating where you can get a feel for a basic version of pairs moves, if you're small enough to be the one lifted, or spun in a two-handed death spiral. You give your weight at 110 lbs, but what is your height, in combination with your weight? I'm still skating pairs for fun at about the senior level years after retiring from competition, but my weight has remained much the same and I have small bones and am short. Good luck!
Pairs are all about jumps for the girl, with twists and throws added to the same individual and combination jumps the singles do. You have to have solid jump technique before you start to add the differences twists and throws make to the take-off, or you'll get confused and that's hazardous. Having secure doubles in all jumps would be essential to start with as a beginner pairs girl in your teens.
Good luck!!!!
Curious where in Utah you skate? I lived there for a while and skating was such a fantastic deal there compared to other places I've lived! Sadly I didn't take as much advantage of that as I ought to have while I was there. I just wanted to chime in and wish you good luck - yes you'll want to really focus on jumps as much as you can, but at the same time, I don't think it's all that necessary as a prerequisite. I did some pairs skating for a little while without being able to do an axel yet, and the woman I was skating with was not as good at jumps. But she had done some basic pairs training with a coach, and that made skating together a joy as she knew how to follow cues and stay in sync - something that I think your synchro experience probably makes you very good at as well. I've also tried some ice dance with people who have no experience skating with others, and it's a lot more difficult so I think you've got a good head start in some ways. Once you find a partner, it will take time to get used to each other and learn the basics - it's not like you'll be trying the crazier stuff right away. Best of luck and do let us know if something works out!
