Synchro Turns 50       (Posted with permission from Synchronized Skating Magazine)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SO MANY MEMORIES

by Richard Porter

 

THE BEGINNING

It's October, 1957, and we're watching a Sunday evening session of the Ann Arbor Figure Skating Club's Senior Division. A dozen couples are dancing the fourteen-step, while the comers of the ice surface are cluttered with teenage girls trying to put together a precision chorus number. The senior members might grumble about this invasion of the ice time they have paid for, but they're generous and they allow the interlopers to take turns on the main ice surface. What we're seeing are the first steps toward what might become a regular activity of the Club. The girls are returning members of the big chorus from last year's annual Club ice show. They have been invited to get together during a few Club sessions to find out what they can do. 

Let's look in a few months later to see what, if anything, has happened. Well, something has! The team has developed a simple group number and performed it at a University hockey game. By the end of the skating season they have skated two numbers, to enthusiastic applause, in the annual Club show. Best of all, they have discovered that the teamwork, freed from the intense pressure of annual ice show production, was a wonderful experience. 

The Club's Board of Directors showed the next fall that they too were pleased. They scheduled an hour a week on the ice for practice and designated a coach for the team now known as the Hockettes. Interested teenage girls were invited to attend the first few ice sessions and try out for membership in the group. This was done by having USFSA judges evaluate their performance. The team activity had earned a place in the Club's program. Girls who previously would have left the Club after elementary school were staying in with hopes of joining the precision team and even more surprising, most of the best skaters in the Club, busy as they were with their own individual skating, wanted also to skate with the team. 

OVER THE YEARS

A treasure chest of memories was accumulating -- guest appearances at shows put on by other clubs, and a performance, almost invisible through a driving blizzard, in the Alpena Winter Carnival. SKATING magazine published an article in 1961 about the Ann Arbor Club's experience, and Dr. Gordon C. Brown got us an invitation to show a film at a USFSA Governing Council meeting. There we discussed, with members from clubs around the country, the ways a team program could promote interest in skating and enhance club growth. Bill Stegeth reported on our program to the USFSA publicity committee, and Lawrence Shire helped us get invitations for appearances in the World Champions' Tours and a trip to the Lake Placid International Festival. Robert Wallace put our team in the center ring (on ice!) in the Shrine Circus. And, as if all that glamour weren't enough, the team skated in the USFSA's fiftieth anniversary show, "Champions on Ice". 

The list of those who helped with fund-raising, chaperoning, playing music for practices, and supporting activities of all kinds is too long for this account, but we must mention a few whose names stand out--Dan Schurz, who turned his talent as a public relations professional to the advancement of team skating; Pat Porter, who worked so hard for the team she loved; and Kathy Wurster, whose generosity with her outstanding dressmaking skills, gave the team such great costumes. 

Clubs were finding unexpected values in the team programs -- the ways they united members and friends in support of a rewarding activity. Most important of all were the team members, anonymous because we believed that members of a team should not be individually featured, who are so demanding of themselves and others because of their fierce devotion to the group. 

COMPETITIONS

There was so much more to come. The 1961 article in SKATING magazine had expressed our belief that travel costs would probably make big group competition impractical. Geneva Lichleiter, of the Arrowhead Club in California, saw the article. She thought we were wrong, and her dub initiated a "drill team" competition. Gordon Kingsley Brown called this to the attention of the Tri-State Council of Figure Skating Clubs, and urged the development of a precision team competition in this area. 

The first Tri-State event, held in 1971, was promising, but by 1975 it was clear that the program was not growing as expected, and the Tri-State Council appointed a committee to study the problem. The committee, consisted of Tri-State officers, team coaches and Albert Viviani and Louis Rossoni, who had judged the team competitions. They proposed an annual competition, that would be open to teams who represented USFSA and CFSA clubs, and that would use National Judges from both countries to judge it. Senior, Junior and Novice classes would be based on age and number of skaters on a team. Criteria for judging emphasized unison performance of group maneuvers, with the grace and flow typical of figure skating. 

The Tri-State Council accepted the plan and scheduled the first event for March 27, 1976, at the Ann Arbor Club. Sixteen teams participated, and the local committee, chaired by Helen Corey, managed the competition with skill and dedication, laying a solid foundation for the future, Jean McLeod, editor of the Canadian newsletter, INSIDE EDGE, was already spreading the word, and Gerry Kay began to plan for the first Canadian open event, to be held in 1977 at the Ilderton Winter Club in Ontario. 

Canada held the first National competition, but the U.S. was close behind. Full-scale Sectional and National events were on the way by 1984. 

What have we learned form the last forty years and from what we see here today? Two lessons stand out. First, precision team programs are here to stay. Second, we surely were wrong in 1961 when we guessed that big precision team competitions would be impractical!nd maneuvers with speed and synchronization to special musical selections. 

Its great popularity has developed because it gives skaters of all ages and skills the chance to participate. Precision teams compete at different levels according to age and number of team members. Now, precision figure skating is a fast growing sport with 300 precision teams currently registered with the USFSA. More than 1700 team members competed at the U.S. Postal Service 1996 U.S. Precision Figure Skating Championships held in March. Precision skating has been an emerging discipline within the U.S. and international skating communities throughout the past decade. In the United States alone, precision skating has attracted thousands of skaters and it is the fastest-growing of the five skating disciplines within USFSA. The World Challenge Cup 1996 is the test event for a World Championships. It is hoped this will lead to a World Championships in 1998 and that there will someday be a precision program in the Olympic Winter Games.