Skating Fridays

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

My pairs partner and I have been working on a fun new element. We call it the roll-up.

Essentially, I use my partner’s shoulder as a bar and roll up onto it. Then he lifts me by my arms/armpit into a lift. We’ve seen several videos of pairs and dance teams executing this and thought it would be neat to try it on our own.

I asked a few experts on whether this would count as a pairs lift in freestyle skating. Sadly, the answer was no. The reason we were given is because the man is supposed to pick up the lady from the armpit directly into a lift and cannot use any other body parts to lift her up. In our case, I roll onto his shoulder, and he uses his back and his arms to propel me over and up. However, in international adult skating competitions, teams from other countries have gotten this element counted AND called as a Group 1 lift. The “roll up” part counted as a feature (a difficult entry). Domestic rules are more stringent, so it likely wouldn’t count in the USA. Sigh.

After the lift was done, we transitioned into a hold, where I am doing a quasi-handstand but with my legs parallel to the floor. This is something that I used to do in my competitive gymnast days, and I am thrilled that the movements are not difficult for me to execute.

Will we ever get this on the ice? Only time will tell, but this is still something that we enjoy practicing on land.