#synchroskating

Some thoughts on the upcoming season ( please message me if I have any incorrect information- I am just going off what I believe to be true but most of it is not officially confirmed :) ) 

1. I want to know how many senior teams there are- Team Del Sol and Team Excel don’t appear to be fielding teams for the 2017-2018 season ( let me know if I am wrong or you know more!) and Miami doesn’t seem to have a junior varsity team anymore. This greatly cuts down the field of teams vying for spots on Team USA. That tight group we saw at Nationals ( With Del Sol keeping their status as 6th and Excel edging out Cal Gold and Miami for 7th) is almost completely gone so that will be interesting to watch 

2. Chicago Jazz Redemption? JWQ was crazy this year so no doubt CJ junior will come out with some awesome programs to try to get to junior worlds this year. .  But with Starlights junior becoming so. incredibly. good. I’m not sure if they will redeem themselves, especially with Lexettes and of course, Skyliners filling those top two spots so consistently. 

3. Ok so the Haydenettes are the best team in the US and they continue to prove themselves over and over at national competitions but I want to see them consistently medaling at worlds. Their long program last year was so entertaining and seemingly dangerous ( I saw them at both New England Challenge Cup way back in October 2016 and Cape Cod Classic in December and their lifts were shaky at both)  I can’t wait to see how they plan on topping it this year. 

4. Group Lift changes- ok so now senior teams don’t have to rotate one of their lifts. Personally, I think that trying to come up with two level four lifts was very challenging for senior teams this past year and also we witnessed a lot of potentially dangerous situations throughout the season in which a flyer/liftee/etc. was dropped or put in a risky position  in competition. It happened at Cape Cod, it happened at Porter, it happened at Nationals and I’m sure it happened at many, many practices for all of the teams. However, I don’t expect competitive senior teams not to rotate their second lift. With Skyliners and Crystallettes and Miami vying for that number two spot to worlds, we won’t see any of them holding back in most areas of their programs. 

You : *Doing exercises down the ice*

Coach : Straight leg! Turn your hip out!

You : *Tries to lock knee & turn hip out*

Coach : You're leg still isn't straight!

You : *Gets to the end of ice*

Coach : Can you feel that you're leg isn't straight? Are you even trying? I don't want to keep repeating myself!

You : .........