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https://www.isu.org/figure-skating/...id-handbook-for-technical-panels-2018-19/file
https://www.isu.org/figure-skating/...801-2188-id-communication-replacing-2164/file
https://giphy.com/gifs/jackiewong-rockerskating-27uiRiuy7ba43ifcBx
http://i64.tinypic.com/25iptnn.png
The Stationary Lift
The point of this post is to explain what happened with Hubbell & Donohue’s stationary lift at The 2019 Four Continents Championship to the best of my knowledge and ability. It will examine definitions, rule changes & their implications, and the probable decisions having to be made by the technical panel. Who am I? Just a nobody who teaches math.
What is a lift?
Anytime a partner lifts the other for 3 seconds or more. A lift can be rotational, curve, straight line, or stationary. The creation/existence of the stationary lift assumes and requires that all other lifts have momentum.
So, to answer the question, “what is a stationary lift?”, it is a lift that is stationary. Any significant directional momentum would result in another lift being performed.
Lifts have 3 segments: the Entry, the Lift, the Exit. Couples can earn up to 2 features per segment. For the most part, the crux of the actual lifting occurs in the “Lift” segment, but the lifted partner can be lifted throughout all three segments (or only in the “Lift”).
When to Call a Combination Lift
The relevance of this will be obvious later. According to the ISU Technical Handbook Q&A, for a combination lift to be called as such, the two lifts must have “similar duration.” Otherwise, “the lift should be called based on a majority of what is executed.” For example, a partner can start a straight line lift on one foot, then on the exit change to an inside spread eagle (essentially a curve lift) for the exit. So, while comprising of two different lifts, this would not be called a straight line + curve combo lift as it the “majority” of what is executed was the straight line lift, and the two lifts did not have “similar duration.” The curve lift would just be considered as part of the exit feature.
The Exit Feature
In the 2016-2017 season, exit features were added for levels in lifts. The only restrictions for these features were those prescribed by the general restrictions in ice dance. This resulted in many teams designing lifts that had exits that could be considered curve or rotational lifts, but did not resulting in combination lifts being called due to the “similar duration” principle.
The Levels
This can be complicated without seeing the rules. You can look them up in the Handbooks above. Also, here’s a graphic: Straight Line, Curve, Stationary Dance Lift Levels
Things to note. Lifting a partner for 3 seconds qualifies for base level. That’s all that is required. Level 1 only has features for the “Lift” segment. Without features for the “Lift” segment, lifts cannot qualify for beyond Base Level.
The Lift
What happened to Hubbell & Donohue’s stationary lift requires an understanding of when to to start considering the lift “stationary.” Often, skaters come into stationary lifts with some momentum. This is what the Q&A has to say:
So, the technical panel did not start considering the “Lift” segment features until Donohue stopped moving, was stationary. The question I now have is how much of Hubbell and Donohue’s lift counted as stationary, and how much counted as a rotational lift?
Was it a stationary lift, a rotational lift, or a combination lift?
Once Donohue started significantly travelling on the lift, it counted as a rotational lift. This left the technical panel with questions to answer. This was now a stationary + rotational lift, so they had to decide whether the two lifts had “similar duration,” or whether one was the “majority of what was executed.”
The Measurements
Stationary Lift: 2.7 seconds
Rotational Lift: 1.5 seconds
Now, these measurements mean nothing. There’s so much arbitrary decision making I had to make. When does the stationary lift begin? When was the traveling significant enough to count as momentum for a rotational lift? When did that momentum stop causing the rotational lift to end? I came down to a Stationary Lift being the “majority of what was executed.” It helped that my timing/decision making matched what was concluded, and was not at all subconsciously influenced by my knowing what was intended by Hubbell & Donohue (haha.)
So, Donohue’s traveling creates this terrible situation where they mostly complete a stationary lift, but not enough of one to count as a lift worth anything. While there are entry and exit features galore, there are no “Lift” features that count, precluding them from levels beyond Base Level. It is a Base Level Stationary Lift by virtue of two things: 1. Hubbell was lifted for 3 seconds, qualifying for a lift, 2) the “majority of what was executed” was a stationary lift, designating the lift as stationary.
Level 1 requires one of two things, that the lifted or lifting partner is in a difficult position for 3 seconds, or that the lifted partner moves through a change of pose. While Hubbell moves through a change of pose, most of it occurs through what would be considered the rotational lift, and therefore does not count as a feature for Level 1 levels, but rather, the rotational lift is considered as part of the exit, and Level 1 does not have any entry or exit features. Not qualifying for any features during the “Lift” segment of the element precludes qualifying for any level beyond Base.
The Technical Panel & the Aftermath
At the end of the day, we all know the Technical Panel consists of human beings. They are working with many variables with time constraints while at the same time having to balance and value the opinions of multiple people. I don’t think their decision was at all based on politics or some other animus, but rather, was the best decision they could have come up with considering the circumstances.
They could have considered the lifts to have “similar duration” and crucified Hubbell & Donohue’s score even further. They could have called it a rotational lift, but it still would only have been Base Level (I only count under 3 rotations.) They settled on Base Stationary. It was a completely rules-based decision. It was Hubbell & Donohue’s fault for committing such an egregious error that invited Technical Panel scrutiny.
Just like when Stepanova & Bukin’s sit position “twizzles” get called Level 1, I’m glad this happened. It was a warning, not just to Hubbell & Donohue, but to all top teams. You won’t always get away with obvious technical errors or deficiencies. Don’t be surprised when they bite you.
*Also, if any of the technical specialists/controllers that lurk here (because everyone reads FSU), could please let me know how close/far off I am through PM? I'd greatly appreciate it!
https://www.isu.org/figure-skating/...801-2188-id-communication-replacing-2164/file
https://giphy.com/gifs/jackiewong-rockerskating-27uiRiuy7ba43ifcBx
http://i64.tinypic.com/25iptnn.png
The Stationary Lift
The point of this post is to explain what happened with Hubbell & Donohue’s stationary lift at The 2019 Four Continents Championship to the best of my knowledge and ability. It will examine definitions, rule changes & their implications, and the probable decisions having to be made by the technical panel. Who am I? Just a nobody who teaches math.
What is a lift?
Anytime a partner lifts the other for 3 seconds or more. A lift can be rotational, curve, straight line, or stationary. The creation/existence of the stationary lift assumes and requires that all other lifts have momentum.
So, to answer the question, “what is a stationary lift?”, it is a lift that is stationary. Any significant directional momentum would result in another lift being performed.
Lifts have 3 segments: the Entry, the Lift, the Exit. Couples can earn up to 2 features per segment. For the most part, the crux of the actual lifting occurs in the “Lift” segment, but the lifted partner can be lifted throughout all three segments (or only in the “Lift”).
When to Call a Combination Lift
The relevance of this will be obvious later. According to the ISU Technical Handbook Q&A, for a combination lift to be called as such, the two lifts must have “similar duration.” Otherwise, “the lift should be called based on a majority of what is executed.” For example, a partner can start a straight line lift on one foot, then on the exit change to an inside spread eagle (essentially a curve lift) for the exit. So, while comprising of two different lifts, this would not be called a straight line + curve combo lift as it the “majority” of what is executed was the straight line lift, and the two lifts did not have “similar duration.” The curve lift would just be considered as part of the exit feature.
The Exit Feature
In the 2016-2017 season, exit features were added for levels in lifts. The only restrictions for these features were those prescribed by the general restrictions in ice dance. This resulted in many teams designing lifts that had exits that could be considered curve or rotational lifts, but did not resulting in combination lifts being called due to the “similar duration” principle.
The Levels
This can be complicated without seeing the rules. You can look them up in the Handbooks above. Also, here’s a graphic: Straight Line, Curve, Stationary Dance Lift Levels
Things to note. Lifting a partner for 3 seconds qualifies for base level. That’s all that is required. Level 1 only has features for the “Lift” segment. Without features for the “Lift” segment, lifts cannot qualify for beyond Base Level.
The Lift
What happened to Hubbell & Donohue’s stationary lift requires an understanding of when to to start considering the lift “stationary.” Often, skaters come into stationary lifts with some momentum. This is what the Q&A has to say:
Question: At what point does the Technical Panel start counting the 3 seconds for a Difficult Position/Pose in a Stationary Lift when the Lift is entering on one foot from an edge and spiraling into a “rotating” Stationary Lift?
Answer: When the Lifting partner stops traveling while rotating.
So, the technical panel did not start considering the “Lift” segment features until Donohue stopped moving, was stationary. The question I now have is how much of Hubbell and Donohue’s lift counted as stationary, and how much counted as a rotational lift?
Was it a stationary lift, a rotational lift, or a combination lift?
Once Donohue started significantly travelling on the lift, it counted as a rotational lift. This left the technical panel with questions to answer. This was now a stationary + rotational lift, so they had to decide whether the two lifts had “similar duration,” or whether one was the “majority of what was executed.”
The Measurements
Stationary Lift: 2.7 seconds
Rotational Lift: 1.5 seconds
Now, these measurements mean nothing. There’s so much arbitrary decision making I had to make. When does the stationary lift begin? When was the traveling significant enough to count as momentum for a rotational lift? When did that momentum stop causing the rotational lift to end? I came down to a Stationary Lift being the “majority of what was executed.” It helped that my timing/decision making matched what was concluded, and was not at all subconsciously influenced by my knowing what was intended by Hubbell & Donohue (haha.)
So, Donohue’s traveling creates this terrible situation where they mostly complete a stationary lift, but not enough of one to count as a lift worth anything. While there are entry and exit features galore, there are no “Lift” features that count, precluding them from levels beyond Base Level. It is a Base Level Stationary Lift by virtue of two things: 1. Hubbell was lifted for 3 seconds, qualifying for a lift, 2) the “majority of what was executed” was a stationary lift, designating the lift as stationary.
Level 1 requires one of two things, that the lifted or lifting partner is in a difficult position for 3 seconds, or that the lifted partner moves through a change of pose. While Hubbell moves through a change of pose, most of it occurs through what would be considered the rotational lift, and therefore does not count as a feature for Level 1 levels, but rather, the rotational lift is considered as part of the exit, and Level 1 does not have any entry or exit features. Not qualifying for any features during the “Lift” segment of the element precludes qualifying for any level beyond Base.
The Technical Panel & the Aftermath
At the end of the day, we all know the Technical Panel consists of human beings. They are working with many variables with time constraints while at the same time having to balance and value the opinions of multiple people. I don’t think their decision was at all based on politics or some other animus, but rather, was the best decision they could have come up with considering the circumstances.
They could have considered the lifts to have “similar duration” and crucified Hubbell & Donohue’s score even further. They could have called it a rotational lift, but it still would only have been Base Level (I only count under 3 rotations.) They settled on Base Stationary. It was a completely rules-based decision. It was Hubbell & Donohue’s fault for committing such an egregious error that invited Technical Panel scrutiny.
Just like when Stepanova & Bukin’s sit position “twizzles” get called Level 1, I’m glad this happened. It was a warning, not just to Hubbell & Donohue, but to all top teams. You won’t always get away with obvious technical errors or deficiencies. Don’t be surprised when they bite you.
*Also, if any of the technical specialists/controllers that lurk here (because everyone reads FSU), could please let me know how close/far off I am through PM? I'd greatly appreciate it!
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