Fours skating?

moonvine · Feb 9, 2019

I was reading this blog I've gone down the rabbit hole with, and found out about FOURS skating. Apparently it was contested early in skating history and made a resurgence in Canada from 1984 to 1997, being contested annually in Canada and involving such famous Canadian pairs skaters as Christine Hough Sweeney and Doug Ladret, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler and Jodeyne Higgins and Sean Rice. Has anyone ever seen it? It sounds very fun to watch, though potentially dangerous.

There's some video here on this blog and some more history on the discipline. Did any of you ever see it competed?

http://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2015/01/threes-company-fours-crowd-skatings.html

Nathan13 · Feb 9, 2019

moonvine said:
I was reading this blog I've gone down the rabbit hole with, and found out about FOURS skating. Apparently it was contested early in skating history and made a resurgence in Canada from 1984 to 1997, being contested annually in Canada and involving such famous Canadian pairs skaters as Christine Hough Sweeney and Doug Ladret, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler and Jodeyne Higgins and Sean Rice. Has anyone ever seen it? It sounds very fun to watch, though potentially dangerous.

There's some video here on this blog and some more history on the discipline. Did any of you ever see it competed?

http://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2015/01/threes-company-fours-crowd-skatings.html

OMG can you imagine 4 people trying to do SBS 3 Salchows :slink:

Ic3Rabbit · Feb 9, 2019

moonvine said:
I was reading this blog I've gone down the rabbit hole with, and found out about FOURS skating. Apparently it was contested early in skating history and made a resurgence in Canada from 1984 to 1997, being contested annually in Canada and involving such famous Canadian pairs skaters as Christine Hough Sweeney and Doug Ladret, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler and Jodeyne Higgins and Sean Rice. Has anyone ever seen it? It sounds very fun to watch, though potentially dangerous.

There's some video here on this blog and some more history on the discipline. Did any of you ever see it competed?

http://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2015/01/threes-company-fours-crowd-skatings.html

Yes.

moonvine · Feb 9, 2019

Nathan13 said:
OMG can you imagine 4 people trying to do SBS 3 Salchows

I know; wouldn't it be exciting?!!

- - - Updated - - -

Ic3Rabbit said:
Yes.

Was it as cool as it looks?

gkelly · Feb 9, 2019

1989 Skate Canada Fours competition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAsJWu0LCUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCK6AG18AcE

CaroLiza_fan · Feb 10, 2019

moonvine said:
I was reading this blog I've gone down the rabbit hole with, and found out about FOURS skating. Apparently it was contested early in skating history and made a resurgence in Canada from 1984 to 1997, being contested annually in Canada and involving such famous Canadian pairs skaters as Christine Hough Sweeney and Doug Ladret, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler and Jodeyne Higgins and Sean Rice. Has anyone ever seen it? It sounds very fun to watch, though potentially dangerous.

There's some video here on this blog and some more history on the discipline. Did any of you ever see it competed?

http://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2015/01/threes-company-fours-crowd-skatings.html

The exact same thing happened me 2 ⅓ years ago!!! :agree:

I was looking up a former Canadian Pairs skater, and when looking at their results, saw that they and their partner had also competed in something called "Fours Skating". So, having never heard tell of it before, I asked about it in what was then called the "Stupid Questions Thread":

https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?42225&p=1496089&viewfull=1#post1496089

My post is the last one on that page, and the replies are on the following page.

Since then, I have brought Fours Skating up a few times. Most notably when myself and another member were discussing other figure skating disciplines that could have been added to the Olympics roster to fill the slot left empty after the Compulsory Dance was dropped. And how introducing the Team Event instead was a lost opportunity to raise the profile of these lesser known disciplines. (In the end, I think we concluded that Solo Dance would have been the best option).

But, I can't find that discussion again! :bang:

CaroLiza_fan

Sam L · Feb 10, 2019

Double, double, toil and trouble.

WeakAnkles · Feb 10, 2019

Well my inner Busby Berkley is going

:yes2:

4everchan · Feb 10, 2019

i watched it as a kid... i loved it.... the double death spiral is cool

moonvine · Feb 10, 2019

CaroLiza_fan said:
The exact same thing happened me 2 ⅓ years ago!!! :agree:

I was looking up a former Canadian Pairs skater, and when looking at their results, saw that they and their partner had also competed in something called "Fours Skating". So, having never heard tell of it before, I asked about it in what was then called the "Stupid Questions Thread":

https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?42225&p=1496089&viewfull=1#post1496089

My post is the last one on that page, and the replies are on the following page.

Since then, I have brought Fours Skating up a few times. Most notably when myself and another member were discussing other figure skating disciplines that could have been added to the Olympics roster to fill the slot left empty after the Compulsory Dance was dropped. And how introducing the Team Event instead was a lost opportunity to raise the profile of these lesser known disciplines. (In the end, I think we concluded that Solo Dance would have been the best option).

But, I can't find that discussion again!

CaroLiza_fan

Thanks for the link and I'm glad I'm not the only person who wondered! I personally like the team event. I think it is interesting that the gymnastics team medal is as important if not possibly more so than individual events. I wonder if the team event in skating will ever gain that status or even close to it.

I wouldn't think fours would be suitable as an Olympic event, at least not at this point in time. It isn't being competed anywhere currently (that I know of) and given the partner swapping of pairs (at least in the US) can you imagine trying to keep 4 people together??? I would love to see it competed live though!

I'd think synchro would be a great addition to the Olympics!

VenusHalley · Feb 10, 2019

THat double death spiral was impressive. I wish there were some competitions in this discipline, though it might be hard to find enough quatros to do that. Must be hard to train all these routines in two pairs.

moonvine · Feb 10, 2019

VenusHalley said:
THat double death spiral was impressive. I wish there were some competitions in this discipline, though it might be hard to find enough quatros to do that. Must be hard to train all these routines in two pairs.

I wish there were as well. Maybe someday in Canada, which apparently was the only country competing it for a long time.

CaroLiza_fan · Feb 10, 2019

moonvine said:
Thanks for the link and I'm glad I'm not the only person who wondered! I personally like the team event. I think it is interesting that the gymnastics team medal is as important if not possibly more so than individual events. I wonder if the team event in skating will ever gain that status or even close to it.

I'm not a fan of the Team Event. To me, it is just giving the skaters extra opportunities to get injured and hence miss out on the big competition the following week.

I do like the idea of the best team getting recognised, though. But, I think it should be a paper exercise, based on the results of the individual competitions.

And, as I said, I would have preferred to see other disciplines of figure skating get the opportunity to get featured at the big stage where people who don't normally follow the sport tune in. Because, there are a LOT more disciplines within figure skating than the four that most people know of.

moonvine said:
I wouldn't think fours would be suitable as an Olympic event, at least not at this point in time. It isn't being competed anywhere currently (that I know of) and given the partner swapping of pairs (at least in the US) can you imagine trying to keep 4 people together??? I would love to see it competed live though!

I'd think synchro would be a great addition to the Olympics!

Well, Synchro would be the obvious option, since it is already competed internationally. But, the drawback with it (and Ice Ballet / Ice Theatre, which I actually prefer) is that it involves a LOT of people, and hence there are a lot of costs associated with all these extra people going to the event.

In this respect, Fours would be perfect, as the skaters and their teams would be there already for the Pairs competition.

But, I think you have hit the nail on the head as to why Fours Skating has fallen by the wayside. It is hard enough for 2 skaters to stay together in a Pairs partnership never mind having 4 skaters stay together in a Fours partnership. And since Ashley Cain's fall, there has also been a lot of talk about Pairs Skating nowadays being too dangerous, and that this is putting off skaters taking it up. Well, you could amplify that argument for Fours Skating.

For Fours Skating to make a resurgence, you need Pairs Skating to be thriving. And unfortunately, it isn't at the moment.

So, unless there is a sudden upsurge in the popularity of Pairs Skating, with loads of skaters taking it up, I can't see Fours Skating returning any time soon.

CaroLiza_fan

merrywidow · Feb 10, 2019

I never saw it competed live but do remember watching it on tv a few times back in the day. It was interesting but the programs were not as diffictult as the regular pairs as the synchronization of fours was naturally more difficult. Just my take.

skylark · Feb 12, 2019

merrywidow said:
I never saw it competed live but do remember watching it on tv a few times back in the day. It was interesting but the programs were not as diffictult as the regular pairs as the synchronization of fours was naturally more difficult. Just my take.

My first thought on reading this thread was how dangerous it would be. There was a discussion from Brooke Castile how difficult it is for pairs to land jumps side by side, partly because of the sheer nearness to each other, when doing the more difficult jumps, one needs psychological space. It's important to recall how much less demanding pairs elements were in the 90s.

But the not so difficult elements are so fun for the audience to see that kind of synchronization. I remember loving the SOI fours, and it was fun seeing competitors cooperate. IIRC, it wasn't even a full number, just part of one routine. I also loved the double death spiral.

Wouldn't it be cool if US SOI would even include two pairs and do this. But I'd settle for one pair being part of SOI.

jcoates · Feb 12, 2019

Here's a great example of fours from the 1980 Olympic exhibition, classic Soviet precision: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prnnnpR6xCY

Here are some pro examples from the 80s and 90s

Starbuck/Shelley & Babalonia/Gardner (love the group death spiral) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU_NdqwdOuA

And technically 'sixes' featuring Gordeeva/Grinkov, Mishkutenok/Dmitriev, and Valova/Vasiliev with some minor partner switching for death spirals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppAA8pY7wNU

Zora · Feb 12, 2019

There was also an exibition by Volosozhar/Morozov and Savchenko/Szolkowy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MS_0hF7hzE

Skater Boy · Feb 12, 2019

moonvine said:
I was reading this blog I've gone down the rabbit hole with, and found out about FOURS skating. Apparently it was contested early in skating history and made a resurgence in Canada from 1984 to 1997, being contested annually in Canada and involving such famous Canadian pairs skaters as Christine Hough Sweeney and Doug Ladret, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler and Jodeyne Higgins and Sean Rice. Has anyone ever seen it? It sounds very fun to watch, though potentially dangerous.

There's some video here on this blog and some more history on the discipline. Did any of you ever see it competed?

http://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2015/01/threes-company-fours-crowd-skatings.html

In China I saw a video and it was of some canadians doing 5s. It was interesting watching the translation. Some cool lifts and death spirals. Can you imagine now say 4 skaters all landing triple lutzes okay maybe toe loops?

gkelly · Feb 12, 2019

So is the goal of this discipline "four skating as one"?

Ladskater · Feb 12, 2019

Yes, Fours was very popular at one time. Pretty cool to see two sets of teams on the ice.

Fours skating?

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