Lol this reminds me of a video on youtube I saw last week of Rockne Brubaker teaching a little girl how to do lifts; she was completely dead weight, which isn't surprising at that age. It reminds me of the Novice Championships that poster CoyoteChris brought up in his thread about attending Nationals; he said he'd rather watch anything else but a young boy trying to lift a young girl when he obviously doesn't yet have the strength to do so (btw said Championships was won by a full grown man, not a boy, with a little girl as his partner).
Here's a cute video I found that shows two youngsters trying to do a lift, with I think John Coughlin? helping them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkqM6Qhpp38&feature=related
I would hope that by the time they enter *Seniors* both the male & female pair know how to do the lifts without the female being dead weight. (8^O
To me the best male pair partner is strong enough to support a girl of any size, and for the USA I would say John Coughlin is that man. He's 6'1" and full of muscle, both of his female partners were no delicate flowers either ~ Caitlin 5'4" with a superb look on the ice, and Caydee 5'1" pure muscle ~ I'm not surprised he won a National Championship with each one. He's proven he doesn't need to skate with a 15 yr. old no bigger than 4'11" that weighs 80 lbs. tops.
Here's a great discussion by skaters that actually do skate pairs, and what they look for in a partner: http://skating.zachariahs.com/skatingforums-onice/www.skatingforums.com/showthread0192.html
I like how that one young man defends the male pair partner and how HE doesn't need to have back problems the rest of his life. And the story about the 5'8" 120 lb. girl that partnered with the 6'4" 200 lb. ox of a man, the strength of Zeus no doubt!
Here's a cute video I found that shows two youngsters trying to do a lift, with I think John Coughlin? helping them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkqM6Qhpp38&feature=related
I would hope that by the time they enter *Seniors* both the male & female pair know how to do the lifts without the female being dead weight. (8^O
To me the best male pair partner is strong enough to support a girl of any size, and for the USA I would say John Coughlin is that man. He's 6'1" and full of muscle, both of his female partners were no delicate flowers either ~ Caitlin 5'4" with a superb look on the ice, and Caydee 5'1" pure muscle ~ I'm not surprised he won a National Championship with each one. He's proven he doesn't need to skate with a 15 yr. old no bigger than 4'11" that weighs 80 lbs. tops.
Here's a great discussion by skaters that actually do skate pairs, and what they look for in a partner: http://skating.zachariahs.com/skatingforums-onice/www.skatingforums.com/showthread0192.html
I like how that one young man defends the male pair partner and how HE doesn't need to have back problems the rest of his life. And the story about the 5'8" 120 lb. girl that partnered with the 6'4" 200 lb. ox of a man, the strength of Zeus no doubt!