Whether you’re looking to try out or you’ve made it onto a team, you may soon begin to wonder what the “line” you’ve been assigned to means and how all of the new vocabulary (juvenile, intermediate, junior, etc.) comes together to form a hierarchy of teams with varying skill-levels. For an introduction to the lines and what the difference is between “line” and “team”, scroll and check out the information under What are levels? Lines v. Teams. Here, I won’t go over the specific requirements for each line since they can change every year, but I’ll give a run-down of what it’s like advancing on the Team, what “cross skating” means, and how/what teams qualify for Nationals.
Your journey up the ladder
When you first try out, if you consider yourself a beginner, then you will most likely be placed in a preliminary or earlier team. Depending on your age and rate of improvement, you could stay on your current level, move up one level, or even move up two (three is probably possible but I haven’t seen it happen before). Each line has age requirements though, as well as a cap to the number of skaters on the ice at a time. A detailed chart is provided by the USFSA here. (Notice the document mentions “moves in the field”–this is what the Skating Skills test used to be called. More information on testing can be found here.)
As you try out again each season and hope for a higher team, you will soon become aware of certain requirements that will dictate your journey. Aside from your ability to perform the skills at tryouts, the USFSA has objective requirements for Skating Skills test progress and age (accessible in the chart linked above). If you’re too old, you cannot join the line; if you haven’t passed a certain Skating Skill level yet, you cannot join the line. This is why I stress testing your Skating Skills tests ASAP! You can totally be overqualified and still join a line, so don’t let your test progress hold you back.
Cross Skating
As you progress, you will most likely soon come across the term “cross skating”. Whether this was offered to you or to a teammate, this is a common occurrence, especially in those top teams in the synchro world. You can go through your entire skating journey without ever cross skating, or you can end up cross skating 2-3 years in a row!
What cross skating means is simply skating on two lines at once. If you cross skate Juvenile Novice, you practice with and compete in both the Juvenile division and the Novice division. Notice how Intermediate was skipped here? You can cross skate two lines that aren’t directly adjacent to one another on the hierarchy!
Cross skating is a lot of work. Like a lot. You’ll already be working hard on one line, but then you’ll have to squeeze out your remaining strength to perform just as well, if not better, on another line. The craziest cross skating I’ve seen was between Novice and Junior. Junior is likely the most advanced line in your Team, as most do not have a Senior line, and those on Junior must learn two programs–a long one and a shorter one. What does this mean for those incredible Novice Junior cross skaters? They are learning 3 programs at once, and those 3 programs are the most difficult programs in the Team.
Qualification
Teams starting from Juvenile and up can qualify for the Nationals competition. Those who compete at Nationals are determined by their rank at the Sectionals competition. For more general information on big competitions, see What is Synchro?.
So qualifying teams are:
- Juvenile
- Intermediate
- Novice
- Junior
- Senior
Qualification for Juvenile through Novice is quite simple–the top 4-5 (it changes every year) from each sectional competition are eligible to compete again on a later date at the Nationals competition. For Junior and Senior, however, because those lines each have 2 programs (a long and a short), the final ranking is determined by the total score (So if a team gets 90 points for their long and 60 points for their short, their final ranking uses a score of 150 points). A team could be 1st place for their short program, but until the competition for the long program takes place, they are not guaranteed a spot to Nationals.