Are lifts more difficult for the person doing the lifting or the person being lifted?

Person doing the lifting. There is a certain skill involved. Thats why for Louis to do everything a professional male dancer did was no mean feat. He obviously had very good training from Flavia, she knew how to guide him. Good Louis for working to such a high standard.

Can we have an option for "lifts are difficult for both partners"?

Where is the "don't pick up an unfriendly cat" option?

I think that it is about the same level of difficulty for both the lifter and the liftee once they have actually learned what they have to do. Having said that, I would suggest that it is easier for the liftee to learn because teaching a liftee when you are the lifter is going to be easier than teaching the lifter when you are the liftee.

Option also missing: "Don't lift her after a big dinner"

Usually more difficult for the person lifting their partner as they have the responsibility of making sure it's safe and they do it correctly etc.

I guess I'm being pedantic . but I wouldn't have thought the majority of people on this forum are in a position to give an informed opinion on this!

Anyway isn't it usually said that it is a two way thing, built on trust, in that the person being lifted can make it difficult for the person doing the lifting, if they launch themselves incorrectly or hold their body incorrectly? I know my dance teacher has said it is difficult to lift his partner if she tenses up.

It dosen't seem to stop people from having an opinion on everything else about Strictly


Anyway, most people seem to be dancers themselves either just for fun or professionally on this forum.

I don't want a hernia

I've done quite a lot of lifts, and in my opinion if one of you is going to be inexperienced, it's a lot easier if that person is the liftee.

One big thing is that an experienced lifter can make a lot of bad lifts "work". They often won't be pretty, but it gives the liftee a chance to amend things. Whereas when it's the other way 'round, you're often so far from doing it "right" that you've got no idea how to improve.

Now strength does come into this a fair bit. If you're strong enough, you can make it "work" in the same sense (i.e. not pretty, but enough to get a feel for what's going on). For some lifts most men will be strong enough to do this, for others the strength required is pretty immense.

Something else you may find interesting: it's often the woman who will "lead" during a lift. If you think about how a lift starts, this makes sense - it's the woman who will make the initial leap (or unweighting), and the most important thing is for the man to make use of her momentum at the perfect moment.

[There's one lift we used to do where my wife would jump and I had to reach behind her closest leg to grab the other. On video, there was about 1/12 of a second during which this was even possible, and a smaller margin where I could press her overhead afterwards. I have to admit it went wrong quite a bit!].