FSWer, it's true that USFS Senior teams are allowed to do lifts, but not everybody on the team needs to be able to be lifted. Somebody has to do the lifting, right? And since Senior teams are the only ones allowed to do lifts, I'll bet that some skaters actually do get on a Senior team first and then are taught how to do it. It's not that hard, really. I've never been on a Senior team, but my low-level team did lifts for a show once. The rules against it don't apply to show numbers. The adult team members did the lifting, and members of the youth team were lifted. We did group lifts, with three adults lifting one child. The child stood with an adult on each side and stretched her arms out to the side. Each adult lifted the child up from under her arms. As they lifted, the child jumped up and the third adult, who was standing behind her, caught her ankles and lifted them so that she was "flying" in the air with her stomach facing the ice. Of course, it's easy with adults and a child, because we were stronger and she didn't weigh very much. But the actual mechanics of lifting her up were pretty simple. We tried it once off the ice, and then put it in the routine. This was a gliding lift, with no rotation. I imagine that would be a little harder to learn, but the lifting part itself wouldn't be any more difficult. It's just a matter of everybody being strong enough and the skater being lifted not being too heavy.