specialj67

Man, there were some twizzle issues in that top group of ice dancers in the free. I feel kinda bad for Chock/Bates and Weaver/Poje, but Papadakis/Cizeron were so in the zone. Their performance was beautiful. When was the last time an ice dance team took such a leap in the standings from one season to the next like they did? Only about 1.5 points separating 3-6 places--shaping up to be an interesting contest for the silver and bronze in the long, assuming Yuzuru Hanyu doesn't implode. I don't particularly like Jason Brown's SP this season and will be happy to see it go (she said, full of hope), but it was great to see him deliver it so well and place in the top group going into the long program. The two Japanese men who are not Yuzuru--eesh. Purely on a personal taste level, I prefer Maxim Kovtun to Sergei Voronov (though Voronov's SP costume is on point with the gold accents and fur and/or feathers), so it's disappointing to see Kovtun pop those 2 jumps and place so low.

It does seem ridiculous that Gracie is only a point behind Polina. And seriously, are any of them going to be able to beat Elizaveta short of her having a total meltdown (which she hasn't all season)? I was hoping for a closer points spred in the top 3. Of the Japanese skaters, I'm rooting for Kanako; the other two are still a bit junior-ish in the PCS dept., even if they've been more consistent this season. The medalists in pairs were all so impressive--especially Pang and Tong. So is the Chinese federation really going to let them retire now, or what? I like Scimeca and Knierim a lot and hope they improve their side-by-side jumps to move up into medal territory.

I was trying to think of a way to say basically what you said here but mine was more rambly. So yeah, THIS. I think as she improves her interpretation and projection, her programs might pop more. She and her team did a better job of it in her SP this season, in my opinion, because the music was more dynamic.

Only caught the end of the coverage on Universal this afternoon--super stoked to see Denis Ten do so well. I hope this time he carries that through the free skate. I tried to check the other results on the ISU website but kept getting redirect errors; is anyone else having this problem?

I think that's why I like her over any of the other Russian ladies on the scene right now. Her experience, even though she's only a couple of years older, is such an asset when you notice how she projects through her whole programs and the other do not. I want to like Radionova more, but she still seems quite junior-ish in some of her movements, which you know, 16 and all--to be expected. And Pogorilaya doesn't connect AT ALL in her long program this season, noticably so at Euros. The ladies' competition overall at Euros was kind of a bore since it was pretty obvious who was going to medal, barring major meltdowns, which is too bad because the two Swedish skaters had some nice qualities but were nowhere close on the technical score. I hope it'll be more of a contest at Worlds.

I think Tanith said something during the dance portion about how Hubbell and Donohue's free program kind of loses the hip-hop-ish dance elements they wanted to incorporate and therefor feels unfinished. From what I've heard in commentary this season, they wanted to do an EVEN MORE MODERN take on Baz Luhrmann's version of The Great Gatsby, thus wanting to have hip-hop incluenced moves it. I applaud them for the creativity, if not the execution, because the sections where they have the really sharp arm/upper body movements work; unfortunately those parts don't account for a lot of the program and the rest of it is a snooze.

Johnny or Tara said something to the effect of preferring Joshua Farris' more natural artistic approach to skating over Jason Brown's more choreographically affected one. The longer I watch this sport, the more I'm of a mind that IDGAF if a skater's artistry is a put on or what as long as they do whatever they're doing with conviction to the best of their ability. I was glad to see both guys lay it out neearly flawlessly. It would have been marevelous for Adam to have an upset win, but I'm still so happy he placed second and gets another trip to Worlds. He'll be the veteren of the U.S. men, won't he? Is Jeremy going to officially reitre after this season? I'd be sad, because he's my sentimental fave, but it's got to be a grueling schedule he has to keep to train for these events and it doesn't get easier the older you are.

Ashley Wagner's...showmanship, I guess?...was refreshing after watching the other younger ladies in the GPF. You can obviously see how her years competing at the senoir level and doing the various ice shows has helped her with her projection and overall smoothness in moving across the ice. I didn't realize how much that was missing from most of the other programs, except for Elizaveta Tuktamysheva's, until I watched Ashley's free skate.

Not advertising, and not showing a discipline where U.S. skaters are actually doing very well--ice dancing. Of course, I know that they show all of the ice dancing and pairs coverage on Universal Sports, but a lot of the audience either doesn't get that channel in their cable/satelite package because it's cost prohibitive or their provider doesn't carry it at all. Someone said upthread that it's confusing/annoying that NBC isn't capitalizing more on Davis/White's gold medal at Sochi by showing more ice dancing in their broadcast coverage, and I agree. I miss the days when ABC had the rights for figure skating and made it easy to catch stuff on ESPN/2 if they didn't run it on the main network--that was how I got back into watching it in the early '00s.

His CoC performance of it, which was before the collision and head injury, was quite beautiful, even with the error on the lutz jump. ITA. He is one of those skaters I would gladly watch an entire jump-free program of and not feel like I was missing out on anything--unlike about 75% of the top skaters on the scene right now.

I am kind of amazed at how well Yuzuru Hanyu managed to do this season considering what happened at CoC and the timing issues he's had on his quads so far this season. I was also surprised at just how close he and Jason Brown are in the final rankings (6 and 7 respectively) and point totals (and that in pure point totals, Brown is ahead by 2.38)--it seems to me, a person in no way an expert in all the vagries of this sport, that Hanyu benefitted from slightly easier competitive fields at his events compared to Brown, and Hanyu seemed to get more love from the judges in the program component scores. When comparing their scores, it seems ridiculous that Hanyu's CoC long program PCS, with the 5 falls, was 3 points better that Brown's SA long program PCS, with one fall. I would ask why that is, but I realize it's a tedious and likely fruitless effort. Looking at the ladies field for the GPF, I am underwhelmed, honestly. Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner are perfectly fine skaters, but I don't care for their free programs this season. I don't care for most of the programs most of these six skaters are doing this season, with the exception of Eliziveta Tuktamysheva. If a Russian skater wins this GPF discipline, and it seems almost certain that will happen, I hope it's her. ETA: Watching the NBC coverage of NHK, Terry and Tara's continual snarking on the overabundance of Phantom music selections--I appreciated that. Rewatching Sergei Voronov's free program, I realized what distracts me about his style--he leans really foward on his axel jumps, and his free program has a lot of choreographic dead spots. Daisuke Murakami's and Frank Carroll's reactions to Murakami's free skate scores was quite adorable. And Jeremy Abbott's performace, at least, was miles ahead of where he was from his first competition; I'm liking the minimalist style this season. When I first saw the final placements, and that he finished 5th behind Hanyu, I was expecting to see another splat/pop-fest. After watching both of them, I'm still confused as to how Abbott finished behind Hanyu, and by only a fraction of a point.

After watching the free skates for the guys and ladies at TEB on TV today, SMH at the dudes. Not as terrible as CoC a couple weeks back, but man. Denis Ten's long program has so many intersting things in it, but it was so frustrating to see him just mentally check out of it like he did--it says a lot about the other competitors, and the splatfest there, that he managed to win a medal. Disappointing to see Dornbush and Machida struggle with their long programs because their skating, especially Dornbush's skating skills, are wonderful to watch. Maxim Kovtun isn't my cup of tea, I guess. Johnny and Tara were showering him with all kinds of love in the commentary, and while there's no denying his ability to land a jump and keep it together for 4:40, his programs as a whole simply aren't to my taste. I really liked the other Russian guy, Pitkeev, at first, because his program was kinda weird and his style so different from Kovtun, but he fell off hard about half way through and his axel technique is really disctacting. I find it very boring whenever any country dominates any of the disciplines, so the fact that there's going to be 4 Russian skaters in the ladies' GPF leaves me less than enthused. None of them are faves to watch, right now anyways, but I think of the top ones, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva is the one with the most interesting programs and skating style. I'm just not feeling/buying what the other Russian ladies are selling right now. I also find it boring when the ladies' competition is dominated with very young skaters, such as we usually get the season following an Olympics, because the overall level of sophistication of the programs and choreography takes a bit of a hit.

I think it's one of those informally understood things where you get a reputation with the judges for certain habits, like habitually under-rotating certain jumps or taking off on the wrong edge, so they are more likely to scrutinize you heavily for that aspect of your skating more than other skaters they are judging. Maybe? That's what I've gleaned from other forum posters over the years who were much more in the know than myself. I think Ashley Wagner has had the same issue over the years, especially at the Olympics, where she lost points because of under-rotated triples. Reputation still counts for a LOT in this sport--once you become known for a certain tic, it's hard to shake it off.

Hah! Yes. Peter Carruthers noticed this during the Universal Sports coverage. And yes, they did get dinged a point for "costume failure", according to the detailed judges scoring sheet.

Hawayek and Baker, the U.S. ice dance team that finished 6th, were the surprise of the day for me. I've never seen them before today, but it didn't take long for me to be impressed. They remind me of Davis and White about 7-8 years ago when they were making the transition from junior to senior competitions. Also, Coomes and Buckland from G.B. I don't know what they did over the summer, but they seemed like a different pair than they were in Sochi. Their whole free dance was engaging, not just the lifts this time.

People are all over Rostelecom Cup on YouTube today--yay. Stepanova and Bukin's twizzles in the short dance were very cool in that first set--I don't think I've ever seem them done that low to the ice before. If anyone knows of any other skaters that have done that particular variation, send me some video links! Misha Ge, good lord is he fun to watch--though I do miss the terrible hair coloring from the Olympics. The Canadian skater in first in ladies, Alaine, was nice to watch, as were Ashley Cain and Mirai. I like Mirai's skating so much and hope she can keep up the momentum. Anna Pogorilaya--I'm not feeling her style yet, I guess? She and many of the other female skates were showcasing some wicked ugiy catch-foot positions in their spins. In her spin at the end of her program, Mirai was able to get her skate blade all the way over her head with little loss of speed, but most of the others doing that same manuver were just...blerg. I thought the rules were tweaked after the Torino games so we'd get less of the skate-to-the-head thing, or am I making that up in my head?

Ah, yes. See, it's one of those things that I simply didn't ntice until now, and now it's all I see--especially with the younger female skaters who tend to skate slower. Julia Lipnitskaya and Yuzuru Hanyu definitely showed how you can't win a competition in the short program but it can help you to not totally lose. It seems nuts they didn't pull Hanyu from the competition since head injuries and possible concussions are no joke. I know fuck all about sports medicine, but I do that. Add me to the Richard Dornbush appreciation chorus. His skating is nice to watch--like Jeremy Abbott but with less of the baggage. If he and Jason Brown can do well this season, I'd really like to see them rep. the U.S, at Worlds in March.

I got lucky and was able to see the Cup of China ice dance and pairs free programs on Uniersal Sports, and even though Peter Carruthers was a bit annoying with his commentary, at least they showed all the entrants programs in their entirety. As a U.S. skating fan, it feels increasingly pointless ever watching the American pairs because it seems like they never stay together long enough to get to the level required to finish on an international podium. I really like Tanith Belbin as a commenator. Her remaks are usually informative, particularly for me since ice dance is the discipline I know the least about, and don't detract from the viewing experience. The French team that won was lovely to watch--their free program is just so...pretty and pleasant to watch. Too bad about the Italians--they finished last season on such a high, I was just not feeling what they put together in this new free program. I think I want to like the ShibSibs free program this year more than I actually do at this point. I really like their short dance, but I think because the music they use for their free is so familiar that it's easy to feel bored by it. As a viewer, I like it when things get theatrical and weird, and their program is anything but. Something I noticed while watching the ladies free skate: some of the youngest were doing a kick thing with their free leg going into some of their jumps, like the flip (?) Is that a common thing to do? It was distracting to see. And I have a couple of music choice questions. First, what is it with so many of the Japanese skaters using Phantom of the Opera this year?? Second, when is someone going to use selections from the Battlestar Galactica soundtrack for a program? (I've been asking this for going on ten years now.) This kind of gets to a perennial gripe about hearing the same dozen music selections every year; there are so many options, especially now that words are allowed in all disciplines, but instead we just get the same stuff--just with the actual words now instead of instrumental versions.

So happy to find fellow former TWoP posters here--Tumblr is great for pictures and videos but useless for actual discussion threads. Men's LP thoughts: Since I'm at the mercy of the kindness of YouTube uploaders for GP performances, I have learned to love pixelated picture and muddy sound these last few years. Perhaps if I'd been able to watch in high def, Jeremy Abbott's scruff would look less half-assed? I kinda get what he's going for, but just not feeling it right now. As for actual skating, I love the music he's using for his LP, but eesh, some of those doubled jumps. I thought last season was going to be his final in competition? He finished in a good place after the rough Olympics and seemed pretty final about it all, so I was surprised to see him still in the mix. Watching Jason Brown was frustrating because TRIPLE AXEL, dude. That has to be locked down if there's no planned quadruple jump and you want to be in gold medal contention with the Japanese men. I love the rest of his skating, even if not so much feeling the costumes (hoping they will be changed at some point this season). I hope with Jason, it's a case of "first competition of the season"-itis and not a harbinger of things to come. The Canadian who finished in third, Nam Nguyen, some of his moves were pretty good and fluid, but other times he was quite stiff. Looked at his bio--he's only 16--so that explains that and his slowness compared to the other top, older competitors. Tatsuki Machida is certainly Mr. Jumps, but I'm not feeling the program as a whole. Hoping there will be refinment of the elements between the jumps.