Knickknacks: General Skating Chat

This thread is inspired by the Nebelhorn Trophy 2017 announcer wherein they comment on interesting facts about skaters while introducing them. If you find skaters with interesting and weird/wacky hobbies feel free to share that information this thread!

Webpage version As the Senior Grand Prix season is about to begin, I thought now would be an appropriate time to take a systematic look at the judging records of our judges. Despite the fact that figure skating judges play a significant role in determining the career trajectory of young athletes, it is well known that they face little accountability. Only the most egregious cases of biased scoring are ever punished, in spite of the fact that biased scoring is rampant and well-documented. Nor does the International Skating Union (ISU) appear to keep any kind of running record of judges’ performances, so judges avoid all scrutiny as long as they keep their bias …

In light of the very questionable technical calling at the 2019 Autumn Classic International, and the epidemic of inconsistent technical calling in general, I thought it would be a good idea if we all work together to capture high quality, high frame rate video of jumps at future competitions. For instance, here is the type of video I'm talking about (though note this was a jump done in practice). It was shot in 240fps and 1080p on a Samsung Galaxy S10, so required no special equipment. If we could capture this kind of video for all jumps done by top competitors in competition, we could more convincingly dispute particular bad calls as …

Which US-President once called Katarina Witt a "fridge" after realizing that she is not interested in him? Ronald Reagan Bill Clinton Donald Trump Barrack Obama Who is the designer of a watch named "Spin Master"? Evgeni Plushenko Stephane Lambiel Evan Lysacek Daisuke Takahashi Which woman was once a vice world champion at a men's competition? Katarina Witt Madge Syers Trixi Schuba Alexandra Trusova Which car manufacturer is sponsoring Shoma Uno? Fiat BMW Toyota Honda Which figure skater was once accused of stealing a car? Yuzuru Hanyu Shoma Uno Boyang Jin Andrei Lutai Which world champion lost…

As a fascinating discussion started in the Layout thread, we've decided to move all the relevant posts here, so as to facilitate the discussion on jumps, their landings, etc when it comes to all the skaters that might peak your interest, and not just Yuzuru. Thank you @Fresca , and everyone, for the fascinating discussion and hopefully it'll continue! Edit by Yatagarasu ____________________ Nathan's wobbly landings (and even Boyang's wobbly landings too) are due to bad body alignment. They are small and they rotate very fast but they do not control their speed and power in the landing enough. In short, less control if yo…

Phil Hersh put out an article about the changes in FS expected after Beijing. https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2020/02/13/figure-skating-scoring-changes-proposal/?fbclid=IwAR1UgCQx4B6hhrUAWTo92iprmSxfR9xBh6dcl262_Lr2JcINzuYnG3Uze0M In an attempt to rebalance the athletic and artistic sides of figure skating, the sport’s technical committee for singles and pairs is submitting a proposal with sweeping changes for consideration by the International Skating Union at its biennial congress this June in Thailand. The proposal comes at a moment when the jump revolutions in men’s and women’s singles skating have created a huge competitive imbalance in favor of sk…

We all know how dangerous a 4axel is, but to hear from an actual skater about its potential effect on the skater it is makes me terrified for Yuzu. I agree with Maxim that this sport shouldnt be made so that in order to defeat your opponent you have to break yourself in the process. Would Yuzu have felt the need to attempt the quad lutz if he weren't put in that position in 2017 or thinking he must gain all three new quads next season in order to stay competitive? I think thats what making me lose my initial enjoyment as the sport evolves. And I feel like there is always a disclaimer that needs to be made whenever I make this statement, that I am by no mean a…

BECAUSE YUZU MAKES FALLING INTO AN ART FORM HE IS JUST THAT AWESOME

Throughout the years, have you had favorite commentators or any particular piece of commentary that you have liked? I'm particularly partial to Mr. Ambesi, to whom we owe our lovely name, and his co-commentator Angelo, due both to their enthusiasm and the knowledge they share with all of us but I am also quite partial to the Russian ESP commentators, especially the 4CC 2017 commentary, where one of my favorite lines happened, when he compared Yuzuru's skating to him mastering a foreign language. I also am also always appreciative of those who take the time to properly appreciate athletes like Jason Brown or Misha Ge, who may not have quads but sure do grace us w…

For up-to-date ISU communications : http://www.isu.org/en/media/isu-communications [*] Indicates communication was released within the last 14 days. 2017/18 Communications (Singles, Pair & Dance): * Decisions of the ISU Council June 2017 Amsterdam, Netherlands Communication No. 2097 : http://static.isu.org/media/525122/2097-decisions-of-the-isu-council-amsterdam.pdf Ice Dance - Scales of Values, effective July 1st 2017 Communication No. 2094 : http://static.isu.org/media/518264/2094-id-scales-of-values-2017-18.pdf Entries/Participation 2018 Olympic Winter Games (OWG) for Single & …

Hi~ A small project is being born and i'd like to invite you guys to participate A good amount of people from the forum (including myself) will be attending GPF, despite the likely announcement of Yuzu's withdrawal. However, Yuzu's birthday is getting closer, and we had the idea of doing something for him. Initially it would be just by us, the ones attending and i thought, why not ask the rest of the members of the forum if they have a message they'd like to send? A lot of things have happened and from the TCC family we have Jun Hwan Cha in the final, and Zhenya out of it too. So the idea of: doing something to congratulate baby Cha for…

What are your thoughts on the 2018-19 season? Which skater is most improved? Which program did you like the most? What would you like to see next season? I realized halfway through that the post-Olympic season is always a mess, and I should disentangle myself from skating for a bit Men: I thought Boyang Jin improved his PCS quite a bit, and is an excellent skater now in his practices. He still needs to pull it all together in the competitions, though, but given what was happening this season, it's understandable. Hope next season is much better. Shoma Uno didn't show huge improvements, but he did perform his SP different to…

I wanted to collect videos and articles comparing elements/programs side by side or over layed so you can directly compare them. Lutz This one gives stats on quad lutzes performed by Nathan and Yuzu http://perform-live.com/blog/video-analysis-of-figure-skating/231-quad-lutz-what-else.html Not sure how informative it is since it's so old but this also has these types of pics of Nathan's jumps from the Olympics https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/16/sports/olympics/nathan-chen-mens-figure-skating.html Lutz by Boyang http://perform-live.com/blog/video-analysis-of-figure-skating/216-interactive-a…

Since announcements are coming out and there're usually plenty of retirements post Olympic season, we thought we'd put all of the info into one thread, with a place to chat. Some of the names already known Elladj Balde Patrick Chan Dylan Moscovitch (Lubov hasn't decided) Alex Benoit Misha Ge Takahito Mura and others, please feel free to add any names. No news on Han Yan yet, guess we wait.

As another great discussion has been started, this time about ballet and fs, I've opened up a separate thread for you all, so there is no need to worry about cluttering other threads! Thank you very much guys, I hope you continue on! Edit by Yatagarasu _______________________ Most of my ballet training was also based on the Vaganova method. I don't know all the particulars of Balanchine technique but yes, his ballets have a lot of very fast choreography. I'm not sure though if training to do fast footwork and jumps would affect Nathan's jump landings negatively. I would think speed would require even better plie and better strengt…

This season promises to be a very exciting year. The Olympic Champion became World Champion in the last season, while the Olympic silver medalist seems to be hitting her stride again. Of course, there is also Rika Kihira and Elizaveta Tuk, whose triple axels always make them a threat for the podium. With the entrance of young talents like the already famous Russian 3A and You Young into the mix, the battle for the medals is on. Who do you think will shine this season? Will ladies without quads still have a chance at the gold? This thread is meant for discussion of senior ladies during this season.

Judging from practices and interviews, the realistic upgraded layout looks like FS: 4lz, 4lo, 4s, 4t, 4t-e-3f*, 3a/3t*, 3a/2t* = 98.58 SP: 4s, 3a, 4t/3t* = 46.37 BV = 95.84 + 46.37 = 144.95 Note that he continues to give up .2 in BV for one of his spins. I know it's not much but I have to think that it wouldn't be hard for him to fix without resorting to the Biellman, which I realize he wants to do but since he normally doesn't, maybe have a back up spin that's worth full bv. Who knows if 5 quad fs with upgraded jump content is realistic but that's what he's going for. Not sure what will get dropped if he does 4A. I'm guessing second 4t…

I have been wanting to start this thread to extensively discuss about the role of each aspect of the scoring like program component scores (PCS) and grade of execution points in figure skating and how they are being evaluated by ISU judges. One of the main reasons I want to have this discussion is because I have been seeing way too many people becoming used to the way that ISU judges have been scoring PCS based on the technical element scores (TES) that it actually has an effect on their own way of understanding the scoring system. I'm going to give a recent example like World Championships 2019. I have seen many people come to an agreement that Yuzu should have received…

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so we might as well keep a record. A thread to post Yuzuru references, skating or otherwise, and other skaters. Because we know you're only a true Icon(TM) when people start copying you

Here are the entries for worlds. Remember that the Russian ladies team is Alina Zagitova, Sofia Samodurova, and Evgenia Medvedeva NOT Konstantinova http://www.isuresults.com/events/fsevent03111664.htm Rules You have until the start of the first event on March 18 to get your final predictions in. Hydroblade created an event somewhere with times in your zone but I’m blind and can’t find it at the moment so I’ll have to link it later. I know how alluring that grand prize of “nothing” is but I feel that the honor system will be enough to keep everyone from changing predictions after the deadline. If you make any changes t…