Xen

So um, which are we doing and when? I'm okay with doing both, and I guess my skating poohs will need to be readied. (I did think about doing a jump series of poohs in various Yuzu costumes)

No Zhou should not, there are edge problems, potentially hopped turns, and 1 unclear bracket and 1 missing choctaw ( probably). I want to redo Nate's because was too tired the first time I did it, but Nate's was truly no choctaw land. and missing potentially a left foot counter. So if I'm right, he also did not meet the complexity requirement where steps/turns must be done in both directions.

Cup of China is within bullet train distance for me. Yay! For once I can watch FS without taking an entire week holiday leave. For those who are wondering, I'm evaluating the steps of both Vince and Nate for the SP. Not sure if I'm accurate, since my eyes are out of practice. And I'm still utterly confused by lack of clearly identifiable choctaws (i mean really guys what happened to make you hate it so?). But feel free to follow along, and help me check. Anyways, up first, Vinny! SP:

I hate to say this, but in east asia, haha....no it won't. There are plenty of times in the past where fans wondered if JSF wanted to ditch Yuzu and if it's better for him to fly a different flag. yes they've supported him before, but quite a bit is also out of self interest (as his commercial deals etc have a portion of profits go to JSF). Some of the arguments and reasons why fans are pissed off in the first place, is an argument about "fairness" to other skaters if a star is too popular (which wasn't used on Mao or Daisuke btw, at least I don't recall it).

No it wasn't, judging by the fact US men's barely had any calls, the better description would be uncle sam had a knife to the TP and judges throat. Almost all JPN skaters who have a rep to UR got called- Shoma and Satton for example. Meanwhile US skaters received fewer calls than normal. USfed was super determined, first in the 4CC SP and now at WC. This is just disgusting-yes skating is kind of dying in the US and maybe USFSA wants revival, but honestly, this is not how you do it. Plus all the Eunsoo stuff. What the heck has USFSA become?

Please go rest Murieleirum. You got your first round of facing TrollLord IRL and up close. It'll take some time to recover, a long time.

@utsukushii3A: commercial rinks generally would not have sessions for FS, unless there's a team or something that rents out for a price. IE at my rink, which is also commercial and located in a mall, we only have closed sessions for hockey. FS just skates with the public. So you get funny stuff happen, and usually the rink guards won't yell at customers. So I've also had the happy encounters where adults run onto the ice in normal shoes to chase after their kids, kids being told by the parents to ask me to teach them, and incidents where people decide that running into my spins are a way to stop. Usually the only workaround is to a) go so early in the morning that there are no people on ice, or b) go so late in the evening that there are no people on ice. Only time for footwork practice and stroking practice are lunchtime sessions. T_T The one I actually take lessons at does have people yell at public skaters who are on phones etc- but it's not the rink guards, usually it's the coaches. For some reason, a lot of people don't listen to rink guards. (so far I might be the only one in a friends circle of around 30 people who hasn't had skate guards get stolen or broken by kids).

The only ones I've heard of are Yahoo Japan auctions.

Ah, I would love for him to troll the media like that too on day 1. XD

Hmm, well JPN media might not, but no foreign media chasing after him either? Actually, it's amusing that this year, the men's does feel more subdued than previous years to me (at least). Ladies has been drama after drama after drama. Men's is just kind of humming along (actually without Yuzu, it's been a bit anti-climatic?). As for morning practice, hope he skips if he's tired. May Tracy, Brian and Ghislain all sit on him if he tries otherwise.

Yes, the major part of me suspects he's already landed. Though how quiet media is about his arrival, if they cooperated, is on another level of amazing if that is the case.

There is actually an Air-Canada flight from Toronto to Tokyo Haneda. My guess is check that one, I think ANA and Air Canada have codeshare flights. Seems flights from CAN to JPN are going to be arriving around 4-5 pm JPN time. Got another 2-3 hours guys.

LOL, I checked the ANA website you linked @WinForPooh and it says the servers are congested.

Another cold last week means...I haven't skated or took classes for almost 2 weeks. How am I ever going to get my damn flip and lutz?! (also according to coach, I have lip tendencies. *sigh*)

Well, to be fair the big feds aren't exactly in the best of spots either. I think after the JPN ladies, the rest are really a toss-up.

How many costumes have been fed to your cats this season?

I don't think a deflation is necessary, I think it's necessary for judges and the judging system, and even fans, to accept that gaps do exist. Very few skaters, especially when trying to climb up rankings, will try to really balance the PCS and TES. TES, especially BV is much easier--> do a jump or spin etc successfully, you get the point. And it's much more straight forward. However, that is a choice and judges should recognize and accept that choices were made. Scores might not be as high, but they would no way be truly "low" just because PCs aren't keeping up with the BVs. They were not really supposed to, and it's not like all skaters are PCS-artistry type of skaters. It does create the problem that if a skater gets 88 PCs out the gate, but increase and do in fact do better years later, they can't get higher PCS. People wonder why TES and BV is ballooning- well geesh, look at what other options are given, especially if new senior skaters from big feds are getting 88% of their maximum PCS already in year 1.

I want the same number of jumps and possibly about 20 seconds back in the long. XD

It's back outside edges....just switching back outside edges fluidly instead of waiting to stop.

Wonder what Yuzu is doing on Valentine's Day. Did he remember to take out his Gold Medals out for a good date?

Point your toes a bit? I always get nudged by my coach to go jump up from my toes and try to land with my toes more. I'm also a violator of the Shu-Pa jump code on loops.

Has she been targetted in US Media though? I thought US Media is going "brilliant, exquisite, huge, one of a kind" with her jumps. o_O If we look at US Media, the big one is Shoma, and then Satoko. After that, whomever survives of the Russian girls (I think Kosto won't get dinged much, but watch them go after Schebakova and Trusova).

*sigh* The issue of tech panel is pretty simple. If we were to judge 100 meter dash, a referee needs to ensure all athletes are really running 100 meters and start at the same point. Not someone gets to jump start 0.5 seconds early, someone can get away with running 90 meters and another needs to go 110 meters to count. If that were allowed, we'd consider the sport a complete farce. And that is essentially the role of the TP- ensure everyone is starting more or less at the same baseline (BV in this case). We already have PCS issues, GOE biases, country biases etc, that already are doing the equivalent of giving athletes a slight 0.5 seconds head-start. The least we could do is ask the TPs to ensure people are doing a full 100 meters. (Not to mention there is already PR allowances so technically not everyone is starting at 100 meters). As for PR- I know this sounds like conspiracy, but part of me wonders if it isn't targetted towards potential Beijing contenders early on. In this case, I'm looking at Shoma's 4F in particular, potentially Gogolev's 4Lz, and potential Russian men coming up. In short, any of the potential contenders with a decent reputation for Pre-rotation, since US is quite secure in Nate's jumping ability. This also allows some opening of the floodgate to PR against JPN and Russian ladies, especially Russian ladies who have a PR reputation to a degree. USFed does want a medal, which it hasn't had for a long while internationally.

*cough* because skating straight backwards you're on a flat, and from crossovers or 3-turns you're on an edge. XD It's easier to maintain balance and speed etc, IMO when actually on an active edge.

Must say the cross-cut pattern of the T-shirt is very appropriate, kind of like complex ice marks. But would suggest we add a signature 4S take off entry curve mark in there. Or maybe one of those pretty 4T landing marks. =)