Xen

My guesses are: Boyang: SA and COC, or COC and IdF (Coc/IdF is closer to Boyang's pattern) Yuzu: SC and CoR/IdF/NHK (this is closer to his pattern) Mikhail: CoC and CoR (fairly close distance so he's fine travel wise) Nate: SA and CoC (China allowed Boyang to go head to head with Nate in 2017 GP, so why not another set of head to head?) Shoma: any 2 of SC, NHK, IdF Tomono: SA or SC, and possibly get invited to CoC/IdF/NHK Assuming that Javi doesn't do the full GP circuit, he's a total wild-card. He might just show up at IdF. 18/19 GP series will be wild, just because of wild-card Boyang, Yuzu and possibly Javi (if he decides to do any GP) ruining any and every Fed's party.

If this gets through, I'm investing in USB type of speakers, and figuring how to sneak them through to competitions. Now, to be totally fair, I will blast pre-recorded applause, cheering and more, for every single team. Hope the judges aren't confused. *wait, I need a bigger team for this, maybe I should bring extra copies and just rope people into joining me in creating utter engagement chaos

New tasks for the cameramen, guess the kiss cam was just a test drive in Milan.

Ugh, no it doesn't. Well if they want engagement, I guess I'll just bring a jumbotron speaker to an ice dance competition, and use it to ensure my teams get the engagement score.

Well here's to hope...but honestly I'm not that hopeful. I'm more curious if they will ever manage to give uniform guidelines on PCs. That's the thing-the nice part of IJS is that PCs for skaters should be able to reflect what they objectively showed on ice, not how they did relative to others (which is ordinals system), but so far the PCs are being used as ordinals, which sucks.

You mean this bit? "In order to receive GOE +4/+5 you must have no negative features as defined and 7-8 positive features, execution is correct, no falls/stumbles/loss of balance and element is in musical structure." If applied to singles, the ISU must do something and address pre-rotation issues, and tech panels must really call edges and URs consistently.

....I'm seriously worried I might see the ice dance version of Candyman after reading that description. Jokes aside, is it just me who finds the "theme" guidelines' existence just mildly insulting to ice dancers? I mean, heaven forbid ice dancers have some input on how they view themselves as artists. Now instead of being dramatic, they have to be "dramatic" but also entertainingly "Enjoyable-engaging-colourful." Talk about defining your own vision of what ice dance means. For those curious- check out this link about the new patterns: https://www.ice-dance.com/site/reference/pattern-dance-descriptions-patterns/rhumba-damor-under-development-by-isu/ Maple Leaf March: adapted from a partial sequence from Poirier and Gilles Rhumba d’Amor: based on something from Torville and Dean Tea Time Foxtrot: created by Natalia KALISZEK and Maksim SPODIREV Now I'm curious as to what those patterns look like, google didn't give me any actual steps patterns images.

We were barely alive, surviving by subsisting on a single great white shirt from the summer. I do not know if Yuzu thought a lot beyond pyeongchang, so he might be rewriting his plans. A very significant part of me thinks he might go till 2022, as he mentioned dominating no matter how rules change. What better way than winning more medals, maybe even ogm, to prove that? Even so, until he says it, I think given his love for skating and competing, I trust he will be back.

Okay, I'm not sure if we could do anything to influence ISU, and the issue is not necessarily ISU, but the federations themselves. I'm not really that knowledgeable about pairs or dance, but maybe can help out with singles knowledge. Major deadline in April, but maybe can help out occasionally and after April. I do think the completion of the project will probably come in too late for the GOE changes though. But maybe we can halt the BV changes, or at least balance it out.

O_O Well if she does, holy 3As....

I've seen this interpreted otherways elsewhere. That she might be thinking the question is "Does puberty mean automatic weight gain?" In which case she would be correct, that puberty automatically means gaining weight, is not always applicable to everyone. If that's what she meant, then she's not too far off the mark since puberty changes in height, weight, body shape etc vary from people to people, and sometimes are delayed not just due to exercise, but also just genes (*points to self, stayed same weight for years*). But the idea of athletes not followingy any diet, is foreign to me. Most competitive athletes, whether via a trainer/nutritionist, or just by themselves, will follow some dietary regiment that is meant to help them perform at their best. However, given what happened to Yulia, and the news about ED from Gracie Gold, body image issues discussed by Adam Rippon and Ashley, it is natural that people will wonder if something similar is at play with Alina, especially as Eteri's skaters do look "leaner" than many other skaters. But IMO, they still do have those stronger thighs that are pretty prevelant among figure skaters.

They were the proud few survivors of the "pick up pooh bears" skating skills exercise from hell Or you know, they could just be adorable....

...that might be simple enough for judges to remember. -That's not how it should be, but probably how it's been applied anyways.

Yes, and no, a clean edge is the most traditional of the axel jump techniques, but I think it's not used anymore, since it's harder to control. Yuzu pretty much goes from ball of foot to toepick, so not full-on skid I think. Pretty close to a clean edge.

Regarding skid axels, closest I can think of is the video here: for Javi's, you can see the entire/majority of blade being pressed and used to halt and launch into the jump. Yuzu does have a slight skid when he uses the counter entry, but not a noticeable skid if he uses a different entry. I hear there are benefits with the skid, that being when well done, it's easier to control the edge when going in for axels at higher entry speeds. @asahi: could you give us some insights on this?

Skid axel is a bit...wow how to explain it without a video. I think the basics is that you do something like a hockey like stop from a hockey glide. Supposedly the best ones are a constant speed from glide to skid/stop to jump, that gives the best lift. A decreasing speed one is okay, but you won't get the lift, and an increasing speed skid tends to create problems.

For those who are curious about how much energy/calories is burned by skating, while not exact, you could try this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/calories-burned/skating-ice-speed-competitive-143 I think we also need to separate the idea of nutrition and puberty changes especially where female skaters are concerned (not as a separate thread, just they should not be mixed up). Personally I'm a bit surprised by skaters not eating. I think when I was skating over summer vacation as a teenager, I remember always eating during ice resurfacing breaks. Perhaps contrary to others, I actually was considered too slim and light, so was advised to gain a bit more muscle and weight ironically. So diet would vary depending on the goal of the skater, weight control for one, or muscle/weight gain for another.

Yep....that little bend and snap. Springy.... As for spinners- I'm from the camp of can't do my spins on the spinners, but I can spin on ice. So >_>

1) Think about forming a V shape- arms at around 120-150 degrees rather than straight up 180 degrees apart, and turning your free leg out but to the side and slightly in front instead of just at the side. It helps. 2) Waltz jumps- look at Yuzu's launch for his axels. Notice how there is a slight point where he has a visible "spring up" on his ball of foot to knee. It's quick transfer, but if you watch gifs, or slo-mo, you'll notice it. =)

So much speed... When women have consistent 3A's and the men's have a ? on theirs....

Second point is pretty cool. You hear that Yuzu? Go heal that ankle properly, otherwise we call the android pooh operation on you!

Regarding what you said: 1) Arm movements: I'm not a fan of the flailing arms syndrome, and that worries me-an emphasize on arms in a program, will just get translated as windmill arms. But if the judges give him less transitions scores because he doesn't have arm movements, I'm sorry, I vehemently disagree with their assessment. Yuzu does not move his arms without purpose-his arm movement, whether it is from spins, jumps or step sequences all have a purpose, from shoulder to finger tips. If it gets to the point where footwork is replaced by arm-work, then sorry figure skating, I don't recognize you anymore. 2) Steps and Jumps: I am a bit surprised if skaters don't practice jumps with steps/different entries. It was a long long time ago when I actually devoted a significant amount of time to skating, but one of the things I remember was a coach requesting that I learn multiple entries to every single jump as soon as I can stablize it (and then stablize it with all jumps). That is how you show you have good control and good technique (rolling 3-turns into loop jumps are nightmares btw), and is necessary later on for choreography reasons. So it's not really just an issue of good coaching ( I think most coaches would ask you use mutliple entries to practice your jumps), but actually good technique to be able to jump from a variety of entry methods. And that is why we say Yuzu has one of the best jump techniques in the skating world.

Someone should make a long sound reel of just his jumps landings. It's very soothing. Anyone? Onegai?

*whispers: but they forgot the boot covers*

My wallet is already opening a bit... *points to a small hole in skate soakers courtesy of wrong end accidentally placed on toepicks* Now see here Edea and Disney-this soaker needs potential replacement, and my blades are whispering to me that they would not mind being covered by a fluffy golden yellow bear. Got it?