hoodie axel

I think everyone's experienced Einaudi enough by now.

Sakamoto's SP is good enough for what they seem to be trying to convey: that she's a cheerleader trying to be edgy at her prom. Sigh. Hope her LP is better than that.

???? I just found it strange they announced it early... The rest of the post was a question, "are they celebrating the Olympics or what?" Because I found it odd they announced a cast member so early. It's Sailor Moon, actually, so idk if it has anything to do with the Olympics at all. It could just be a musical type thing.

They are allowed to. It's unusual though.

They announced it a year in advance? To celebrate the Olympics or what? Edit: Oh it's Sailor Moon. Guess it's like casting a musical or a movie.

wtf are those music cuts? He's growing into a nice performer, but that choreo is [admin edit: non-constructive criticism] rn. Hope the SP music is utilized a lot more effectively. Yuna's Roxanne remains the only program to that music that has fully realized choreography.

I have no idea why this matters in the slightest. Hopefully, The Better Chen will be National Champion, so I can finally have some hope for Ladies' FS again. Liu's jumps are just a myth. I like that she's been working on her presentation though. To me, she's skating to the music better than Zhou does, and The Other Chen too (although here I might be grading on a curve wrt age), mostly.

I'm already bored by the men's GPs. Will skip. ID and Pairs are pretty predetermined, but will watch the GPF. Women's is interesting, complete gauntlet. Might watch the entire thing.

Not sure I'm happy with all these "modern" SPs choreographed by Bourne this season... A welcome respite from warhorses, perhaps, but this might be a monotony on its own. Moreover, I don't believe we'll be seeing any particular artistic depth from any of these. Richaud's choreography can be hit and miss, but hopefully we'll see some amount of personality from his undertakings this season. Sakamoto's much maligned Amelie LP had that. Buttle's done some good work, of course, and I'd love to see more of him next season. In general, though, this is already highlighting the problem skating community has all of its own, with the talent pool restricted to such a small group of choreographers. Hopefully more step up, and hopefully we see more help from the dance world. Kind of sad so few are with Lori. I know she's unpopular amongst the fandom, but what she does so brilliantly is to incorporate the natural body line, the positions skaters take during jump entries and exits, the subtle changes of axes to the music etc. into the program, so much attention to the composition of the music itself. When she gets skaters who can work with her and carry it off (Asada, S/H, for instance), or has taken the time to develop this, it can look good.

Ladies predictions are harder, for me: SA: Tursy, Miya SC: Med, Kihi IdF: Zagi, Miya CoC: Tursy, Saka CoR: Zagi, Kihi NHK: Med, Saka

Looks like we'll be finding out about Team China's programs soon!

Yes, looks like it.

1

Wait, so it could be announced "today", Europe Time?

Do you have the SB list? EDIT: Got it. http://www.isuresults.com/isujsstat/sb2018-19/sbtslto.htm Kosto is 11th on the SB list, far behind Tukt. Yes, worrying for her might be entirely valid. I'd rather save the energy for a couple days down the line though.

Kosto will have two. I'm actually trying to think which of Tukt, Samo, Med, and Zagi will lose a spot. Well, which of Tukt and Samo, really. (probably Tukt)

Hmmm. Then maybe Shoma for NHK. Wonder how Nathan + Shoma's routines will fit into this.

Gracie isn't from Japan though?

Wonder if he even knew he'd be changing coaches and included those into his picks. But I actually forgot when the seeded skaters need to announce their picks.

Nathan did bomb the simpler layout, but IIRC the criticism Raf placed on his family was that they were trying to get him to do the harder layout, which he then trained and attempted in practices, and even went for the 4F in the 6 minutes warm up, which then led him to be very unconfident. I remember people discussing (and my agreeing with them) that he probably went for the 4T+3T because he was rattled by the 4Lz attempt, and wanted to secure a good combo.

I guess these, too. I am sure USFS won't leave the chance of permanently establishing Chen as a better skater than Shoma at SA. (for Nathan, NHK will definitely pick Yuzuru, so that one's out. I'm guessing CoC would indeed go to Zhou, so that does leave CoR for Chen)

Why is this surreal

We're in a Roxanne drought.

Where do you think Marin should go?