meoima

No, I would say the current Patrick is slower than Patrick at his peak (Olympic Sochi season). While Yuzuru is still approaching his peak.

Nathan jumps higher and bigger than Shoma for sure. Nathan's jumps do not have the biggest ice coverage though, compared to Boyang, his jumps are smaller. They had photos side by side to compare in the Ice Jewel magazine. Boyang's 4lz is really great but I am not sure his other quads (and other triples) are huge, maybe ok height and coverage but not super. Yuzuru and Patrick have biggest jumps. I think Patrick has biggest 4T3T and maybe biggest 3F, had he jumped 4F maybe it will be huge. Yuzuru has biggest edge jumps (4lo,4S, 3A). Javi have big quads but his triples not so big.

Jackie Wong is not a specialist though. Below is what a specialist think I am saying ISU clearly KNOW Shoma cheats the take-off in his jumps. It has definition in the ISU handbook. They just do not want to add too many things and change the whole judging system before the Olympic. And if you notice Jackie Wong's description, you can see that he does not outright attack Shoma as having cheated jumps. However, he does remind people gently that a "PURE TAP" like Nathan deserves higher GOE than a "MESSY TAP" by Shoma. Political action at its best. Of course he knows ISU won't punish bad take-off for at least a year. Now it is time to do politicking for American skaters. Like: "Yes we won't say anyone cheat, but our skaters deserves better." BTW, in some ISU meetings, the experts there do address some problems with the current judging and they do point out various issues the fans have said. They just do not attack those issues for some various reasons.

Yuzuru often has very good turns, his edge is sharp and clear. However, he does everything VERY FAST. So it makes it harder to judge him as we have to follow his crazy speed. I would say Zhenia is slower and easier to see how she does things. Yuzuru at his best he maintain great speed across the program. Zhenia is not the fastest lady, even though she also maintains ok speed across the program. One thing for sure, she definitely is not as fast as Yuzuru. I would say Zhenia has better basic skating skills than some male skaters whom I cost so much time to identify their turns and steps.

They both start their elements with a counter and end it with a counter. While Yuzuru prefers to use counter with the 3A, Zhenia uses it with the 3Lo. Yuzuru's counter 3A counter is the most difficult in my opinion. Too bad Zhenia isn't that excellent at the Axel to do the same. It's very legit to say her transition sequence in and out of the 3Lo is exquisite.

I think the intention that Shoma wanted to do was a Rocker - 3 turn, but he executed it not well enough. That's why it turned into a 3 turn - 3 turn. Even with rocker - 3 turn - 4 loop, I wouldn't call it the most difficult entry before 4Loop ever. Let's take a look at a much more difficult entry that Yuzuru does: spread eagle RBO/LFO – cross roll RBO/LBO – change of foot RBO - 4 Lo (and a spread eagle after that). What's so great about Yuzuru's transitions in and out of his jumps (and Zhenia's transitions too) is that you can reverse the order and the elements will still look the same. As for Zhenia, I love that her turns are so clear and neat, if I were judging in competition, I would give her good GOE too, because I can see clearly everything to give points. I quite like the counter 3Loop counter she is doing. In my opinion, Yuzuru might have liked it as he will do counter 3A counter! It's a very nice contrast.

OK so I have just heard some ridiculous comments the entry of some jumps. Normally I would ignore it but I am afraid if there is no clear analysis, many people might have believed such FALSE and MISLEADING remarks. So that person claims that Shoma Uno's transitions before the 4lo is the most difficult entry. He said that Shoma Uno did Rocker RBO-RFO into a FO-RBO counter before the 4lo. I have to say it's totally wrong. He even compared Shoma Uno's entry before the Loop to Evegenia Medvedeva's crazy entry before her Solo 3Loop in the short program. I have noticed many people believe that person. I write this post because I do not want them to spread the wrong information around too widely. I want to make it straight. First, simple definition of the turns in figure skating: http://chibura.tumblr.com/post/163644861710/please-enjoy-some-videos-about-the-6-one-foot This one is very good: http://the-real-xmonster.tumblr.com/post/162905929409/turns-and-steps-explained-12 Second, please use the super slow motion before the jumps in these fancam: Zhenia's 3Lo entry https://youtu.be/LqhOqRukNNU?t=1m55s Shoma's 4lo's entry https://youtu.be/dWKrE7cbPsg?t=6m32 Third, let me break it down. 1) Zhenia's entry before solo 3lo: Right back outside edge - counter - Right forward outside edge - Change of edge to inside edge into 3 turn - 3lo (forward inside edge 3 turn backward outside edge 3 loop). Oh and Zhenia also did a counter after the 3lo so she was doing Counter - 3lo - counter!!! That's crazy! (and Yuzuru will do counter 3A counter in the Chopin 3.0, it seems he likes this move Zhenia owns). Here is the slow motion of her entry https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2x6lKiyto-8WG5oSVFySnVndjg/view The whole sequence was done one 1 foot. I draw it out here, sorry for the bad drawing: http://imgur.com/OfMMY5A I have to say, it is very easy to pick out the move Zhenia does on the ice. Everything she does (aside from her Flutz) is quite clear and easy to see. It is very clean and neat. In short, very clear to the judges. It is very easy to give her good GOE because it's so neat to the eyes. 2) Shoma's entry before the solo 4lo. This one is very tricky because the edge was unclear. The "expert" who we might all have known claimed that Shoma did a rocker into a counter. Let me explain why it's wrong. Because with rocker/counter, you have to move from one curve to another (see the 2 tumblr posts above explaining the turns). With Shoma Uno, THERE WAS NO move from ONE CURVE TO ANOTHER CURVE. Here is the slow motion of the whole entry Shoma did https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2x6lKiyto-8N2k2Q3J6QTQtV3c/view The edge Shoma did after the turn was very unclear, it was like he could not maintain/control the edge. So he was skating half on the flat edge (or maybe outside a bit because it was very unstable) but I would say he aims for the inside edge. Shoma goes into the 4Loop by Forward inside edge 3 turn backward outside edge - Loop (it's the fundamental for all the Loop jump). I drew the whole sequence here. http://imgur.com/c6PuuZQ In the video of WTT FS, some people might think Shoma did a rocker (from RBO to RFO) but there was no clear curve 1 to curve 2. Unlike, with Evgenia Medvedeva, you can see the curve she does very clearly. I also asked another coach and we came to a conclusion that, after the RBO turn which is unclear if it's a 3 turn that he failed or a rocker that he failed, Shoma Uno skates on the inside edge, substitutes the left leg and moves to the back on two legs then goes straight into the 4lo. We count it as 3 turn because it's on the same curve. 3) What baffles me was that person claimed Zhenia Med did a rocker into counter, then later he claimed she did two counter and claimed that Shoma did rocker - counter into 4lo. And I was like: Where is the counter where is the rocker??????? My friend re-watched the video over and over again with the same question. My advice: If you have to trust anyone with the tech analysis, please take whatever that comment says as JUST a reference. I would never trust the technical comment from someone who claimed 2 foot move as a counter.

Apparently I assure you, some flawed jumps with PR and UR can be obvious in real time if you are sitting in the ice level which the tech specialists have always been... and the hook mark on the ice is very obvious. Enough for now, I gotta run...

The video is on youtube here: It is clear a Flutz and UR... look at the hook in the landing I am glad you miss me. But I just can not stand people who have no clue about skating who go around counting BV and think that fake technique can be fixed in a summer. Now we have clear evidence of how much it can be "fixed". I will just ran away.

Is this Shoma's "4lz" https://livebarn.com/videoshare?locale=en_ca&vid=3 ?H5d2N4Bz0SBgikU1NXi7aRjZhvTc_2Fhxl34fxJ2VJJaCPitv6vsNliVOkYp_2FWRYfHW7Y_2F12Kh9GNqBJuVRhuimb_2FERASbBhOGaMVC475aQamOzBg16kQIKk_2B_2B_2Fa4632u3lm1C5rMWjtr9h_2FKM44qVymlwg_2B9BOsX&dt=2017-08-14T13%3A29&t=1488072.109728&d=30000 It's a FLUTZ clear as daylight. And I am not talking about the pre-rotation yet. The edge is so clear a flutz. Do you think USFA and other specialists will let the cheated edge go when they have Nathan and Boyang who jump true quad Lutz out there? I laugh a bit at people who think you can fix a Flutz in a summer.

Yes, if the specialist couldn't see the turns (because it's too fast or it's too far), they won't count it and it might affect the level of the step sequence. Or if the specialist thinks some of the turns don't meet their requirements (not clear edge, too flat edge), they have the rights to invalid the turns even though skaters clearly did it. However, it's kinda funny to see that some skaters always get level 4 regardless of how they skate that day. I would say there is no skater who could do the step sequence perfectly all the time (I mean there's no singer who could hit high notes all the time). There will always be some mishaps in some turns or steps... but apparently specialists tend to believe some certain skaters meet all the requirements.

Now even skate cleanly isn't enough as everyone is skating cleanly more often. How much the sport has evolved...

Yeah cause my friend is asking who's the female commentator and I couldn't recall her name. Her comments are silly sometimes. Robin is just like Kurt... sometime they don't bother watching competitions I guess

To be honest I like Tessa and Scott's Pink Floyd free dance the most. But they did not bring it to the Olympic. Btw @Yatagarasu do you remember the name of the female ex-ice dancer who commented figure skating with Robin Cousins? I am listening to BBC commentary of Yuzuru's FS at WC 2017 and suddenly I forgot her name.

I do not think of any other skater to change their blade just for one jump. They're sane enough to know that they need a healthy body for all jumps.

I would say it's so unfair for Yagudin as his main rival's fan still go around the skating forums to make Yagudin worse than he actually was. Honestly I don't have much to say about Yagudin either other than he had overcome so many injuries and injustice. The program that I like most from Yagudin is actually the SP at WC 2011. He was injured badly by that time. Just like Yuzuru at Boston.

I will delete all my posts and bye. I am honestly pissed at those "preparing for the worst". Feel free to do so, I am done. Thanks.

I am sure Yuzuru will do 4lz and at least 5 quads in LP. It is just Yuzuru as I know. Nathan might do just 6 quads if he thinks about his health but again I am not sure his team care about that. So 7 quads LP without transitions is possible. Javi might mess a lot with 4Lo though... as he actually is the one who kept his layout for 4-5 seasons, so skating to a new layout might be quite dangerous. About Shoma, with the way USFA is pushing Nathan, we might see someone finally getting his cheated jumps called fairly.

My relationship with Ice dance is very complicated as the teams with quite good performance were often the team with poor skating skills lol.... The legendary ice dance teams often have boring programs seriously... anyway I will give Grisuk and Platov a pass as I like their FD that won them the second OGM.

They forced Mao to train abroad in some bad rinks even though she wanted to train in Japan. But I think it was just a small time. Frankly I think Mao came to Sochi very well-prepared. She skated cleanly LP at Sochi and did very well in practice. So it's her mentality that killed her SP, it's not her preparation. About USFA yes we all remember how they pushed their skaters too soon for Olympic gold but in the end did those skaters help them remain relevant in the public eyes as a skating nation? Tara technically said goodbye to the skating world when she was just 15 and didn't help US elevate skating popularity at all. Sarah Hughes is forever remembered as the Olympic Champion who bored the heart out of all the audience. Will they ever come back to watch Sarah's skating? Hilariously it's Kwan who kept US skating relevant not those Olympic Champions. Evan Lysacek is OGM yes but he is completely irrelevant to the American public and the skating world. Olympic title means a lot to some people but Olympic title alone doesn't make you a legend.

And seriously, in this world there is nothing comes for free and gives you best quality and quantity in just several months. Most people don't understand why Yuzuru has to choose Chopin. It's just 7 months away from the Olympic, not 4 years. In classical music world, many pianists keep practicing from young, like 3-4 years old. Some of them might hit all the notes of the most difficult music pieces when they're 12 but I am telling you no one says their interpretation is greatest ever. It's Richer, Giles, Horowitz, Pollini... and other OLD pianists who are forever remembered as greatest pianists, not someone who only hit their notes right. Come to think of it, talking about young talent who destroyed their abilities since young, there have been many opera singers who did that. Their natural voices were good and powerful and they wanted to be remembered too fast, they accepted roles that required so much destruction to their voices, by the time they're 30 their voices are done. With Opera, mostly you don't get famous before you're over 30 as it's only by that time your voices have become stable. Most opera singers are still students by the mid twenties as they have to wait for their voices to mature and study the roles and aria, songs at the same time. I don't see any young voices singing difficult musical pieces since young to develop good voice when they grow up. If you want evidence, google Charlotte Church when she was 14 and look at her now. She might be rich but she will never be recognized as a good singer by experts. There are things in this world you can not rush. I do believe when it comes to art and technique going along, you can't rush. Figure skating is also an art, mind you.

Will we have a session about pair separately from ice dance and singles?

I don't see the current Nathan being better than Goebel at 2002. Well if you go for 6-7 quads, there's not much to improve your skating skills. There is something only time and experience can help and that is expression. In classical music world, there are many young prodigy who play difficult pieces like Lizst without missing a note. But it takes quite a long time for them to become someone as legendary as Pollini for example. I would rather listen to Claudio Arrau missing notes than to some young robots who can hit every note. I have faith in Yuzuru more. We all know American fed will do anything to support Nathan while JSF will more likely to not do that for Yuzuru. But Yuzuru is very good at dealing with tensions. The more everything is against him (Korean ice might not welcome him the most, strongest feds have their own favorites, JSF don't support him as much as they could) the more he can make it.

Goebel skated clean back to back at Salt Lake city on home ice with 3 quads in the LP (a quad in the second half) and went third on his home ice. so yeah... the reason? His skating was weak compared to both Plushenko and Yagudin. The highest BV doesn't say it all.

Yuzuru will have higher BV than last season. But he shouldn't have highest BV. The history said it, (aside from Sochi which was abnormal) the men who won Olympic until now were the men who skated cleanest, not the ones with highest BV.