Team Russia

[HyperBiellmann]

3 hours ago, kelly said:

I think it's because she placed higher than the others at nationals. She was 4th but since the 3rd is Alena, I guess the 3rd spot went to Konstantinova

Oh, so it's the normal thing then. I was asking because my twitter blew up when they announced that she'll be competing at Worlds. Apparently, a lot of people I follow don't like her skating, I guess? I thought it was similar to what happened in the US where they chose lower ranking skaters because of racism and politics. Glad that was cleared up.

[Mastyaeva]

Meanwhile, Zhenya is on media again  Really, the difficulty of being a national star. Radio, this time.

She looks different in glasses.

 

 

[ralucutzagy]

wrong thread

[xeyra]

I find this protocol fascinating. This is Sofia Akatyeva, currently 10 years old, from the recent Russian Younger Age championships. Check out her GOE for all of her jump passes (except the 3Lz3T combo, which got lower). 

 

 

[ralucutzagy]

[Guest turquoiseblue]

15 minutes ago, ralucutzagy said:

 

So beautiful!!!  

 

 

[Deliverpooh]

Still not over what Sasha did last week.

 

Apart from the quads, I also particularly liked the 3Lutz-3Loop.

 

She's quite the animal lover, with lots of animal pics on her Instagram from birds, to dogs and kangaroos.

And this:

 

 

[SparkleSalad]

Reliving the lols of WTT 2017

 

 

http://korydweninterim.tumblr.com/post/159838248703/yanablumka-mikhail-kolyada-messing-up-his-ending

[theblingmonster]

I think my question should be put here (sorry to moderators if it goes somewhere else), but I'm a new figure skating fan and still haven't really gotten the hang of how all the jumps work yet but I did notice something, odd maybe? About Zhenya's jumps. Before she enters a jump she has this really long lead up to it, like she sticks her leg out and turns forwards and backwards etc. and then jumps, whereas with other skaters they don't do all of that and just kind of, jump? The way Zhenya does It looks a bit awkward and not as smooth? So, is this just her thing or is it a specific kind of technique?

 

Sorry I don't have a gif as an example, hopefully you guys know what I mean.

 

[Guest turquoiseblue]

On 17/03/2018 at 8:44 PM, ralucutzagy said:

 

Here is a beautiful video of Evgenia receiving the Champion of Our Hearts medal 

I don't know what they say but it is so heartwarming and touching  

 

 

[HyperBiellmann]

17 hours ago, theblingmonster said:

I think my question should be put here (sorry to moderators if it goes somewhere else), but I'm a new figure skating fan and still haven't really gotten the hang of how all the jumps work yet but I did notice something, odd maybe? About Zhenya's jumps. Before she enters a jump she has this really long lead up to it, like she sticks her leg out and turns forwards and backwards etc. and then jumps, whereas with other skaters they don't do all of that and just kind of, jump? The way Zhenya does It looks a bit awkward and not as smooth? So, is this just her thing or is it a specific kind of technique?

 

Sorry I don't have a gif as an example, hopefully you guys know what I mean.

 

I really don't like criticizing skaters in forums dedicated to them or their teams (especially if they are precious beans) but it's not a specific kind of technique. The jumps are just... wrong. From what I can see from her jumps, they're almost always prerotated, and the toe jumps nearly always have an excessive full blade assist instead of a toe pick assist (usually the result of prerotation). The individual jump types themselves have their own issues, but these are the common factors in her jumps. I'd suggest you go to Youtube if you want to find out exactly why her jumps are problematic. But I warn you: the youtubers who post critiques about jumps often encourage attacking these skaters personally and not professionally. The analysis is often okay, but the comment section's pretty toxic. Good luck!

[theblingmonster]

2 minutes ago, HyperBiellmann said:

I really don't like criticizing skaters in forums dedicated to them or their teams (especially if they are precious beans) but it's not a specific kind of technique. The jumps are just... wrong. From what I can see from her jumps, they're almost always prerotated, and the toe jumps nearly always have an excessive full blade assist instead of a toe pick assist (usually the result of prerotation). The individual jump types themselves have their own issues, but these are the common factors in her jumps. I'd suggest you go to Youtube if you want to find out exactly why her jumps are problematic. But I warn you: the youtubers who post critiques about jumps often encourage attacking these skaters personally and not professionally. The analysis is often okay, but the comment section's pretty toxic. Good luck!

Thanks so much for the response. I'm sorry if I came off as criticizing her, (she is a precious bean ) that wasn't my intention at all, I was just confused as to why her jumps looked so different from others. I'll definitely check out YT to figure out more! 

[yuzupon]

17 hours ago, theblingmonster said:

I think my question should be put here (sorry to moderators if it goes somewhere else), but I'm a new figure skating fan and still haven't really gotten the hang of how all the jumps work yet but I did notice something, odd maybe? About Zhenya's jumps. Before she enters a jump she has this really long lead up to it, like she sticks her leg out and turns forwards and backwards etc. and then jumps, whereas with other skaters they don't do all of that and just kind of, jump? The way Zhenya does It looks a bit awkward and not as smooth? So, is this just her thing or is it a specific kind of technique?

 

Sorry I don't have a gif as an example, hopefully you guys know what I mean.

 

Full disclosure, I am not a fan of Medvedeva, and often rather baffled by her results.

 

You can check Alice's tumblr with Medvedeva's tag. Alice likes Medvedeva, but her explanation on her jumps are usually fair. Be aware, tho, that most of her posts on Medvedeva are answers to anons who seem to be haters. 

 

IMO, Medvedeva's jumping technique is nowhere near the best among the top ladies. People usually describe her jumps as more 'muscled' compare to the 'smooth' jumps of the likes of Mai Mihara, Carolina Costner, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (or used to be at least) or to the 'powerful' jumps of the likes of the top 2 Canadian, Wakaba Higuchi, Kaori Sakamoto. For me, her jumps just looked very forced, i.e. you can tell she uses all her might to execute her jumps, especially during the take-off.

3F3T comparison with Kaetlyn Osmond's, using Alice's gifs:

That problem usually gets worse when she's jumping the 2nd and 3rd jump in combinations. Notice how much longer Medvedeva took to execute the 2nd jump compare to Osmond again.

Then, there's the problem of pre-rotation and the usual under rotation of most ladies; although, in this regard, she does it about just as frequently as most ladies, even the tops.

 

Part of it might be because she uses many and difficult transitions in and out of the jumps. But, as Zagitova and the junior skaters under Tutberidze have demonstrated, it is possible to do crazy transitions in and out of the jumps AND still have those jumps look 'pretty'; Medvedeva just doesn't have that. And hopefully, it's just 'not yet', and she will manage to fix it.

[HyperBiellmann]

1 hour ago, theblingmonster said:

Thanks so much for the response. I'm sorry if I came off as criticizing her, (she is a precious bean ) that wasn't my intention at all, I was just confused as to why her jumps looked so different from others. I'll definitely check out YT to figure out more! 

No, no, you didn't come off like that. I have mild anxiety, so I was rather scared some die hard fan (even though I'm pretty sure the people here are lovely humans) would jump on me or something. And no problem. :3

[WinForPooh]

On 3/20/2018 at 12:33 AM, theblingmonster said:

I think my question should be put here (sorry to moderators if it goes somewhere else), but I'm a new figure skating fan and still haven't really gotten the hang of how all the jumps work yet but I did notice something, odd maybe? About Zhenya's jumps. Before she enters a jump she has this really long lead up to it, like she sticks her leg out and turns forwards and backwards etc. and then jumps, whereas with other skaters they don't do all of that and just kind of, jump? The way Zhenya does It looks a bit awkward and not as smooth? So, is this just her thing or is it a specific kind of technique?

 

Sorry I don't have a gif as an example, hopefully you guys know what I mean.

 

Actually... I'm not sure if you mean the jumps, like from the moment she pulls back and leaps, or the part leading up to it? Because the part leading up to it is to fulfill the GOE bullet of clear steps before a jump, and she usually has complicated ones that looked just how you described when I started watching her, too!