Team USA

[SitTwizzle]

Stating it outright without checking can also come from prejudice, can't it?

But it reminds me that scene in Clueless, from 1:15 in the video :

(Clueless is my preferred adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma; set in 1994 in Beverly Hills; the character of Mr Knightley, here Josh, is not developed, but not as openly misunderstood as in 1996 A&E more "traditional" adaptation; and the scene in question refers of course to Emma's discourses to Harriet about insurmountable differences between gentlemen, yeomen and "the poor", in blatant contrast with Mr Knightley's fine understanding of everybody's ways.)

[Melodie]

19 hours ago, Anni said:

 

I posted the videos here 😊

 

 

Thank you  

 

I just watched the videos and... is he kind of slow on the ice? Was he like that in the previous season(s)? On another note, he said the SP is much faster than the FP but I honestly didn't see much difference. I hope it is an early season thing. His jumps were solid, but other than that... 

 

PS: It is such a whiplash watching Nathan and Jason back to back. 

[FlyingCamel]

 

[Old Cat Lady]

I'm a bad fan. Not only did I watch TSL but I wasn't interested enough in the US skaters to follow this ISP fiasco until after watching TSL.

 

They made a huge deal out of the fact that Alysa Liu didn't participate, implying that she lost her "quads" and 3 axel. I don't know if she normally does the big jumps for shows but I'm definitely curious to see how she performs at this Carnival on Ice.

 

They also mentioned that Vincent didn't participate.  Strange since he trained through quarantine and isn't this a cash grab for the US skaters? But he was in pretty poor condition at this time previous years so I'm not sure if it signifies anything even if he is currently opting out due to condition.

 

For some reason I thought that this ISP had multiple stages like the Russian series but I guess not since I don't get why it would be a big deal for skaters to skip if that were true.

 

Bradie looked pretty bad. TSL made a big deal of it. But I'm not sure if we can glean anything from it - I'm not sure if she's one that had to take a break.

 

Mariah looked good considering she quarantined. The ABBA medley is awful. Even if she performs it better, doesn't change the terrible cuts. But since she rarely bother to interpret music anyway maybe vapid but perky is the way to go for her.

 

I didn't bother to watch Yale. TSL's reaction was essentially just 'meh, he was ok. Would prefer that Jason won'.  Deflated what little interest I had of seeing him, even out of curiosity.

 

The rink that Jason skated on looked small to me. The camera and sound combined with the rough early season quality of the programs make it difficult for me to get into any of the programs.  TSL was so effusive of Jason but I was somewhat disappointed. Hopefully I'll enjoy it more when the programs are more polished.

[Old Cat Lady]

A long while back, someone ( @yuzuangel ?) said that she thought Nathan permed his hair.  Before she mentioned it, it never even occurred to me.  Anyway, I recently came across this photo:

https://twitter.com/jasonbskates/status/845047105928486912/photo/1

You were right! He does perm it!

 

Also, just looked up the ISP details - so there is a 2nd stage coming up soon on Oct 6.

https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/sports/2020/9/8/isp-points-challenge-competition-central.aspx

 

Alysa Liu will be skating in that stage. 

https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/news/2020/9/28/rinkside-reigning-us-champ-alysa-liu-is-ready-for-season-of-change-with-new-coaching-team-programs.aspx

 

So that explains why I thought the ISP was a series. I don't get why TSL made such a big deal of her not skating the first stage if there's a 2nd stage.  Still don't know if Zhou is participating

[Anni]

 

[FlyingCamel]

🥰

[Old Cat Lady]

Yikes! I have to think she's lost her "quads" and 3 axel if even the double is this bad.  Not surprising considering how fragile her technique was and how much bigger she is. Unfortunately, she really doesn't have anything without the jumps.  It's still early season, but so far, looking like Mariah Bell for national champ. Both she and Bradie do everything but the jumps better than Alysa.

 

 

eta: also, I think this is a Lori Nichol fail. In comparison to Shae, while I think Lori has produced more great programs, Lori is worse about adjusting her choreography to the skater.  Lori seems to be completely dependent on the greatness of the skater to produce results whereas Shae might not always provide the highest quality programs, she understands how to adjust to strengths and weaknesses of skaters better.  Alysa has no business doing long, gliding power moves so while the choreography itself isn't a problem, giving it to the wrong skater turns it from a highlight moment to a jarring distraction.

[Old Cat Lady]

On 10/2/2020 at 7:17 PM, FlyingCamel said:

🥰

 

 

If he can consistently stand them up, the "q" rule + fed backing might suddenly make him a favorite instead of a dark horse for that world podium.  I'm personally a little concerned that these are the "quads" that he chooses to show off when they are clearly under rotated.

[SitTwizzle]

5 hours ago, Old Cat Lady said:

Yikes! I have to think she's lost her "quads" and 3 axel if even the double is this bad.  Not surprising considering how fragile her technique was and how much bigger she is. Unfortunately, she really doesn't have anything without the jumps.  It's still early season, but so far, looking like Mariah Bell for national champ. Both she and Bradie do everything but the jumps better than Alysa.

 

 

eta: also, I think this is a Lori Nichol fail. In comparison to Shae, while I think Lori has produced more great programs, Lori is worse about adjusting her choreography to the skater.  Lori seems to be completely dependent on the greatness of the skater to produce results whereas Shae might not always provide the highest quality programs, she understands how to adjust to strengths and weaknesses of skaters better.  Alysa has no business doing long, gliding power moves so while the choreography itself isn't a problem, giving it to the wrong skater turns it from a highlight moment to a jarring distraction.

She has a style and I love it. I hope she will get (I wouldn't say : back) good jumps now she's grown. And of course I hope she will be judged fairly, like all skaters, but I don't rely on it. 

[memae]

On 9/29/2020 at 5:10 PM, Old Cat Lady said:

The rink that Jason skated on looked small to me. The camera and sound combined with the rough early season quality of the programs make it difficult for me to get into any of the programs.  TSL was so effusive of Jason but I was somewhat disappointed. Hopefully I'll enjoy it more when the programs are more polished.

 

TCC rink is a little under-sized!

[yuzuangel]

re. alysa, she clearly hasn't been able to train much through the summer (bay area was mostly closed iirc?) but yeah, she's 15 and she's gonna grow -- nothing wrong with that. i think her technique was always very tenuous and reliant on fast rotation + being small (even moreso than eteri's skaters) so i'd be curious to see if she's able to adapt to her growing body.

[Paskud]

2 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

re. alysa, she clearly hasn't been able to train much through the summer (bay area was mostly closed iirc?) but yeah, she's 15 and she's gonna grow -- nothing wrong with that. i think her technique was always very tenuous and reliant on fast rotation + being small (even moreso than eteri's skaters) so i'd be curious to see if she's able to adapt to her growing body.

She said she had ice through whole off-season.

[rockstaryuzu]

So I finally had a chance to sit down and watch Nathan's SP, and...well...hmm...I can tell that he's trying. so. hard.  There's definitely more going on in there than there was before, and it has an actual step sequence, and I can see that SLB worked hard to give him something better than he had before...but. 

 

But. 

But. 

 

It's still kind of meh. 

 

Why? I really want to like it. 

[Sombreuil]

59 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

So I finally had a chance to sit down and watch Nathan's SP, and...well...hmm...I can tell that he's trying. so. hard.  There's definitely more going on in there than there was before, and it has an actual step sequence, and I can see that SLB worked hard to give him something better than he had before...but. 

 

But. 

But. 

 

It's still kind of meh. 

 

Why? I really want to like it. 

Because it’s competent, workmanlike, and totally lacking any wow factor.  You’re not on the edge of your seat hoping his 4ltz doesn’t propel him into the boards and rejoicing when he lands it with enormous height and amplitude like Boyang.  He doesn’t have the charm of Fernandez, the edges of Patrick Chan, the elegance of Kolyada, the appeal of Uno.  I don’t myself rave about the appeal of all those skaters, but I can recognise it when I see it and watch others fall under the spell.  He’s pedestrian.

Spoiler

 He’s a nice US kid who goes to Yale, who is very consistent with his low fast quads and as a result has had ridiculous mark ups on PCS for most of his senior career. ( For many fans the flag and consistency is enough, they would rave if he was studying film studies at community college.). It’s been enough to propel him to the top, he’s made some efforts to correct his faults, (though on past showing he can drop those with impunity later in the season as long as he lands lots of jumps, and has a history of doing so) but he lacks oomph.  There is no complexity to his skating, no amplitude to his jumps, a bit more polish to his landings, but not to the extent of justifying his marks.  He’d do really well with Eteri.