Is Emily The Next Sasha, with respect to jump consistency?

[Bill508]

I agree with the weight factor- she needs to lose some. She has not reached the stage of being elegant on the ice.

[Jasper]

She'll never hold a candle to Sasha. Or even to Kimmie, who has much better and more consistent jumps.

As Peggy Flemming correctly (for once) pointed out yesterday, she doesn't have a unique style on the ice. She's not special. She's just kinda there. I hate watching her and I hate how overhyped she was at the Olympics.

[R.D.]

I suppose sisters are alike. First Sarah, now Emily. what next?

[Jasper]

I agree with the weight factor- she needs to lose some. She has not reached the stage of being elegant on the ice.

!!!

Sorry, I don't agree that this has anything to do with weight. She is a perfect size and skinny girls shouldn't be encouraged to lose any more weight. She's just not elegant on the ice period, and being a little thinner won't change that.

[flying camel]

What was wrong with Emily? She wasn't her usually happy perky self. She looked very cautious and scared. She looked more worried about this competition then the Olympics.

[R.D.]

Everyone's just tired. Oddly enough, Kimmie didn't seem to show it as much and was able to go all out. The others had simply had it, especially Cohen.

[heyang]

Not every skater is going to be the 'elegant' skater. Emily is a power skater. She doesn't need to be another Sasha or Peggy, etc. Emily needs to develop a style - just as her sister still needs to develop a style.

I wouldn't call Irina elegance on ice, but she's had a very successful career. Katerina Witt wasn't the skinniest skater - she had lots of curves and was also very successful. When Midori Ito lost weight, she lost her jumps because she didn't have the muscle anymore.

I don't think that there's anything wrong with Emily's weight that's causing her jump problems. She didn't have one season where she was a stick landing all her jumps and then another season where she was heavier and couldn't jump. Her weight hasn't fluctuated in appearance since she started appearing at Senior Nationals.

She's a long way from being a repeat of Sasha in every sense. I think her failing on some of her jumps might have been related to adreanline during her 1st season as a contender on the Sr level. Naomi Nari Nam was practically hurling herself out of control during her 2nd Sr Nationals.

With regards to Sasha, Peggy may have said it correctly when she said that Sasha's just not a strong competitor. Success isn't just about talent - it also involves ambition, drive and discipline. Christy Ness has said that Kristi Y was not a natural jumper, but she overcame that and one would never have imagined that jumps were not easy for her.

[Joesitz]

yes, Emily to lose a few pounds. That would help her imensely. Then concentrate on clean routies. She's good but still in the 'work in progress stage'.

Joe

[orchid]

I think that unless Emily loses some weight and becomes smoother in her delivery, she will have a hard time competing with Kimmie, Katy, and maybe even Chrissy Zukowski and Alissa Czisny, whom I expect to bring herself back up eventually.

I think part of her problem is that she seems to be very conscious of "looking happy" on the ice, resulting in a lot of redundant arm-waving and "excited" movements. Presentation is important, but when it is forced it detracts from the overall quality of her skating. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy her enthusiasm, but when the commentators, like Peggy Fleming, are hard pressed to mention anything other than her enthusiasm, it means other things are lacking.

Unless she works on achieving an identifiable style and consistency, I don't see her doing any better than a bronze at future Nationals.

Exactly right, spot on, a perfect analysis

[R.D.]

I think Emily is OK. She may or may not benefit from losing a LITTLE BIT of weight, but I think people are making too much of it. She appears normal size to me.

[dancindiva03]

IMO there is no comparision between the two. They each have their own style and qualities.

One thing I did notice that this was the Fatest world comp ever! I truly have never seen so many over weight girls in high end skating before! Now not to say in the every day life, these girls are just fine, but for skating,, no way, to heavy. It affects the flow and the jumping big time. Not only the womens, I noticed it in pairs and dance! Personally I hope its not a trend. They are only hurting themselves trying to skate and jump with the extra weight. When they are 40 they will be in need of opperations and replacements.
JMO!
Fauve

Fatest? Please, do humor us with who you think is so overweight! I don't think that there was even one skater that is even remotely close to being overweight! Not even by skating standards. No, their not all waifs like Sasha, but so what? Sasha's had more problems with injuries than many of these other skaters!

[R.D.]

Well, MK's ONLY injury happened to be one that took her out of the Olympics. It's the perspective you put it in IMO

[chuckm]

I think Emily needs to back off a bit from her bull-in-the-china-shop style. She heads so aggressively into her jumps that if she misses the landing she goes down like a tree falling.

She looked as if she had gained a few lbs. since Nationals, and the weight gain made that tendency worse. She needs to be careful about what she puts into her body, because genetics is not on her side. Not to say she needs to starve herself, but she needs to be very judicious about her dietary choices.

I, too, find all the arm-waving obnoxious. My rule of thumb is that if I become distracted with what the skater is doing with his/her arms, then the arms are being used much too much.

Emily took the 3L out of her FS---good move. She was falling on it every time. But she still didn't have a clean FS. She finished 8th at Worlds, down from 7th at the Olympics. But with Slutskaya and Arakawa gone, if she had maintained her Olympic placement, she could have been 5th. In effect, she has dropped 3 places, not one.

I think Emily's biggest competition next season will be Katy Taylor. If Kwan does come back, Emily could easily find herself off the Worlds team.

[antmanb]

While watching Emily skate her LP today, I found myself holding my breath to see if she would be able to get through her program without a fall. I really like her energetic way of skating, but lately she seems to have problems skating clean.

I'm to the point with Emily (as with Sasha, too,) where I find I'm almost waiting for the fall to happen...

I must say i can't really understand why you already have a such a fixed view of a skaters who's only just completed her first complete season in seniors. I think hughes has had a fantastic senior season debut finishing very respectably in her first outing at the Olympics and then at worlds. Since to be knowledge she's never skated a totally clean competitive LP i wonder why you would be expecting her to perform one every time she takes to the ice?

Ant

[antmanb]

I think that unless Emily loses some weight and becomes smoother in her delivery, she will have a hard time competing with Kimmie, Katy, and maybe even Chrissy Zukowski and Alissa Czisny, whom I expect to bring herself back up eventually.

I think part of her problem is that she seems to be very conscious of "looking happy" on the ice, resulting in a lot of redundant arm-waving and "excited" movements. Presentation is important, but when it is forced it detracts from the overall quality of her skating. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy her enthusiasm, but when the commentators, like Peggy Fleming, are hard pressed to mention anything other than her enthusiasm, it means other things are lacking.

Unless she works on achieving an identifiable style and consistency, I don't see her doing any better than a bronze at future Nationals.

Well maybe Peggy Flemming is a dimwit who spends too long hyping her one favourite from each season rather than presenting anything worthwhile in her commentary? The Eurosport commentators had lots of complimentary things to say about Hughes, yes they mentioned her enthusiasm, they also mentioned the speed with which she skates, which i i was personally grateful for because i thought on TV she looked slow but they cleared that up for me. They complimented her jumping technique, and i would would ad in my comments here that her technique on the flip and lutz is fantastic - she must be one of the few female skaters he actually jumps a true Lutz and a True flip where nearly everyone else in the field either flutzes or lips.

I'm not wild about her presentation at the moment and it will improve over time but for now i think she's certainly more graceful than Meissner and that will only improve.

She could definitnely do with getting a couple of decent costumes for next season because this seasons were not good - the SP dress in particular i thought was gross!

Ant