Ladies short program | Page 11 | Golden Skate

Ladies short program

gracefulswan

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 16, 2003
Yu-Na is due to compete at SA, so unless Sasha skips that too, she will have to face her before Olys.


really? didn't read up well on who's going where in the series. wow, let's just hope she knows how kim did today, lol. i'm wondering now if her camp is considering another pull-out option? should be interesting to see what happens in a month. i wish, though, that she was assigned another place as i don't think it's good mentally to potentially lose by so great a margin if you're hoping to be competitive against yuna at the olympics. what do you think?

i'm wondering why sasha was assigned to the 2 exact same competitions as yuna? coincidence?
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Yu-Na is due to compete at SA, so unless Sasha skips that too, she will have to face her before Olys.

Yes, I was just going to say that.

But it also depends on what Cohen wants. If, and ONLY if, she wants gold, she has to worry about Yuna. If she just wants to "do [her] best" as she keeps claiming, and stay in the running for a medal (we know no Americans are even close anyway) then she need not worry about getting 80 points in the SP, and simply keep a level playing ground with the rest of the upper echelon of skaters.

But what is her level of commitment to this "comeback", anyway? I think she is just going to pull out of it altogether.
 

skate4ever

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
I'm a big fan of both Yuna and Mao, but if the SPs at the TEB are any indication of what we can expect for the rest of the season, I don't think Mao has a chance to beat Yuna in Vancouver unless Yuna brings out a real gun and starts shooting at the judges at the end of her Bond Girl performance.
 

*Sniper*

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 17, 2006
Just finished watching Universal Sports coverage of the ladies.
My impressions are

YN Frankly I'm not completely sold on the idea of a Bond music in an Olympic year even after watching her tonight. I guess that's just me not being as open-minded as I should be, and I hope more of her fabulous performances will convince me otherwise.

However, her speed, ice coverage, control, and command of the ice are simply stunning!!!
She was just oozing confidence out there, and that coupled with the rock solid techniques will garner some significant number of points no matter what type of music she's skating to.


YUKARI I thought the leg wrap was much less noticeable! That was a big plus for me, because before, her wrap irked me so much that I didn't want to watch her skate altogether.


MAO Well, wrong dress, wrong dress, wrong dress.
Oh and that botched 3A, too.
Like others have stated numerous times already in this thread, I really hope she fixes whatever it is that is bothering her.

But out of that group gunning for the silver, she's the only one who made a glaring mistake, right? So if she skates clean, she still has the potential to derail YN Express.


ALEXE & CARO-Z I didn't know that Alexe was already 17! I was expecting to see another 12-year-old, so I was caught off guard by her maturity!
What a great senior debut.

And Caroline was, as Peter Carruthers (it was him, right?) kept repeating, SO SLOW. I hope she hasn't hit the wall or something.
But she did look a lot more grown up.


CARO-K Unfortunate falls, but.........
Was that a nipple I saw at the end of her program??? :eek:
 
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hrmsk8ngnutt

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
i'm wondering why sasha was assigned to the 2 exact same competitions as yuna? coincidence?
I don't think Sasha was assigned since (I may be wrong but someone correct me please) she hasn't competed since 2006 Worlds and is not part of the pool of ranked skaters who can be assigned. Since USFSA hosts SA, they are welcome to invite one American skater of choice. I think it was the French Federation who invited Sasha to compete in Paris. It was just coincidence Yu-Na was assigned to the same events Sasha was invited to compete in.
 

ImaginaryPogue

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
I'm a big fan of both Yuna and Mao, but if the SPs at the TEB are any indication of what we can expect for the rest of the season, I don't think Mao has a chance to beat Yuna in Vancouver unless Yuna brings out a real gun and starts shooting at the judges at the end of her Bond Girl performance.

ROTFLMAO!!!!! Of course, if she only shoots one, the rest might give her tens across the board in PCS out of fear.
 

SerpentineSteps

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 18, 2009
I'm a big fan of both Yuna and Mao, but if the SPs at the TEB are any indication of what we can expect for the rest of the season, I don't think Mao has a chance to beat Yuna in Vancouver unless Yuna brings out a real gun and starts shooting at the judges at the end of her Bond Girl performance.

!!! and Mao should do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7aee0-HDdE !!!

It'll be the battle of the violent skaters. Loves it.
 

Bennett

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
I watched Mao and Yuna.

I loved Yuna's program. It was fun, cute and energetic.

I like Mao's as well. I liked the newer costume and newer expression, in that I always like Mao wearing something bright and light, smiling like an angel and skating airy-fairy. According to an interview, they wanted to change the concept to a young lady first debuting at a ball. But why use the same program that they used for a different concept then? The program looks almost exactly the same. I wish Mao reuses her last year's gala, SP, or any of Chopin pieces.

I also watched Yuna's FP practice. She's got really interesting music. I think that both programs fit Yuna very well. Perhaps she could have skated a bit heavier one for FP for a change because it gives a slightly similar impression with the SP, but this LP music is not bad. Good music and I like it.
 

SusieH

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 15, 2008
Yuna is awesome! but I don't want to see her peak too early, she better make some small mistakes tomorrow :p

I thought the same thing! I don't want her to peak too early, but apparently Orser doesn't think so.

"She has to get better; it's only the first competition. She'll figure it out," he said.

"This time of year, judges are a bit more conservative with their component marks. At worlds, we were in the eight's for all of them. This was fine; I don't want them too high now. We'll get better as we go along."

So he doesn't think the score was "too high" already? OK, I guess that's what a coach is supposed to say... :scratch: Anyway, I hope Yuna won't peak too soon or overtrain or anything. Better to deliver the goods when it counts most!

Extremely happy for Yuna. Totally blown away by her performance. I actually don't like 007 movies and hated the idea of Yuna playing a Bond girl, but her performance had totally turned me around :yes: She looked seductive, confident, shining, and dominant. I think I'd love to go see a Bond movie if the heroine can look as brilliant as Yuna. I think the 007 medley may become my favorite Yuna's SP.

On the other hand, very worried about Mao. It's still early in the season, but it seems something isn't right for her. I hope she solves her problems soon. For a great olympic season to take place, we need fierce competition! Please Mao, make it happen...you can do it :clap:

Still consider Yukari's long sleeves very distracting. Distracting to the point that I almost couldn't concentrate on enjoying her performance. I want to cut them off with a pair of scissors... :biggrin:

Good luck to all the ladies tonight! Look forward to the LPs :)
(ETA: Especially to Carolina K! I really want to see a more or less clean performance from her. At the very least I hope she can deliver her LP better than her SP.)
 
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bekalc

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
she is clearly the Slutskaya of 2009. Completely dominating the field and looking nearly invincible. Right now I REALLY want to say:
_______________________________________

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/200...al_270x202.jpg

just mail it to her now.


I think that Yu-na as a competitor is frankly more like Plushenko than Irina. Yes Yu-na has a tendency to make mistakes in the free, although so did Plushenko for a lot of his career.

The thing with Plushenko is he simply always just did his technical elements and allowed himself to dominate other skaters by doing consistent things like 4/3s and triple axels. We never saw Plushenko say oh I have a big lead maybe I won't do a quad. Or hey, I'm going to get higher PCS than my competition so why not just do a 3/3 instead of a 4/3.

In contrast, Irina had a tendency to skate conservatively. She was capable of big combinations but in a lot of cases she'd never even attempt them. I mean in 2002/2006 Olympics she never attempted a 3/3. And this is a skater who I believed even landed a 3/3/3 early that year.

In contrast, while Yu-na may leave out her triple loop. We never see Yu-na saying oh I have a 10 point lead, maybe I won't do my double axel/3toe and my 3flip/3toe. Or, I get huge PCS maybe I should just do a 3/2 in the short. Even when Kim is injured, she still goes for these big combinations.

I think that Irina's illness and also her perhaps thinking she could rely on her PCS did Irina in.
 

feraina

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2007

Oh, this is much better skated than at GW. I like this look on her. :) And I thought she paid much more attention to choreographic details this time around than she usually does. She didn't seem too happy with her score, but then she didn't do a 3-3 here as she does in her best SP's. At least she didn't get beaten by Alexe on PCS, but rather by TES. And the difference between 3Z and 3R would've accounted for a good part of that. I think maybe Caroline's COE spiral wasn't held long enough in the second half, which might have made her spiral seq. level 1 again...

Well, good luck to everyone tomorrow!
 

feraina

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2007
Just now catching up on the IN on-demand video from my slow hotel connection.

Alexe Gilles has really improved since last season! Especially in her speed, and also a bit in her posture. She got a little sloppy in places, but that shouldget smoothed out as the season progresses. All jumps were great, they should've all gotten +GOE. I think between the 1 pt extra base value and the GOE differences, she must have gained 4-5 points on Caroline for the jumps. But then she probably lost some on the spins, base in base value and GOE's. Somehow, though, I think it'd be easier for her to improve on her spins than for Caroline to improve on her jumps...

Whether she can hold the lead in the LP is the big question. Alexe is likely to improve on her PB (87.36), but it would be a major leap for her just to break 100, whereas anything less than 110 will be disappointing for Caroline even without the 3-3.

Is it me or does Yukari look stiffer than in the past? I really don't like the things hanging out of her fingers. What are they supposed to be?! I have this urge to pull them off so that we can see her lovely hands. :p She gets some wicked speed on that camel-donut. Wow!

Carolina, my goodness, what a disaster of a SP skate. As bad as a season opener as ever. And that dress... She really needs a new dress designer, the cut is way too low.
 

amateur

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
I think that Yu-na as a competitor is frankly more like Plushenko than Irina. Yes Yu-na has a tendency to make mistakes in the free, although so did Plushenko for a lot of his career.

The thing with Plushenko is he simply always just did his technical elements and allowed himself to dominate other skaters by doing consistent things like 4/3s and triple axels. We never saw Plushenko say oh I have a big lead maybe I won't do a quad. Or hey, I'm going to get higher PCS than my competition so why not just do a 3/3 instead of a 4/3.

In contrast, Irina had a tendency to skate conservatively. She was capable of big combinations but in a lot of cases she'd never even attempt them. I mean in 2002/2006 Olympics she never attempted a 3/3. And this is a skater who I believed even landed a 3/3/3 early that year.

In contrast, while Yu-na may leave out her triple loop. We never see Yu-na saying oh I have a 10 point lead, maybe I won't do my double axel/3toe and my 3flip/3toe. Or, I get huge PCS maybe I should just do a 3/2 in the short. Even when Kim is injured, she still goes for these big combinations.

I think that Irina's illness and also her perhaps thinking she could rely on her PCS did Irina in.

I'm not sure I agree with your assessment about Irina skating conservatively... perhaps arguably at the Olympics, OK.. but so do most of the best of them, i.e. Kwan, even PLushenko himself not technically but in terms of expression when he won in `06... and we don`t know yet how YuNa is going to handle the actual moment at the Olympics (though, being still quite young, and seemingly well-coached, I'd wager she'll go for it)

Back to Irina... I don,t have the memory for specific examples, but in the early and mid-parts of her career at least (i.e. her 1st comeback) she always stood out for me as the main top female competitor who would throw everything in she could, making up for something if she missed... maybe not consistently the 3/3, but it was a different era as well, she wasn`t thinking about maxing out points, per se. That doesn't make her conservative IMO, as she was generally always thinking on her feet. And maybe her 3/3 was not as consistent for her as was Plushy`s quad, or YuNa`s 3flip/3toe. In later parts of her career I wouldn't doubt that her illness changed things a bit, the focus instead shifting to getting through what she could do well... but that is pretty understandable.

Still, if Yu-Na reminds you more of Plushenko because of consistently going for the hard combination, I do understand your point.
 

fliptart

Rinkside
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
ROTFLMAO!!!!! Of course, if she only shoots one, the rest might give her tens across the board in PCS out of fear.

I remember Michelle Kwan's cameo appearance on The Simpsons, where she attacked the judge who didn't give her a 6.0. She sliced the man's chest until 6.0 appeared. :chorus:
 

Alicja

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 17, 2009
I just watched Yuna's SP on Youtube and I must say that I find it incredible how the little young girl who was always looking so worried and hardly ever smiled, developed into such a charming young lady.
 
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