Men's Short Program

[colleen o'neill]

Dai, Dai ,Dai.. Wowza ! If this program progresses the way his SP did last year , I don't know if I'll be able to take that much heaven.

Very happy for Sean Sawyer,I love that program. And I was happy to see that although I guess he's one who stands to benefit from the new jump rules..he didn't fall into his slow-to-open-the-free-leg 2 foot habit.

Yuzuru Hanyu was pretty wonderful. Musical and just dripping with potential.

Though I admire his abilities ,I pray for Florent to break his contract with 'Svengali' and escape. I agree that much of that program is just boring.

I really quite liked Ross Miner's program.

Jeremy ? Well, I'm stunned, and not in a good way. I mean , I'm a real Jeremy booster and I always love to see him skate well ( and he did skate well enough to be in second place, here ) But..but..

I was very favourably impressed with the potential of his SP when we first saw it. I'd hoped to see some of the unnecessary hand movements go ( all the optical-illusiony things and the excessive face-fondling ) ,while keeping all the flamenco / tango arms. That would have still been pretty intricate , but not cluttered..Alas, he kept them all *sigh*..rather than complementing the skating ,they're a distraction.

My fear was always that he wouldn't be able to project the amount of macho attitude that the program seemed to demand..but I never dreamed he'd be able to strip all the macho out of it ! What's with that ridiculous costume ? It just creates further distraction .What would be wrong with a simple shirt , or a tight fitting long sleeved T-shirt ?...I've never been a fan of these half-one-thing-half-another costumes ,they were always pretty silly , but by now ,they've become very, very cliched . ( And you can't fully see or appreciate what he's doing ) Then there's the choir boy haircut..
I really feel let down.

[Bluebonnet]

The usual fabulous Takahashi! Not much new creation though still is his old himself. He made ice skating seem so easy and musical. How can any one not be moved by his performance? Takahashi is the best and rightfully the first. Hate his hair style, always so wild.

Jeremy's costume has a silly Weir-like style, very distracting. Without that half black jacket, it'll be more efficient. His hair style fits the theme, though it's not my choice. I'm very impressed with his compulsory, staccato movements which are not natural to him. He did a great job on it. Unlike many, I like the one and only face touching movement in this program. I think it's creative and right on the note.

Haven't had chance to watch others.

[Tonichelle]

what was with all the arm/hand movements for Jeremy's SP? annoying.

[Nadine]

Finally caught the mens sp & lps this AM.

Didn't watch all of them, skipped through the lesser names, or fastforwarded through them, but did watch Amodio, Daisuke, and Jeremy. And here are my thoughts regarding their sps:

Amodio was pretty good, nice outfit, nice skating, okay.

Daisuke was a master entertainer as always, though the gimmicky hair & over flamboyant moves is not my cup of tea. Still, his was my favorite, which wasn't saying much to be honest.

Jeremy I didn't like at all, sorry to say, the weird flamboyant outfit, the overuse of the hands, the gelled helmet head, all yuck. It's too bad because he honestly does not need to rely on gimmicks; he should just let his skating do the talking.

[prettykeys]

Finally caught the mens sp & lps this AM.

Didn't watch all of them, skipped through the lesser names, or fastforwarded through them, but did watch Amodio, Daisuke, and Jeremy. And here are my thoughts regarding their sps:

Amodio was pretty good, nice outfit, nice skating, okay.

Daisuke was a master entertainer as always, though the gimmicky hair & over flamboyant moves is not my cup of tea. Still, his was my favorite, which wasn't saying much to be honest.

Jeremy I didn't like at all, sorry to say, the weird flamboyant outfit, the overuse of the hands, the gelled helmet head, all yuck. It's too bad because he honestly does not need to rely on gimmicks; he should just let his skating do the talking.

lol, your post mirrors my experience.

There was no single SP that stood out for me, bah.

Jeremy is so good (he is my current fav male skater--a poster here called him "cerebral" and I agree, and I love that about him), and his SP had potential but his arm/hand movements totally ruin it for me. They're so unnecessary and pointless. His SP last year (A Day in the Life) was so much better.

[seniorita]

OK I want to ask Amodio has the same music as Joubert? And if he has this music why he wears the Terminator costume?The program was nice but the costume was distracting.
Dai rocked it, latin suits him, the shirt must go though!;p
I liked Jeremy's program, even the costume, i think i become a fan :D
DTen haircut and costume , what happened to him, Carol wants a second Evan?

I dont remember the rest now

[Tonichelle]

seniorita - I thought the same thing about DTen. lol!

I liked Jeremy's SP costume... just not the weird hand movements. What was up with that idea?

[seniorita]

I don't know what is going on with hands but now I remembered Sawyer's as well and really did I miss the communication that there should be a tango in either sp or lp in men?
Is it tribute to Plush platinum medal?

[prettykeys]

I liked Jeremy's SP costume... just not the weird hand movements. What was up with that idea?

Question of the century.

Normally when people complain of excessive arm movements, I find that I am not as bothered to the same extent as they seem to be. But this time, it was way noticeable. Those arm/hand movements need to go.

[colleen o'neill]

I'm really feeling like I'm on Mars.. If anyone had predicted that I would ever prefer a Brian Joubert SP over a Jeremy Abbott SP....We've entered the twilight zone , right ?

Judging by the video from the French Masters , Brian's SP could be pretty fabulous , if he really sticks with the choreography, and be the kind of program that stays with you as a moment of near perfection..(My God ! Right down to the costume..) Whereas Jeremy's ... unless radical changes are made , and in spite of whatever technical brilliance he may show..could be a moment of horrific deviance from a fabulous norm. If this is how his SP is going to stay ,I wish he'd go back to A Day in The Life . Who could tire of watching that ? That was near perfection for him. However , I doubt that he'll make radical changes or dump the program if he continues to get good results on the GP..which might not be good for him when he's facing the full roster of the very deep men's field at Worlds.

His LP , OTOH , is really wonderful and suits him to a T. I just wish he had an SP to match it.

[colleen o'neill]

Oops ! Me again.. I meant to add : seniorita.. some of this may be a tribute to the "platinum" medal , but I'm sure at least as much has to do with Dai's knockout SP from last year. I think that worked so well for him that he wanted to expand on the theme this year..as for Shawn Sawyer , I don't believe that's a new program for him... Hard to say what inspired all the rest...

And I wanted to reiterate, I loved Dai's mambo SP, including the costume , and yes , even the hair. Both are really suitable for the program.

[seniorita]

Maybe next year they will all skate to golden waltz

yes I m waiting Joubs programs as well, especially the Sp, and I wouldnt believe that I would say that a couple of years ago

Question of the century.

Normally when people complain of excessive arm movements, I find that I am not as bothered to the same extent as they seem to be. But this time, it was way noticeable. Those arm/hand movements need to go.

Me neither. And If he was just flailing I wouldn't complain. It was the constant move of his wrists that distracted me and I couldnt watch the rest of him, plus I was occupied to figure out the costume idea, I think at the end I decided to like it.

[Layfan]

Dai, Dai ,Dai.. Wowza ! If this program progresses the way his SP did last year , I don't know if I'll be able to take that much heaven.

Very happy for Sean Sawyer,I love that program. And I was happy to see that although I guess he's one who stands to benefit from the new jump rules..he didn't fall into his slow-to-open-the-free-leg 2 foot habit.

Yuzuru Hanyu was pretty wonderful. Musical and just dripping with potential.

Though I admire his abilities ,I pray for Florent to break his contract with 'Svengali' and escape. I agree that much of that program is just boring.

I really quite liked Ross Miner's program.

Jeremy ? Well, I'm stunned, and not in a good way. I mean , I'm a real Jeremy booster and I always love to see him skate well ( and he did skate well enough to be in second place, here ) But..but..

I was very favourably impressed with the potential of his SP when we first saw it. I'd hoped to see some of the unnecessary hand movements go ( all the optical-illusiony things and the excessive face-fondling ) ,while keeping all the flamenco / tango arms. That would have still been pretty intricate , but not cluttered..Alas, he kept them all *sigh*..rather than complementing the skating ,they're a distraction.

My fear was always that he wouldn't be able to project the amount of macho attitude that the program seemed to demand..but I never dreamed he'd be able to strip all the macho out of it ! What's with that ridiculous costume ? It just creates further distraction .What would be wrong with a simple shirt , or a tight fitting long sleeved T-shirt ?...I've never been a fan of these half-one-thing-half-another costumes ,they were always pretty silly , but by now ,they've become very, very cliched . ( And you can't fully see or appreciate what he's doing ) Then there's the choir boy haircut..
I really feel let down.

Amen to everything in this post. The costume - AACK! The stupid face fondling. Ick!! (I didn't like it when he did it in last year's programs either TBH) However, I do like the ... I don't know, skeleton of the program? I think it could be fixed pretty easily. It only needs to be toned down a bit. Let's hope.

[seniorita]

I forgot to say that some weeks ago Jeremy had a Q&A thing in his twitter and was asked why he didnt keep his old Sp and he said he wanted to try something different that he had never done and challenge him and show people he is not boring doing the same old.

[PROKOFIEV]

what was with all the arm/hand movements for Jeremy's SP? annoying.

I think his arm movements look distractive just because he moves only his arms. If he used all of his upper body more along with that arm movements, I think it would look much better.