Pairs Free Skate

[UnChosen]

ITA!
Besides, P/T's PCS were too much overscored! I don't believe they can get so high scores in any other countries except home court,considering so many mistakes and so bad performance. The gap with S/S shouldn't have just been two scores!

Other than downgrading their solo jump content...their actual performance is actually very good compared than everyone else. If anything S/S's pink panther choreo and interpretation is in comparison to their SP. Thankfully the judges are more objective in comparison to my subjective opinions.

Sorry for the back-to-back posts, but watching the JGPF and the GPF (right now on UniSports), it has been really striking to see how inelegant and lacking in carriage the Canadian pairs ladies are....Moore-Towers looks really rough and unrefined comparing her to Iliuschekina who skates right after. I wish Skate Canada would encourage more ballet training among their pairs. I've never been a fan of Dubè and Davison, but I've found myself missing them, because they are so much more polished than the teams currently competing.

Sui/Han are cute and charismatic, but I hope they work on their basic skating. Very impressive elements. But I get the feeling that it's a child skating out there, which isn't really all that enjoyable to me. Or even fair to the other teams, when you consider it.

Oh god no no no. I don't mind MT/M getting more refined (along with S/H)...but I can't stand ballet style clones. They should do ballet only if they think can pull that style off well. Otherwise we'll just get mismatched choreographies, skaters not having connections to music at all, etc.

[oleada]

Moore-Towers and Moscovitch don't have any relation to the music right now. Their LP could have been skated to anything.

It's not about being ballet clones. It's about knowing how to place your arms, having good posture and line, moving in an elegant way. Ballet will help with that. Right now she skates like a truck driver.

[museksk8r]

Other than downgrading their solo jump content...their actual performance is actually very good compared than everyone else.

No, the problem is not only their jumps. Pang's body lines need to show much better posture and stretch in the lifts. In comparison to Aliona and the Russian ladies, Pang looks very weak and juniorish in this regard. She has always been the weakest link in that team. Their spins are also very weak and sloppy for them to be such an elite team.

[UnChosen]

No, the problem is not only their jumps. Pang's body lines need to show much better posture and stretch in the lifts. In comparison to Aliona and the Russian ladies, Pang looks very weak and juniorish in this regard. She has always been the weakest link in that team. Their spins are also very weak and sloppy for them to be such an elite team.

Like I said before, I don't like the emphasis that is being put on lines and posture. Its only a portion of the PE score that's also a portion of the total PCS score anyways. I guess I'm an idealist in that I expect judges to follow the official PCS guideline perfectly...where stuff like "movement has to match the music", "relationship between partners" and a whole much of other stuff unrelated to lines and posture actually mean something.

The problem with the whole "line" thing is that...can you really move elegantly to more exciting music? Once skaters get used to elegant lines, they usually end up sticking with elegant music or else the choreo won't match (After S/Z improved their lines around 2003, they pretty much stuck with more elegant music as well). Times that by 10+ skaters and it makes for a complete yawn fest.

Its promoting skaters where their priorities are in a horrible order: Lines/Jumps first, doing transitions everywhere second, "base levels and contortion" third....but consistency / musicality / performance last .

Note: I'm not directing my comments at any skaters in particular, I just don't like offhanded comments along the lines of "No Lines! Posture! Bad!" when figure skating is comprised of so many other aspects as well.

[oleada]

This is figure skating. Line and posture are important, whether you like it or not. 99% of the time, it makes someone's skating more appealing. I do think studying ballet often helps skaters understand the music better, and enhances musicality and performance. It also does that skaters use solely what you consider boring or elegant music. Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze had beautiful lines, but their Chaplin free skate was hardly boring. Savchenko has a nice body line, but Pink Panther is hardly traditional and she is also quite athletic. I'm really failing to see how improving posture and lines makes for lowered performance or musical ability, or lesser transitions. They're all part of a whole.

Of course figure skating has more aspects, but to me - and a lot of other people - line and posture are very important. If Pang improved her body line, their lifts would be much better, period. It shows how improving this aspect would improve their technical elements and GOE. Having her ugly positions on a lift takes you out of a performance, for me, anyway.

It's not just about line, either, why I think P&T are overrated. Her basics aren't very good, really. As for M-T&M, they show very really understanding of the music, could skate to anything and their basics are choppy.