The youtube link with the SP, confirms that Brian did indeed a 3 turn (retrouve):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq3xkncxd94
He had to do that, instinctively otherwise he was jumping into the boards with his toeloop.
On another note, i am feeling sorry I started all the "to quad, not to quad" discussion, I didn't mean that to happen.
My initial point was that he held back in his LP, not neceserrily that he avoided the quad. that is not actually my biggest concern.
The combinations were my bigger problem. Not just he did only two, he doesn't do a 3/3 combo and at his level that is paramount, and he doesn't seem to have a clear plan where the combos are.
At Cup of China the combos were with his first 3a, 3f and second 3sal, here at nationals he had a 3a combo and a 3z combo. late in the program he had no combo with neither the flip, nor the sal. It is good he replaced one sal with one lutz, there are more points gained, but behind a sal there should be no problem adding something, as these days the ladies seem to do their 3 jump combos with the sal.
And about his lower levels than Amodio on his closing spin (level 1) and first step seq (level2), i checked out his protocols in Cup of China, he had exactly the same levels over there. So this should've been known by his team and they did nothing about that. He has to up those levels for the Euros and Worlds, in order to maximize his chances.
