Ladies Short Program

[burntBREAD]

Actually, the crowd consists of mostly Japanese fans coming in on chartered flights. They were not around for Pairs, Dance, and even earlier groups of Men and Ladies. In any case, the attendance improved on the weekend for the final flights of LPs. Taiwanese don't seem so tempted by the free admissions, especially on week days.

Canadian arenas, in contrast, seem packed for most skating events .

Taiwan is also a tropical island with little to do with anything that's a winter sports event...Canada, on the other hand, well... exact opposite.

[BackStage Barbie]

Very well stated indeed. That's the beauty of figure skating, its all open to interpretation. I actually think the choreography and execution of Rachael's short program are a stroke of genius, but then we are all allowed to have our own opinions.

[lavender]

Rachael simply does not move her arms and her body as well as Kwan did. Period.

Well, that, and CoP footwork is often a shame in general. I admire her energy, and the spread eagle in the footwork is a great highlight, but overall it's a bit incongruous and overlong.

This is totally my feelings.

[lavender]

It looks as if Rachel Flatt has proven to everyone that she is better than Mirai Nagasu (and its not just a "Nationals" thing).

I don't think she has proven this to hardly anyone. Mirai needs to work on her jumps but if both Mirai and Rachel were on Mirai comes out ahead. Actually Mirai comes out ahead in every aspect right now but jumps. There's a good reason why even with Rachel's much improve short program (which I like better than Mirai) Mirai still beats her in pcs.

[Blades of Passion]

Very well stated indeed. That's the beauty of figure skating, its all open to interpretation. I actually think the choreography and execution of Rachael's short program are a stroke of genius, but then we are all allowed to have our own opinions.

For a CoP program and Rachael's abilities, I do think the program is relatively excellent. The only thing I would change is the order of the jumps. She should do her Double Axel at the start of the program because it's her weakest jump and doesn't serve as a strong highlight later in the program, where it currently is. Putting the Double Axel up front allows that move to just set a gentle tone (appropriate for the music) and let her build up to the combination jump. And then the solo Triple can come later in the program and act as a proper highlight.

[Nadine]

I disagree about putting her 2A as the first jump. Nope, one always puts one's *best* jump first, and unfortunately Rachael's 2A is small, so not recommended, and therefore appropriately put later on in her program.

For a nice insight into this I highly recommend watching Sarah Hughes's phenomenal 2002 Olympic FS, wherein Scott Hamilton mentions at the very beginning how Sarah set the tone with her fabulous opening 2A. Btw, Sarah's very best jump was her 2A, it was SUPERB! Ah, memories of one of my all-time favorite skaters ever...

[Blades of Passion]

I disagree about putting her 2A as the first jump. Nope, one always puts one's *best* jump first.

The best jump should not always come first. There are different ways to set the tone of a program. Rachael's 2A doesn't serve the program by putting it later because the reaction she incurs is "that's it?". Not the kind of thought you want to have about a program in the middle of it.

By putting that jump in the beginning, it allows her to build to something better (the combination) and then lets her use the solo Triple later on and keep the excitement of the program going. The end result is that you forget about the inadequacy of the 2A because it was all the way at the beginning of the program and used as something naturally woven into the choreography rather than a "TA DA!" move.

[rallycairn]

^Well, but Blades, that would argue against the way human memory works, with the primacy and recency effects. We tend to remember what came first, what came last, and the middle gets buried somewhat. So I kinda see what you mean but it could be a big mistake to show your relative worst element first -- rather than forgetting it in the rush of great elements the judges might be set to not see the remaining elements as all that wonderful either.

It's not an easy call, how to structure a program, for sure.

[Blades of Passion]

What comes first are the opening choreographic movements and I'm definitely a big believer in how important those are with regards to drawing the audience in. The quick back spiral Rachael does is a nice way to start the program. I don't think it's necessary with this music to start off with a bang, with regards to the first jump. It's pretty much never a bad thing for your first jump element to be explosive, but since Rachael simply doesn't have a strong 2Axel, I do think it would be most effective to put it out there first and build forward. This music continually grows to inspiring climaxes and the 2Axel later in the program is kind of wasted IMO.

[Sasha'sSpins]

The song is Sweet Baby (Byrd, Steve / Hamilton, Andy / Fiagbe, Lena / ). I spent an hour yesterday tracking it down. You will find it listed in this catalog: http://www.unippm.eu/librarys/index....=BEST4&alb=001 . Sometimes it plays, sometimes it doesn't. But it's the exact same song and recording. "Enjoy" lol.

Omigosh THANK YOU!! I almost ended up loathing this song but it was driving me crazy for days not knowing what it was called lol!!

Who sings it? It sounds a little like The Supremes to me.

[Joesitz]

US Ladies SP from TV. Rachael did fine. Her jumps have even got better. Unfortunately, she does not have the ability to contort her body which is requisite and very popular with fans and judges alike.

Alissa was fine but very calculating. Don't get me wrong. I love those spins, but her interpretation is standard for that music.