Men's Free Program, Sat. Nov. 12 at 10:55 pm EST

[carignan]

Daisuke landed 4F during the warm-up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XPLLRAKWHc

[demarinis5]

Congratulations to Dai he is an incredible athlete and artist.

Good for Ross pulling up for the Bronze, he must be thrilled first GP medal.
I have to give a shout out for the Boston boy, well done.

Congrats to Taka for winning the Silver.

I have only watched Dai's FS so far and WOW.

[Joesitz]

I am out of the hospital now, and able to catch up with some figure skating. There should be no question about Dai. He was the winner. His style is fully developed, and at NHK he was the best. After 7 years of watching him grow (Worlds 2004) his performance at NHK showed an easy going skate. He is worthy of star billing in an Ice Show.

[Joesitz]

Oh btw, there is no such nomenclature as Free Skate. It is called the Long Program. There are much too many restrictions to call it a Free Program. The judges decide on the entire program, and not just what is perceived as artistry.

[Olympia]

Welcome back, Joe!

[demarinis5]

Welcome back Joe, glad that you are out of hospital and back home. It is not the same around here
without you, I have missed reading your posts.

[Olympia]

Wait! Daisuke won? Yippee! I'll try to catch his free skate--sorry, Joe, long program--later today. How splendid. And it's great that he landed the quad in practice. Today in practice, tomorrow in competition!

[let`s talk]

What do you mean Chan has no competition? They just inflated Dai's marks to make it a competition!

Yea, I felt quite relaxed while watching LP. Now I know how Chan ubers feel when he competes.

[jenaj]

Oh btw, there is no such nomenclature as Free Skate. It is called the Long Program. There are much too many restrictions to call it a Free Program. The judges decide on the entire program, and not just what is perceived as artistry.

You don't see much "free" skating under COP, but I thought Takahashi skated his LP as freely as possible under the constraints of the judging system at this competition. BTW, the ISU still calls it free skating on the results web page.

[wallylutz]

Oh btw, there is no such nomenclature as Free Skate. It is called the Long Program. There are much too many restrictions to call it a Free Program. The judges decide on the entire program, and not just what is perceived as artistry.

Sorry Joe, you got the actual nomenclature reversed. ISU calls it Free Skate(Skating), see the Technical Panel Handbook.

A well balanced Free Skating program must contain two Step Sequences of a different nature for Senior Men and one Step Sequence for Senior Ladies & Junior Men & Ladies. The competitors have complete freedom in selecting the kind of step sequence they intend to execute. Jumps can also be included in the step sequence. However the step sequence must fully utilize the ice surface. Step sequences too short and barely visible cannot be considered as meeting the requirements of a step sequence.
For Senior Men the second (in the order of execution) step sequence will always be awarded a fixed Base value, called a choreographic step sequence and evaluated by Judges in GOE only. This sequence can have any pattern while fully utilizing the ice surface.

[rallycairn]

Just doing a happy dance for Ross Miner!

[dorispulaski]

Joe, I'm glad to hear you're out of the hospital and that you have a full recovery very soon! I'm so glad to see you back posting. How good is it that IN has all the previous GP events on demand, when you've been out of touch for a while! I have definitely been there.

[wallylutz]

Yea, I felt quite relaxed while watching LP. Now I know how Chan ubers feel when he competes.

Too bad that no Russians will make it to the GPF, otherwise, who knows what other snarky comments will be coming from you? Despite Takahashi getting 90+ for PCS, his total FS score still trails that of Chan's from Skate Canada when he was far from perfect. As for whether Takahashi can duplicate what he has done here in Sapporo, I think it's doubtful. Japan will not be holding any major Championship, save one 4CC, until Sochi. On the other hand, Canada will be hosting this year GPF and the very important pre-Olympic Worlds in 2013. Simply put, Chan is still his own greatest enemy. Takahashi needs to improve his consistency in his FS or else he runs a severe risk of being left home this year now that Hanyu is one the scene (in addition to Oda and Kozuka) and all 3 of them could easily beat Takahashi when he is off as he often was in the last 2 years.

[Ilvskating]

Too bad that no Russians will make it to the GPF, otherwise, who knows what other snarky comments will be coming from you? Despite Takahashi getting 90+ for PCS, his total FS score still trails that of Chan's from Skate Canada when he was far from perfect. As for whether Takahashi can duplicate what he has done here in Sapporo, I think it's doubtful. Japan will not be holding any major Championship, save one 4CC, until Sochi. On the other hand, Canada will be hosting this year GPF and the very important pre-Olympic Worlds in 2013. Simply put, Chan is still his own greatest enemy. Takahashi needs to improve his consistency in his FS or else he runs a severe risk of being left home this year now that Hanyu is one the scene (in addition to Oda and Kozuka) and all 3 of them could easily beat Takahashi when he is off as he often was in the last 2 years.

Why there has to be a 3-maximum for each country rule? It's so unfair for great skaters being left behind while people doing all kind of doubles going to big competitions. I know we need to get more countries involved, but how about developing their skills in smaller competition first. Or at least set up a bonus berth for countries that are extremely strong in certain field? Just a thought.

[herios]

Too bad that no Russians will make it to the GPF, otherwise, who knows what other snarky comments will be coming from you? Despite Takahashi getting 90+ for PCS, his total FS score still trails that of Chan's from Skate Canada when he was far from perfect. As for whether Takahashi can duplicate what he has done here in Sapporo, I think it's doubtful. Japan will not be holding any major Championship, save one 4CC, until Sochi. On the other hand, Canada will be hosting this year GPF and the very important pre-Olympic Worlds in 2013. Simply put, Chan is still his own greatest enemy. Takahashi needs to improve his consistency in his FS or else he runs a severe risk of being left home this year now that Hanyu is one the scene (in addition to Oda and Kozuka) and all 3 of them could easily beat Takahashi when he is off as he often was in the last 2 years.

Hanyu was on the scene a year ago and still he was the one left home. Until Hanyu will be able to stay strong in the second half of his LP, he doesn't guarantee a better showing on the world scene than the top 3 japanese.