- Joined
- Mar 14, 2006
This is inspired by the "hommage à la Kwan" thread.
I have not been a big Kwan fan as I found other skaters more interesting and appealing. And yet... watching some of the skates mentioned on this board over the years, I've begun to appreciate how remarkable she is. For me, two things stand out in particular:
Fire -- this lady loves to compete. She lives to be out there on the ice. She never has that startled-deer look but is overjoyed to skate her programs and win. The word "emotion" comes up in almost everyone's praise of her skating.
Command -- she is completely at ease on the ice. Rarely, rarely does she slip or fall. She executes what she planned like a powerful general. She must have cast terror into the hearts of many an opponent, or forced them to take their game into risky territory in an effort to fight back. You could call her "icy" in her self-control.
Of course the emotions she projects are in contrast quite warm. No wonder audiences loved such a champion.
Both of these qualities are rare and are prized wherever they turn up. My questions are:
Do they usually go together?
Are they inborn or can they be learned and trained?
What other skaters consistently have either of them, or both?
The only ones that come to mind for me as exemplars of both qualities are Plushenko and Yagudin. We haven't seen enough of Tut in seniors yet, but she shows signs that she might have this precious combination.
A skater who had fire but not command was Sasha.
I'm grateful for the fire, though! :yay:
I have not been a big Kwan fan as I found other skaters more interesting and appealing. And yet... watching some of the skates mentioned on this board over the years, I've begun to appreciate how remarkable she is. For me, two things stand out in particular:
Fire -- this lady loves to compete. She lives to be out there on the ice. She never has that startled-deer look but is overjoyed to skate her programs and win. The word "emotion" comes up in almost everyone's praise of her skating.
Command -- she is completely at ease on the ice. Rarely, rarely does she slip or fall. She executes what she planned like a powerful general. She must have cast terror into the hearts of many an opponent, or forced them to take their game into risky territory in an effort to fight back. You could call her "icy" in her self-control.
Of course the emotions she projects are in contrast quite warm. No wonder audiences loved such a champion. Both of these qualities are rare and are prized wherever they turn up. My questions are:
Do they usually go together?
Are they inborn or can they be learned and trained?
What other skaters consistently have either of them, or both?
The only ones that come to mind for me as exemplars of both qualities are Plushenko and Yagudin. We haven't seen enough of Tut in seniors yet, but she shows signs that she might have this precious combination.
A skater who had fire but not command was Sasha.
I'm grateful for the fire, though! :yay:
