There was some reports during GPF 2010 that during Men's practice, at one point everyone one stopped except Patrick and Koz. The whole rink was silenced to listen to the wonderful sounds their blades made.
There was some reports during GPF 2010 that during Men's practice, at one point everyone one stopped except Patrick and Koz. The whole rink was silenced to listen to the wonderful sounds their blades made.
I am so glad he got invited! Thought the Japanese fans might not like him because he is a major competitor to their male single skators.Originally Posted by SkateFiguring
So Patrick will skate next at Japan Nationals Gala. Nice to be invited; it shows his skating is appreciated in Japan. I'm sure he'll enjoy watching the competitions too, especially Men.I hope to be able to celebrate Christmas with Japan Nationals on stream.
This season has been too full of drama for Patrick. Last season he started out with raised techical level but debuting 4t tripped him mentally. First competition this season, 2 falls were excusable though they were really freaky, a random fall and the clicking of blades into the 4T resulting in the fall after the jump was completed. Then he was sick for TEB and carried it into the GPF, in addition to the tremendous distraction and stress from the manufactured controversy.
Will he add a new quad at the Nationals? If he had skated the GPF clean, I would guess he wil, as that would mirror last year's progress that he's modeling this year's on. There is a month between the GPF and the Nationals so there is plenty of time for him to get well and catch up with his training, which suffered from a short busy summer. So it depends much on his progress and confidence on the new quad and the program. Will he pull both off, skating a clean program with an additional quad, like he did last year? I am pulling for him to do well, with or without the new quad. We deserve a flawless Patrick Chan's Aranjuez for eternity.
Last year's Nationals was the final pratice for Worlds, a dress rehearsal in his mind and it was mightly successful. This year he will go to the 4CC before Worlds since it's held in the US, not in Asia like last year. More practice and more prize money, why not?)
Patrick has a habit of delivering what he says. So I guess we can wait to hear from him again. Sometimes I wish he wouldn't have to announce his plan before he skates but there's no escaping it as a headliner Skate Canada counts on for promotion of the events it sponsors.
Go Patrick!
Yeah, it's very unlikely he will add another quad to his program. As I said before, he doesn't need to - as long as he can repeat his performance in last worlds, he is guaranteed another world title. His 4T is not as stable as it was in last season, I think it is because he is paying more attention to the artistic side of the program and doesn't practice the quad enough. By the time of 4CC and worlds, it should be restored to the level of last year.
Good Luck Patrick!
And all of those skaters, including Patrick, were taught figures. He probably didn't know that's what they were called, but he was taught this by Mr. Colson. It's a huge factor in Patrick's success now. There is no way he would rack up the marks for SS, TR, etc, along with elements like footwork, without having had such a strong foundation in figures. In fact it's been said that there was so much emphasis placed on figures and stroking and edges and skating skills that other coaches used to question when he would be taught to jump. Now we all see the wisdom. Learning to jump is a skill that comes with age, muscle, practise. The run of the blade and stroking and edges cannot be learned so quickly, and are best taught from the very beginning. Have a good foundation, then add the tricks. His addition of the quad is a great example. He needed the quad to get into medal contention. But its all the rest of the things in between that helps him stay there, even when he doesn't have his best day at the rink.
I think this translates to other skating disciplines as well, like dance. It's easy to focus on the tricks, but the real quality is when there is fabulous skating skill and edges and line combined with tricks. To me, this is why D/W and V/M are so far ahead of others, and why IMHO V/M have an edge. They had a tremendous foundation from very early years. It's the basics honed over many years together.
There's a quality that I started noticing in the mid-90s (when I started attending live competitions and spending more time on the ice with higher level skaters) that I referred to as "the ice melting away beneath their blades" to describe a quiet, effortless acceleration. I've seen it from novices or nonelite seniors who don't necessarily have the jumps to be competitive -- but better skaters than others at their level. The most extreme example I witnessed was probably Grishuk and Platov.
It's been a few years since I've seen Chan skate live (only at Liberty, so very early in the season with brand-new programs) at which point he looked very good but not exceptional. On TV more recently, though, it looks to me that he gets more ice coverage/deeper edges with each stroke and more agility to turn and move his whole body whichever way he chooses than the other top singles skaters. I'm not sure I can think of another example of a skater who had exactly those areas of extreme excellence. Some might get a bit more nuance out of the music, but not the same combination of effortless ease, complexity, and power.
A Japanese fan commented on his JO youtube video that many Japanese turned into his fans when they watched him live at the JO. Guess real skating fans appreciate great skating though in this forum all we hear about endlessly was about the falls.
I'm not so certain he wouldn't. With all the drama this season, the track is a little off but he knows best where he really is at technically. He has been performing with compromised conditions so far this season but the Nationals is something special for him. I think generally the home crowd makes him nervous at SC because it's his first event and he is trying out super difficult new programs so there is pressure to not disappoint the fans. But at the Nationals, there is no competitive pressure (except his own pretence that it were Worlds), and the program is by then familiar. The supportive home crowd is energizing so the conditions are optimal for him to perform his best, earning a deserved love fest. He can then take that winning feeling with him to 4CC and Worlds. I think if he did very well without a new quad at the Nationals, he might add it at 4CC as a run up to Worlds. We will see.Yeah, it's very unlikely he will add another quad to his program. As I said before, he doesn't need to - as long as he can repeat his performance in last worlds, he is guaranteed another world title. His 4T is not as stable as it was in last season, I think it is because he is paying more attention to the artistic side of the program and doesn't practice the quad enough. By the time of 4CC and worlds, it should be restored to the level of last year.
Good Luck Patrick!
Stay happy, healthy, and focused, Patrick!
I've had the pleasure of watching Patrick in every season since he was a Juvenile and one of the things I noticed when he was 14 and 15 and skating at the senior level at Thornhill was that his speed, flow and power were not out of place in a field that included Jeff Buttle and Takeshi Honda. At that point he wasn't the fastest guy on the ice, but he could definitely hold his own, even though he was the youngest person out there.
It was at Skate Canada in 2008 that I saw first him display the kind of effortless speed, flow and command of the ice that I hadn't seen since Plushenko and Yagudin at the 2002 GPF. At that point I knew that his PCS mark was going to take a huge leap and that even when he skated poorly, that his PCS marks would still be in the upper ranges. I also knew that people who merely watched on TV were going to scream that he was over-marked.
When I'm watching Patrick at home on my bigscreen, I have to use a motion enhancer because he moves so fast across the ice that my picture breaks up. Patrick is the only skater I have ever had to turn that function on for.
I find this year his speed is noticeable even on screen. He just sweeps over the whole ice surface, blurring the background. Even the camera backs off a bit.
Skatefiguring - I think this is one of the many reasons why I am so 'wowed' by Chan, you really can tell he is in a league of his on even 'just' on tv. gkelly .. I love your description of Chan "effortless ease, power, and complexity." Dragonlady - wow! All these years of watching him live and watching, then, the growth and development - too cool.
Another thing I appreciate about Patrick's skating is what he never does - bending over while skating. Most skaters do that, even top guys like Oda, and most obviously lanky skaters such as Jason Brown. It particularly bugs me to see a talented skater, in the midst of a nicely choreographed program, bending over doing cross cuts for a good distance, usually to build up speed for a jump.
Patrick just integrates all the tricks seemlessly with the choreography, skating gracefully at all times.....except for some fluke falls!
I think we should have a Nobunari Oda and Jason Brown safe house thread.
I think we should have a Nobunari Oda and Jason Brown safe house thread.
eta. Goodness, I have to bring these over from Dai's thread because they are so cute.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWv9IhtsHik
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzMxOTU5NTk2.html
Last edited by SkateFiguring; 12-20-2011 at 08:03 PM.
MK did not skate when so much footwork was required but she had beautiful edges and staying on your feet through 7 triples time after time is quite a skating skill. She was not as balletic or fast over the ice as Gordeeva but Gordeeva was a pair skater, not any kind of jumper. Always lovely at what she can do, though.
Why not a Rachael, Mirai and Alissa? You could call them endangered species.I think we should have a Nobunari Oda and Jason Brown safe house thread.
Gordeyeva's skating skills were (still are, for that matter) so phenomenal. At first I thought it was because of the kind of training Soviet pairs skaters received, but she was unique even among Soviet/Russian pairs ladies, wasn't she? Interestingly, one of her regular choreographers both as an amateur and as a professional was Marina Zoueva. I wonder what influence these two pillars of skating had on each other through the years.
That's great that he got invited by Japan! But doesn't it cut off some of his training time for Nationals? But if Chan himself thinks it's ok, then it is ok.So Patrick will skate next at Japan Nationals Gala. Nice to be invited; it shows his skating is appreciated in Japan. I'm sure he'll enjoy watching the competitions too, especially Men.
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