Musings - CoP (GP) v. 6.0 Nats / Worlds | Golden Skate

Musings - CoP (GP) v. 6.0 Nats / Worlds

Doggygirl

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
For those folks who skated in the Grand Prix series, I'm sure they all focused to some degree or other on the new scoring system - i.e. there what's lots of commentary about Sasha increasing difficulty in things like spins, spirals, footwork to maximize points there. (part of the CoP that I personally like) I suspect Sasha was far from being the only one.

So now for those skaters competing at Nationals and Worlds later on, what do we think we will see?

My impression is that the 6.0 system on the technical side tended to reward jumps heavily, with far less focus on the difficulty levels of those other elements.

So if you are Sasha, Jenny, AP, etc. what do you do for Nationals? In Sasha's case especially, I'm wondering if some of the difficulty of spins / spirals / footwork will be downgraded a bit in favor of more focus on landing the jumps and a clean program?

What will someone like Michelle who did not compete in GP be thinking from a strategy perspective about difficulty levels of these other elements, considering Sasha's moments of brilliance AND less than stellar moments?

Of course these musings on strategies apply to Men's, Pairs, Dance, etc. as well.

Of course none of us can know exactly what the skaters are thinking - just speculating on what strategies they might be considering.

Curious about everyone's thoughts!

DG
 

insecureedge

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Your supposition that
In Sasha's case especially, I'm wondering if some of the difficulty of spins / spirals / footwork will be downgraded a bit in favor of more focus on landing the jumps and a clean program
is correct, Doggygirl. In this article, Team Cohen says,
"We’ve tweaked the programs but haven’t done anything drastic," said Wagner. Anything specific? Cohen revealed, "Little things. Things that we did for CoP – extra positions and steps. We’ve lost them so that the flow and speed is better."
We've seen this strategy tried by many skaters, including, it would seem of the past few seasons, Michelle Kwan. The question is, will it actually result in a clean program, like Takeshi Honda's (3 quad?) Riverdance in last year's Four Continents, or will Cohen's unfortunately common (at least of late) errors creep in and take points away from what we expect to be a somewhat diluted but still strong Swan Lake, similar to what happened to Kwan in the 2002 Olympics with the IMO choreographically weak Scheherazade? It is especially interesting this year since Team Kwan has given indications of perhaps increased inbetweens in Tosca. Which strategy will win? Stay tuned.
As for the other ladies at US Nationals, their best chance lies in keeping the level of difficulty the same. I expect to see Jennifer Kirk and Amber Corwin try her 3toe-3toe combination at Nationals.
Worlds has a lot more variables, with many skaters that have not seen each other yet this season. I would wait until the respective Nationals are over until commenting on the effect of COP in Europeans, 4CC, and Worlds.
Finally, it must be noted that even without the COP, in previous Worlds skaters have reduced their content over the season (see the evolution of Cohen's Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 LP from last year). It is sometimes difficult to separate what are changes in terms of strategy from changes which naturally occur with multiple performances (although it is probably safe to say that in Cohen's case last year, the removal of the 3sal-0.5loop-3toe(?) combination and performing the ina bauer before a 2axel instead of a 3sal were meant to increase the chances of a clean performance).

InsecureEdge
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I really don't think it will make much difference. Under the old system, whoever did the most triples and quads got the highest technical score, and whoever the judges liked best got the highest presentation scores. This is still true under the CoP. If you actually look at the numbers, yes, you can pick up a few extra points here and there for an especially difficult jump entrance or an especially pretty free leg position on your layback. But the same is true under either system, and in any case that's a lot less imposrtant than the difference between landing 7 clean triples versus falling three times and doubling everything else.

If you look closely at the CoP numbers, even if they they decided to tweak the system (by giving 1000 points to footwork, for instance), it still wouldn't matter much because the number one skater would get 1002 and the number 10 skater would get 998 -- still not as much a difference as that between landing a triple Salchow or not.

I think that skaters have always faced the dilemma of whether they should go for broke or to do less but do it better.

Mathman
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
I think, and it's just a think, that the National judges who are quite aware of the CoP may be doing double time by evaluating a skater as he/she would if using the CoP mentally before issuing his 6.0 system scores.

It'll be good practice for them.

The effect on the skaters? Little, I believe the World Teams have already been established. Only the third place finishes are tough to call. So many talented singles and couples will not make it.

Joe
 
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