Even if Gracie made the switch to a coach more experienced with training prospective Olympians, I feel that she would still keep Ouriashev as a co-coach since they've been together for so long. From watching them at CoR and SC, among other competitions, they seem to have a very touching relationship bordering on father-daughter affection. It's clear that she respects his ideas and advice, and he hasn't led her wrong yet...
Gracie's short program performance at Cup of Russia was excellent. Her spins were all high level and her jumps were difficult & beautifully executed. I can't say the same about her free skate performance, which was only slightly better than the performance at Skate Canada. She is still making too many mistakes. She is consistently missing that second 3Lz in the program & I think it's because of the transition into the jump. She seemed to lose so much speed going into the jump. Her 3Lo is terrible, and I pretty much expect her to flub that jump now. But I still don't like her jump layout; I preferred last year's jump layout much more (she always seemed to nail that 2A-3T with positive GOE & she's replaced it with the 3F-1LO-3S combo, which she isn't executing and is recieving negative GOE for - because of the edge call on the flip.) But it's still early in the season, so she has time to make changes and improve before Nationals (and any events that may come afterwards.)
Amen to this. As spectators, we don't necessarily understand the amount of time and effort (and finances!!!) that skaters put into the sport, and the anxiety and pressure that surrounds them. It is never easy to close yourself from such a world, but I pray that the skaters don't let this affect them too much.Originally Posted by tulosai
Meh. I don't know why, but I'm not impressed with Gracie or Julia. I want to be but I'm not.
Gracie has large jumps and good transitions...nothing else stands out about her to me. Julia is very flexible with interesting spins and a high level of consistency...that's all I get from her. Both of them are very talented and have a lot of potential. I just don't get the hype. I see good jumpers and an incredible spinner...I don't see amazing skaters yet. They lack the whole package IMO but at 17 and 14 years old, they've got plenty of time to grow and improve.
The newbie seniors who do impress and entertain me are Kaetlyn Osmond and Zijun Li. Kaetlyn has excellent spring to her jumps and Zijun's jumps are neatly rotated and get good distance. To me, they both have more than jumps and spins: Kaetlyn skates with a lot of charisma and energy; you can see she's into her music and what she's doing on the ice. Zijun is very lyrical and expressive in her movements. Both of them connect and relate to their music and project outward when they skate. IMO, Kaetlyn and Zijun are better balanced skaters: they have those great performance qualities in addition to a good blend of jumps and spins.
Do you mean the Bauer transition into the jump? If so, her mistake is more understandable--it's an extremely difficult transition to make.
A 2A-3T won't get her as many points as a 3F-1Lo-3S, which she needs at Nationals if she seriously wants to contest Wagner's projected gold medal. From what I understand she's going to be hard at work these next two months (no competitions), and hopefully her priority will be to clean up that freeskate. Skated cleanly, that program has potential for a 120+, and her overall score is just within the range of breaking 180.
Yes, the transition into the second 3Lz is a bauer and she doesn't have as many transitions that generate speed into the bauer in the LP as she does in the SP (if you look at all her steps after the 3F+3T in the short, they all are designed to build speed into the bauer). If she does a 2A+3T along with the 3Lz+3T then she can't do the second 3F (which even with an edge call is worth more than a second 3T). The 3F+1Lo+3S is really awesome and she rarely misses it (landed it in Detroit, SLC, and SC). She screwed it up in Russia because she didn't check hard enough coming out of the F and the left shoulder released a little which meant the 1/2 loop wasn't going to happen. I know they are working on the flip entry to get it off an outside edge as well. I am sure Scott B will smooth over the less than stellar spots and help fix the 3Lo and second 3Lz. I doubt you will see Gracie leave Alex and Scott. She is grounded by being with her family.
I think a 2a-3t in the second half of the program with +GOE would get more points than a 3f-1/2lo-3s in the first half of the program with neutral or -GOE for the lip, so I agree that might be a good strategy. Plus then Gracie would have 2 combos in the 2nd half of her program, and put the 3-jump combo there too (do 2a-2t-2lo or 3s-2t-2lo). As long as she's doing 7 triples, repeating the 3t instead of the 3f wouldn't make much if any difference in points, especially now that she's consistently getting edge calls on the flip, it would be different if her 3lo were more consistent and she wanted to repeat that but that is not the case.
The flip is being fixed. It is actually fixed in practice and was noticeably better at CoR. Also, I think the idea is that 2 totally different CLEAN 3+3 combinations is more of a wow factor than a 3Lz+3T and a 2A+3T.
I hope at some point the ISU sits down and figures out a way to reward more difficult 3-3 combinations. The base value of a 3Z-3T plus a solo 2A should not be equal to a 2A-3T plus a solo 3Z. It really is a wow factor and needs to be rewarded appropriately.
As I said in the COR threads, based on the GOE scoring from judges, the (e), to me seems to be more of what was the (!) a few years ago -- i.e. a borderline, not severe edge. A severe (e) garners automatic -2 to -3 in GOE while a borderline garners -1 to -2. At COR, she got zero GOE in her SP and just .50 in the FS for one of the flips, IIRC.
So I hope by nationals, she will have it taken care of.
Does anyone else think that Christina Gao should go to Worlds instead of Gracie? Christina has been very consistent this season and was arguably underscored at Nationals. Gracie has higher scoring potential than Christina, but at least you can count on Christina to deliver a solid, respectable performance. Gracie has delivered mostly messy, error-filled performances this season (one good short program and one good long program all season is not a great track record) because she is not a competitor. She has shown that she is mentally weak and cannot deliver under pressure. She shouldn’t be competing at Worlds while she is still intimidated by the situation. She should be competing at Senior B’s and other small competitions until she learns to control her nerves & perform in front of an audience.
Gracie bombing at 4CCs is no big deal. But her bombing at Worlds (which is likely, considering she can’t get herself together mentally at lower profile events) would cost another skater a chance to skate at the Olympics.
Gao isn't going to help get that 3rd spot back either. To say because Gracie hasn't had the year everyone expected that she's not a competitor is ridiculous. The problem is way to many people expected her to dominate not realizing that she's a first year Senior who's inexperienced and who needs to develop at her own pace and not at the pace other people think. Next year she will know what to expect and she will either become a real force or just another skater who was way over-hyped by the masses and never lived up to her potential.
No. Not I.
This is how I feel.
Look of course Gold is a new skater and I think it could take her more than a year to get her feet wet. And I do think Gao could have helped with the spot. You keep on saying US ladies aren't good enough for three spots, but all I have to say is we could have easily gotten 3 spots if the right team was selected-i.e our second skater was able to land at least one triple... I like Czisny a lot as a skater but she was clearly in bad shape going into the worlds. The same thing could be said for Flatt the year before....The problem is our selection procedure.
I think Gold could very well be a world champion some day but I'm not sure her over Gao at Worlds right now is wise. And I think sending a skater questionably before they are ready could really do bad things to their confidence....
Just who in the last few years could have gotten that 3rd spot back? We had our best chance in 2010 with Mira who was on a roll and Rachael who was know at the time as "Reliable" Rachael. Well we know what happened Rachael struggled in the LP and Mira basically choked. Mirai can't be counted on when the pressure is on and now she's having a hard time even rotating her jumps.
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