2012 Cup of China Ladies Long Program | Page 17 | Golden Skate

2012 Cup of China Ladies Long Program

ForeverFish

Medalist
Joined
Aug 21, 2012
Sotnikova has always had big jumps, and even she has had trouble adjusting to longer legs and a filled-out body. When a skater has tiny jumps to begin with, I can foresee falls and double-footed jumps. Yes, Julia's 3t is bigger than her other jumps, but she can't do more than two combinations with 3t, and the first jump has to get off the ice.

As it is, looking at the protocol, Julia gets -GOE on many of her jumps, and even on the ones with +GOE, she mostly gets 0s and 1s, because the jumps are small and/or the flowout and ice coverage just isn't there.

She definitely needs to improve her jumps--if not in preparation for growth spurts and body changes, then for better scores. Right now, she's impressive due to her flexibility, age, and interpretation (which is usually present), but once she moves past the teen-starlet stage, she'll need more to anchor her spot.

Am I the only one who thinks that, even after her growth spurts and weight gain, Julia will still be relatively lean and long-legged? She's so light that I can't imagine her going through the same issues as Tukta or Sotnikova, both of whom are broader and taller.
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
Tuktamysheva was tiny last year, and most posters felt she would remain tiny through puberty. This year, she hasn't grown much taller, but she's quite a bit wider. There is no telling in advance how puberty will affect a young skater. Lipnitskaia could be one of those ladies who stays trim and leggy, but grows much taller, the way Kostner did. It took Carolina years to get back control of her jumps.
 

ForeverFish

Medalist
Joined
Aug 21, 2012
Tuktamysheva was tiny last year, and most posters felt she would remain tiny through puberty. This year, she hasn't grown much taller, but she's quite a bit wider. There is no telling in advance how puberty will affect a young skater. Lipnitskaia could be one of those ladies who stays trim and leggy, but grows much taller, the way Kostner did. It took Carolina years to get back control of her jumps.

She has a lot of room to grow--her bio (not sure how recent) gives her height as 4'11", though it's a fickle thing that depends on both genes and environment. I guess we have no way of knowing exactly how much she'll change, but I'm staking my bets that she won't change much. Tukta was wider than Julia even before she gained weight, so assuming that Julia follows the same pattern, I'd still expect her to remain trim and leggy, as you said.
 

koatcue

Medalist
Joined
Aug 31, 2011
Country
Russia
Liza said in her interview last year that she can't live without chocolate)and there is no special diet for her or smth like that.
 

bluesky85

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 27, 2012
A random thought... I am not a huge fan of Julia, but I actually like her better now after the cup of China. She is not a robot after all. She is a human like the rest of skaters and the rest of us. In any case, she has a long career ahead of us, so I hope she doesn't overdo herself too early and tire herself out. silver is an amazing debut and I hope she is proud of herself and doesn't beat herself up for having one not-so-perfect performance.
 

OS

Sedated by Modonium
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
I think people have been far too harsh with Julia on this board. I wonder if she is American or Canadian, what would be the reaction be like :p Same thing applies to Liza, who I just adore from last year.

Julia is among my favourite junior ladies last year (Liza being another one) and someone I am terribly excited about for the future. I think her potential is absolutely enormous and I do love her strength despite the obvious deficiencies which is a natural progression at her age. It has been said again she is only 14 so what do people honestly expect? She does have almost a decade to catch up with the leaders of this sport so there are still plenty of time to refining her artistry. Akiko for example is almost twice her age and I suspect Julia can easily beat Akiko just give her a few years of life experience (assume she survives the puberty monster). I also love the fact she is so honest and genuine with that p*ssed of look at the KnC which seriously made me loled. It shows she is a true little Diva in the making (true to her heritage), who seems want to get mad and get even like RIGHT NOW THIS SECOND! Good for her, so watch out ladies, her real test of character is her next competition where she will ninja flexy leg even more lethally to bash out those TES.

Given the competition is mostly won by PCS, I am very curious actually. I seem to recall they increased the value of loop from 1.5 to 1.8 just after the Olympics, reduced the value of the Lutz (did they increase the value of the toeloop?), as well as lessen the penalty of UR jumps from a downgrade. Just what would Mao's FS TES score be had it been marked before Olympics 2010 before the rule changes? And likewise Julia and Kiira's score?
 
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ForeverFish

Medalist
Joined
Aug 21, 2012
I think people have been far too harsh with Julia on this board. I wonder if she is American or Canadian, what would be the reaction be like :p Same thing applies to Liza, who I just adore from last year.

Julia is among my favourite junior ladies last year (Liza being another one) and someone I am terribly excited about for the future. I think her potential is absolutely enormous and I do love her strength despite the obvious deficiencies which is a natural progression at her age. It has been said again she is only 14 so what do people honestly expect? She does have almost a decade to catch up with the leaders of this sport so there are still plenty of time to refining her artistry. Akiko for example is almost twice her age and I suspect Julia can easily beat Akiko just give her a few years of life experience (assume she survives the puberty monster). I also love the fact she is so honest and genuine with that p*ssed of look at the KnC which seriously made me loled. It shows she is a true little Diva in the making (true to her heritage), who seems want to get mad and get even like RIGHT NOW THIS SECOND! Good for her, so watch out ladies, her real test of character is her next competition where she will ninja flexy leg even more lethally to bash out those TES.

Given the competition is mostly won by PCS, I am very curious actually. I seem to recall they increased the value of loop from 1.5 to 1.8 just after the Olympics, reduced the value of the Lutz (did they increase the value of the toeloop?), as well as lessen the penalty of UR jumps from a downgrade. Just what would Mao's FS TES score be had it been marked before Olympics 2010 before the rule changes? And likewise Julia and Kiira's score?

Harsh? Not necessarily, IMO. I have read some extremely inappropriate comments about Julia, but those were a tiny minority. The criticism of Julia is, in my opinion, valid and essential to her future scores. She lacks the height on her jumps (and, despite that I don't think she'll have a huge issue with body changes, we always need to be prepared for a case like Liza's when she has to cope with weight gain and injury), and her PCS was far behind Mao's in the short program. Someone else on this board also compared her CoC PCS to her PCS at one of her JGPs last year, and the numbers were very nearly identical--not something she wants when she is so obviously determined to improve. No one is doubting her potential--heck, have you seen her flexibility?--but in comparison to the veteran seniors, she is merely good, not excellent or extraordinary. I agree that she has a long time to refine her artistry, but that doesn't mean she should put it off until she is at or almost at the age of the older ladies. Progress must be visible throughout the season, and since Junior Worlds last season, there has been almost no improvement on the height and flow on her jumps.

What do you mean by "true to her heritage"? I personally don't find Julia a diva, nor do I think that her disappointment in the KoC was indicative of one--in her interviews, she seems like a composed if somewhat quiet girl who wants to win and to be the best. She reminds me of how Nadia Comaneci was in Montreal--very different athletes, but united in their determination and passion for the sport.
 

ForeverFish

Medalist
Joined
Aug 21, 2012
A random thought... I am not a huge fan of Julia, but I actually like her better now after the cup of China. She is not a robot after all. She is a human like the rest of skaters and the rest of us. In any case, she has a long career ahead of us, so I hope she doesn't overdo herself too early and tire herself out. silver is an amazing debut and I hope she is proud of herself and doesn't beat herself up for having one not-so-perfect performance.

Did you think she was a robot before? :laugh:
 

gmyers

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
I . Just what would Mao's FS TES score be had it been marked before Olympics 2010 before the rule changes? And likewise Julia and Kiira's score?

Obviously it would have been worse but everyones score would have been so much worse! Everyones jump layout I assume woud have been so different! But under the old system maybe some people would have gotten ! instead e and maybe the judging wouldn't have called some jumps UR! There is so much more insentive now to call UR because you are not downgrading just calling UR. Depends on who the caller would have been.

And of course Julia has 10 years to get Mao PCS and higher PCS and be 2022 world champion or something and go to 2018 and 2022 Olympics.
 

Layfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 5, 2009
Moa skated better than everyone else. She didn't jump better than everyone else, but she skated better than everyone else, This was a skating competition. What else is there to say?

:yes:

Haha. Funny, I'm having such trouble keeping up with skating this season. I feel like I've totally average casual viewer .... so from that perspective, yeah, there was no contest. Kiira was as lovely as ever but her mistakes were as obvious as ever (but she was sooooo lovely). It's fun to watch Julia on the senior stage and I always love watching her nutty flexibility but she completely skated through her music. It was driving me a bit bonkers. Nothing she was doing on the ice had anything to do with the music. I couldn't figure out if she was behind or ahead of her music or if she just hasn't learned to hold her moves or her choreo was bad. Anyway, hopefully that will come with time and I hope she fixes the jump issues everyone else is talking about. Very good first showing! I was disconcerted to see her looking so sad in the kiss and cry. She must be very hard on herself.

Glad that Mirai got through her first and only GP event okay but it was a bummer to see her rather slow and once again only start to look like she was having fun toward the end. The magic is not there. Also, did she suddenly develop more of a leg wrap or was that always there? Did anyone here what her coach said to her in the K&C? She said "I feel like something something..." and her coach said "you know why? Because something something something..."

P.S. Gosh, Mao's costume was gorgeous. At first I thought, yawn, another swan but then I started loving how they chose silver and white instead of black and white and how her skirt tu-tued just enough when she jumped and twirled.
 
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