If you could change one thing about Figure Skating, what would it be?

[Mao88]

Here is a new interview with Oleg Vasiliev. It reads:-

A well-known Russian coach Oleg Vasiliev told why people lose interest in figure skating and leave the stands.....“What is interesting there if skaters without two jumps, two throw jumps and with not well executed lift gain 130 points, showing the best result of the season? You should agree that there is something wrong.” he continued....“I understand people who went out from the stands after the appearance of new judging system. They simply no longer understand figure skating. Judging is currently inadequate to skating"..........“At the time, the old system 6.0 was criticized for the fact that it lacks concreteness and judges were not guided by certain criteria. Now they have a criteria but the essence remains the same. This applies to the second mark for the components and also to the rather biased approach in technical part.” the coach noted.

I agree with Vasiliev. If I had a magic wand which I could use to change one thing for the better in relation to figure skating, it would be to get rid of COP/IJS and bring back the 6.0 system. The introduction of COP/IJS has without doubt been the biggest factor behind the decline in figure skating. And Vasiliev is right, COP/IJS has not got rid of the political bias, the inflated scores that some skaters get for their PCS, the undermarking of others, etc. No marking system can ever eradicate political bias and what was most ludicrous about COP/IJS, was the assertion that it could. However, that's just my opinion. Hence, if you could change one thing about figure skating which would improve it for the better, what would it be?

[MasterB]

Men's outfits.

[MasterB]

I believe that if we were to add a jump ONLY category it might create some interest with the boys. Boys love athletic things and throwing themselves in to the air and doing wild tricks (kind of like extreme sports with skateboards and the bicycles).

[skateluvr]

It isn't one thing but radical change. For single and pairs, and even dance, a truly stripped down tech program which is about Atleticism. And then another which resembles what we have now. I would simplify, for the sake of the masses, the IJS. I don't think we will ever go back to 6.0 but we need commentators in the arenas and in the TV booths explaining what they seee, why they received the points, listing the jumps, saying how much for downgrades, etc. What other popular sport must one read and study protoocols. For ubers, people good at Math, the system is easy. For the majoriy it is not. I am not sure how to simplify IJS but I aagree IJS changed how skating is skated. I do not want to see the same ugly spins, the very same moves from every skater to garner points regardless of choreography or of beautiful basics. Chan is elegant, Dai is elegant. These two are mastering IJS but make mistakes all the time. We do not see clean programs anymore. Someone can skate so well and then we learn they did not rotate a 3x3 perfectly and the downgrades keep them off a podium.

What people miss is this...every sport needs to develop new fans every year or it won't survive or reach a general audience. It is a shame skating is now again a niche sport for the few. I don't see a revival due to the money issues-no return for what one puts out at elite levels. Our fave sport is like gymnastics-super difficult and few can be elite. I also think the prices of these events are prohibitive-this world is terrified of going broke. So, that may affect people in the stands-saving for a rainy day that is sure to come one way or another.

I am sure the 90's spoiled many insiders-now they are upset skating is no big deal anymore.

[drivingmissdaisy]

I would say fewer jumping passes and anything else that would reduce injuries. As a fan it's frustrating because I am literally having to root for a new woman every season because my favorites get injured, retired, burned out, or just flat out bomb important competitions. You don't have skaters like Michelle and Irina whose peak performances spanned multiple Olympic cycles. I think that is the biggest problem, that you can't have a favorite that does well for more than a few seasons.

[noskates]

I agree with Mao. The current rule guidelines don't always make for pleasing-to-watch programs. I hate the combo spins - they go on forever and ever and the positions are not attractive for the most part. But I also agree with skateluvr about how figure skating has become a niche sport and how the prices of the events are really getting out of hand. I'm going to Boston in 2014 with a tour group. We got word that the original price was not correct because they're now charging TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS for the exhibitions night. I shudder to think what the Olys will cost.

[os168]

I don't blame the system as much as I blame the judging that relies too much on backward sporting technology purely by human cognition therefore opens to all sort of weaknesses that can be easily exploited. In this day and age, sport performance should matter more and reward more with proper measurable stats in support. (Ice Coverage, Speed, Power, Strength, Degrees of UR/OR etc.)

Also if they reward art/breakdown of PCS categories better with more credible and accurate expert appraisal instead of as an afterthoughts (based on a narrow corridor of consensus upon the skater's reputation, expectation regardless of what happened ON THE DAY), the artistic merit of the all the programs will improve a great deal just like 6.0. Risk factors, innovation that get rewarded, will start to happen. To start off, let the Free skate to be truly free. If people want to 3x3A or 3x3Luz, or skaters like Hanyu want to do 3A3A3T, let them.

I would also expand the GOE values to -5 to +5, to make it more distinguishable between a terrible effort/mistake and superb effort/result , given they clamped down on the amount of GOE can be rewarded which is backward for the sport in terms of quality.

[ImaginaryPogue]

I agree with Vasiliev. If I had a magic wand which I could use to change one thing for the better in relation to figure skating, it would be to get rid of COP/IJS and bring back the 6.0 system. The introduction of COP/IJS has without doubt been the biggest factor behind the decline in figure skating. And Vasiliev is right, COP/IJS has not got rid of the political bias, the inflated scores that some skaters get for their PCS, the undermarking of others, etc. No marking system can ever eradicate political bias and what was most ludicrous about COP/IJS, was the assertion that it could. However, that's just my opinion. Hence, if you could change one thing about figure skating which would improve it for the better, what would it be?

1. I have doubts that COP/IJS was the biggest factor behind the decline of figure skating.

2. I don't think I could choose just one thing to change, though. I'd probably start with making the JGPF eight skaters instead of six.

[coolboogie22]

I would change the rule of downgraded jump deduction. I think that they should keep calling downgraded jumps and give the base mark of those downgraded, but the change that I would like to see is that the judge can use the GOE they want to -3 at +3 instead of giving automatically a -3 and -2

It would be less frustrating for a skater, to have the opportunity to show a good try of a jump and not lose so much GOE cause of a downgraded question. So a good show of downgraded would deserve a 0 in the GOE if the landing is properly

[Niki2012]

I hate IJS’s PCS especially. I think there are too many PCS components, which can be used by judges to manipulate to give higher margins to their favorites.
Hanyu got 79 PCS at SkateAmerica, and 81 at Finlandia. If you compare two performances, it is obvious that his performance at SA is much worse than Finlandia and there should be more point differences to properly reflect his performance level at each event. If a skater falls a few times and takes time to get back to the performance or makes obvious mistakes like doing double jumps instead of triple, it should be greatly affected on PE and on CC to some extent although TSE is affected already. Hanyu’s ChSq was not even counted, and he obviously omitted some choreographic movements after falls and visibly slowed down after second half of the program, but still got relatively high scores on PE and exactly same score as Fin on CC.

TR includes the entrances and exits of technical elements, which I think are already reflected on the GOE, so we can get rid of it. IN can be incorporated into either PE or CC, so we do not need it either.

[evangeline]

Instead seeing all the different categories of PCS consistently being clumped together around the same range, I would like to see judges actually distinguishing between the different categories when merited.

[Ruffles78]

I would knock out levels all together. Just positive or negative GOE. (Difficult positions could add to the GOE.) I'm sick of the spins that drag on and the crammed foot work that doesn't go with the music. No downgrades either. Let the judges decide for themselves and mark the jump by the GOE that they see fit. I get very annoyed seeing >> and > all the way down the score sheet for jumps that the audience cheered for.

[Victura]

I just want to see a simple layback or a fast scratch spin, no catch-foot or inside spirals.

Better yet, I'd like to wave a magic wand and make professional skating popular and profitable again.

[FSGMT]

I would like to have better criterias for the PCS! I like the IJS (I have already explained this many times!) and I absolutely LOVE the spins we have now (just look at Czisny and Lipnitskaya! ), but I agree with Vasiliev abot V/T: there should be a mark concerning JUST THE CLEANESS OF THE PROGRAM!! Maybe the P/E: if a skater skates a 100% clean program, he/she/they should receive 9s or 10s, when, if a very good skater (Chan, Takahashi, V/T etc.) skate a mistakes-full program he/she/they should receive 4s or 5s for this mark! Or there should be a mandatory deduction in PCS for the falls, it's really absurde that judges give 9.75 to a program with three falls! And in IN and CH should be considered as an important standard the ability of involving the audience into the performance (but I know that these could help skaters like Amodio which I dislike...).

[Slowdive]

--If a skater can't maintain the speed nor has the flexibility to do an asthetically pleasing Biellmann spin, that skater should be shot.
--The footwork sequence, in general, should be thrown out (I'm sometimes half asleep by the time certain skaters reach the end of the rink).
--The butt spin, the side layback & that fugly one-legged sit down while catching the free foot spin (obviously don't know the name) should be banned.