4CC Ladies Free Skate | Page 10 | Golden Skate

4CC Ladies Free Skate

aero

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 9, 2013
Great skate for all the Japanese ladies.
Mao is determined to take back her world crown, and IF she is able to rotate and land all of the jumps she attempted today, YuNa is gonna have to up her game tremendously.
I am still amazed over how well put together Akiko's program is. Her music choice and musicality are very good, and I'm happy that she finally has the PCS she deserves.
Kanako is getting more consistent.
Christina is a tad awkward to look at (she carries herself well though) and she's proven herself far more reliable than Gold has at this point.
Li (I wasn't able to catch her free) but I have high expectations for her. She's transitioned into the senior ranks very very well.
I want to like Gold, but her inconsistency may cost the U.S
 

Cherryy

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 27, 2012
Now that the protocols are up, some Mao-haters will say that she scored 130 with only 3 triples. Ugh, I hate it.
Though this 4cc showed for Mao that her 3A is a big risk. It can either help a lot (SP) or give her less points than a 2A (LP). Though 3F-3L seems to pay off even when the 3L is underrotated.
 

mirai4life

1Lo <
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 26, 2013
The pattern is the US judges playing favorites. Christina was low balled at US nationals. Gold did out skater her in the long for sure but she was a mess in the short program, and was gifted a very high score for that. And in no way shape or form should Gold have the PCS lead the US judges gifted her over Gao......Lets not even get into the Wagner situation. And Hicks/Agnes really?

Its getting ridiculous and I frankly didn't even understand it in this case. Seeing Gao has been fairly consistent this season, made the GPF and frankly if you were going to take into account other things-those things should have mattered.


:bow::clap::bow::bow::bow:
 

Leonardo

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
Even with THREE ur's and a double salchow, Mao's base value was still 59.54, one of the highest of all the ladies this season. She's very close to rotating 3F+3lo (looked fine in real time), and for me, she rotated her 2a+3t. 3A was also rotated, but I think her other foot touched the ice before she completed the rotation.
 

SkateNater

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Yuna took out the 2A-3T because she wants to do 2 Sals instead of 2 Toe. And she can't do 3 2A anymore.
Rule changed regarding the 2As and the GOE hurt her the most. But I think it's fair to disallow 3 2As and disproportional GOE to base value.
Anyway, poor Yuna, suddenly there are some serious competitions showing their cards waiting to take her down.

That makes no sense, as the Toe and the Sal are worth basically the same amount.

It's been a long time since Kim has done a solo Triple Toe.

Her plan is to do 3Lutz-3Toe, 2A-3Toe, 2x 3Sal (one in 3 jump combo), 3Flip 3Lutz - that's 7 triples, and she can do another 2Axel.

When you factor in Mao's Lutz is a guarantee'd edge call and the fact that Yuna - if she's on - will out-GOE Mao on almost all her jumps, the TES differential isn't that factorable and it comes down to PCS.

Someone mentioned spins. Mao gets better positions. Yuna tends to center better, and she spins faster. All top ladies are going for Level 4 spins so GOE plays a factor there. It will come down to what the judges prefer.

Yuna tends to have better transitions going into her jumps as well, which boosts her PCS. Kostner and Asada tend to telegraph quite a bit. Asada's issues with rotating her jumps makes her a bit of a Wild Card, IMO. Tuktamysheva can score this well in a FS outside of her home country so if Mao URs a jump in the SP and Tukt goes clean in both programs even a relatively clean Mao FS is beatable by her, nevermind Yuna Kim or Kostner.

That's a huge issue, cause when you UR the chances of getting any decent GOE on a jump is slime to none.
 

FlattFan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 4, 2010
What do you mean "poor" Yuna? The rule changes were appropriate and there has always been serious competition to "take her down". Don't know if you can remember but all the top ladies were bringing out all their big tricks in the 2009-2010 season to defeat her, as they should!

I agree with the rule changes!
What I meant is this, if Yuna skate clean back in the day, she's guaranteed to win. Now, not so much. She will need some help. Her competitions improved one way or another. Caro's been building her PCS, from low 60 to mid 60 to 70, and also slowly adding one jump after another back. Mao's been building her PCS, adding harder TES.
I think the only improvement I've seen from Yuna is her ability to connect to the audience more. That earns very little points compare to her competitors, with real quantifiable improvement.
 

prettykeys

Medalist
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Nice, kwanatic. Here are my thoughts/opinions. :p

Mao. Those who were blasting her for her lower technical content earlier on in the season, should really love her now because she now has the most difficult elements in her FS (and 3A in the SP).

Akiko and Kanako were :love:

Christina Gao - I don't get why everyone loves her. I find her skating pleasant but boring. I'd rather gamble on Gracie Gold and hope she gets over her nerves than look forward to...more predictably pleasant boringness (sorry.) But seriously, Gracie's nerves really show on her face just before she starts to unravel. Also, I noticed she didn't have on her usual red lipstick for this LP - makes me wonder if she was overall less prepared for this competition than Nats.

Zijun will be wonderful to keep an eye on as she continues to develop.

Kaetlyn - this competition was not her best, but even when the jumps aren't there she still performs so that's always nice to see.
 

Ambivalent

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 29, 2011
Of course she's hard to beat. But back in 2010, she was losing to Yuna regularly, and she only planned 6 triples in the LP and 2 triples in the SP.
This time, she's planning 3 triples in the SP, 8 triples in the LP. She upped her TES to men level compare to even 2010 Olympics. Which is why I think by Sochi time, if she can clean up her URs, she will be really really hard to beat by anyway, Yuna, Carolina, the Russians with russian bonus.

There's planned content and then there's actual content. I could talk about Yu-Na's loop all I want, but unless I see her do it it's still fantasy to me. Mao has seldom done an 8 triple LP.
 

FlattFan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 4, 2010
That makes no sense, as the Toe and the Sal are worth basically the same amount.
Her plan is to do 3Lutz-3Toe, 2A-3Toe, 2x 3Sal (one in 3 jump combo), 3Flip 3Lutz - that's 7 triples, and she can do another 2Axel.

If she does what you said she does, I'm sure the bronze would be out of reach for her. 2 3Lutz, 2 3Toe, 2 3Sal? You make no sense.
 

hybfc

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
lol it sounds like she can throw in a 3a just for the heck of it

Lol at Caro having men's level tech. And Mao with an 8 triple is pure fantasy- her flutz is so blatant, it's really seven at best.
Remember, men are so strong at keeping that outside edge- barely any men flutz. If having a true lutz shows men's level tech, then you could say Yuna and Caro already have it, Mao doesn't yet. So no need for Yuna to do anything now, except keep her programs clean. But I know what you mean- Mao get's over 200 with a program filled with ur's, 2foots, stepouts since she packs it. Yuna should just throw in a barely there 3a and 3loop just for the heck of it.
 

vera01

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 6, 2013
I don't want to go all "OMG unless Yuna skates like she did at the Olympics, Mao is totally going to win at Worlds!" here. Yuna is capable of getting more than 70 for her FS TES and around 70 for her PCS. Mao should be, too but she never skated a clean FS this season. With SP, both Yuna and Mao will be pretty close if they both skate clean but for FS, I think clean Yuna(at Korean Nationals) would beat Mao(GPF or 4CC). And plus, Worlds is going to be held in Canada. What happened to Kaetlyn at 4CC after her win at the Nationals and Skate Canada? She got really nervous and made few mistakes. Skating in your home country and at another country-it's really different and it does affect the score, IMO.(I do understand that Kaetlyn is a young skater with almost no experience at big competitions, but I just wanted to state that skating in your home country and at other country is completely different)

However, I do admit that they're really close. I'm glad that Mao is getting better, and she'll definitely be one of the favorites for gold medal at Worlds. Well.. Congratulations to Mao. She really deserved her gold here:) And congratulations to other Japanese ladies-they were all amazing today.
 
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gmyers

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
4 triples completed but one with edge call and 3 underrotated triples with one double salchow for mao. Still by far her most impressive performance of the season with real attempts at difficulty. Fully rotating the three < triples would make it difficult to beat and now things are interesting between Mao and Yuna. Carolina still doesn't have this level of attempted jumps at all. No 3/3 in the fs and not even close to 7 or 8 triples.
 
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Cherryy

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 27, 2012
Her plan is to do 3Lutz-3Toe, 2A-3Toe, 2x 3Sal (one in 3 jump combo), 3Flip 3Lutz - that's 7 triples, and she can do another 2Axel.

She can't do that because then she would repeat 3Lz, 3T and 3S and you can only repeat 2 triples so instead of 2A-3T she does 2A-2T-2L. Unless Yuna does a 3L she can't have a 7-triple program.
 

SkateNater

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Even with THREE ur's and a double salchow, Mao's base value was still 59.54, one of the highest of all the ladies this season. She's very close to rotating 3F+3lo (looked fine in real time), and for me, she rotated her 2a+3t. 3A was also rotated, but I think her other foot touched the ice before she completed the rotation.

It only looks fine in real time [to you] because she is a master of staying upright and pulled in until she's gotten all the rotation in - off or on the ground (think Sarah Hughes, Nagasu, but Mao is even better at it). It's why she was able to stand up on that axel. She basically landed in a balanced backspin position. It helps avoid falls, and it helps her hook around under-rotated jumps. The problem is that because she's able to stand up so many UR jumps so easily, she doesn't get the kind of torque (or falls) that other skaters get on those landings, therefore it's comfortable and it makes it psychologically harder to fix it.

In any case, it was pretty obvious the loop in that combo was UR in real time, as well as the second flip. What other jump did they UR? The feed was Standard Quality and I sort of tuned out halfway through the performance, anyways. Judges aren't average spectators, and neither are other skaters.

I love Akiko Suzuki. She really draws you into her performance. She reminds me of Bebe Liang with the bits of dance she does towards the end of her program.
 

bekalc

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Christina Gao - I don't get why everyone loves her. I find her skating pleasant but boring. I'd rather gamble on Gracie Gold and hope she gets over her nerves than look forward to...more predictably pleasant boringness (sorry.) But seriously, Gracie's nerves really show on her face just before she starts to unravel. Also, I noticed she didn't have on her usual red lipstick for this LP - makes me wonder if she was overall less prepared for this competition than Nats.

Frankly I don't adore Christina's skating and I can see why she gets lost in the shuffle. However if we are talking about making the world team and earning spots, why would you want to gamble on a skater who frankly isn't necessarily ready for prime time. I get wanting to put Gold out there for Sochi but this decision may cost us three spots. And lets not get into Wagner's meltdowns.

The point of the matter is if you base it on the overall skating right now Gao got royally screwed by the US judges.
 

Ambivalent

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 29, 2011
I feel that Yu-Na has always known she can't out-base-value Mao, so in the past her plan has just been to stick with her guns and do the elements she does extremely well. That's where she's beaten Mao before, and may do so again. As for Mao, who could really deny her a third world championship if she lands a 3A and 3F-3Lo FS and 3A in the SP? If she does so (and it would be such a spectacle), she would be a deserving winner. But we're playing if's and but's here.

Daisuke didn't even medal yesterday when we all thought we would. Yu-Na might not even medal and to be honest I wouldn't be surprised because I don't think she's as competition fit as she could be, just yet anyway.
 

guanchi

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 31, 2012
^^ Huge difference between Dai who is nearing the end of his great career plagued by injuries, and a still competition fit Yuna.
but yes, totally agree about Yuna trying to do all her elements well, this is how she's won in the past, this is how she'll end her career in sochi.
 
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