For Ross Miner, there's a world outside the rink

[gsk8]

LONDON, Ontario — After taking online courses from the University of Missouri for a couple of years, Ross Miner figures that it might be time for him to actually sit in a lecture hall with classmates and a professor.

“I haven’t been to actual school since sixth grade at Mater Christi, so my study habits are a little interesting,” said the 22-year-old Vermont native, who will be competing Wednesday at the World Figure Skating Championships in London, Ontario. “I have a post-doctorate, if there is such a thing, in skating.”

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[Serious Business]

He should stay there. The world inside the rink isn't doing much for him, nor he for it.

[pangtongfan]

That is good, since his future in the rink isnt looking too rosy at the moment. Blowing possibly his only ever chance for the U.S National title, sabatoging any hopes for the U.S men regaining 3 spots for the Games, and almost extinguishing any of his own hopes to go to next years Olympics.

[bigsisjiejie]

That is good, since his future in the rink isnt looking too rosy at the moment. Blowing possibly his only ever chance for the U.S National title, sabatoging any hopes for the U.S men regaining 3 spots for the Games, and almost extinguishing any of his own hopes to go to next years Olympics.

Very nasty post. On the second point (bolded by me), I think this is cruel, inaccurate, and terribly unfair to Ross Miner. Even if he had skated a completely clean program and scored at his previous best around the 235 mark, there is no way the judges were going to slot him above most of the other skaters on that list. Best case, he would have ended up around 9th or 10th. Net result along with Max Aaron's placement: STILL only two spots for US men. There was simply no way, in this field, that the US Men were going to get 3 spots. Not with Max + Ross and not with any other 2 US men. Ross may be guilty of goofing up parts of his program, but "sabotaging" the US hopes, yadda yadda? Um, no. Get real. He did nothing of the sort, all he did was mess up a couple of jumps.

Perhaps you just need to take a voluntary "time out" from the forum and get a grip. You're starting to spew corrosive nastiness over too many threads.

[pangtongfan]

Miner would have beaten Aaron at Nationals had he done his 2nd triple axel so it easy to imagine a clean Miner could have beaten Aaron here and possibly been as high as 5th or 6th, giving the U.S a shot at 3 spots. Actually given the quality of skating of the mens event here in his NHK form he could have quite easily made the top 5 (at minimum). So your analysis is far from sound.

[silverlake22]

Ross needs to go back to the drawing board. It's not like he's really messing everything up, it's more that he just really needs to hit all his elements to be competitive, and it seems like he gets rather nervous which combined with his not textbook jumping technique can lead to mediocre results. Max continues to deliver which is why he is doing well, Ross can do well when he delivers too, we saw that at NHK, but he's not Chan and can't afford to make big mistakes, even if it's just a few, and wind up anywhere near the top at top-level competitions like 4CC and Worlds.

[brightphoton]

“I have a post-doctorate, if there is such a thing, in skating.”

I am extremely curious as to what doctorate Mr. Miner has a post-doctorate in.

[Serious Business]

I am extremely curious as to what doctorate Mr. Miner has a post-doctorate in.

He wasn't being literal. Perhaps it would help if the quote is truncated this way:

I have a post-doctorate [...] in skating

[FlattFan]

Like I said in the Men LP and SP, Ross took himself out of any consideration for next year. Just like C/S in pairs. He's been bombing left and right. And he doesn't have any redeeming quality in his skating. Posture is awkward and terrible. Jumps are awkward and terrible. Skating to generic music. Boring all around. To top it all off, sucked! I think it's good he's planning his world outside the rink. No more boost for you, Ross. Enjoy your post-doc.

Joshua is equally boring, but with nicer line and better jumps.
Jason is significantly better in term of performance.
Done done done.

[silverlake22]

Bit harsh there FlattFan but I agree that Ross will most likely not be on the team next year. And he's not really bombing per se it's more just that, as you pointed out, his skating is a bit bland/boring and his basics and interpretation are only garnering him decent PCS marks (low 7s) internationally. He needs to big jumps to be competitive for the top 10, and his technique is not so great, in general, but particularly for 4s and 3a, which are the jumps he needs the most to be competitive and the jumps he keeps messing up, I think this is because under pressure, the questionable technique cannot be relied upon to hold up. Ross needs a new coaching team if he is serious about his future I think, Mark and Peter produce very well trained athletes and seem to be good at helping them get the proper competitive mindset, however, they do not teach the best technique and that's evidenced by how most of their successful skaters either didn't have the hardest jumps (Hacker, Rizzo, Choate, Oi) or have questionable jump technique (Siraj, Miner, Carriere). Gao is doing well under them because she had good technique before she came to Mark and Peter and like I said, they do produce well-trained athletes who compete well. Ross should go to someone like Carol, Artunyian, Krall, Morozov to get the 3a and 4s more steady and reliable so he can land them under pressure and get better GOEs. The rest of his skating is actually improving so he maybe does have a chance in the future, he just needs some things sorted.

[bigsisjiejie]

Miner up in 5th or 6th place at this worlds. No, I don't think so, Flatt Fan. I'm quite confident my analysis is sound and I made that judgment even before the competition started and before we saw the wonky men's judging.

While Miner certainly has plenty of room for improvement, which he may or may not be able to make, and may or may not be able to come up with more stylistic and memorable persona, I stand by my statement: Miner DID NOT sabotage any USA quest for 3 spots in the next Olympics. The only conceivable combo I could come up with that might have a shot at 3 spots is Lysacek + Abbott, and only if both had a tremendous competition. Putting that combo together obviously wasn't in the cards.

[karne]

I think a lot of people are being extremely harsh on Ross here. The US getting 3 spots was a total crapshoot anyway since the field was so deep and strong, no matter WHO they sent. Ross is a very nice, smooth skater with a nice lyricism, he always looks like he's having fun, my only criticism is that for whatever reason, his jumps give me the heebie-jeebies. Something about his air position.

He skated reasonably in the SP but I thought was very harshly judged there. And then while he did make two major mistakes in hte opening of his LP he recovered absolutely beautifully and skated the rest of the program very well except for one blip, but again, was slaughtered by the judges. So I think he did reasonably, and certainly better than Abbott would have done. And CERTAINLY better than Lysacek!

[karne]

Very nasty post. On the second point (bolded by me), I think this is cruel, inaccurate, and terribly unfair to Ross Miner. Even if he had skated a completely clean program and scored at his previous best around the 235 mark, there is no way the judges were going to slot him above most of the other skaters on that list. Best case, he would have ended up around 9th or 10th. Net result along with Max Aaron's placement: STILL only two spots for US men. There was simply no way, in this field, that the US Men were going to get 3 spots. Not with Max + Ross and not with any other 2 US men. Ross may be guilty of goofing up parts of his program, but "sabotaging" the US hopes, yadda yadda? Um, no. Get real. He did nothing of the sort, all he did was mess up a couple of jumps.

Perhaps you just need to take a voluntary "time out" from the forum and get a grip. You're starting to spew corrosive nastiness over too many threads.

+1

[silverlake22]

Ross is a strong number 3 World Team skater, but we don't have 3 spots, so he got put in a high pressure situation where he was basically expected to garner a placement he might not be able to manage on even his best day. Abbott and Dornbush are both better and would have more realistic chances at getting the 3rd spot back, but they both had a rough go of it at Nationals and didn't have particularly strong fall seasons to make the USFS overlook Nationals and send one of them anyways - after 4CC, they maybe should have given Dornbush a second thought, but by then it was probably too late and maybe not fair to Miner who had already been told he was going to Worlds.

Farris, Brown, Chen will probably overtake Miner in the next season or two anyways. Plus with two Olympic spots only Aaron, Abbott, Lysacek, and Dornbush have considerable chances to make it anyways.

[karne]

Honestly, Lysacek can go jump for all I care. I'd be surprised if he even shows up at Nationals. As for Abbott, he's had it. He doesn't deserve any more chances.