- Joined
- Sep 17, 2011
That a good triple-triple toe combination is helpful to one's scores is undeniable. Carolina Kostner and Yuna Kim have demonstrated that amply well. So has Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, who often gets very high TES thanks to her great 3Lutz-3Toe combination. Now, Ashley Wagner has started doing 3F-3T and getting good scores for them.
On the other hand, triple-triple loop combinations are still quite rare and in 2013, ratified ones were as rare as unicorns or dragons (and rarer than ratified triple Axels if I recall). Just recently at Skate America, we saw Samantha Cesario attempting 3Lo-3Lo combos. They didn't get ratified and received -GOE. Who else has been attempting them recently?
- Mao Asada has gone for them twice in 2013 and gotten neither ratified.
- In 2010, Miki Ando was attempting 3Lutz-3Lo and getting no better than what she'd have earned from a 3Lutz-2Lo, if that.
- Adelina Sotnikova used to land nice 3-3Lo combinations but has given up on them recently.
- Caroline Zhang went for 3Lo-3Lo at Nationals in 2012 (?) but got her combination downgraded.
Even when a 3-3Lo combo gets ratified, it rarely gets +GOE because it's difficult to get it all the way around and even when rotated, the Loop kills the flow out of the combination (e.g. Irina, Adelina who got great height but landed at a standstill). Because of this, a good 3-3Toe combo is usually showered with +1, +2, or +3 across the board thanks to the impressive height possible and the fact that one can still have good flow out. The GOE difference is usually enough to cancel out any BV advantage the 3-3Lo combo might originally have had. Since 2010, the ISU has attempted to address this by increasing the value of a 2Lo, decreasing the severe penalties on underrotations, and decreasing the GOE scaling from 1 to 0.7.
So are 3-3Lo or -2Lo combinations worth it in terms of points? Are they worth it in terms of hip injuries? If they're worth it, why? And if not, how should the ISU go about increasing the incentive for Loop combinations?
On the other hand, triple-triple loop combinations are still quite rare and in 2013, ratified ones were as rare as unicorns or dragons (and rarer than ratified triple Axels if I recall). Just recently at Skate America, we saw Samantha Cesario attempting 3Lo-3Lo combos. They didn't get ratified and received -GOE. Who else has been attempting them recently?
- Mao Asada has gone for them twice in 2013 and gotten neither ratified.
- In 2010, Miki Ando was attempting 3Lutz-3Lo and getting no better than what she'd have earned from a 3Lutz-2Lo, if that.
- Adelina Sotnikova used to land nice 3-3Lo combinations but has given up on them recently.
- Caroline Zhang went for 3Lo-3Lo at Nationals in 2012 (?) but got her combination downgraded.
Even when a 3-3Lo combo gets ratified, it rarely gets +GOE because it's difficult to get it all the way around and even when rotated, the Loop kills the flow out of the combination (e.g. Irina, Adelina who got great height but landed at a standstill). Because of this, a good 3-3Toe combo is usually showered with +1, +2, or +3 across the board thanks to the impressive height possible and the fact that one can still have good flow out. The GOE difference is usually enough to cancel out any BV advantage the 3-3Lo combo might originally have had. Since 2010, the ISU has attempted to address this by increasing the value of a 2Lo, decreasing the severe penalties on underrotations, and decreasing the GOE scaling from 1 to 0.7.
So are 3-3Lo or -2Lo combinations worth it in terms of points? Are they worth it in terms of hip injuries? If they're worth it, why? And if not, how should the ISU go about increasing the incentive for Loop combinations?