- Joined
- Sep 12, 2013
His name keeps coming up and somehow I've missed him- didn't see the Nationals where he won silver and have never seen a video of him skating. What is his story, strengths, weaknesses, etc? Any favorite videos of him?
Here are his overall best performances thus far in his career:
2013 Four Continents SP
2011 U.S. Nationals LP
He can do all the jumps, he has good spins, good footwork, solid transitions, and very good performance ability.
His weaknesses have been consistency and not having good programs (his Long Programs for both of the past two seasons). This season I think both of his programs are strong vehicles. I particularly like his Beatles LP and believe it can be something very special if continues to build upon what he showed at Finlandia.
Current season SP
Current season LP
1 Quad Toe and 1 Quad Sal can be a good strategy for him, but going for a 3rd Quad isn't smart at all. He doesn't have much chance of hitting it later in the program and it takes so much extra energy, so it probably won't help him technically even if he does land it (since it will cause him to miss other elements). He doesn't even need it to score extremely high; he could already potentially score 100 TES without it. 3Axel+3Toe, 3Lutz+2Toe, 3Lutz-half loop-3Sal, 3Flip, 3Loop is a much better layout for the second half of his program. I've had a chat with him about this. Really hope he believes in his programs and takes the 3rd Quad out.
I would have agreed with Karne had I not seen Ricky at a show this past summer. I think his problem might be his choreography because when he was doing the show piece he had great personality on the ice and was actually fun to watch.