Kwan ain't going anywhere

http://tinyurl.com/2yg4a

"Women's skating is on the highway with Miki (Ando) doing the quad salchow. I know I have to do the triple-triple to compete," added Kwan.

"It's a test of our body. If you push it too hard it breaks down. You just have to listen to yourself and how your body is. I know I have to do the triple-triple in competition. I just have to keep on working."


She knows what she needs to do. She's just being smart about how she goes about doing it. Talk about a difficult road to navigate. It makes me all the more impressed that she's managed to be at the top of this sport for a decade with relatively minor injuries. She's smart about training and now just has to weigh the risks that come from training the 3/3 combos.

YEs, Michelle exactly knows what she is doing! She knows what her body can and should take when it coming to pushing the jumps.. I mean SArokowa may have done the spectacular jumps this time, BUT she has had an injury this year.. Keeping her leg wrapped.. Also, Miki Ando is doing 3/3 and even a quad at 16.. I mean how long is she going to be doing this without facing future injuries.. I remember Sasha having to take a whole year off because of injury.. This is because she was trying time after time to do the 3/3 and even a quad.. I think Michelle is doing the RIGHT thing!!!!!!!!!!!! peace

Skate Sandee said:

http://tinyurl.com/2yg4a

"Women's skating is on the highway with Miki (Ando) doing the quad salchow. I know I have to do the triple-triple to compete," added Kwan.

"It's a test of our body. If you push it too hard it breaks down. You just have to listen to yourself and how your body is. I know I have to do the triple-triple in competition. I just have to keep on working."


She knows what she needs to do. She's just being smart about how she goes about doing it. Talk about a difficult road to navigate. It makes me all the more impressed that she's managed to be at the top of this sport for a decade with relatively minor injuries. She's smart about training and now just has to weigh the risks that come from training the 3/3 combos.

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Did you see the interview with here on TV ( I think it was on the Injuries & forced retirement) She is a very smart lady, Michelle used to always do her 3/3 Toe Loop. But, after her fractured Foot during the 98 Olympics & she started having lower Back & hip pain. She smartly stopped doing them. That is the reason why she has lasted so long. No lady skater could match her talent during that time. Irina is a jumper but, she had her problems with landing time aftr time. So michelle did what she did best. Let her sould come through her skating Loud & Clear. That Interview was very interesting. They talked with skaters about injuries & such. & all the surgeries that is going on because of it.


But, from what I have been hearing on Michelle. Is that she has already prepared her 3/3's & think I read somwhere that she has 2 sets of 3/3's She lands them. But, I think that it is still a work in progress. The last one she did was in 2002 QA round in Worlds.

Michelle is a very smart lady. She has paced her self over thea last few years in order I think, to make it too 2006. & to make sure that most of all that her bpdy does not breakdown. & Just to show how much talent that she does have. that even without doing her 3/3's she would still remain in the tops of ladies FS. If she had remained the jumping bean that she once was. She would be sitting rigt next to tara telling of surgeries. You can be top dog without destroying your body in the process. & Michelle knows this.

Who would have thought that Timmy would be out this long( he was missing most of last season also), or that Alexei would be forced to retire because of his hip

Good post, Panther........I guess, to simplify it, "do I want to have triple-triple jumps in all my competitions, or do I want to still be able to walk when I'm thirty.........." 42

Excellent posts !

cianni

Michelle makes sense and shows maturity. Gold Medal or Gold hip replacement. Thats the choice. She seems to make wise choices. The kids cant imagine being 30 or .good grief they think thats olddddddddddd and it wont happen to them. Oh the fun of it all. I support Michelle in whatever choice she makes and commend her for taking care of herself. I always say Blind Ambition will get you every time. Use common sense.

Does it all mean she plans to be in Moscow next year?

If so, she'll need two things 3x3s and transition steps to the program whatever it is. Fear of injuries mazy make her leave skating because she knows Presentation isn#'t going to do it alone.

I hope she is thinking of Grand Prix this year to test out her scores. She should not worry about medals. Just to know what scores she needs.

Joe

If CoP is implemented next year, the hubub over these 3-3's makes no sense to me. At this point it's not worth it for ladies to do them, and look at Sasha steamrolling over people all season without them. Arakawa didn't do them either, for the most part. There was no point.

Unless the point system/values change, what's the incentive for someone like Sasha to perform them when she can build up a huge lead without them?

Kwan needs better choreo, but I don't get the 3-3 complaints, although I would like to see her try new things technically.

cianni

Joesitz Im not sure its fear of injury but common sense that has her pacing herself. She has said she listens to her body and moves accordingly. I would suspect if and when she does do her 3/3s they will be done text book. Im dismayed at the sloppy underroated 3/3s out there. It was a jump fest this yr. and they werent that great. I prefer quality skating along with jumps. The judges sent the message jump no matter how bad the landing and underroated jumps are OK. Not a good message. It was as if they knew who they wanted to be in the top 10 and marked accordingly. Kostner comes to mind ,started OK but it fell apart and look at the marks. OH well the sport continues to get a bad rap.

She and her coach knew what she needed to win all along this time. When every one on internet harp on Sasha as her main competetor, MK and RA worried more about Japanese ladies. They staied in bussiness, they worked hard, sometimes a human body just can handle this much during certain time period. Its like ruberband, you just stretch the rubband repeatedly but never broken it. I have full confidence if she choose stay she will work smartly on those 3/3s towards turing.

Re: cianni

cianni said:

I would suspect if and when she does do her 3/3s they will be done text book. Im dismayed at the sloppy underroated 3/3s out there. It was a jump fest this yr. and they werent that great. I prefer quality skating along with jumps. The judges sent the message jump no matter how bad the landing and underroated jumps are OK. Not a good message. It was as if they knew who they wanted to be in the top 10 and marked accordingly. Kostner comes to mind ,started OK but it fell apart and look at the marks. OH well the sport continues to get a bad rap.

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No cheated jump from RA's student. Even 1/8 th underroted triples were not allowed into program, must cleanup first. You just don't put out cheated jumps out there in competition ice.

Well at least she still on podium, obviously Judges think her skill and performance are podium worth. Why no let judge tell her if she is going any where?

Point well taken. I wonder what would have happened if Arakawa had been deducted for underrotated jumps and improper counts on her spin in the SP. They were mandatory deductions that were overlooked.

Michelle

MZheng you are right about all of it, and yes, they should have marked Arakawa for underrotating her jumps in the SP. If you are going to mark Michelle down for running over time, be equally fair and apply the rules that count for the actual skating performance. Talk about unfair. I thought Michelle's SP was better than Arakawa's. If Michelle stays competitive, she knows what she has to do. She is a very smart person. I think alot depends on how her body handles the training re: triple-triples. I also think she would like one more World gold medal. She already has more World's medals than anyone other than Sonia Henie. She is simply awesome.

I think Michelle's approach these past two seasons was to not overtax herself and protect her body. This way she would avoid both mental burn out and career ending injury. Either could happen as she's been on top for so long. She focused on having great technique and including just enough technical content to challenge for gold.

Unfortunately, at 2004 Worlds the less is more approach finally caught up with her. Michelle is smart and she knows that the winds of change are blowing for the 2005 season. CoP is on the way, plus everyone and their mother is trying 3/3s. A few of those even have decent presentation. For next season she will have to make major adjustments of some kind or another. Having watched Michelle since 1994, I know that she has the wherewithal to do this. If her body is able, I am sure she will find a way.

smart MK

I think MK is really smarter than most people would think. It's a balance I guess of copping out and not doing triple triples and putting it all out and trying them but risking injury and falling during competition. And my bet is that the long term is Turin where she's gradually gaining momentum for. It's a safer but more conservative bet, but that's MK for you.
I notice her jumps are getting better all the time. When I was watching her SP in Dortmund I realise just how much speed she puts into her jumps and really puts it all out for every jump she does. Even compared to 2001 I reckon she's got bigger and faster. I was quite impressed with the line out of the triple flip in her SP which looked so smooth and deep edged, a bit like how Joubert does his jumps.

I do think she NEEDS a triple triple to win from now on because I fell the judges are rewarding for the ladies who at least give a good attempt to raise the standards of skating. If the judges were conservative all the time it's very hard to find any enthusiasm in the skaters to push the boundary. Hence people like Miki and Arakawa who at least go for the really hard stuff and although not landing them perfectly are given credit. And I think that's right.

Many people prefer to see good quality jumping and presentation despite the lack of fantastic elements and that's what the judges like generally. A good example will be Johnny Weir who does all his jumps really fabulously but can never get to the top without a quad. Somehow the presentation marks reach a plateau with the technical merit in the sense that if you do difficult jumps and all else being the same your presentation marks will go up. SO even under COP MK will need good combos not for the combo's sake for the extre 4 marks she'll get or whatever but it'll add to the overall presentation marks..

Re: smart MK

adamlondon said:

Somehow the presentation marks reach a plateau with the technical merit in the sense that if you do difficult jumps and all else being the same your presentation marks will go up. SO even under COP MK will need good combos not for the combo's sake for the extre 4 marks she'll get or whatever but it'll add to the overall presentation marks..

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I agree with your first statement the second marks usually goes up when you do hard jumps. Thats the way it is judged, not necessary the rule in the book.

As for the second statement it remains to be seen next season since CoP only adopted one season and I don't think it is consistant applied by judges. If judged by rule, it you try the hard jump combo and fall it should be 0.4 deduction in all components marks (equivalent to presentation marks). But I saw judge just random choose to apply them.