Eliminate commentary during actual skating

sgsmozart · Mar 23, 2014

When I attend a performance of the San Francisco Ballet, there is no announcer on stage telling me about the action. "My wasn't that a beautiful lift"! or "Did you notice the corps de ballet was not in unison on that entrance". The same is true for the symphony."The trombones were late in that last passage". "The first flute was out of tune"....etc.

Skating is a combination of athleticism and an aesthetic performance. The artist (skater) is communicating something to those watching. Having an announcer constantly talking, destroys the experience. I want to form MY OWN opinion of the event. I don't need someone to tell me what to think.

Here is my proposal: Have the announcers introduce the event and the skater. Tell us a little about him or her and something about the music that will be performed. Then, when the music starts......SHUT UP. During the replay, make the necessary comments about style, mistakes,and on the elements that were performed beautifully.

I would thoroughly enjoy this approach!

hyperinflation · Mar 23, 2014

but the ballet and the symphony aren't competitions...

it's helpful for the general audience. i know it's annoying if you know a lot about skating but there are millions of people out there who don't and the highlight reels aren't always comprehensive. i find most commentators know when to shut up if the program is really good anyway

Sam-Skwantch · Mar 23, 2014

There are a few posters here that could do great commentary. I get a real kick out of some of the comments that appear during live coverage. Especially the earlier groups. I notice in really good skates like Yulia at Euro's no matter what feed I watch almost all of the announcers are pretty quiet! Certain skaters are good enough to silence the announcers. I wish at times medals could be rewarded based on this alone!

I agree though that some announcers need to eat a taco or something for the performance instead of eating up the attention I'm trying to pay to the skating. It's kind of like when your watching a movie and someone says" check this part out its great" then you watch it and think to yourself...that actually kind of ruined it for me.

Anyway I'd say Eurosports seem to be the best in terms of showing overall respect to the skate and seem the least disruptive IMO.

hyperinflation · Mar 23, 2014

Anyway I'd say Eurosports seem to be the best in terms of showing overall respect to the skate and seem the least disruptive IMO.

i like the eurosport guys too but i swear to god, they all have exactly the same voices, i can never tell them apart. once i thought all three of them were commentating at a gala, but nope, it turns out it was just one guy

Meoima · Mar 23, 2014

hyperinflation said:
i like the eurosport guys too but i swear to god, they all have exactly the same voices, i can never tell them apart. once i thought all three of them were commentating at a gala, but nope, it turns out it was just one guy

If I remember correctly, Eurosport has 3 commentators and their voices sound very distinctive to each other. Usually there are 2 guys only, though.

ks777 · Mar 23, 2014

I think the general public wants to know what jump she or he just did or what kinda spin it was. Otherwise, how would you know if a skater is doing a camel spin or showing off her camel toe?

Sam-Skwantch · Mar 23, 2014

hyperinflation said:
i like the eurosport guys too but i swear to god, they all have exactly the same voices, i can never tell them apart. once i thought all three of them were commentating at a gala, but nope, it turns out it was just one guy

There is a Yulia video...I think CoR where I too am unsure how many guys are announcing! I thought one guy was doing it then while she's in the Kiss and Cry I swear someone else starts talking or he's just disagreeing with himself or something insane like that. What's even more confusing is I swear the same guy who said at skate Canada he loved Yulia's SP was then saying how he didn't understand why she chose that music and how difficult it was to skate to. Aside from that though they are great. Lol

hyperinflation · Mar 23, 2014

Eurosport has 3 commentators and their voices sound very distinctive to each other.

omg no, they sound literally IDENTICAL to me

maybe their accents are bamboozling me.......i'm very simple and easily distracted

Sam-Skwantch · Mar 23, 2014

ks777 said:
I think the general public wants to know what jump she or he just did or what kinda spin it was. Otherwise, how would you know if a skater is doing a camel spin or showing off her camel toe?

Meoima · Mar 24, 2014

hyperinflation said:
omg no, they sound literally IDENTICAL to me

maybe their accents are bamboozling me.......i'm very simple and easily distracted

Oh really? And here I always think they sound very distinctive. I can tell who is who from their voice. As for NBC, Tracy Wilson is like never stop talking.

Icey · Mar 24, 2014

hyperinflation said:
but the ballet and the symphony aren't competitions...

it's helpful for the general audience. i know it's annoying if you know a lot about skating but there are millions of people out there who don't and the highlight reels aren't always comprehensive. i find most commentators know when to shut up if the program is really good anyway

There are ballet and musical competitions and they have no commentary as the participants compete. Imagine someone vocally commenting while a pianists is competing in the Van Cliburn Piano Competition.

Figure skating commentary while the skaters is on the ice has spoiled many a performance for me by destroying the mood the skaters is trying to create.

Ladskater · Mar 24, 2014

Actually, I quite enjoy listening to Kurt Browning's coverage on the CBC. I just watched the junior worlds and his coverage of the men's, ladies and ice dance was delightful. I also like his co commentators Carol Lane (Ice Dance coach) and Brenda Irving (CBC reporter). They also know when to talk and when not to talk.

Coriana · Mar 24, 2014

Ladskater said:
Actually, I quite enjoy listening to Kurt Browning's coverage on the CBC. I just watched the junior worlds and his coverage of the men's, ladies and ice dance was delightful. I also like his co commentators Carol Lane (Ice Dance coach) and Brenda Irving (CBC reporter). They also know when to talk and when not to talk.

Me too. Kurt and Carol are terrific commentators. Even when I've already watched the event on line, with either no commentators or foreign language hosts, I tune in for their take. I enjoy the way Kurt empathises with all the skates. I like the way he and Carol point out what to look for - AND when some is working brilliantly, they are both silent.

karne · Mar 24, 2014

The NBC are the worst. Natter natter natter they never shut up. I was watching Joshua Farris' Schindler's List from Skate Canada with the Weir/Gannon commentary and I just wanted to put duct tape over Gannon's mouth. That step sequence deserves absolute silence which was exactly how Weir handled it but Gannon insisted on talking...and of course just don't get me started on Scott Hamilton.

GF2445 · Mar 24, 2014

You need commentary. To elimiate commentary during the actual skating is to make skating basically inacessible to the general public. There has to be a good balance.
We need commentary to engage the tv audience- figure skating is a sport and not 100% about the art.

We also need to stop bad mouthing the commentators. I have no care when people say that this person is blah and that person is blah blah because each commentator is different and i love what each one Individually contrbutes. Be careful what you wish for because what is worse, loud commentors and coverage or no coverage at all.

CaroLiza_fan · Mar 24, 2014

GF2445 said:
You need commentary. To elimiate commentary during the actual skating is to make skating basically inacessible to the general public. There has to be a good balance.
We need commentary to engage the tv audience- figure skating is a sport and not 100% about the art.

We also need to stop bad mouthing the commentators. I have no care when people say that this person is blah and that person is blah blah because each commentator is different and i love what each one Individually contrbutes. Be careful what you wish for because what is worse, loud commentors and coverage or no coverage at all.

Well said GF2445! :points:

You have just hit the nail on the head. I agree with everything in that post.

We do need the odd wee comment scattered throughout performances to help us understand what we are watching. If there was complete silence, most viewers would be completely lost.

It is those commentators that talk practically the whole way through routines, and don't let us hear the music at all, that us viewers have a problem with. It is excessive and there is just no need for it.

There is plenty of time to have a full and detailed discussion in between the end of one routine and the start of the next routine. All that needs to be done is to train the excessive talkers to have their long disussions here.

But to have total silence would be just as bad.

It is all about finding the right balance between talking and letting us enjoy the music.

For me, the British Eurosport commentators have found the right balance between the two. And that is why most of us consider them to be the best figure skating commentators.

As for the comments about the British Eurosport guys sounding the same, I can relate to that. I often get Chris and Nicky mixed up as well! Especially when they are commentating together - you really have to concentrate. It is much easier when Simon is commentating with one of them, because he has a very distinctive voice.

But, you should try watching the Nordic skiing on Eurosport. Patrick Winterton, Simon Golding and Steve Day all sound the same!!! :eek:

I can pick out Steve whenever he gets excitable, but that is only because I have been listening to him commentating on motorbike racing for years. Otherwise, the 3 of them are impossible to tell apart! :laugh:

CaroLiza_fan

YagsFan · Mar 24, 2014

Well, I watched Europeans on Universal sports in 2012 with virtually no commentary, and it was awful, IMHO! There was a woman's voice telling you who was next to skate---very frequently giving terrible pronunciations to names---then no comments the whole way through the program. Finally she'd through on some generic, banal comment at the end, like "Well, the audience certainly enjoyed so-and-so's skate." Whoever this woman "announcer" was, she was not at all invested in what she was doing, lol! Quite honestly, the whole thing was so boring I could hardly make myself keep watching! Here's why---especially when not all of the skaters are familiar to you, as it was for me in this case, you want some background introduction to this person----what have they done this season? how many seasons have they been competing? What music are they using? Is their program choreographed by someone you might recognize? Who is their coach? Then, as the program is being presented, I'd like some perspective on what was planned vs. what is being performed. And even though I've been watching skating for some 50 years, I'm not a skater myself and I don't always recognize jumps and edges in real time. I might not notice if a spin position isn't rotated the correct number of times, or if a spiral is held too long. As someone else said, this is a competition, not pure entertainment, so being aware of the technicalities matters. Anyway, that experience of Euros certainly taught me to appreciate hearing knowledgeable commentary!

!

hyperinflation · Mar 24, 2014

Imagine someone vocally commenting while a pianists is competing in the Van Cliburn Piano Competition.

ok but in that case the music is literally the thing being judged, so commentating over the top of it is obviously silly. music is not the primary component of figure skating .... figure skating is, and you can still see someone skate if someone is talking over the music

if you have an issue with commentary, i'd wager it's probably because the commentators you're listening to were annoying. i wanted to throw myself in a pit of lava listening to johnny weir and tara 'wikipedia' lipinski, i would've rather listened to nonstop yodeling in the commentary box than whatever those two were spouting. they just never knew when to stick a sock in it

usethis2 · Mar 24, 2014

Circa 2010~

(Mao takes the ice)

Scott: "If you compare Yuna's 3Lz+3T combo with Mao's 3A+2T, Yuna's combo is more points because there is actually ½ fewer revolution in Mao's combo."
Me: *^#%)_@&${)&$!@&^#T%$^

(Yuna about to jump 3F)

Scott: "Now her nemesis, Triple Flip.. (♪ dun dun dun 007 music ♫) The jump she fell sooo hard on in today's practice!"
Me: (@*_$#_{(+|)@$*UY)#(*%&^Y*_@{(#

Sam-Skwantch · Mar 24, 2014

And for my 1000 post I offer this!!! Hyperinflation-this ones for you!!

http://youtu.be/vQhqikWnQCU

I know that's a lot of posts for such a short time but let's consider how many events since December. I've also been on the couch for three straight weeks with a torn MCL. I'm not ashamed!!

Eliminate commentary during actual skating

sgsmozart

hyperinflation

Match Penalty

Sam-Skwantch

“I solemnly swear I’m up to no good”

hyperinflation

Match Penalty

Meoima

Match Penalty

ks777

Sam-Skwantch

“I solemnly swear I’m up to no good”

hyperinflation

Match Penalty

Sam-Skwantch

“I solemnly swear I’m up to no good”

Meoima

Match Penalty

Icey

Ladskater

~ Figure Skating Is My Passion ~

Coriana

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode

GF2445

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA

YagsFan

hyperinflation

Match Penalty

usethis2

Sam-Skwantch

“I solemnly swear I’m up to no good”

Similar threads

Connect with us