I agree with this. The Zayak rule is not that difficult to understand. It is there to limit how many times a skater does the same jumps. The principle is sound. Most skaters figure out how to work with it. It isn't rocket science. If the judges can consistently apply it so easily, how difficult can it be to understand for the skaters and fans with iqs of 100 and above? So a skater has to think about it? So a skater has to plan around it? So a skater screws up and gets caught by it? Not worth crying a river over.
The repeating doubles rule is new from this season and it's possible that many skaters haven't had the time to get accustomed to it. The biggest problem with it, IMO, is that it severely limits what the skater can attempt when missing/popping a jump and it makes it more difficult to plan ahead, especially for the men. Here is another recent example from Lombardia Trophy: Ricky Dornbush popped his 4T into a 2T and later in the program did both a 3Lz+2T+2Lo and a 3F+2T - the second combo, which would have been OK under the old rules, was invalidated.
However one may feel about the Zayak rule itself, I still think it's unnecessarily harsh to cast out entire combos because of a double. Considering that other issues in the scoring haven't been addressed yet (e.g. penalties for falls, BV for combos), this just feels like nitpicking to me.
Since Javier was mentioned, his problem is not necessarily that he can't count, but that he attempts way too many salchows - 2 4S and two 3S - for someone who usually pops the 4S when in doubt. He wouldn't have to worry about that if he replaced his last jumping pass with a 3F, for instance. He must really love salchows, I guess .
Last edited by a moderator: