The best at compulsory figures | Golden Skate

The best at compulsory figures

gsk8

gsk8

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Gillis Grafström (SWE) is considered one of the best skaters ever in compulsory figures and was famous for his interpretation of music.

As some of you may know, the inaugural 2015 World Figure Championship and Figure Festival (sanctioned by ISI) will be held Aug. 25 to 29, creating a new legacy of World Figure Competition while offering the opportunity to introduce newcomers to the discipline.

The Figure Festival will be Aug. 25-27, with interactive workshops to create a supportive learning environment for all ages and abilities to learn the Compulsory School Figures. Figure Festival skaters will be encouraged to learn from Figure Skating Olympians all the aspects of the edges, turns, circle-eights, loops, serpentines and paragraph figures.

Figure tests and ISI figure competitions will be included in all the Figure Festival opportunities. Coaches are encouraged to sign up as well and bring students to learn the foundation of figure skating at the festival. Some local skaters and coaches are already planning to participate in the Figure Festival and/or the World Figure Championship.
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What are your thoughts on the current state of "figures"?
 
FSGMT

FSGMT

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Sep 10, 2012
ISI? Is it just a typo or is it another organization?
Anyway, the whole thing seems wonderful! We still have figures (and the related controversies :p) in roller skating, but figures on ice are something really extraordinary, so I'd really like to see this discipline promoted! How will the event be judged? 6.0?
And, about the thread title: is there any actual decent-quality footage about compulsory figures from the old days (apart from the American coverage of 1988 Olympics and those last years)? I would really appreciate it!
 
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evangeline

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Nov 7, 2007
FSGMT said:
And, about the thread title: is there any actual decent-quality footage about compulsory figures from the old days (apart from the American coverage of 1988 Olympics and those last years)? I would really appreciate it!
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https://youtu.be/SscrUDzeDcs

Some decent-quality figures coverage of the ladies figures competition from the 1972 Olympics! In the video, you will be able to understand exactly why Trixi Schuba crushed Janet Lynn and Karen Magnussen at figures every time they competed. People complain about Schuba winning all those competitions with blah freeskates, but it's pretty clear to me how and why Schuba always had a huge lead in figures over Lynn and co. after watching this video.
 
mrrice

mrrice

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Wasn't Jill Trenary really good at figures? I think Tonya Harding was good at figures as well. I thought figures would have been very interesting to see live but they were gone before I really got into skating.
 
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solani

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mrrice said:
Wasn't Jill Trenary really good at figures? I think Tonya Harding was good at figures as well. I thought figures would have been very interesting to see live but they were gone before I really got into skating.
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The TV coverage of figures was poor anyway. I would have liked to seem them as a kid, it was always weird that somebody was leading and you really didn't know why. And I don't think that the audience in the arena could see it clearly, only the judges and the skaters could.
I'm looking forward to this competition in August with the black ice and how the video coverage will be. I think figures could be presented nicely with modern technology.

The interesting thing is that Schuba's marks were never questioned, despite the fact that she had a immense lead after figures in her later career. Some experts even thought that they were too low ... and I think she could have been a better freeskater, but she didn't need to be. Schuba obviously gained some weight in her career (she looked slimmer after her career) to have that advantage in figures also. She was there to win the medals, not to please the audience.
I remember that Witt's marks in figures were questioned all the time, but she was certainly looking very pretty doing them.
 
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evangeline

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psusanne said:
The interesting thing is that Schuba's marks were never questioned, despite the fact that she had a immense lead after figures in her later career. Some experts even thought that they were too low ... and I think she could have been a better freeskater, but she didn't need to be. Schuba obviously gained some weight in her career (she looked slimmer after her career) to have that advantage in figures also. She was there to win the medals, not to please the audience.
I remember that Witt's marks in figures were questioned all the time, but she was certainly looking very pretty doing them.
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I'm not surprised that Schuba's marks in the compulsory figures were never questioned--if you watch the video from the 1972 Olympics I posted above, her figures vs. Janet Lynn's figures were like night and day: Schuba's circles were much bigger, her edges more sure and clean, and her carriage, flow and steadiness of edge were all significantly stronger.

IIRC, Sonia Bianchetti wrote in her book that one of the reasons why she advocated for abolishing figures was because of Katarina Witt--apparently Witt's figures were quite mediocre, but the judges would hold her up in the compulsory figures because she was so popular, they wanted her to be in the running going into the free skating portions so as to not disappoint the audience. Bianchetti thought if the judges were going to fudge the marks in the figures portion for the skaters who were strong at freeskating anyways, there was little point of keeping the compulsory figures anymore...

As for other skaters who were good at figures, I've heard that Peggy Fleming, Scott Hamilton, and Alexander Fadeev were all very strong figures skaters. Here's a video of Scott Hamilton doing figures, with some close-ups of the tracings after and Dick Button's commentary: https://youtu.be/jU9Hy1upUr0?t=4m48s Hamilton's tracings look great!
 
dorispulaski

dorispulaski

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What a wonderful youtube channel! The video is clearer than it was on my tv at the time! And westnyacktwins has all the ABC coverage :cheer:
I loved :love: the film of Gillis Grafstrom!


Here is the first half of coverage of men's compulsory figures 1984 Olympics
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jU9Hy1upUr0

Here is the second half of coverage of men's compulsory figures 1984 Olympics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7yCgMJOObs

First half Ladies compulsories 1984 Olympics
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qlNER-BRufg

Second Half Ladies compulsories 1984 Olympics
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y413Q01i9aA
 
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dorispulaski

dorispulaski

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blue dog

blue dog

Trixie Schuba's biggest fan!
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I think Schuba and Lynn are judging this competition together!
 
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Babbette1

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Jul 25, 2014
I was in LTS last night in Freeskate 2. Our coach is the rink's technical jump coach. She was moaning that the loss of figures really affected jump technique. She's not the only person I've heard say this. I do basic figures, 8's and serpentines, for my own training.

If figures were reintroduced as a competitive sport, there would be no need for judges. Given sidelights on the ice (so called 'patch lights') the tracings show up much better. They could be scored completely via camera like a scanner over the tracings that with an algorithm chunks out the score. Gets rid of that 'Witt is so good let's give her a good compulsory score' issue.
 
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solani

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floskate uploaded a new video yesterday: Trixi Schuba - Compulsory Figures Documentary 1971
It's in German, seems to be made by Austrian television. You can also see Trixi doing a very nice double axel.
In the beginning when the man and the lady talk they say that she's a great talent and that she's going to win in Sapporo, because the others haven't improved and her free skating hasn't declined and she has a nice dress. Then she's showing a figure (and another skater is shown as well, for comparison) and some free skating moves. She's also talking about the other competitors and that she isn't afraid.
 
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