Your top 5 skaters in skating skills

draqq · Dec 28, 2016

My picks are generally the same as everyone else in this thread, so I'll just throw out an honorable mention to Giada Russo from Italy for the edge control and complexity in her footwork sequences.

https://youtu.be/nc91KsqX7sI?t=3m25s

plushyfan · Dec 28, 2016

I don't know how many posters are/were skaters, experts coaches who posted in this thread... I believe they can see the different of the skaters' SS in general.
I watched the figure skating from my very young age( because of my mother and I'm not too young) but I can't see it. I can see Patrick's deep edges and flow...or Carolina's flow.. but the whole package not..

I know Adelina is not liked by everyone but that is a general opinion she has a great SS. I watched her in a Kings on Ice show some weeks ago, I was in the rehearsals of show, I saw the skaters for hours. Before the show I wanted to see her great SS, I wanted to recognize it. But I couldn't. And I don't want to bash her, because I like her. There were many skaters for example Anastasia Martyusheva -if we are talking about women- or two sexy unknown Russian skater girls, they had great exhibition numbers but I didn't see different. Probably this is my incompetence not Adelina's fault.

I saw Lambiel, Joubert, Verner, Plushenko, Amodio live in that show.. Lambiel is admired by his SS..Well, I saw different skating styles.. not the outstanding skating skills. Sorry, probably my incompetence again..
All of the skaters were fast, smooth, they had flow of the jumps, they could turn so easy and fast, balance, etc. I saw the weaker SS of the ice acrobats :laugh:

I just wanted to say with my post I believe many posters(laymen) used this "she/he has weak SS" if they want to write bad thing about the skaters who aren't their favorites.

So I have no idea who are my top 5 skaters in SS. :slink:

nolangoh · Dec 28, 2016

My own definition of SS is: edge depth, smoothness of skating, agility of edge work, and the ability to gain and maintain speed.

Men:

1. Patrick
2. Yuzuru
3. Han
4. Shoma
5. I dont know

Ladies:

1/2. Carolina/Mao
3. Julia
4. Satoko
5. I dont know

turbulent · Dec 28, 2016

Competing now: Mao, Carolina, Marin, Julia, Anastasia Gubanova.

daphenaxa · Dec 28, 2016

turbulent said:
Competing now: Mao, Carolina, Marin, Julia, Anastasia Gubanova.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
i agree with you!! I would add Satoko too tbh, though that is true she lacks a bit of speed but I think she is on par with Julia.

AppleEmperor · Dec 29, 2016

Patrick is SS goals tbh

For women I would pick Carolina

kaarle · Feb 1, 2017

Skater Boy said:
Who is Johnson???

Alexander Johnson. The U.S. skater.

Sorry for late reply btw.

Globetrotter · Feb 1, 2017

AppleEmperor said:
Patrick is SS goals tbh

For women I would pick Carolina

Both great but I will still rather watch Yuka Sato skimming across the ice with her sharp turns and changes in directions with hardly any scratchy sound, i.e. quiet blades.

whatif · Feb 1, 2017

Nathan Chen
Alina Zagitova

paulusfr · Feb 1, 2017

My top

Men:
Patrick Chan
Jason Brown
Denis Ten
Shoma Uno
Yuzuru Hanyu

Lagies:
Mao Asada
Carolina Costner
Kaetlyn Osmond
Ashley Wagner
Anna Pogorilaya

---
Honorable: Nathan Chen, Roman Sadovsky, Serafima Sakhanovich, Adelina Sotnikova

hippomoomin · Feb 1, 2017

I don't skate so from an outsider's point of view, it seems skating skills has at least three components: 1) speed, 2) edge and 3) the ability to do fast/sharp turns. The first two are pretty together but not so many skaters have all three. I think Mao is an extreme example of doing intricate steps but she doesn't have the best speed; Yuna has great speed and edge but I cannot image her doing Mao kind of steps. The male equivalent would be Daisuke (great steps and dance ability) vs. Patrick Chan (great speed/edge). I don't think it's Pat's strength to do Daisuke type of program either.

Speed/edge gives a skater a pristine type of quality, but not so interesting.

Hannah555 · Feb 2, 2017

Current skaters : Yuzuru Hanyu,Nathan Chen and Javier Fernandez

Ladies : Evgeniya and Satoko

Prime skaters of all times (personal opinion) : Plushenko and Yuna Kim.

4everchan · Feb 2, 2017

ermmm let me think.... Patrick

Jammers · Feb 2, 2017

paulusfr said:
My top

Men:
Patrick Chan
Jason Brown
Denis Ten
Shoma Uno
Yuzuru Hanyu

Lagies:
Mao Asada
Carolina Costner
Kaetlyn Osmond
Ashley Wagner
Anna Pogorilaya

---
Honorable: Nathan Chen, Roman Sadovsky, Serafima Sakhanovich, Adelina Sotnikova

Ummm Ashley? Among the top ladies she probably has the weakest skating skills. Even at Nationals she probably had the worst skating skills among the final group of girls in the LP. Lots of skating on two feet very few transitions loss of speed in turns and skating on the flats of her blade.

YagsFan · Feb 5, 2017

puremagic said:
You know, PCS is always wrong. Skaters can do incredible transitions like Evgenia or Alina, but can't have amazing skating skills. And vice versa. But I don't know why it's always on the same level. So...

I was thinking about to create some small list of top skaters with superb skating skills. Only it. Nothing more. Not transitions, jumps or etc. Just skating.

]

Thanks, puremagic, for this thread! Earlier, I was thinking about Jason Brown's exhibition skate from Nationals, and daydreaming about this very idea---wouldn't it be great to see skaters just SKATE in competition---no jumps (or at least very, very basic ones) (and that thought always leads me to Joseph Sabocek's single axle, ahhhh) Anyway, I am also glad to see so many here included Jason on their lists---I find him to be just phenomenal; every time he skates, I just smile the whole way through. I'm afraid as far as the actual list goes, I'll have to include past skaters as well as present:

Men ( in no particular order)

Jason
Yagudin (of course)
Brian Boitano
Kurt Browning
Daisuke
Patrick Chan
Havi

Ladies

Michelle Kwan
Dorothy Hamil
Sasha Cohen
Yuka Sato
?
Clearly, I am somewhat ambivalent about the current ladies; as to the Russians, they don't seem to stick around long enough for me to get a good grasp of their skills. Maybe Medvedeva could make my list, but definitely not Radionova (I find her sloppy and frenetic most of the time), Anna P. is growing on me, but I'm not there yet. I hear many praising Gracie's skills, and I have definitely been a fan, but her frequent melt-downs cloud the issue for me. And although I realize that this will put me in a definite minority, I've always found Carolina K. to be over-rated; sorry.

So, thanks again; glad to find others dreaming similar dreams

YagsFan · Feb 5, 2017

Sorry, don't know where my head was---on my Ladies list I must include Mao!

Globetrotter · Feb 6, 2017

hippomoomin said:
I don't skate so from an outsider's point of view, it seems skating skills has at least three components: 1) speed, 2) edge and 3) the ability to do fast/sharp turns. The first two are pretty together but not so many skaters have all three. I think Mao is an extreme example of doing intricate steps but she doesn't have the best speed; Yuna has great speed and edge but I cannot image her doing Mao kind of steps. The male equivalent would be Daisuke (great steps and dance ability) vs. Patrick Chan (great speed/edge). I don't think it's Pat's strength to do Daisuke type of program either.

Speed/edge gives a skater a pristine type of quality, but not so interesting.

If you read the ISU judging criteria for SS, it really talks about ability to vary speed (not SPEED!), one foot skating, skating on edge (depth), stroking, multiple directional skating and effortless glide and knee use. Mao isn't the fastest but she really checked almost all the SS criteria. CaroK is the only current female skater with stronger SS than Mao but she no longer skates like a speed truck unlike her younger days - you certainly won't think of a 20 year old Kostner who only skated fast throughout as having better SS as the criteria is on ability to vary speed effortlessly which both Mao and Caro does well. Yuna is fast but her basic gliding isn't as pristine. I love Dai's performance and steps but if you watch him live, you will quickly realize that his SS is not so great either - you don't get the smoothness and ease of turns and bladework. Certainly PChan is almost peerless in basic stroking and SS - probably the best among the guys, although the ultimate SS IMO goes to Yuka Sato whom skims across the ice on deathly quiet blades and turns with nary a sound and can speed up and slow down with little effort. Now that's skating.

LiamForeman · Feb 6, 2017

I agree with most, I mean the cream usually rises to the top. I wonder if anyone remembers Ryan Jahnke, a US skater in the mid-00's. I thought his skating was sublime. Strong edges, musical, and I could watch him practice all day. He was unlucky with his timing. He was competing against the quadsters like Goebel whose basic skating I thought was execrable. Then Ryan retired and oh look Jeffrey Buttle and Patrick Chan show up with not really the strongest of jumps either. I thought Ryan was so underscored and he wasn't getting any younger.

LiamForeman · Feb 6, 2017

Also, a skater that I thought had excellent skating skills was Irina Slutskaya. Her problem was just that she had those bowed legs with no turnout, the hunched shoulders, and her arms were ALWAYS out of position. She's much more impressive when you're up 20 or 30 rows and you'd see her power, her edges, and just the overall strength of her skating. I couldn't understand why she never worked on the aesthetic aspect of her skating. Just press pause in any moment of her skating, and you see a less than desired presentation. And all of those things I mentioned are so easily fixable if you work at it. My avatar is me after skating only three months. I valued the presentation/perfection and you would be hard pressed like John Nicks said about Sasha that she never hit an ugly position, but she was so perfect you overlooked her poor skating skills. It was a constant sense of frustration watching Slutskaya because all she needed was a VCR and a pause button and she would see where she needed to improve. But alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Ic3Rabbit · Feb 6, 2017

I'm only listing men b/c I could care less about Ladies most of the time

Abbott
Chan
Rippon
Johnson
Messing
Hochstein
Fernandez
Ten
Uno
Firus, Nadeau, Balde, Ge, Samohin (all honorable mentions)

And if we're adding in oldies:
Browning
Cousins
Wylie

Your top 5 skaters in skating skills

draqq

FigureSkatingPhenom

plushyfan

nolangoh

Steps and Spirals enthusiast

turbulent

Match Penalty

daphenaxa

AppleEmperor

kaarle

Globetrotter

whatif

paulusfr

hippomoomin

Hannah555

Ava artwork by talented ShampooNeko

4everchan

Jammers

YagsFan

YagsFan

Globetrotter

LiamForeman

William/Uilyam

LiamForeman

William/Uilyam

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️

Similar threads

Connect with us