Michelle's amazing intuition

Michelle's amazing intuition

When she said she wouldnt attempt any 3/3 at 2003 Worlds, many were shocked. Many misinterpreted her. I figured she just wanted to have a great skate, that was all and if she was good enough to take the title it would be a bonus. But many didnt see it the way I did. They thought she was stupid knowing all the reports of various 3/3's, the 3A, and even 3/3/3's attempted successfully in practices and competitions by quitle a number of skaters. They accused her of being stupidly arrogant. On Skating.com forum, some posters would even go so far as to suggest without a 3/3, Michelle would not even medal. Even her fans were worried and keeping their fingers crossed including me. We all know what happened. My hat's off to her even though I thought she wasn't saying she didn't need a 3/3 to win the title which she did. She is a smart cookie who knows how to compete.

Re: Michelle's amazing intuition

Well said, for all the Michelle fans here, including myself.

Re: Michelle's amazing intuition

There is much too much emphasis on the jumps. Ms Sokolova did some remarkable jumping in her otherwise bland program, imo. She and Ms Kwan are the top two figure skaters now and both could get better: MK with a 3/3, ES with more speed and better choreo. Russian skaters have all the 3/3s at top of program which would be all right if they had something else later on that could get one excited. MK has the catch phrase "Whole Package" which along with great flow, musicality, etc., there is a well balanced choreographic routine.

Joe

Re: Michelle's amazing intuition

All is said,
All is done.
Shelly five,
Trolls none.

Freddy

Re: Michelle's amazing intuition

ROTFL!!! I love that!

Re: Michelle's amazing intuition

She's the veteran at this level at skating and used her brains to weigh the risk. The top ladies who had a 3-3 still need to develop style. The one's who have style lacked consistency. She also knew that Sarah and Irina were undertrained this year. Although she was risking someone having a stellar performance, her strategy paid off.

Re: Michelle's amazing intuition

Todd Eldredge managed to hang around quite awhile minus the quad - so I guess Kwan took his game plan and ran with it. I don't know how long she can hold off the pack with that strategy. There are some great new skaters coming to the fore - Elena S. for example - who are good jumpers and are upping the ante.


Ladskater

Re: Michelle's amazing intuition

Ladskater, I was one of Michelle fans who doubted she could win the title without a 3/3 but I never doubted she could medal. In future, again, I doubt she can apply the same strategy. I would very much love to be proven wrong by Michelle again. That said, I never thought it was her strategy to win the title. She seems to have stopped focussing on winning the title after what she went through at the Olys. She only focusses on delivering high quality performances. That was what she was thinking when she announced she wouldn't attemp any 3/3, the world went mad thinking she was arrogant but really she never said she didn't need a 3/3 to win the title, not that I know of.

Michelle's Joy

I'll admit I was just as nervous watching her compete as ever, but Michelle made a decision when she decided to carry on this year. She publicly made it known that she wasn't out to dominate (although she did want the World title, who doesn't?), but more that she wanted to enjoy herself and show people the passion she had for skating again. She did it. She never has to land another 3/3 to please me. I'd rather see her skate with radiant joy than perform a mechanical program with 3/3s. If she decides to get one, awesome, I'll be extremely excited, but she's been around long enough to know that no element (especially one as unpredictable as the 3/3) is worth injury or loss of artistic impact.

Re: Michelle's Joy

I think this season, Michelle really wanted to take a break and rebuild her basics. If you remember the last 2 season, MK's jumps have been smaller than they usually were and MK kept on relying on herself to peak at the right time (2000 and 2001 Worlds). Also, she was having the flutz problems as well. Not to mention she lost a lot of weight for the Olympic year.

After all of that, Michelle stated that she wanted to take it easy this season. Since this is her first season with Scott Williams and "team hottie" which includes a new Physical trainer, I believe that Michelle just wanted to rebuild her technique and strength. I think it payed off since she doesn't flutz anymore and she looks more built in the upper-body.
I think he game plan is to work on those 3/3 after COI ends in June and go from the foundation she worked on.

Michelle's approach to competition

It's interesting that there seems to be two divergent ideas here about Michelle's approach to competition this season. The first is that she cannily assessed the field and rightly estimated what she needed to do to give herself the best chance. Kat Witt was famous for being good at that sort of thing. The second is that the season was all about revitalizing herself and the win, while nice, was secondary. I would imagine there probably is some truth to both of these ideas.

Re: Michelle's approach to competition

Very well said, Mage.

MM

not impressed

I have watched a LOT of skating over the years (I actually used to tape every major skating event since 198 ... and I am a skater myself - so I like to think I have some idea of what I am talking about. So here is my opinion on Michelle Kwan.... I remember watching her at the very beginning of her career. She was a wonderful fresh face with a fresh look and a style that was different than everyone else. However, I was not impressed with her win this year at worlds. I think it was not so much that she was 'spectacular' as it was that everyone else was so bad. In the last decade, she has performed basically the same technical program each year - even kristi yamaguchi upped her technical content completing a triple triple in the early 90's among other original jump combinations - why can't Michelle? She says she loves to compete, and part of that concept is challenging oneself - but she hasn't done that. Despite her lackluster technical performances(not bad, but just lackluster- slower spins, smaller and less dynamic jumps, slower skating speed, repeat footwork sequences) she still receives comparable scores to other skaters who perform better technically.... and it's not because of the quality of her elements - others have just as good if not better quality but aren't being judged accordingly. So I do believe there is a lot of "holding up" for the world champion technically just to keep her in the game so that her artistry will put her over the edge. After all, if she is so brilliant, she should be able to perform a triple triple in competition every year... am I wrong?
I am just a little disappointed in that aspect of her skating.

Re: not impressed

A triple triple does not define a brilliant skater.

Re: not impressed

I do see your point, engrsktr. However, if she didn't need to do triple-triple combinations to win, can you really blame her for not doing it? Kristi <em>had</em> to have a 3L-3T combo to win. She was competing against 2 other women who were landing triple axels and 3-3's pretty consistently, a French girl who could do 3-3's and quads, and a little skater named Nancy who had a 3-3 of her own.

Since Michelle's injury in '98, I don't think she's been as confident with the toe-loop as she used to be. It's like the 'shadow' of the injury still lingers. She DID do a 3-3 in the Worlds '02 qualifying, because she proabably thought she would need it against Slute, but in the end it didn't matter.

I did admire her for going for the 3Lutz-3Loop at Skate Canada last season, even though she didn't land it. I thought it was an interesting way for her to push herself. I did notice that Michelle makes a big effort not to cheat the combo jumps, which in practice sometimes causes her to end in 'splat!' While some girls today are doing them, a lot of them are pre-rotated or have cheated landings. Some of them are great though.

I do disagree on the speed factor. I think her speed at Worlds was quite fast compared to the others, at least that how it seemed when I was watching from the upper deck. The height of her jumps has improved, although they aren't as big as Slute's or VV. I do miss the special bond she had with Lori Nichol and the programs they created.

As far as post-Olympic years/slumps go, this was certainly more impressive than 1999. It is a barometer year for her. I think she just wanted to see if she could work at her own pace and still hang tough against the baby ballerinas.

After seeing all the 3-3's this year, I think next year Michelle will probably come out with one of her own in her program. I don't think it'll be a 3t-3t though.

I don't have a problem with Sokolova beating her in the tech marks, but there are other aspects of her skating where Kwan is superior ro her at this point, spirals, posture, and stroking to name a few. Sasha could certainly challenge her for a World title, but if she falls 3 times and Michelle skates clean, I don't think judges would be holding Michelle up by giving her first place. They're the only skaters I can think of that could be considered 'as good' as Michelle in certain areas at this point. (Sarah's skating is great of course, I didn't mean to leave her out).

Re: not impressed

From engrsktr:

"I think it was not so much that she was 'spectacular' as it was that everyone else was so bad. In the last decade, she has performed basically the same technical program each year - even kristi yamaguchi upped her technical content completing a triple triple in the early 90's among other original jump combinations - why can't Michelle?"

Before I start, I'm not a skating fan so I'm not knowledgeable in technical merit or presentation. But I do lurk around skating forums to read about Michelle. According to most posters including non-Michelle fans, her performance was spectacular. Elena was awesome jumpwise. So I don't know why you say everyone else was "so bad".

"She says she loves to compete, and part of that concept is challenging oneself - but she hasn't done that. Despite her lackluster technical performances(not bad, but just lackluster- slower spins, smaller and less dynamic jumps, slower skating speed, repeat footwork sequences) she still receives comparable scores to other skaters who perform better technically.... and it's not because of the quality of her elements - others have just as good if not better quality but aren't being judged accordingly."

The experts would disagree with you. Michelle's jumps though not big, are of high quality. Good entry, full rotation, good outflow speed, smooth and correct landing edge. Don't these elements count for technical merit? Or is it just the spring and height that count which Michelle lacks?

"So I do believe there is a lot of "holding up" for the world champion technically just to keep her in the game so that her artistry will put her over the edge. After all, if she is so brilliant, she should be able to perform a triple triple in competition every year... am I wrong?"

I don't understand why you insist she was held up? Almost everyone agrees her marks were well deserved in both deparments.

"I am just a little disappointed in that aspect of her skating."

As a newbie to skating, may I be so bold as to say if 3/3's are the be all end all in the sport, then everyone can just sit at home and check the jump content of each skater and quess the placements. They might as well just do away all the other elements and have the skaters jump all the way to the music.

As for speed, I've read posts from those who saw it live and they agreed, of the top 5 finishers, Michelle was the fastest. You might have failed to notice that her spins in the SP were very fast and well centred. Overall, Michelle has improved on her technique.

Re: not impressed

Even without 3/3 she still kicked some ass.

Re: not impressed

Well, engrsktr, I think it's quite sad that you believe Michelle is being held up to win all these World Championships and completely overlook her overwhelming superiority in so many aspects OTHER than the 3/3. Even sadder is the fact that you are a skater yourself.

Re: Michelle's amazing intuition

Well, while I certainly don't agree, I will say that is what makes this sport so interesting. I can watch a performance and be moved to near tears while another can view the same program and be anything but moved. So, it keeps things interesting at least. There'd never be anything to talk about if everyone thought the same thing.
Saying that, well, I think that's where it gets subjective. What is most important to you in a program? Some people prefer the excitement of 3/3s. Some prefer the artistry. Some the overall package. The list goes on and on. The 3/3s are exciting, but only a small fraction of what matters to me when I want to be moved. The only point at which I strongly disagree is that the other skaters at this years Worlds didn't skate well. Sokolova, far from being unpleasant to watch, had two clean, impressive programs loaded with triples. I wouldn't say that is skating badly. Fumie wasn't too shabby either. Viktoria was relatively clean, and Sasha had a nice qualifying skate. So, I think the theory that Michelle won over a weak field doesn't hold much water.

Kristi in 92

I agree with whoever said Kristi knew she had to have the 3lz/3t in 92. Can you imagine going up against a thoroughbred jumping machine like Midori Ito? She was rock solid and a true technical force to be reckoned with. Also, I don't think Kristi really concentrated on or attempted many 3/3s before that season. I know she landed the 3lz/3t at 91 Lalique, (LOL, I think), right? Midori still won. Aside from that, did Kristi ever land any other 3/3s? Kristi was another smart competitor. She didn't overdo things, or attempt triple axels in competition when she clearly knew her limitations and I think that deserves all the admiration in the world. This would have to be at least one reason why Kristi and Michelle did and do stay healthy while other girls are ripping and tearing away their ligaments and tendons. I respect the athlete that puts it all down and goes for difficult elements, but I give as much respect and more to the athlete that can intelligently assess the competitive situation and determine what is needed and what they are capable of. No reason to 3/3 yourself into the land of blown out hips if you don't absolutely have to. Some skaters have exceptional skills overall and don't need 3/3s or 3as to win, i.e. Michelle, Sasha, Kristi, Oksana, Chen Lu, and even Irina Slutskaya at times. Others depend on these elements to go along with great skills to put them past the others: Tara, Sarah (An artist too though, hard to place), and Midori. Honestly, would you pesonally have placed Tara above Michelle in Nagano without her 3/3s and 3/3 sequences? The same works in reverse, Tara wanted to rise to the top and she knew exactly what she had to have. She was comfortable with jumping and that is what she focused on for victory.