Telegraphing Your Jumps

I didn't realize you were critiquing the entire jump. I thought we were just discussing speed. Of course, arms play a big roll in air turns.as do the closesness of he thighs while in the air Entire body position is important in any element of skating as it does in other sports..

Men do not do the tumbling to music in gymnastics (of course divers do not either). Gymnasts while doing that do keep a kind of 'metronome' beat throughout, or should. Timing is important in any 'trick' or series of 'tricks' to facilitate the 'trick' .

Figure Skating deals with music which includes rythym for it's programs. Boitano and Liachenko are prime examples of disregarding music to gain speed and take long entries into toepick jumps. Most skaters do take somewhat long entries into toepick jumps also. Speed makes the jump easy, unfortunately many skaters think if they do not do the jump correctly they will fall and at high speed that's going to hurt.

Gaining speed in figure skating relies heavily on crossovers both forward and backwards. Hence, the choreography of a program is limited, and the addition of a long entry into a jump makes the element more of a 'trick' than a move to the music.

All this is because the skate itself contains a blade which limits the skater's options, whereas in ballet or any dance form, the foot is free to do whatever.

I can appreciate the jumps of Boitano and Liashenko as a sport and the long entries together with the speed is the technique of a SPORT. I can not accept the interruption of the flow and choreography which limits the ARTISTRY. So I go to the ballet a lot to get that nourishment which I see little of in figure skating.

I do like the sport of figure skating and always enjoy a good quad.

Joe.

Joesitz said:

Figure Skating deals with music which includes rythym for it's programs. Boitano and Liachenko are prime examples of disregarding music to gain speed and take long entries into toepick jumps. Most skaters do take somewhat long entries into toepick jumps also. ....

Gaining speed in figure skating relies heavily on crossovers both forward and backwards. Hence, the choreography of a program is limited, and the addition of a long entry into a jump makes the element more of a 'trick' than a move to the music.

All this is because the skate itself contains a blade which limits the skater's options, whereas in ballet or any dance form, the foot is free to do whatever.

I can appreciate the jumps of Boitano and Liashenko as a sport and the long entries together with the speed is the technique of a SPORT. I can not accept the interruption of the flow and choreography which limits the ARTISTRY. So I go to the ballet a lot to get that nourishment which I see little of in figure skating.

I do like the sport of figure skating and always enjoy a good quad.

Joe.

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Again, a number of interesting points Joe. Having lived with a skater for many years who only came to the sport after years of Ballet, and Tap with some Jazz on the side, the things that they always spoke to me of were the freedoms that that little piece of steel on the bottom of their boots gave them. They could jump, spin (though not with the same speed), and do “footwork” off the ice, but they couldn’t do things like spread-eagles, spirals, Ina Bauers, the so called moves in the field. Nor could they get the amazing speed generated by those crossover cycles on stage. (I should add that what they really liked were the now sadly (IMHO) omitted compulsory figures as they left tangible evidence of the effort which is something completely absent in dance or gymnastics).

As for skaters taking up precious measures of music building for jumps, well, yes the jump for most skaters in most of their programs is a trick; but we can be generous and say there are not many situations that are necessarily well interpreted by flying through the air while spinning. There are of course a great number of notable exceptions, which is great, because if there weren’t, making a claim for the interpretive qualities of this sport would become more challenging.

That said, Boitano and his Tano Lutz, which takes lots of preparation, when done right is quite thrilling (It’s not a Corelli high C, but what is?). High, easy triples, well executed quads, these difficult elements, together with spins and yes, powerful crossovers, reinforce the strongly athletic nature of the discipline.

I guess it comes down to the following question, If you received a sufficient thrill from the jump and it seemed to happen at least in relation to the music, does it matter if it took many seconds and the transversal of most ice surface to prepare for it?

British skater Steven Cousins really telegraphed his triple axel by sticking out his free leg at a near-90 degree angle before launching into the jump.

Katarina Witt didn't telegraph her jumps so much as she had a habit of holding her arms out in front of her (rather stiffly, too, IMHO) before she approached her takeoff positions. Perhaps this is the way Frau Muller trained her to prepare for her jumps.

I thought what 'telegraph' means in skating is that a skater get into certain position/posture and Freez up whole body way before entry into the jump. Is that what 'telegraph' means?

mzheng said:

I thought what 'telegraph' means in skating is that a skater get into certain position/posture and Freez up whole body way before entry into the jump. Is that what 'telegraph' means?

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That's a good approximation of what "telegraphing" means. Skaters who telegraph their triple lutzes practically scream out "I'm going to execute a triple lutz!!" In the case of Katarina Witt, her stiff outward arms did not give a clear indication of which jump she was going into - it was a habit she had with many of her jumps.