Programs for CoP judges training.

The poor old ISU is taking a lot of hits on the Program Component Scores side of the New Judging System. It seems like the judges are not paying much attention to the stated criteria, and just giving blanket scores across the board.

For instance, here are the things that the judges are supposed to be looking out for in the category of "Skating Skills":

*Balance, rhythmic knee action, and precision of foot placement.
*Flow and effortless glide
*Cleanness and sureness of deep edges, steps and turns.
*Varied use of power/energy, speed and acceleration
*Multi directional skating
*Mastery of one foot skating.

That's a lot, and there are still 4 components to go, plus GOEs for each individual element as they come.

According to an article in International Figure Skating, the ISU conducts training seminars for judges, using famous programs from the past to illustrate these points. Two of the program are Kurt Browning's Casablanca and his Bonzo's Montreux drum music piece, both from 1993.

"...Casablanca" is touted for its fine interpretation, choreagrahy, composition, performance and execution, although its transitions would now be considered average due to very long, basic skating setups for elements.

"Bonzo is an example of medium-level skating skills due to a great amount of two-foot skating."

Which blast-from-the-past programs would you nominate to illustrate these points?

I'll say, Michelle's East of Eden exhibition from the 1998 pro-am season for the six criteria listed above.

Mathman

I definitely agree on East of Eden.

But to the more important matter of rushing the pcs scores to complete the total scoring of a skater is definiitely questionable. that is why your suggestion of having a separate slate of judges to do the pcs scores would have much value.

It is not humanly possible for any judge of any stature to really come up with an honest pcs score as well as the tss scores. They have enough to do with the GOEs. That is why I have said that high pcs scores will go to the skater who does the highest tss scores whether or not the program is followed according to the rules. There is no time to really think this out and they will be influenced by the roar of the crowd. JMO.

Joe

My aunt is a judge and she just took a CoP training session. They showed Kurt's Casablanca, G&G's Moonlight Sonata, T&D's Bolero and Jeff Buttle's Naqoyqatsi as the ideal programs.

screech said:

My aunt is a judge and she just took a CoP training session. They showed Kurt's Casablanca, G&G's Moonlight Sonata, T&D's Bolero and Jeff Buttle's Naqoyqatsi as the ideal programs.

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I've not gone to any of the trainings yet, but I went to a brief seminar in January -- the "gold standard" for PCS scores are Janet Lynn, John Currey, T&D -- they also showed Gary Beacom programs.

I am surprised that they would use Buttle's program, since he is still competing. It seems like it might influence a judge if he/she had to score Jeff's new program next year, having just had his Naqoyqatsi held up as the standard of the art.

In the same article in IFS that I mentioned, they ask champions of the past to guess how their own programs would have fared under the NJS. (Oksana Baiul on her Black Swan: "It would do great. I know so.") Paul Duchesnay says,

"Ice dance is so radically changed with specific footwork, dance holds and lifts that hae to be of a certain type...T&D's Bolero would be outlawed because it has no footwork sequence in the middle, no spin, no side-by-side footwork. We'd have to completely reconstruct our programs to make them fit the new rules."

MM

I'd add Ilia Kulik's Alladin to the mix.

For all of our moaning about how far behind Men have been in terms of artistry, isn't it remarkable how many of the best programs have been Men's, not Ladies?

Mathman said:

I am surprised that they would use Buttle's program, since he is still competing. It seems like it might influence a judge if he/she had to score Jeff's new program next year, having just had his Naqoyqatsi held up as the standard of the art.

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I think the reason they showed Jeff's is because, yes, it is an amazingly constructed program, but also, while it was an ISU seminar, it was Canadian, so that might have also been a little reason. I'm curious as to whether they show it in any other countries.

One interesting thing my aunt told me after the seminar was that one of the judges asked the person giving the seminar about all the high marks Plush gets for PCS, the seminar giver person said that his high scores are very much based on reputation (that while he does deserve decent scores, the reason they are so absurdley high is because of reputation, not because of what is actually being skated).

I would definately add Kwan's "Lyra Angelica" for it's sureness of edges and interpretation, and her "Dream of Desdemona" for again, it's wonderful edging, interpretation, dramatic flair, and complexity of steps.

I would also maybe add Berez/Sihk's "Meditation" long program, Liang's "Harry Potter" short program, and Del/Schoes "Frida" free dance.