- Joined
- Mar 3, 2012
Skating Skills:
Criteria:
•Balance, rhythmic knee action and precision of foot placement
•Flow and effortless glide
•Cleanness and sureness of deep edges, steps and turns
•Power/energy and acceleration
•Mastery of multi-directional skating
•Mastery of one foot skating
•Equal mastery of technique by both partners shown in unison
I re-watched C&B and H&D FD (talking about SD it would be even longer and for talking about skating skills – FD is longer and thanks to two step sequences in holds more suitable), but this is really of topic. Once again I was influenced by depth of edges and difficulty of programs, while I always appreciate more difficult programs and I also think that skating difficult programs you have to own bigger abilities then those who prefer more easy programs (looking at choreo, not elements parts…all couples from top 20 tries to achieve level 4 elements, so this stops to be interesting when elements are sooo difficult that even couple on 20th place at Olympics is able to make all lifts levels 4 – so it is probably not so difficult and demanding, but I always expect that top couples will do elements and programs which are not-top couples not capable of).
Zachary had around 38 forward and back cross-overs (he is tall but surprisingly he does very think crossovers – in comparison with Nikita it is big difference – wide crossovers always look more elegant), Evan did around 48 cross-overs, both ladies had lesser number.
Re-watching those programs few times…Thanks you so much Krylova, Camerlengo and all team who helped with choreography for NON JUMPING FD, I appreciate it so much (Zachary had only one minor jump during diagonal step sequence). I start to be frightened that so many dancers are doing jumping exercises as much as possible (I&K are already doing throw jump in SD…now only twist and death spiral and it would be complete pair cathegory).
I had to watch C&B twice to count all those bigger jumps, small jumps, partly lifts…25 jumps and I didn’t count jumps into a real lifts – it would be about 3 jumps more. Jumps and cross-overs are making skater‘s life easier – it helps to easily increase speed and jumps protect from changing an edge – you simply jump and you can turn about 180 degree on the air and skate in another direction with better speed, while you have to change direction about 180 degree with help of edge – you put yourself into danger that you will loose some speed (and you need better knee action for making it well). Overall C&B have plenty of cross-overs and helping jumps to increase speed and they really have quite good speed. H&D were really slow at US Nationals, partly because of much more difficult choreo than C&B had but also partly to a fact that they sometimes get more on toe pick which make that noise and makes them slower – this is a mistake, they should balance their blades better. At C&B‘s FD I saw beautiful lifts, but I didn’t see anything difficult beside it in non element parts. H&D had some more difficult and difficult moments in non element parts, but I agree once again that they were slow. But difficulty in programs is not a part of skating skills content suprisingly althought it affects execution of all steps a lot.
I watched skates and blades only – Madison with Zachary had deeper edges than Madison with Evan…and Evan himself - I never noticed it before but he also not extends his free leg even more than Ilinykh and Andrew Poje, he very often doesn’t look so sure on his skates and he is overall poorer technician than Madison.
Coming back to criterias for skating skills: deeper edges goes to H&D, more sureness goes to half pair of C&B and in comparison with Evan to whole pair of H&D. Flow and effortless glide goes to Madison C., but not to Evan B. (this is not very fair to Madison H…talking about effortness – if girls would be in same body shape, than we would be able to compare effortness looking at skating skills only, but comparing effortness when one Madison is much more similar to Meryl and second Madison is like Kaitlyn Osmond‘s body shape, it is not only skating skills what is playing a role in this thing…you can also compare Nikita Katsalapov with Jean-Luc Baker and you can try to gues who would have more effortness skating – it wouldn’t be Nikita). Acceleration of power goes to C&B, but we have to confess that many jumps and cross-overs in their FD help a lot (while H&D have steps and moments in choreo where they can’t increase speed – like that beautiful moments when Madison lays on Zachary‘s leg and they are doing arcs – there is no way how to increase speed in it, you can only not to loose speed). Mastery of one foot skating – more about H&D. Multidirectional skating – I didn’t especially watch this thing, but I suppose that both couples can skate in different directions (definitely Madison and Evan can jump in every corner of stadium, but Evan only skating forward, while Madison also jumps skating backwords). Equal mastery by technique of both – this is not good fof Madison C. and Evan, they are not equal and the difference in technique is still big. Knee action – Madison and Evan don’t have very good knee action, they are far to deep knees, sometimes their knee’s work is fluent but Evan is sotimes stiff. Madison H. with Zachary had deeper knee’s action and fluent on the level of fluent Madison C.
So, my way of view is that H&D are better technicians in comparison with C&B, but I must say that sitting on the stadium and watching skaters live, it creates a different image sometimes, no almost always. Especially music and costumes plays bigger role than on YouTube – in this case I would point C&B ahead. Watching competition live I always watched skaters like a whole package (I didn’t have time even wish to concentrate on blades only) and sometimes when I re-watched the same programs later and started to concentrate on details, I changed my opinion then.
Watching US Nationals live and sitting on tribunes, maybe I would be also persuaded that H&D were so slow that they couldn’t be technically better then C&B, but I am watching YouTube and comparing all things which ISU judging system takes into account and some things which I take like important… I stay on my opinion that even skating slower, H&D are better technicians that C&B. But looking at final scores I realise that judges share your opinion, Doris.
I was lucky to be at Nationals and watch live, and I agree with your "YouTube" assessment. Unfortunately, things like how speed is actually generated/maintained, and the added difficulty of transitioning between elements without relying on hops/crossovers as 'crutches' are being overlooked. Hopefully, at some point the judges will focus on that.
I also have to say, specifically about H/D, that their FD flowed smoothly and portrayed the tempo of the music accurately. If we want to take out the speedometer we can, but the performance level and quality of movement didn't look compromised in the least. Knowing that Hubbell was skating with a torn labrum (she just had it repaired two weeks ago) one can't help but be doubly impressed.