I find the ending of figure skating careers to be quite depressing. Men who give up because they can't or don't want to do quads. Women who give up because it's getting harder to keep up with the youngsters doing triple-triples... who are now doing triple axels and quads. I think figure skating suffers from premature obsolescence caused by it's current format. And it's more of a problem for singles as there are more successful pair skaters and ice dancers in their early 30s. I think some kind of pro-scene(or amateur competitions that emulate it) needs to be revived. The ISU alone didn't kill pro skating... but it bears some responsibility and ought to do something to fill the void.
What's the most objective and stable comparison that can be made between two figure skaters? IMO, it's airtime. With rotations there are borderline cases... with the jump types themselves there are some who believe flutzes should count as flips and lips as lutzes. Other values could be measured like spin speeds, top speeds, total ice coverage, etc... but different types of music may interfere too much with those values. I don't think airtime should be the be-all and end-all in IJS figure skating(far from it, my favorites typically don't stand out in the size of their jumps), but I think it would be interesting to have total airtime serve as the basis of a new competitive format... one I think might have a shot at Olympic recognition. A problem with the past "pro" style competitions is that many were cheesefests and not legit athletic competitions and by grounding half the competition on jump airtimes then it becomes a legitimate athletic competition.
So how would it work? Have all the skaters perform the exact same set of jumps(one example, women: 2A 3T 3F 3Lz 3S 3Lo. men: 3A 3A 3F 3Lz 3S 3Lo) and add up the air time. Jump quality does not matter for the jump score but could factor in the performance/artistic score. Only deductions are for falls(0%), hand down(50%), 2 footed landings(50%), and popping the jump(50%). Forget edge checking as long as typical jump entries are used. Forget underrotations. Forget the relative difficulty between jump types because everyone will be doing the same set of jumps. Forget combinations(though I'm intrigued by allowing 3T+3T as I find a lone 3T to be boring). I'm neutral on backflips(against in IJS) but they should not count in the jump score. One of the medals would be given out for airtime alone. An open, neutral algorithm would cluster the total airtimes into ordinals for usage deciding the overall winner.
I haven't completely thought through the judging of the artistic/performance score. There are many different ways this could be done that would be fine. As far as subjective judging and the Olympics goes, Olympic boxing has had as many if not more judging controversies and they switched systems after a controversy in 1988 and went back in 2016 to their old judging system. IMO, the most important factor is picking neutral judges and there are many ways that could be attempted. I'm not sure how feasible this is, but I would put a call out to former top competitors(qualified for FS at worlds) over the age of 40 and ask if they'd like to judge... and then ask the competitors to select which judges they're ok with... and then have a drawing where a potential judge gets 1 ticket by default and another ticket for each competitor that is ok with them and select 7-13 judges(or select more and do another drawing of judges at the competition)... and they would give out ordinals but with some kind of written justification for their choices. In replacement of component scoring, just require the judges to verbally compare skaters in certain areas(spins, skating, etc). If things get too rancorous, I'd consider letting the judges scores be anonymous but their collective comments be public.
Three medals would be given out... one for Jumps(airtime), Performance(art+other aspects), Overall.
Skating and spins should be much freer than in IJS. Skaters would be allowed to use props. Time should be set at 5 minutes or variably between 4-6 minutes. I would prefer theatrical lighting but I understand that it hard it can be to jump in it. I would also prefer the skaters not be aware of what their competitors are skating to before they fly out to the event(they may catch a glimpse from practice).
In the early competitions, participation should be limited to 6-10 in ladies and men. Participation dibs would go in the order of Olympic medalists, World medalists, GPF medalists, Euro/4CC medalists, GP medalists, World FS qualifiers, Grand Prix participants. I would set the minimum age to at least 21 and maybe up to 25 or 27.
I'm skeptical that these events by themselves would be commercially viable at first. They would need to bootstrap on top of current high level competitions like the Worlds, GPF, Euros, 4CC, or a GP Event . Japan and China might be options without an co-event... other countries(Russia, US, Canada, Spain, Italy, Switzerland) might be options with a good local headliner.
But if it gained Olympic recognition, then perhaps the format would gain popularity and get it's own circuit like the grand prix.
I remember reading from I think Elvis Stojko(it may not have been him) the idea of maybe jump competitions becoming an Olympic sport... and I personally don't think jump competitions by themselves would be that interesting and they would have their own judging controversies. But I think this Air and Art format might have a chance since finding who is the biggest jumper is something worth discovering. As far as Art(performance) side being "subjective" and prone to judging controversies, well so is Olympic boxing. And for the Olympics I could see only two medals being given out... an Airtime and Overall medal.
Thanks for reading my ramblings...
What's the most objective and stable comparison that can be made between two figure skaters? IMO, it's airtime. With rotations there are borderline cases... with the jump types themselves there are some who believe flutzes should count as flips and lips as lutzes. Other values could be measured like spin speeds, top speeds, total ice coverage, etc... but different types of music may interfere too much with those values. I don't think airtime should be the be-all and end-all in IJS figure skating(far from it, my favorites typically don't stand out in the size of their jumps), but I think it would be interesting to have total airtime serve as the basis of a new competitive format... one I think might have a shot at Olympic recognition. A problem with the past "pro" style competitions is that many were cheesefests and not legit athletic competitions and by grounding half the competition on jump airtimes then it becomes a legitimate athletic competition.
So how would it work? Have all the skaters perform the exact same set of jumps(one example, women: 2A 3T 3F 3Lz 3S 3Lo. men: 3A 3A 3F 3Lz 3S 3Lo) and add up the air time. Jump quality does not matter for the jump score but could factor in the performance/artistic score. Only deductions are for falls(0%), hand down(50%), 2 footed landings(50%), and popping the jump(50%). Forget edge checking as long as typical jump entries are used. Forget underrotations. Forget the relative difficulty between jump types because everyone will be doing the same set of jumps. Forget combinations(though I'm intrigued by allowing 3T+3T as I find a lone 3T to be boring). I'm neutral on backflips(against in IJS) but they should not count in the jump score. One of the medals would be given out for airtime alone. An open, neutral algorithm would cluster the total airtimes into ordinals for usage deciding the overall winner.
I haven't completely thought through the judging of the artistic/performance score. There are many different ways this could be done that would be fine. As far as subjective judging and the Olympics goes, Olympic boxing has had as many if not more judging controversies and they switched systems after a controversy in 1988 and went back in 2016 to their old judging system. IMO, the most important factor is picking neutral judges and there are many ways that could be attempted. I'm not sure how feasible this is, but I would put a call out to former top competitors(qualified for FS at worlds) over the age of 40 and ask if they'd like to judge... and then ask the competitors to select which judges they're ok with... and then have a drawing where a potential judge gets 1 ticket by default and another ticket for each competitor that is ok with them and select 7-13 judges(or select more and do another drawing of judges at the competition)... and they would give out ordinals but with some kind of written justification for their choices. In replacement of component scoring, just require the judges to verbally compare skaters in certain areas(spins, skating, etc). If things get too rancorous, I'd consider letting the judges scores be anonymous but their collective comments be public.
Three medals would be given out... one for Jumps(airtime), Performance(art+other aspects), Overall.
Skating and spins should be much freer than in IJS. Skaters would be allowed to use props. Time should be set at 5 minutes or variably between 4-6 minutes. I would prefer theatrical lighting but I understand that it hard it can be to jump in it. I would also prefer the skaters not be aware of what their competitors are skating to before they fly out to the event(they may catch a glimpse from practice).
In the early competitions, participation should be limited to 6-10 in ladies and men. Participation dibs would go in the order of Olympic medalists, World medalists, GPF medalists, Euro/4CC medalists, GP medalists, World FS qualifiers, Grand Prix participants. I would set the minimum age to at least 21 and maybe up to 25 or 27.
I'm skeptical that these events by themselves would be commercially viable at first. They would need to bootstrap on top of current high level competitions like the Worlds, GPF, Euros, 4CC, or a GP Event . Japan and China might be options without an co-event... other countries(Russia, US, Canada, Spain, Italy, Switzerland) might be options with a good local headliner.
But if it gained Olympic recognition, then perhaps the format would gain popularity and get it's own circuit like the grand prix.
I remember reading from I think Elvis Stojko(it may not have been him) the idea of maybe jump competitions becoming an Olympic sport... and I personally don't think jump competitions by themselves would be that interesting and they would have their own judging controversies. But I think this Air and Art format might have a chance since finding who is the biggest jumper is something worth discovering. As far as Art(performance) side being "subjective" and prone to judging controversies, well so is Olympic boxing. And for the Olympics I could see only two medals being given out... an Airtime and Overall medal.
Thanks for reading my ramblings...
